Mona Lisa
Gone
Leonardo da Vinci · c. 1503
01
Paris. 21 August 1911.
A former Louvre worker walks out.
He is carrying her.
02
She is Lisa del Giocondo.
For centuries, the proof was Vasari.
He named her in 1550.
In 2005, a note turned up. Dated October 1503. It names her.
03
Behind her: a road, water, a bridge.
Far off. Blue with distance.
04
Hands at rest.
One folded over the other.
The whole panel.
Uncropped.
“That is the way Leonardo da Vinci does it in all his paintings, like the face of Lisa del Giocondo”
December 1913
The thief was Vincenzo Peruggia.
He had helped make her glass case.
In Florence, he tried to sell her to a dealer.
The dealer brought in the Uffizi's director.
While she was gone, crowds came to see the empty wall.
Leonardo da Vinci
Italian · High Renaissance · 1452 to 1519
Sources · 4
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