Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Bobabam here. You know the Mona Lisa.
Speaker 1: You've seen her image countless times, But how did she
Speaker 1: come to be considered such a masterpiece? Art is, after
Speaker 1: all a subjective experience, Yet the world is seemingly unanimously
Speaker 1: obsessed with the Mona Lisa. So why is she's such
Speaker 1: a big deal? The first things first, Yes, Mona Lisa
Speaker 1: was a real person, and while scholars have debated who
Speaker 1: that person was for centuries, and most believed the seated
Speaker 1: subject of Leonardo da Vinci's famous work was the Mona
Speaker 1: or Madam Lisa Garardini del Giocondo, also known as Logia Conda.
Speaker 1: This Florentine lady's wealthy silk merchant husband may have commissioned
Speaker 1: the portrait to celebrate the impending birth of their child,
Speaker 1: but for some unexplained reason, the Giocondo family never actually
Speaker 1: came into possession of the painting. The pregnancy theory does
Speaker 1: add up, though, if you believe scholars who speculate that
Speaker 1: the subjects sli smile and loose clothing are nod to
Speaker 1: motherhood on the horizon, and most historians agree that da
Speaker 1: Vinci started the painting around fifteen o three and continued
Speaker 1: to work on it for about four years. Beauty may
Speaker 1: be in the eye of the beholder, but da Vinci's
Speaker 1: painting includes some revolutionary techniques that make it technically impressive.
Speaker 1: The style of the painting in itself is the most
Speaker 1: famous example of da Vinci's signatures fumato method, which blends
Speaker 1: colors and tones in a soft, shaded way without the
Speaker 1: hard lines or borders of fu Mare is an Italian
Speaker 1: word for shading off or fading out, and fu mare
Speaker 1: means smoke. Da Vinci incorporated another pioneering technique into his creation,
Speaker 1: the integration of an imaginary landscape and the use of
Speaker 1: aerial perspective. Mona Lisa is seated in an open space
Speaker 1: with decided non specific mountains, bridges, and winding paths behind
Speaker 1: her in the distance. This dreamy landscape is a departure
Speaker 1: from the realistic backgrounds that artists of the time painted
Speaker 1: into their portraits, and many have associated those serene, natural
Speaker 1: elements and the subject's calm expression with a greater commentary
Speaker 1: on the human connection to nature. The Mona Lisa is
Speaker 1: also one of the earliest examples of an Italian portrait
Speaker 1: portraying a subject at half length. That is, the arms
Speaker 1: and hands are displayed, but the frame extends below them,
Speaker 1: and she's sitting in a chair. And of course there's
Speaker 1: that iconic, if slightly creepy characteristic of Mona Lisa's eyes
Speaker 1: seemingly following the viewer wherever they go. This weirdly intimate
Speaker 1: attribute is a result of da Vinci's mastery of shadows
Speaker 1: and light, and while he wasn't the first one to
Speaker 1: implement the technique, many people refer to the illusion as
Speaker 1: the Mona Lisa effect. While the Mona Lisa definitely has
Speaker 1: a lot going on for her in the way of
Speaker 1: artistic skill, level, thematic complexity, and unique presentation, she definitely
Speaker 1: developed the majority of her fan following after an infamous
Speaker 1: incident at the Louver on August one of nineteen eleven,
Speaker 1: three young Italian handyman slipped out of the side entrance
Speaker 1: of the famous French museum with the Mona Lisa in tow.
Speaker 1: The fact that it took twenty six hours for anyone
Speaker 1: to notice she was missing perhaps speaks to the low
Speaker 1: level of fame that the painting had up until that point.
Speaker 1: Even though da Vinci had created the piece in the
Speaker 1: early fifteen hundreds, critics didn't really take notice until the
Speaker 1: eighteen sixties, and even then the positive accolades were few
Speaker 1: and far between and exclusively within the art world itself.
Speaker 1: But once the portrait went missing, the world took notice
Speaker 1: in a major way. Newspapers all over the world printed
Speaker 1: headlines about its disappearance, and people started concocting all kinds
Speaker 1: of conspiracy theories about the likely robbers. America and tycoon
Speaker 1: JP Morgan and famed artist Pablo Picasso were both considered suspects.
Speaker 1: The Louver shut down for a week, and when it
Speaker 1: reopened its doors, scores of people flocked the museum to
Speaker 1: see the mark of shame, that is, the empty spot
Speaker 1: on the wall for themselves. It took twenty eight months
Speaker 1: for the lead thief to attempt a resale of this
Speaker 1: stolen merchandise, and an art gallery owner quickly confirmed the
Speaker 1: item's authenticity with a glance at the stamp on the back.
Speaker 1: The dealer said he'd make sure the seller got a
Speaker 1: reward and instead sent the police after him. The thief
Speaker 1: pled guilty and served eight months in prison, and while
Speaker 1: the painting was returned to its rightful home. People around
Speaker 1: the world continued to chatter about its disappearance. Over time,
Speaker 1: they just kept chattering, and these days Mona Lisa is
Speaker 1: one of the most famous women in the world. Of course,
Speaker 1: everyone has haters, including her. In ninety six, a Louver
Speaker 1: visitor through acid at her, and another person helped at
Speaker 1: her with a rock as she was attacked with spray
Speaker 1: paint in and a rogue coffee cup in two thousand nine,
Speaker 1: but thankfully she had already been protected by bulletproof glass
Speaker 1: by the time those two incidents took place. In May
Speaker 1: of two she was smeared with cake by a climate
Speaker 1: change protester. However, the bulletproof glass prevented any lasting damage.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article why is the
Speaker 1: world so captivated by the Mona Lisa on how stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot Com written by Michelle Konstantinovski. Brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang. Four
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