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Why Is The Mona Lisa The World's Most Famous Painting? (Waldemar Januszczak) — Transcript

by Perspective · 2,895 words · 439 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00[Music]
0:33don't know if you've read this it's in
0:36all the bestseller lists don't bother if
0:38you haven't it's so silly
0:40it starts with someone being killed and
0:44one of the corridors here at the Louvre
0:45in Paris this chap is the keeper of an
0:49ancient secret and if he dies the
0:52ancient secret dies with him so he
0:55crawls along the long corridor and seeks
0:58out the most famous painting in the
1:00Louvre and there who scrolls a secret
1:03message on the glass that protects the
1:06Mona Lisa now the Mona Lisa has long
1:14been a magnet for mystery addicts and
1:17fruitcakes you want mysteries she's got
1:20loads of them the mystery of her elusive
1:23identity the mystery of her elusive
1:25smile it's even been said she's a
1:29projected self-portrait of Leonardo as a
1:32crossdresser even her eyebrows a
1:35mysterious why hasn't she got any
1:38[Music]
1:41but there is one mystery concerning the
1:43Mona Lisa that can actually be solved
1:46and we're going to do it in this film
1:48it's perhaps the deepest mystery of all
1:51and that is why and of all the countless
1:54old masters gathered in all our museums
1:57why did this particular one become the
2:00most famous painting in the world now
2:03that's a mystery worth solving
2:11the Mona Lisa is 500 years old she was
2:15painted in Florence in around 1503 in
2:18Paris they've recently been celebrating
2:22her birthday 500 years old it's a good
2:26age but the first thing to grasp about
2:33the Mona Lisa's ridiculous fame is that
2:35it's rather new for 300 years after she
2:39was painted the Mona Lisa was almost
2:41entirely unknown just a handful of
2:44people in history had ever seen her or
2:47even heard of her
2:48[Music]
2:50she only started to become famous about
2:53150 years ago and really really famous
2:57this famous in the 20th century so her
3:01fame is rather new so by the way is the
3:06fame of her creator Leonardo da Vinci
3:09today we think of Leonardo as the
3:12greatest genius of the Renaissance
3:14scientists mathematician anatomist the
3:19man who not only painted the Mona Lisa
3:21but who also invented flying machines
3:24submarines and bicycles and it's just
3:29not true I'm not saying that Leonardo
3:31didn't vaguely imagined some of those
3:33things but I am saying that he never
3:36actually built any of them
3:39Leonardo almost discovered lots of
3:42things but only almost his tragedy is
3:45that he never went the final mile the
3:48bit that counts
3:51well no no that was not that celebrated
3:54one of the problem is that Leonardo did
3:57not paint very much with Raphael was on
4:00production line one of the other
4:03michelangiolo the did the whole ceiling
4:07after all a woman walls of the Sistine
4:09Chapel a huge project in four years
4:13which is what apparently you know it
4:15took don't know how to paint you know
4:17this tiny portrait and so she wanted the
4:21you know lots of work you were gonna get
4:23to ask him know that famous drawing that
4:27people always say is him the old man
4:29with the big biblical beard and the
4:32all-seeing eyes well there's no actual
4:35evidence it's Leonardo just our wishful
4:38thinking because this old man with the
4:41big beard reminds us of some great
4:44biblical leader doesn't he Moses perhaps
4:47or even God so the next thing to get
4:52clear in our minds is that Leonardo da
4:55Vinci is chiefly like this a work of
4:59fiction before we tiptoe any further
5:02into the conceptual quagmire that is the
5:05mystery of the Mona Lisa I think we need
5:08to find out a tad more about the real
5:11Leonardo
5:14[Music]
5:20olives they're everywhere on this hill
5:23but just about the only thing that's up
5:26here is olive groves we're about two
5:30kilometers out of Vinci little Tuscan
5:33town of Vinci let's go down Keano
5:36about 20 miles out of Florence and this
5:40simple little Tuscan Hill house is the
5:46house in which Leonardo da Vinci was
5:49born in 1452
5:52his father was a notary a lawyer called
5:55ser Piero da Vinci and his mother all we
5:58know about her so she was called
6:00Catarina and Leonardo was their
6:03illegitimate son not his father bought
6:07this house from the Friars that used to
6:09own it he was working for them as a
6:11lawyer and it's hardly changed since
