"La Gioconda" (Mona Lisa, c1503-1506) - Leonardo da Vinci's Most Famous Painting, at the Louvre in Paris, France

[DonRocks]

On 6/22/2014 at 10:08 PM, The Hersch said:

The only time I've been in the Louvre was I think in 1994. I have no idea what day of the week it was, or even what time of day, but my friend and I got in without waiting in line more than five minutes, and we wandered all over the place and found no crowds except about 200 people right in front of the Mona Lisa, which I had seen when it was on display at the National Gallery in Washington back whenever that was, in the late 60s I guess, and I have never quite understood the fuss over that painting anyway. I think the lack of crowds at the Louvre that day must have been some kind of fluke; I'd love to go back and find the museum that uncrowded.

When I saw the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, that little corner of the room was cordoned off, and you couldn't get within 20 feet of it. It remains the single most disappointing thing I've ever seen in a museum. Not because it's bad, mind you, but because the experience was so far below expectations. Man, I would love to spend ten minutes with this painting, alone and up-close - I have never once spoken with anyone who enjoyed seeing it.

 On a related subject, the National Gallery of Art has the only Leonardo da Vinci in the Western Hemisphere. Yes, the *only* one in this half of the world. It's double-sided, protected by glass, and you can always enjoy it without too many crowds.

[Al Dente]

I found the Mona Lisa was too small for my tastes. The Loover should enlarge the painting before my next visit.

[Barbara]

I saw the Mona Lisa at the Louvre back in the 1960s. I was kind of shocked at the condition of the canvas--completely cracked and all. That experience gave me (and Dame Edna) a real education when we saw the exhibit at the National Gallery in the late 1980s of "Still Lifes from the Heinz Family Collection." There were no crowds at all and we went visited the exhibit a second time and were able to examine the paintings up close and at our leisure. The most astonishing paintings were two matched, very large, pictures of vases of flowers--commissioned by Philip II of Spain--which were painted on copper plates. They were about 500 years old and looked like they were painted yesterday.

So, when we went to Italy after we got married, we walked by a commercial gallery in Florence and spotted a painting that looked very old. Dame Edna immediately said, "We can't afford it." I suggested that we go in and make inquiries anyway. Turns out that the painting of flowers in a vase had been recently painted by a young Italian man and was put in an old frame. And, it was painted on a copper plate. That sealed the deal on what turned out to be an affordable painting after all. We later, at Venables, bought a still life by a young American painter that was painted on masonite. These two are going to last forever--assuming our heirs give a damn.