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ln 1506 Leonardo Da Vinci
left his native Florence
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and took to the road in search
for work and patronate
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His travels would take him to Milan,
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to Rome and finally to his
exile in France.
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And for the last 13 years of his life
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everywhere he went
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hi carried with him one painting
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It was the portrait of a woman,
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and it was to become
the most famous image
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in the history of art.
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A good painter has
to bring out 2 things,
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the physical appearance
of the subject he's painting,
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but also what is in the mind,
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the intentions of the soul.
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Achieving the first is easy,
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the second, very hard.
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Mona Lisa.
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Mona Lisa.
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Yeah- she's a man.
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She's ltaliana.
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When l was 8 years old,
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l saw it for the first time.
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Leonardo da Vinci.
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lt's beautiful, man. Wow.
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Michelangelo, Michelangelo.
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This is the story of
the most famous work of art
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ever created by human hand,
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a painting so valuable
it's impossible
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to put a price on it.
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ln the Louvre in Paris,
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it's simply known
as 'Painting No. 779'
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lt's the portrait of
an unknown ltalian lady,
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who seems to be smiling.
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Her name, Mona Lisa....
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..simply means Madonna,
Lady Lisa.
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Yet from the moment
she was painted, 500 years ago,
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she has obsessed
and intrigued the whole world.
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But who was this mysterious lady
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and how did she become
the superstar she is today?
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And what is the secret
of her smile?
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When I look at this woman,
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gives the impression that she
is looking at you.
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I heard that she was pregnant at that time.
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Because she was pregnant.
She was having a baby,
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expecting a baby.
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I don't get it's a smile
I think it's the way her face is formed.
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Some people have smiles of that kind.
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If I'm not smiling, which is probably
why I always smile,
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no idea that's not
the end of the world.
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And I think she's probably got an
expression
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that is at peace with
the world around her.
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l see a woman
that's looking at someone
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and saying you've got me
on my worst day of the month!
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What am l doing here?
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And you're trying to get me
to smile at you.
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That's what l'm seeing.
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She's trying her best,
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but she's pretty annoyed about it...
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and l don't blame her.
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The Secret Life Of The
MONA LISA
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Today like a Hollywood star,
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the Mona Lisa has her own
bodyguards and special security.
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She lives in a humidified
air-conditioned concrete box,
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protected by triple,
bullet-proof glass,
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but on the other hand it doesn't
seem deter
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over 6 million tourists every year.
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So what's the secret
of her fascination?
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Why has this of all the images
in the world,
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gripped the imagination of
so many people
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for the past 500 years?
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Kings, Emperors and Presidents
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have all paid their respects to her.
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00:05:03,977 --> 00:05:06,312
On the Mona Lisa's
American tour,
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00:05:06,412 --> 00:05:07,980
President Kennedy greeted her
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as the ultimate symbol
of western civilisation.
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We citizens of nations unborn,
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at the time of its creation,
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are among the inheritors
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and protectors of the ideals
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which gave it birth.
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For this painting is not only one
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of the towering achievements
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of the skill and the vision of art,
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but its creator embodied
the central purpose
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of our civilisation.
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She's been exploited
and replicated in so many forms,
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that it's easy to forget she was
once a living breathing person,
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her image and expression caught
in one moment of time,
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and immortalised
by the hand of the artist.
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This is how l think
the Mona Lisa first looked
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00:06:04,692 --> 00:06:07,327
when Leonardo painted it in 1503.
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lt's a very cleaned up version
of the picture
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that we're now familiar with,
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but to get to this there have
been a great deal of changes
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and stages involved
in making this picture.
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l'll show you some of those stages.
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This is a board of poplar wood,
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and this is what the Mona Lisa
was painted on.
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Everybody thinks
they would use canvas,
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but in those days they didn't,
they painted on wood.
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ln the south of Europe
it was generally poplar wood,
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00:06:36,250 --> 00:06:38,252
in the north of Europe
it was generally oak.
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lt was this nice solid wood
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that became a masterpiece.
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Chalk drawing,
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now almost certainly Leonardo
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would have done a chalk drawing
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or some kind of
an image perhaps in pen,
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or silver point, or something,
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00:06:51,696 --> 00:06:53,764
to give an idea of the kind
of look of the portrait,
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to feel the portrait.
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The drawing would be
transferred to the panel
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by a process called
pricking and pouncing.
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The little lines would have
been effectively joined up
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by some red- via
the wet fluid paint.
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This will surprise you,
the green face,
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brown dress, blue background.
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What's happening here?
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Well basically
Leonardo's just roughing in
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what goes where colour-wise.
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And we're starting to rough
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in the warm flesh tones
over the green,
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00:07:24,756 --> 00:07:27,558
so it still comes through
in some areas.
