Great consternation was caused by the loss of this picture a few years ago, when it was stolen from the Louvre. The whole country was aroused, until at length the thief, a young Italian workman, was captured. He had been employed in the Louvre, and found no difficulty in taking the picture from its frame, concealing it under his blouse, and walking off with it. He placed it face downward in the bottom of his tool box, and carried it past the customs inspectors into Italy. The only hard part was to dispose of the much-sought picture. He was in the same predicament as the man Mark Twain told us about, who showed how very easy it was to steal a white elephant, yet how difficult a matter it was to get rid of the elephant. So, two years later, the Italian was captured, having tried in vain to dispose of “Mona Lisa.”
He claimed he had stolen the picture to take revenge on France for the pictures stolen by Napoleon from Italy. This does not seem very convincing, for “Mona Lisa” was not stolen from Italy, but purchased from the artist by Frances I for four thousand dollars. At present it is valued at five million dollars.
The fact that the thief was not discovered sooner proved rather humiliating to the Paris police, because they had missed an important clew. It seems the Italian had left two distinct prints of his thumb on the glass and frame of the picture, and by means of the Bertillon method of detecting criminals by thumb prints he should have been discovered at once. This same Italian had been arrested some years before for stealing, and the thumb prints taken by the police at that time matched perfectly those left on the picture frame. The police, however, much to their chagrin, did not discover this until after his capture. But we do not wonder so much when we are told that they had seven hundred and fifty thousand thumb prints to compare.
Great excitement prevailed in Florence when the “Mona Lisa” was discovered safe and uninjured except for two slight scratches it had received in the tool box. The picture was exhibited at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, and great crowds came to see it. Then began its triumphal journey home, until at last it reached the Louvre Museum at Paris, where it may now be seen.
Questions to help the pupil understand the picture. Who was Mona Lisa? of what nationality? How many years did it take the artist to paint this picture? What did he wish to show us in this picture? What do some of the critics say about it? In what way is the expression mysterious? What means did the artist use to produce that expression? Where is Mona Lisa seated? What does she wear over her face and hair? What is the color of her hair? her eyes? her dress? What can you see in the background? How does it differ from the backgrounds painted in modern portraits? What happened to this portrait? How was it recovered? Why is this picture valued so highly?
The story of the artist. Leonardo da Vinci was born in the little village called Vinci, about twenty miles from Florence, Italy. His father was a country lawyer of considerable wealth. Very little is known of Leonardo’s boyhood, except that he grew up in his father’s palace and at an early age displayed remarkable talents. He was good-looking, strong, energetic, and an excellent student. He was also a very amiable person, of winning charm in temper and manners.
He loved to wander out into the great forest near the palace, where he tamed lizards, snakes, and many kinds of animals. Here he invented a lute, upon which he played wonderful music of his own composing. Then, too, he sang his own songs and recited his own poems.
He loved to draw and paint because he could both represent the things he loved and use his inventive genius as well. He seemed to be gifted along so many lines, and was of such an active and inquiring mind, that it was difficult for him to work long enough at one thing to finish it. We read of him as musician, poet, inventor, scientist, philosopher, and last but most important to us because of this great picture—as artist.
When he was fifteen years old he made some sketches which were so very clever that his father took them to a great artist, Verrocchio, who was delighted with them and was glad to take Leonardo as his pupil. The story is told that when Verrocchio was painting a large picture he asked Leonardo to paint one of the angels in the background. The boy spent much time and study on this work, and finally succeeded in painting an angel which was so beautiful that the rest of the picture seemed commonplace. It is said that when Verrocchio saw the work his pupil had done and realized that a mere boy could surpass him in painting, he declared that he would paint no more pictures, but would devote the rest of his life to design and sculpture.
One day one of the servants of the castle brought Leonardo’s father a round piece of wood, asking him to have his son paint something on it that would make it suitable for a shield, like the real shields which hung in the castle halls.