6:14then it's just two very basic little
6:23rooms really lovingly preserved in their
6:26original state of decrepitude but look
6:28at this just above the window on the
6:30front a lion wearing a helmet that's the
6:34coat of arms of the DaVinci family
6:46original fireplace
6:50Leonardo ghastly likeness I think coat
6:58of arms again it's rather spooky feeling
7:06actually it's such a humble place for
7:10such a big brain to have been born the
7:15another's artistic career is so
7:17frustrating he's always starting things
7:20and never finishing them he spent the
7:22first 30 years of his life in Florence
7:25yet all he had to show for all this time
7:27was a couple of pictures one of them is
7:32this gorgeous portrait of Ginevra da
7:34Vinci she's rather glum why in Italian
7:40Ginevra means juniper
7:42so the halo of juniper around her head
7:44is a coded clue to her identity from the
7:49start
7:50Leonardo could make his women feel
7:52mysterious he's an early Madonna and
8:00Child that hangs in the Hermitage in
8:02Russia what a ghastly multi pounded
8:06Jesus look at the size of him I don't
8:10like her expression either it looks
8:12forced to me say cheese cheese these
8:20early experiments with different women's
8:22expressions had such mixed results that
8:25Leonardo soon settled on one he knew he
8:28could rely on an expression he always
8:30used you know it already it's that
8:33mysterious smile playing on a woman's
8:37lips whether they're the Virgin Mary or
8:41a girl off the street
8:43began giving his women the same look the
8:47Mona Lisa's mysterious smile was an
8:50expression
8:51he was churning out the next 20 years
9:06Leonardo worked in Milan as the in-house
9:08genius for the local Dukes starting lots
9:12of things
9:13finishing none of them except this the
9:17Last Supper the famous masterpiece
9:19that's been falling off the wall ever
9:22since he painted it because the
9:24technique he used was so lousy after 20
9:30years in Milan he returned to Florence
9:32he was already in his fifties when a
9:35commission came his way that will
9:37finally lead to his most famous
9:39achievement a portrait of a plumpish
9:43Florentine merchants wife named Lisa
9:46Gherardini lots of extraordinary
9:51surprises in the story of the Mona Lisa
9:53but perhaps the earliest of them is that
9:55that story begins here in this grim
9:58little Florentine Street
10:00could the Via del estufa now this is the
10:03street in which Lisa Gherardini who is
10:06traditionally thought to have been the
10:07florentine lady who posed for the Mona
10:09Lisa actually lived she was married to a
10:13Florentine cloth merchant called
10:14Francesco del Giocondo
10:16and that explains why in France she's
10:19known as La Gioconda why in Italy they
10:22call her la Gioconda and why rather
10:25confusingly the rest of us call her Mona
10:27Lisa
10:28Madonna Lisa it's what everybody would
10:31have said to her Madonna Lisa becomes
10:33Mona Lisa thus in this grim little
10:37Florentine streets populated these days
10:40chiefly by Florentine lowlife the great
10:43legend of the Mona Lisa was born
10:50for some reason Leonardo never handed
10:53over the Mona Lisa to Francisco del
10:55Giocondo and his wife probably because
10:58he never considered her finished he was
11:01such a fiddler
11:03Leonardo's was now on the slide in Italy
11:07he was out of fashion and his reputation
11:09for not finishing things preceded him
11:12wherever he wandered internationally
11:15what Fame II had was due entirely to his
11:18much copied comic grotesques of ugly old
11:22men and big-nosed Jews they're rather
11:25racist really it was the French King
11:31Francois the first who saved Leonardo by
11:34taking him in when no one else would
11:36have him
11:36Francois invited the 64 year old
11:39multitasker to work for him in France in
11:42the Chateau of Amboise on the Loire
11:45Leonardo brought the Mona Lisa with him
11:48and no doubt fiddled with her some more
11:51when he died here three years later in
11:541519 the Mona Lisa entered the French
11:57royal collection and to all intents and
12:00purposes disappeared for 300 years and
12:05then the first great break for the Mona
12:11Lisa the first great career move as I
12:13would put it the French Revolution but
12:17what the French Revolution does apart
12:19from minor things like abolishing the
12:21monarchy and and so on is to transform
12:24the Louvre into a museum so at least
12:27she's now gone from you know