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And of course the background
and the sky now,
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the marvellous blue,
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deep sort of ultramarine type sky.
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Mona Lisa.
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Painting excels
because it does not fade
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as music does as soon as it is born.
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lt endures,
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and keeps all the appearance
of being alive,
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though in fact
it's confined to one surface.
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lt can preserve
the transient beauty of mortals
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and endow it
with a permanence greater
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than the works of nature,
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for these are the slaves of time,
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even when death
has destroyed nature's original,
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painting preserves
the image of divine beauty.
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To find the first ever mention
of the Mona Lisa
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in any historical document,
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we have to travel 150 miles
from Paris
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to Amboise
in the Loire Valley.
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Leonardo came to live
and work here
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near the end of his life,
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at the invitation of King Francis l.
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This is the fine house
the King gave him to live in
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On October 10th 1517
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two travellers on the Grand Tour
came to pay his respects
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to the great painter.
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They were cardinal Luigi of Aragon
and his secretary De Beatis
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This is what De Beatis
recorded in his diary.
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Leonardo showed the Cardinal
three pictures.
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One of them
was of a certain Florentine lady,
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painted from life at the request
of Guliano de Medici.
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lt was absolute perfection.
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This l have seen with my own eyes.
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By 1530,
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the Mona Lisa found her way
into the Royal Collection.
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Unfortunately King Francis
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decided she would
look particularly good
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on the walls of his suite
of bathrooms.
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She was kept there for many years,
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and present day experts believe
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that the crack allure
on the surface of the picture
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is partly due to the steam,
from the royal ablutions.
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And from the bathroom
to the bedroom.
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The King also possessed
this curious striptease version
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of the Mona Lisa,
called the Mona Vanna.
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What could possibly connect this
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and Leonardo's masterpiece?
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lts origins are obscure,
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but it's clearly related to
the portrait of the Mona Lisa
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except she's not wearing anything!
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Now there is a rather unusual taste
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at the Court of Francis l,
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for nude portraits
of respectable women.
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There's a great one of 2 women,
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his mistress and her sister
in the bath,
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pinching each other's nipples.
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Now this is actually a way
of celebrating their fecundity,
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because breast milk is a symbol
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of the way that you create children.
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So the Mona Vanna may fit in best
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with the taste of the French Court.
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The Mona Vanna
was probably the work
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of Leonardo's favourite pupil Salai.
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The original Mona Lisa
stayed locked away
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in the Royal Collection,
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until the people of France decided
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they didn't want
a monarchy any more.
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When the French Revolution
began in 1789,
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the aristocracy was sent
in the thousands to the Guillotine.
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00:11:10,769 --> 00:11:14,572
Soon King Louis XVl
and his Queen, Marie Antoinette,
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would themselves be executed.
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00:11:17,975 --> 00:11:19,743
The royal collections
were plundered
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and the Palace of the Louvre
became a people's museum,
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and it was there that the Mona Lisa
was put on public view
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for the first time.
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When Napoleon came to power
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and was crowned
Emperor of France,
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00:11:34,823 --> 00:11:36,524
one of the first demands he made
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was to have the Mona Lisa
removed from the Louvre,
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and placed in his private bedroom
in the Tuileries,
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thus reviving the tradition
of the Royal Collection.
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00:11:48,298 --> 00:11:50,299
He kept her there
for nearly a decade,
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and called her Madam Lisa.
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00:11:53,502 --> 00:11:57,839
His fascination with Leonardo
continued, as he invaded ltaly .
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00:11:59,972 --> 00:12:03,508
and there he found Leonardo's
drawings and notebooks.
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00:12:03,642 --> 00:12:06,344
He took them back to France too.
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00:12:07,044 --> 00:12:09,546
He said all men
of genius are French,
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00:12:09,680 --> 00:12:12,415
no matter what their country of birth.
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00:12:14,753 --> 00:12:16,154
After the fall of Napoleon,
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00:12:16,287 --> 00:12:18,156
the Mona Lisa returns
to the Louvre,
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00:12:18,289 --> 00:12:21,425
and starts its life
as a major tourist attraction
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00:12:21,525 --> 00:12:22,993
in the French capital.
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00:12:23,193 --> 00:12:24,994
Then 100 years on,
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00:12:25,094 --> 00:12:27,663
on August 21st 1911
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in the early hours of the morning
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00:12:29,832 --> 00:12:31,566
she becomes the leading player
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00:12:31,700 --> 00:12:33,234
in a story of crime,
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00:12:33,368 --> 00:12:36,203
politics and extortion.
