On Seeing the Mona Lisa

It may once have been a fine painting, but not anymore.

On Seeing the Mona Lisa                             

 

By Elton Camp

 

When I was at the Louvre I just had to go

See a famous painting done by Leonardo

But it took me really quite a long while

To see Mona Lisa’s world famous smile

 

For people to see it too good they must fear

Because a railing wouldn’t let anybody near

That they had things to hide it seemed to me

If it had more light, it’d be much easier to see

 

When I finally got as close to it as I could

What they wanted to conceal I understood

Its fame most certainly had been oversold

Why, it must have been a hundred years old

 

Mona Lisa was wearing a dark old dress

And her long, stringy hair was a total mess

A part in the middle made her look so dumb

Her hair net surely needed pulling up some

 

An outfit tacky as that she must have stolen

And her right hand looks like it’s all swollen

On her too-fat fingers she wore not a ring

Hanging around her neck wasn’t a thing

 

Bags under her eyes were ugly and deep

Like she hadn’t been getting much sleep

Maybe so a model he wouldn’t have to pay

He had his scrubbing woman pose that way

 

That would account for her really nice smile

She wouldn’t be doing hard work for a while

Looking closer, I had to say, “Why I declare,

That picture has lots of cracks most everwhere.”

 

If come back to Paris, I won’t see it anymore

I’ve seen much better paintings in a resale store

It may have been sort of fine when it was new

But of decorating use it is now about through

 

 

Reviews

[Joe Medeiros]

For more than 30 years, I've been interested in the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa. Two years ago, I began a documentary film about Vincenzo Peruggia, the man who stole it. I began by interviewing his 84-year old daughter Celestina in Dumenza, Italy. I was hoping to get her to tell me the truth about her father. Turns out that he died when she was only 1-1/2 years old. I knew more about her father than she did. So I set out on a mission to see if he really stole the Mona Lisa for patriotic reasons -- and we discovered his real motive in his letters to his father. If you'd like to know more, check out the trailer for my film at www.monalisamissing.com. (And by the way, Peruggia didn't hide in a closet. He walked in through a door in the Louvre dressed as a workman on a Monday when the museum was closed for its weekly cleaning.)

[Workingonit!!]

Mona Lisa or My Lady Lisa.. was a portrait done by Leonardo Da Vinci.. the fact it is in one piece is absolutely astounding. When you research this amazing piece of art the history behind it is unfathomable. He started painting this in early 1500's so it's actually 510 years old.. many kings as well as Napoleon prized this painting. What really made it famous was it's disappearance in the Louvre in 1911.. Picasso was implicated but exonerated in the theft.. which was an Italian man Vincenzo Peruggia (an inside job he was an employee!) who hid in a closet and walked out with it after hours.. believing it should be on display in the homeland to which it was made being Italy.

There is so much history that I can not fit it here.. anyone interested can websearch.. this painting has been restored more than once. Mona Lisa was the wife a a wealthy silk merchant.. they chose to paint her as a virtuous woman instead of with her wedding ring.. representing faith. It was painted 60 years before Shakespeare's birth.. a very rich century for the arts. The fact she is not lathered in embellishments and jewels is in fact a major statement.. fully covered to preserve her in timeless virtue that is so humble. A woman of such background at that time would normally like to show their power.. and her message was far more powerful in the stillness that is her mysterious aura.. the chipped paint only adds to authenticity.

I am sure she has seen better days and if anyone is expecting to see a painting in new condition they will be disappointed.. it's historians who really cherish this one and anitque art lovers. Your writing does depict the general consensus.. for those loving more modern art.. on that point your writing is well rhymed and written from that perspective. I'd be thrilled to see her in front of me.