Art as Commercial Propaganda:

Mona Lisa Through the Ages Part III

Ó Dr. Tina Yarborough, Asst. Professor of Art History & Interdisciplinary Studies

Georgia College & State University

Mona Lisa is always in the news for one reason or another. For instance, National Public Radio reported recently that English archaeologists studying the history of dentistry discovered from the skeletal remains of Isabella d’Este -- seen in this drawing by Leonardo -- a possible explanation for the enigmatic smile of the Mona Lisa. They reported that the secret behind her tight-lipped expression was that she had very, very bad teeth, stained black, probably from the use of mercury as a medicine. And that on her teeth, in addition to the black stains, there were deep serrations which resulted from the use of pumice stones and cuttlefish bones as an abrasive to scrape clean her teeth.

We have also recently encountered the use of her image as a metaphor for world-wide recognition as represented by this recent cover for the New Yorker Magazine; I don’t think I need to tell you who she is here. We obviously do not need to dispute the fame of Leonardo’s creation.

Instead, what I want to do here is to propose that the viewing of this painting has become an act of NON-SEEING: in other words, we do not really see the work of art, we see a mechanism that triggers a history of ideas and cultural philosophy, and our own identities within our culture.

Let me explain what I mean: for instance, imagine that we are touring the Louvre; we follow all the signs that lead us to the Mona Lisa, yet we do not see much when we view this powerful little portrait which measures less than 2’ X 3’ and which is hidden within a velvet-covered case of bullet-proof glass that further minimizes the size of the small painting; we are forced to fight the other art-loving tourists around us to get a better view; guards are always nearby and velvet ropes provide yet another remove from the image; nevertheless, we pose for our picture beside the imprisoned woman to document our visit as we search for a glimpse of her mysterious smile amid the glare of lights fired from the cameras shooting over our heads. Have we actually seen this painting? It really doesn’t matter because we do not need to see it -- we know it: we already know what it looks like; the image is now iconic.

It is, according to this ad, the most important painting of all the art we’ll ever need. As this ad also suggests, the viewing of the Mona Lisa in today’s world is a participation in a spectacle of culture; seeing the Mona Lisa baptizes us in the holy waters of cultural knowledge—all the art we’ll ever need. Mona Lisa is our spiritual relic on the altars of culture to which we must direct our pilgrimage and our veneration. It doesn’t matter that we might be disappointed when we view the painting; We are now fully initiated because we have been emersed in the aura of the Mona Lisa -- we have breathed the air of her mystery. Or, have we? Or has the reproductive technology that brought us all the knowledge of this woman consumed our aesthetic experience and arrested our aesthetic judgment? I want to answer these questions today with an abbreviated journey through the reproduction and mass distribution of the Mona Lisa.

copyright © Dr. Deborah Vess 1998-2001, Georgia College & State University and the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. All rights reserved. Rights to chapters authored by contributing faculty members reserved to Georgia College & State University, to the Interdisciplinary Studies Program at GC&SU, and to the individual faculty authors.