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00:12:45,843 --> 00:12:47,878
The thief had
spent the Sunday night
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00:12:48,011 --> 00:12:49,212
hide in the building,
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00:12:51,048 --> 00:12:53,682
When the security guard
was asleep,
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00:12:53,749 --> 00:12:55,784
he slipped out through
a back door,
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00:12:55,884 --> 00:12:57,319
into the courtyard .
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00:12:57,452 --> 00:12:58,987
and then made his escape
230
00:12:59,153 --> 00:13:02,023
along one of the quays
of the River Seine.
231
00:13:02,091 --> 00:13:04,726
Visitors to the Louvre
were undeterred,
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00:13:04,893 --> 00:13:06,494
for some time afterwards
they queued up
233
00:13:06,594 --> 00:13:08,129
to contemplate the blanck space,
234
00:13:08,229 --> 00:13:10,531
where the Mona Lisa
had once hung.
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00:13:12,531 --> 00:13:16,900
The theft made headline news
around the world,
236
00:13:17,034 --> 00:13:18,902
a massive police hunt was launched
237
00:13:19,035 --> 00:13:21,704
and among those suspects
brought in for questioning
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00:13:21,871 --> 00:13:24,039
was a radical young Spanish artist,
239
00:13:24,173 --> 00:13:26,274
called Pablo Picasso.
240
00:13:26,775 --> 00:13:29,043
But by this time the Mona Lisa
241
00:13:29,177 --> 00:13:31,212
was a long way away.
242
00:13:37,483 --> 00:13:38,884
On November 11th, 1913,
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00:13:38,985 --> 00:13:41,920
Alfredo Gerri,
a Florentine antiques dealer,
244
00:13:42,087 --> 00:13:44,923
received a letter offering him
the Mona Lisa.
245
00:13:45,023 --> 00:13:47,124
The price would be half
a million lira,
246
00:13:47,258 --> 00:13:50,193
in today's money
about a million pounds.
247
00:13:50,327 --> 00:13:53,463
The letter was signed ''Leonardo''
248
00:13:55,527 --> 00:13:56,963
Signore ecco l'hotel Gioconda.
249
00:14:03,131 --> 00:14:05,567
A month later
the mysterious Leonardo
250
00:14:05,667 --> 00:14:07,034
instructed Signor Gerri
251
00:14:07,135 --> 00:14:10,904
to meet him at this hotel
in the Via Panzani.
252
00:14:11,305 --> 00:14:13,773
Gerri took with him
Giovanni Poggi,
253
00:14:13,940 --> 00:14:18,243
a Leonardo expert and the Director
of the Uffizi Museum.
254
00:14:19,378 --> 00:14:20,779
The 2 men then made their way
255
00:14:20,912 --> 00:14:24,782
to the man's room
on 2nd floor of the hotel.
256
00:14:35,119 --> 00:14:37,621
What happened next,
Signor Gerri recalled
257
00:14:37,754 --> 00:14:40,089
as the most exciting moment
of his life.
258
00:14:41,657 --> 00:14:43,926
At first all we could see was dirty,
259
00:14:44,093 --> 00:14:45,761
festering old clothes,
260
00:14:45,894 --> 00:14:49,097
but then we noticed the trunk
had a false bottom.
261
00:14:52,900 --> 00:14:54,734
As soon as it came into our view,
262
00:14:54,835 --> 00:14:56,803
we had the conviction that
this indeed
263
00:14:56,936 --> 00:15:00,372
was the authentic work of
Leonardo da Vinci.
264
00:15:01,640 --> 00:15:04,142
Poggi had been told
by the Louvre to look
265
00:15:04,309 --> 00:15:06,444
for a tell-tale splinter mark
on the back
266
00:15:06,611 --> 00:15:09,179
of the wooden panel, it was there.
267
00:15:09,313 --> 00:15:13,483
lt confirmed that
this was the real Mona Lisa.
268
00:15:16,616 --> 00:15:18,151
The smile of the Mona Lisa
269
00:15:18,284 --> 00:15:19,993
was again alive in Florence!
270
00:15:25,284 --> 00:15:28,120
Florentines were particularly
proud that the picture.
271
00:15:28,284 --> 00:15:29,520
was recovered here in Florence.
272
00:15:29,684 --> 00:15:33,420
Because they thought that
long last the Mona Lisa had come home.
273
00:15:36,684 --> 00:15:40,120
This was after all Leonardo's
native city.
274
00:15:40,284 --> 00:15:42,220
The place where he first
trained as an artist.
275
00:15:42,284 --> 00:15:46,220
And where he first began to
work on his most famous picture,
276
00:15:46,284 --> 00:15:47,420
In 1503
277
00:15:52,654 --> 00:15:55,357
Leonardo the thief
was also a Florentine,
278
00:15:55,490 --> 00:15:57,291
an unemployed house painter,
279
00:15:57,425 --> 00:16:00,427
whose real name
was Vincenzo Peruggia.
