What We Are Looking At: The Space on the Wall Where the Mona Lisa Used to Be When It Was Stolen
August 1911, Leonardo Da Vinci's (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) Mona Lisa (approx 1503-1506) is Stolen from the Louvre in Paris.
I think about this way too much.
After the Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911, 120,000 people lined up to see the space on the wall where it had been. There has basically been a line to look at it ever since. What are we all looking at? What do we want? Why do we do we flock together to look at things - to look at nothing at all?
On August 20, 1911 Vincenzo Peruggia, a proud Italian and museum worker, hid in a closet of The Louvre in Paris, France. That night he took the Mona Lisa, rolled it up, and the next morning, he walked out of The Louvre directly to the train station and boarded a train for Italy.
It took hours to discover the loss. But once they did it became a media sensation. They stopped all the trains and looked in cars. It was font page news all over the world. The theft continues to grab headlines 100 years later.
Two years after the theft, Peruggia tried to sell the painting in Italy. The painting was recovered. Peruggia claimed to want to bring the painting back to where it belonged in Italy - even though it had been taken to France by Da Vinci himself and was eventually sold to the King of France. Peruggia became a sort of Italian nationalist hero. And the Mona Lisa went viral. And still, 100 years later, people wonder, what are we looking at?
The Mona Lisa
So much has been written about “the most famous artwork in the world.” It is the smile. It is her hands. Her chair is a symbol for eternal rebirth of a well. And taken as a whole, it doesn’t really interest me. What interests me is the mashup of art and history that has made seeing the Mona Lisa a bucket list activity.
Let me walk you through the experience of seeing it. You show up in Paris. You go to a café. You find your way to the Louvre. Pay the fee. Get in the line. They try to encourage everyone to go explore the whole museum, but the line is so inviting, and also intimidating, like you just have to get it over with. So you get in the line. And eventually you come to a room. And in the room on one wall is a tiny painting that you have to wait your turn to get close enough to see. (30 inches by 21 inches)
When I saw it, it was not behind bullet proof glass. I’ve heard that it is now behind bullet proof glass. And so you look at it. And you are already looking for the words to justify the expense you have put in to get to this point in your life.
You ever asked a 40 something parent how they enjoyed their family trip to Disney World? They pause, and they say “the kids loved it.” And what they mean is “I spent $10,000 to wait in line for 8 hours with a 9 year old and a 7 year old. I have to believe it was worth it.” And they smile. “It was great.” It is the exact same thing with the Mona Lisa.
We really want our lives to be “good lives.” In our culture there is a “good life” and it involves money, and education, and family, and work. The specifics of the “Good Life” are both endlessly enumerated in self help books written by CEOs and wellness gurus. But it is still a vague idea - a Platonic Ideal - that by it’s very way of existing is impossible to attain. But we pretend we know what we are talking about.
The same thing happens in art. We pretend we can explain what makes art good or bad. We use words like, “brush strokes” and “organic tonalities” to try to reassure ourselves that we know what we are talking about. And what we are always talking about, from art to the latest trending Twitter topic, is whether or not there can even exist a best way to live this short life. The subject today (Thursday 1/26/2023) is whether Nick Cannon, who has 12 kids with 6 different women, can be a good parent, and more generally, whether he is an example of a good person or a bad person. People Magazine says his kids are the joy of his life. I do not know the answer to this question, nor do I care.
The point is that perfect understanding and the ideal life are always just a little bit out of reach. And sometimes we go see art, particularly works by grand masters like Da Vinci, and what we want, is to feel right about the world. But the Mona Lisa doesn’t do that.
The great thing about the Mona Lisa is the reaction it inspires totally matches the content of the picture. It’s crazy, but if you look at the faces of the onlookers, they all have half smiles - just like Lisa.
The Mona Lisa is the unfulfilled desire for meaning. We will line up for it. We will pay whatever the cost. But that is not how you get meaning. Meaning is only found in the hard work of living your life. So I’m going to go hug my kids and take my wife lunch. And I will probably feel like I am still doing it wrong and I will look at myself in the rearview mirror at the half smile on my face. It is pretty good being here, even if it doesn’t make perfect sense.
Thank you Frank, I love your literary piece. It's a masterpiece!
The older I get, the further away perfect understanding seems to get. I go to museums, and have been going for my whole life, to try and understand just what the hell is going on? And, just like studying Physics, the more you understand through paintings, the more questions you have and the less clear things are.
I don’t know I kinda like it that way.