12:29semi-obscurity to a proper proper place
12:34another thing is Napoleon Napoleon took
12:39a shine to many women and one of these
12:40was Mona Lisa and indeed for think four
12:44years the Mona Lisa was removed from
12:47public viewing and was in Napoleon's
12:49bedroom and then it was put back in the
12:53Louvre and has remained there ever ever
12:56since
12:57[Music]
12:59you know before Napoleon carried the
13:02Mona Lisa away to his bedroom hardly
13:04anyone had seen her and no one thought
13:07of her as this figure of mystery and
13:09Ellora choose a portrait by Leonardo and
13:12that's it but now that she was in the
13:14Louvre and the Louvre was open to the
13:17public she was ready to fall into the
13:19clutches of the public imagination
13:23and so a ludicrous journey to global
13:26fame could finally begin hang on to your
13:29hats because we're taking you on it
13:35[Music]
13:36when we left you the Mona Lisa had just
13:39got to the Louvre and people could
13:41finally see what she looked like they
13:44liked what they saw but had trouble
13:47agreeing on what it was then as now
13:50everyone found something different
13:53in the Mona Lisa in the middle of the
13:5619th century some intellectuals and
13:59writers begin to discuss the Mona Lisa
14:04as the most formidable example of the
14:09femme fatale this is when the smile
14:12becomes mysterious and enigmatic there
14:15is no mention of an enigmatic smile with
14:19Ramona Liz I mean basically until about
14:211850 Mona Lisa is a cheerful housewife
14:23from 1850 onwards she is orchestrating
14:27female
14:27[Music]
14:36you won't believe some of the silly
14:38things that began to be written about
14:40her by the feverish blokes of the 19th
14:43century let me read you something here
14:46it's perhaps the most famous passage
14:49ever written about the Mona Lisa by an
14:51eccentric English epicurean called
14:54Walter Pater who was obsessed with her
14:57she is older than the rocks among which
15:00she sits he gushed in 1873 like the
15:04vampire she's been dead many times and
15:07learned the secrets of the grave and
15:09been a diver in deep seas he just goes
15:12on and on I mean this is an art history
15:14this is stalking the Mona Lisa had begun
15:18to drive men mad
15:24thus the Mona Lisa entered the creative
15:27imagination of the 19th century where
15:29she would have stayed famous among
15:32writers and art critics and that's about
15:34it if something else hadn't happened
15:36something sensational something that
15:39turned her into a public celebrity but
15:43of course you needed an event you need a
15:45thought opportunity and that occurred in
15:49the shape of an Italian workman Vincenzo
15:53Peruggia who stole the painting in
15:57August 1911 and kept it for two years in
16:01his bed set not far from the loo near
16:03the stove the moral is a piece of wood
16:06can imagine the possibility terrible
16:10possibilities and that made the world
16:14press every day for three four weeks
16:17there was something about Mona Lisa the
16:20police can't find it the security of the
16:22Louvre is terrible the director of the
16:25Department of painting said to resign
16:27you know it was became a sort of go
16:29celebs so people could see them on a
16:31Lisa nearly every day as they were
16:34having their breakfast
16:37so why would anyone be so stupid as to
16:41steal the Mona Lisa various conspiracy
16:44theories were aired at the time and
16:46indeed people have been airing them ever
16:48since the likeliest answer is that the
16:51entire mad thought was the handiwork of
16:54an Argentinean forger called Eduardo de
16:58Valfierno well he almost crazy idea was
17:02to produce a handful perhaps six or
17:05seven copies of the Mona Lisa while he
17:07had it in his hands and then to sell
17:10these copies on to some very very
17:12gullible American millionaires now this
17:16has never been proved what's certain is
17:18that if you were a very gullible
17:20American millionaire you would hardly
17:22have popped up afterwards he said yes I
17:24bought one of these and undoubtedly
17:26there were these very special copies
17:28floating around the European art world
17:31after the theft however once Valfierno
17:34had done his dirty deed and produced his
17:36copies he no longer had any real need
17:38for the painting itself so he handed it
17:41back to his accomplice Perugia and
17:44Perugia was stuck with the Mona Lisa a
17:47painting that the whole world was