280
00:16:00,561 --> 00:16:01,728
He claimed to be a patriot,
281
00:16:01,828 --> 00:16:03,630
who stole
the Mona Lisa simply
282
00:16:03,797 --> 00:16:06,432
so she could be returned
to her motherland.
283
00:16:09,335 --> 00:16:11,971
He was tried, he got 6 months,
284
00:16:12,104 --> 00:16:15,574
a very lenient sentence
incidentally, and
285
00:16:15,674 --> 00:16:17,809
in a way he became famous.
286
00:16:17,975 --> 00:16:20,277
When he died
he had an obituary
287
00:16:20,411 --> 00:16:21,979
in the press.
288
00:16:22,145 --> 00:16:24,581
As the man who stole the Mona Lisa.
289
00:16:28,117 --> 00:16:30,819
The ltalian government was
in a slightly embarrassing situation,
290
00:16:30,986 --> 00:16:32,821
because there was a wave
of nationalism
291
00:16:32,954 --> 00:16:34,555
it was the moment
where ltaly was trying
292
00:16:34,722 --> 00:16:35,756
to build an empire in Africa.
293
00:16:35,856 --> 00:16:37,324
so the government
was under pressure,
294
00:16:37,458 --> 00:16:38,926
this is after all our painting
295
00:16:39,026 --> 00:16:40,860
Leonardo is ltalian,
296
00:16:41,027 --> 00:16:42,662
Mona Lisa is an ltalian woman
297
00:16:42,762 --> 00:16:43,729
Let's keep it.
298
00:16:43,896 --> 00:16:45,998
So it was shown in Rome,
in Florence, in Milan.
299
00:16:46,131 --> 00:16:49,467
lt travelled and the crowds flocked.
300
00:16:51,869 --> 00:16:55,839
Unfortunately the French
wanted their painting back.
301
00:16:56,006 --> 00:16:58,108
She's then taken back to Paris
302
00:16:58,208 --> 00:17:01,544
in a train and welcomed
by a huge crowd
303
00:17:01,710 --> 00:17:04,179
at the train station.
304
00:17:04,346 --> 00:17:07,282
And then for 3 days, there is
a special exhibit with her
305
00:17:07,382 --> 00:17:08,716
and again the crowds flocked.
306
00:17:08,816 --> 00:17:11,318
So you can see that the interest
piles on the interest
307
00:17:11,452 --> 00:17:13,186
every little thing can be built up.
308
00:17:13,320 --> 00:17:15,321
l mean one should also add
that other paintings
309
00:17:15,455 --> 00:17:16,656
had been stolen before,
310
00:17:16,722 --> 00:17:18,757
and they did not receive
such publicity.
311
00:17:18,858 --> 00:17:20,859
So there was something
about the Mona Lisa,
312
00:17:21,026 --> 00:17:23,628
but particularly something
about Leonardo.
313
00:17:36,070 --> 00:17:36,939
By 1500
314
00:17:37,106 --> 00:17:39,542
Leonardo da Vinci had returned
to Florence.
315
00:17:39,675 --> 00:17:42,044
He spent 17 years in Milan,
316
00:17:42,177 --> 00:17:44,846
but it was no longer safe
for him there.
317
00:17:44,979 --> 00:17:46,347
His patron had been deposed
318
00:17:46,414 --> 00:17:49,349
and imprisoned
by the invading French Army.
319
00:17:49,950 --> 00:17:51,651
By now he was totally absorbed
320
00:17:51,785 --> 00:17:54,854
with his inventions
and scientific experiments.
321
00:17:55,954 --> 00:17:58,489
He wasn't painting any more.
322
00:18:06,260 --> 00:18:08,995
When he came to live here
at the Servite Monastery
323
00:18:09,129 --> 00:18:10,930
the monks clearly expected
some paintings
324
00:18:11,064 --> 00:18:13,732
in return for his board and lodging,
325
00:18:13,899 --> 00:18:16,501
but as one of the priests
Father Pietro noted,
326
00:18:16,635 --> 00:18:21,072
Leonardo was by now
weary of the brush.
327
00:18:22,072 --> 00:18:23,440
Then in 1503,
328
00:18:23,574 --> 00:18:27,744
something happened to rekindle
Leonardo's interest in painting.
329
00:18:32,811 --> 00:18:34,779
A woman arrived
in his studio for him
330
00:18:34,879 --> 00:18:38,783
to paint her likeness,
and Leonardo agreed.
331
00:18:38,949 --> 00:18:40,384
He begins to work on the portrait,
332
00:18:40,484 --> 00:18:43,553
that would obsess him
to the rest of his life.
333
00:18:47,420 --> 00:18:50,189
So what happened then,
to make him change his mind?
334
00:18:54,420 --> 00:18:58,389
Part of the reason may
simply have been money.
335
00:18:58,420 --> 00:18:59,989
This is the Santa Maria Nuovo
336
00:19:00,420 --> 00:19:02,389
A monastery in a hospital.
Which also served as a bank.
337
00:19:02,420 --> 00:19:05,189
It was here that Leonardo
kept his savings.
338
00:19:06,420 --> 00:19:08,189
And quite remarkably,
339
00:19:08,420 --> 00:19:13,189
his bank statements from those
crucial months in 1503 still survive.
340
00:19:13,420 --> 00:19:16,889
They reveal that he was withdrawing
50 florins every few months,
341
00:19:16,920 --> 00:19:18,489
and not paying anything back in.
342
00:19:19,420 --> 00:19:23,089
Now, we know that he had
an expensive household to maintain.
343
00:19:23,120 --> 00:19:24,389
So it's quite possible that he
344
00:19:24,420 --> 00:19:26,389
took on the commission of the
Mona Lisa,
345
00:19:26,420 --> 00:19:28,489
simply to get some quick and ready cash.
346
00:19:30,420 --> 00:19:32,189
But even if he was short of money,
347
00:19:32,323 --> 00:19:34,358
why would he take on
this particular commission,
348
00:19:34,491 --> 00:19:37,426
while turning down work for some
of the richest
349
00:19:37,526 --> 00:19:39,962
and most influential patrons
of the day?
350
00:19:41,266 --> 00:19:43,567
l think what is remarkable
about Leonardo
351
00:19:43,701 --> 00:19:46,270
is that more than anybody else
at his time,
352
00:19:46,436 --> 00:19:49,072
and indeed more than anybody
else for decades thereafter,
353
00:19:49,172 --> 00:19:50,807
he worked for himself,
354
00:19:50,940 --> 00:19:53,142
he did what interested him.
355
00:19:53,309 --> 00:19:55,243
And it's not that he didn't need
356
00:19:55,377 --> 00:19:57,112
to make a living as an artist,
he did,
357
00:19:57,245 --> 00:19:58,980
he needed that income,
358
00:19:59,113 --> 00:20:01,148
but he more than-
he wanted to satisfy
359
00:20:01,282 --> 00:20:02,916
his patrons whoever they were,
360
00:20:03,083 --> 00:20:04,484
wanted to satisfy himself .
361
00:20:04,618 --> 00:20:06,286
his own intellectual curiosity,
362
00:20:06,486 --> 00:20:08,321
his own aesthetic needs.
363
00:20:08,454 --> 00:20:11,490
The patrons for him were,
shall we say enablers?
364
00:20:11,657 --> 00:20:14,826
And inconveniences,
sometimes at worst.
365
00:20:19,360 --> 00:20:22,095
From patrons you first get flattery,
366
00:20:22,195 --> 00:20:23,730
then hard work,
367
00:20:23,830 --> 00:20:26,732
then ingratitude and recriminations.
368
00:20:31,901 --> 00:20:33,669
The most obvious
thing patrons wanted
369
00:20:33,736 --> 00:20:35,104
in their portraits
370
00:20:35,237 --> 00:20:37,205
was to establish their identity,
371
00:20:37,406 --> 00:20:38,840
but in the case of the Mona Lisa,
372
00:20:39,007 --> 00:20:40,641
Leonardo deliberately avoided
373
00:20:40,775 --> 00:20:43,477
even this basic requirement.
374
00:20:47,412 --> 00:20:51,549
ln his other portraits Leonardo
usually left some clue or symbol,
375
00:20:51,715 --> 00:20:54,684
so that people could
easily identify the sitter.
376
00:20:54,818 --> 00:20:57,120
This is the earliest of them.
377
00:20:57,253 --> 00:20:59,722
He places the subject
in front of a juniper bush,
378
00:20:59,855 --> 00:21:02,657
because in ltalian juniper,
or Ginepro,
379
00:21:02,791 --> 00:21:04,059
is a play on her name,
380
00:21:04,192 --> 00:21:06,094
Ginevra da Benci.
381
00:21:13,931 --> 00:21:17,034
And in his exquisite portrait
of Cecilia Gallerani,
382
00:21:17,201 --> 00:21:20,770
the ermine she's holding
is a mascot of her lover,
383
00:21:20,937 --> 00:21:22,705
the Duke of Sforza.