17:49looking for what was he going to do with
17:51it
17:53[Music]
17:56Perugia must have realized that the
17:58painter was far too hot to do anything
18:00with in France so he came back here to
18:03Italy and he holed up in this hotel in
18:06Florence which used to be called the
18:09Tripoli Italia but which not
18:11surprisingly has now changed its name to
18:13the gioconda because it's in this hotel
18:17that the great lost painting was finally
18:20found Perugia contacted a Florentine
18:24antique dealer called Alfredo Gerry and
18:28offered to sell him the Mona Lisa for
18:30half a million lira inevitably Gerry
18:35contacted the Italian police three days
18:38later they came here to the hotel and
18:40arrested Vincenzo Peruggia when they got
18:46inside Perugia is ruined they found the
18:48Mona Lisa tucked away in a suitcase
18:49underneath his bed when they asked him
18:52why he'd stolen her Perugia replied that
18:56it was an act of patriotism all along
18:58all he ever really wanted to do was to
19:01ensure that the great Florentine Beauty
19:04was returned to her rightful home
19:09Perugia was set down for a year for
19:11stealing the Mona Lisa this doesn't seem
19:14very much does it
19:15one thing certain no matter how famous
19:18the Mona Lisa was before Perugia and his
19:20cronies stole her from the Louvre this
19:23prior fame was as nothing compared with
19:26the enormous global notoriety that the
19:30picture acquired once all those
19:32newspapers and all those columns that
19:34stopped writing about the great theft
19:39and so are plump Florentine housewife
19:42finally became an international
19:44celebrity at the age of 400 because of
19:48the robbery
19:49everyone now knew what she looked like
19:51and everyone wanted to know more about
19:53her
19:56in 1919 the notorious Dardar artist
20:00Marcel Duchamp proved she'd really
20:03arrived by taking the mickey out of her
20:06giving her a moustache and a goatee
20:09and adding the letters L ash or cou in
20:12French a naughty pun which means she's
20:15got a hot ass or as we might perhaps say
20:18today a hot booty there is not any
20:22single moment to wear the mona lisa
20:24becomes the world's most famous painting
20:27there are building blocks there are
20:28stepping stones so being in Paris is an
20:31important thing being painted by
20:32Renaissance genius is quite important
20:34being a femme fatale or being described
20:36as a castrating woman would do you no
20:40harm being stolen was a great stroke of
20:43luck being mocked by a futurist and
20:46avant-garde artist was also very
20:49important and being regularly exploited
20:52but the advertising industry in order to
20:54sell everything from fridge magnets
20:59hotels flights and condoms even you know
21:05all that is a tremendous asset for for a
21:09girl I can't face going into detail
21:14about the subsequent growth of the Mona
21:16Lisa tat industry it's too horrible to
21:19witness instead let's just visit the
21:22house of the world's biggest hoarder of
21:24Mona Lisa memorabilia and savour some of
21:28the highlights of his collection
21:32recorder
21:33[Music]
21:35my house has become somewhat of a Mona
21:38Lisa Museum or shrine if you like I have
21:41gathered together some of the most
21:42beautiful items I have in my collection
21:44like this wonderful photo mosaic here
21:47under the reflection is a bit irritating
21:49these magnificent cushions these ceramic
21:54tiles from China this is America it's
22:00called the giggling Mona Lisa and this
22:03Persian rug it's a bit amateurish but
22:06still it's magnificent and this is
22:09something I made myself free it's based
22:12on William Tell but as you can see the
22:15arrow has missed its target once you're
22:19famous for being famous all you can
22:22really do is become more famous still
22:25it's the golden rule of modern celebrity
22:28and the case of Lisa Gherardini proves
22:32it so clearly so that's cleared up the
22:39mystery of how the Mona Lisa got famous
22:41what it doesn't explain is how she ever
22:45managed to be obscure in the first place
22:48how can a painting as wonderful as this
22:51ever be obscure
22:53[Music]
22:56go on forget everything you've ever
22:59heard about her forget the teacups and
23:01the posters just go and look at her
23:04properly you'll enjoy it there are a
23:10million stories in the world of art this
23:13has been just one of them
23:17[Music]

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