384
00:21:25,941 --> 00:21:26,808
But in the Mona Lisa,
385
00:21:26,942 --> 00:21:29,143
he left no clue
on the picture at all,
386
00:21:29,277 --> 00:21:32,813
and there is no mention of her
in any of his writings.
387
00:21:32,947 --> 00:21:35,148
She is simply a mysterious woman,
388
00:21:35,315 --> 00:21:37,450
sitting in a landscape.
389
00:21:38,352 --> 00:21:41,088
Leonardo may not have
wanted to reveal her name,
390
00:21:41,221 --> 00:21:43,023
but his secret has inspired
391
00:21:43,156 --> 00:21:45,825
one of the greatest quests
in the history of art,
392
00:21:45,959 --> 00:21:49,561
to discover the Mona Lisa's
true identity.
393
00:21:50,462 --> 00:21:52,364
One person who would have loved
394
00:21:52,497 --> 00:21:54,499
to have had
her portrait painted in oil
395
00:21:54,632 --> 00:21:56,033
by Leonardo da Vinci,
396
00:21:56,167 --> 00:21:57,901
is lsabella d'Este.
397
00:21:58,002 --> 00:21:59,703
The Marchioness of Manchua.
398
00:21:59,836 --> 00:22:01,704
When he visited her in Manchua,
399
00:22:01,805 --> 00:22:05,040
he obviously did
at least 2 charcoal sketches,
400
00:22:05,141 --> 00:22:09,010
brief, rapid,
bravura performances there.
401
00:22:09,177 --> 00:22:10,712
left one behind with her,
402
00:22:10,845 --> 00:22:14,081
and took the other on his travel
down to Florence.
403
00:22:14,281 --> 00:22:15,616
Now for the next 2 years
404
00:22:15,716 --> 00:22:17,751
she's in constant negotiation,
405
00:22:17,917 --> 00:22:21,320
pleading with him
to finish the portrait
406
00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:22,988
or send the sketch back,
407
00:22:23,188 --> 00:22:26,791
or send her something
from his hand.
408
00:22:28,292 --> 00:22:29,793
She was so desperately keen,
409
00:22:29,960 --> 00:22:32,195
she even pleased
with Cecilia Gallerani
410
00:22:32,328 --> 00:22:34,463
to borrow her portrait by Leonardo,
411
00:22:34,630 --> 00:22:35,631
so that she could work out
412
00:22:35,798 --> 00:22:38,433
her own instructions to the painter.
413
00:22:38,633 --> 00:22:40,201
lsabella was a bit of pain,
414
00:22:40,335 --> 00:22:43,103
she would actually
send artists lengths of string
415
00:22:43,204 --> 00:22:45,339
telling them how big
the figures should be.
416
00:22:45,505 --> 00:22:47,974
Now even for people
who are being used to told
417
00:22:48,141 --> 00:22:49,775
what to paint, that's-
418
00:22:49,876 --> 00:22:51,110
this was going a bit far!
419
00:22:52,376 --> 00:22:56,710
I think Leonardo probably found her
rather oppressive.
420
00:23:02,145 --> 00:23:04,980
But there's no shortage
of other possibilities.
421
00:23:05,147 --> 00:23:08,483
The visitors to Leonardo's house
in 1517
422
00:23:08,650 --> 00:23:10,985
thought the model
was lsabella Gualanda
423
00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:12,353
the exotic mistress
424
00:23:12,420 --> 00:23:15,589
of his old patron Giuliano de Medici.
425
00:23:16,390 --> 00:23:20,126
And as a further possibility
the august figure of Costanza d'Avalos
426
00:23:20,259 --> 00:23:23,177
from a war mongering dinasty,
she was a military commander
427
00:23:23,259 --> 00:23:24,561
in her own right.
428
00:23:25,695 --> 00:23:28,163
There's an ltalian poem of the time
429
00:23:28,297 --> 00:23:30,232
which named Costanza
as the veiled lady
430
00:23:30,297 --> 00:23:32,232
in a portrait by an artist
called Vinci.
431
00:23:36,268 --> 00:23:37,703
Finally there's the
Florentine housewife,
432
00:23:37,836 --> 00:23:38,937
Lisa Gherardini,
433
00:23:39,571 --> 00:23:41,372
named by Leonardo's biographer,
434
00:23:41,539 --> 00:23:42,407
Vasari.
435
00:23:47,039 --> 00:23:49,407
The best way to clear up
this confusion,
436
00:23:49,539 --> 00:23:50,808
is by going to Milan.
437
00:23:53,039 --> 00:23:54,409
I must look at some documents,
438
00:23:54,539 --> 00:23:56,409
which relate the history
of the painting,
439
00:23:56,539 --> 00:23:58,409
and may have identified
the most likely sitter.
440
00:24:00,039 --> 00:24:02,409
There are problems with
all 4 candidates.
441
00:24:04,039 --> 00:24:07,999
Medici mistresses tended to flaunt
their status with expensive jewels
442
00:24:08,039 --> 00:24:11,409
Not for them the restrained
taste of the Mona Lisa.
443
00:24:16,039 --> 00:24:19,409
And the well in doubt Grand Duchess
who was well under 40
444
00:24:19,539 --> 00:24:21,809
and a widow when Mona
Lisa was painted.
445
00:24:22,039 --> 00:24:23,409
So she is unlikely.
446
00:24:27,039 --> 00:24:30,409
As for the vain and imperious
Isabella d'Este,
447
00:24:31,039 --> 00:24:33,409
If she really had persuaded
Leonardo to paint her portrait,
448
00:24:33,539 --> 00:24:36,999
wouldn't she have made absolutely sure
the whole world knew about it?
449
00:24:38,539 --> 00:24:40,399
There are also doubts about
Lisa Gherardini.
450
00:24:40,539 --> 00:24:43,499
Italian scholars find it
particularly hard to believe
451
00:24:43,539 --> 00:24:45,399
Leonardo would have
chosen to paint
452
00:24:45,539 --> 00:24:46,999
a middle-class house wife.
453
00:24:51,510 --> 00:24:53,512
After centuries of uncertainty,
454
00:24:53,712 --> 00:24:55,580
a vitally important
piece of evidence
455
00:24:55,747 --> 00:24:57,215
has only just come to light
456
00:24:57,348 --> 00:24:59,817
in the Milan State Archive.
457
00:25:00,951 --> 00:25:01,985
It's a probate document.
458
00:25:02,151 --> 00:25:04,120
detailing the estate of one Gian
459
00:25:04,253 --> 00:25:05,854
Giacomo Caprotti,
460
00:25:06,021 --> 00:25:08,723
who was murdered in 1525.
461
00:25:08,857 --> 00:25:10,825
And we know Gian Giacomo
462
00:25:10,959 --> 00:25:13,294
as Salai, the Little Devil.
463
00:25:13,461 --> 00:25:16,130
Leonardo's lifetime
companion
464
00:25:17,461 --> 00:25:19,301
The original is too delicate to handle,
465
00:25:19,461 --> 00:25:22,330
but from this fotocopy it's
absolutely clear
466
00:25:22,361 --> 00:25:27,914
why Leonardo's scholars regard it as a
crucial piece of the Mona Lisa jigsaw
467
00:25:27,961 --> 00:25:30,031
It's a list of all Salai possessions.
468
00:25:30,461 --> 00:25:33,324
And one entry in particular
is absolutely fascinating.
469
00:25:33,461 --> 00:25:39,532
It refers to a picture "quadro ditto
la honda", called "la honda",
470
00:25:40,461 --> 00:25:45,343
and it's valued at 505 lira
A small fortune at the time.
471
00:25:45,461 --> 00:25:48,233
And the price which could
only get cashed to a masterpiece.
472
00:25:48,461 --> 00:25:51,531
A Leonardo's masterpiece
that he left to Salai.
473
00:25:53,461 --> 00:25:55,531
Now the plot thickens
Because it's a second document,
474
00:25:56,461 --> 00:25:58,531
and in this document, the
abbreviation "la honda",
475
00:25:59,461 --> 00:26:03,531
has been scratched out and
replaced with the word "la Gioconda".
476
00:26:05,461 --> 00:26:08,731
Now we know that the married
name of one of Leonardo's sitters,
477
00:26:08,861 --> 00:26:12,531
Lisa Gherardini, was in fact
Lisa dal Giocondo.
478
00:26:15,161 --> 00:26:19,331
So, after 500 years, the mistery
of the Mona Lisa's identity,
479
00:26:19,461 --> 00:26:21,531
has finally been resolved.
480
00:26:22,461 --> 00:26:25,332
Salai's inventory confirms
481
00:26:23,861 --> 00:26:25,334
Lisa dal Giocondo
482
00:26:25,461 --> 00:26:29,135
The Florentine housewife
was indeed the Mona Lisa.
483
00:26:31,321 --> 00:26:34,657
This is one of
the most amazing discoveries.
484
00:26:34,824 --> 00:26:36,792
l mean you sit
in the Milan Archives,
485
00:26:36,925 --> 00:26:38,593
day after day after day,
486
00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:40,829
it's a freezing cold place,
487
00:26:40,962 --> 00:26:44,031
and you're reading
all of this Latin,
488
00:26:44,165 --> 00:26:47,501
and then suddenly you've got it!
489
00:26:47,634 --> 00:26:49,202
You've got a document
490
00:26:49,335 --> 00:26:53,039
which tells you finally something
you didn't know before.
491
00:26:53,335 --> 00:26:55,839
So who was Lisa dal Giocondo?
492
00:26:55,935 --> 00:26:57,839
By tracking down marriage
and birth certificates,
493
00:26:58,035 --> 00:27:00,839
we managed to discover some
tantalizing details.
494
00:27:02,440 --> 00:27:04,809
She lived here
in the Via della Stufa,
495
00:27:04,976 --> 00:27:06,477
with her husband Francesco,
496
00:27:06,644 --> 00:27:08,545
a prosperous silk merchant.
497
00:27:08,679 --> 00:27:10,847
She was the daughter
of a middle class landowner,
498
00:27:10,980 --> 00:27:12,515
got married at 16,
499
00:27:12,648 --> 00:27:14,784
and was Francesco's 3rd wife.
500
00:27:14,848 --> 00:27:18,584
His two other wives died
tragically in childbirth.
501
00:27:18,648 --> 00:27:20,184
Lisa herself lost a daughter.
502
00:27:20,648 --> 00:27:23,184
But she did have 2 other children
who managed to survive.
503
00:27:24,317 --> 00:27:27,553
What she meant to Leonardo
we'll probably never know.
504
00:27:28,087 --> 00:27:31,422
But if this was meant to be
a portrait of a respectable,
505
00:27:31,522 --> 00:27:32,923
middle-class housewife,
506
00:27:33,057 --> 00:27:35,625
then it's a very odd one indeed.
507
00:27:36,057 --> 00:27:38,625
Quite unlike any other
picture of it's time.
508
00:27:40,057 --> 00:27:42,625
It's here at the Uffizi Gallery
in Florence
509
00:27:43,057 --> 00:27:45,626
that you can get a clear idea
of how radical the Mona Lisa
510
00:27:45,857 --> 00:27:47,627
must have seemed
in those days.
511
00:27:48,357 --> 00:27:49,628
Just 3 decades earlier
512
00:27:50,257 --> 00:27:52,329
Even masters like
Piero della Francesca
513
00:27:52,557 --> 00:27:56,830
was forced to abide by strict social
conventions.
514
00:27:58,057 --> 00:28:01,631
The whole point of this portrait
was to show up your status.
515
00:28:02,057 --> 00:28:06,032
So they had to of course wear their best
clothes, the jewels, the finery
516
00:28:06,293 --> 00:28:09,329
so they could be seen in all
their glory.
517
00:28:09,662 --> 00:28:12,830
As you can see in this picture,
it was very much a man's world,
518
00:28:12,969 --> 00:28:14,030
and here you have the man,
519
00:28:15,062 --> 00:28:16,731
the owner really, essentially,
520
00:28:16,862 --> 00:28:18,131
of the wife who is his possession.
521
00:28:18,397 --> 00:28:21,065
She has to be modest
chaste and virtuous.
522
00:28:21,397 --> 00:28:22,865
That was expected of her
523
00:28:22,907 --> 00:28:25,465
Loose hair was a sign of eroticism
524
00:28:25,497 --> 00:28:28,465
So it was something which was
frowned upon.
525
00:28:28,697 --> 00:28:30,001
Constantly you could see
526
00:28:30,097 --> 00:28:31,965
that her hair was thrust up
and decorated.
527
00:28:32,297 --> 00:28:35,165
Certainly not allow to flow in any way at all
528
00:28:35,797 --> 00:28:37,986
In the very materialistic culture
529
00:28:37,997 --> 00:28:39,765
of the early 16th
century in Florence,
530
00:28:39,903 --> 00:28:44,539
everything was about
keeping up the apparencies
531
00:28:45,273 --> 00:28:46,174
By comparison,
532
00:28:46,340 --> 00:28:49,510
Leonardo decides to throw away
the rule book,
533
00:28:49,676 --> 00:28:51,378
far from being
the height of fashion,
534
00:28:51,545 --> 00:28:54,147
her dress is utterly
plain and timeless.
535
00:28:54,280 --> 00:28:58,283
Lisa is a married woman,
but she wears no wedding ring.
536
00:28:58,417 --> 00:29:01,686
lndeed there's no jewellery,
no adornment of any kind,
537
00:29:01,886 --> 00:29:04,989
apart from a simple gold braid
on her neckline.
538
00:29:05,386 --> 00:29:09,589
That will tell nothing about her
family's wealth or social position.
539
00:29:09,825 --> 00:29:12,126
Her loose hair
would even have been seen
540
00:29:12,226 --> 00:29:14,728
at the time
as implying loose morals,
541
00:29:14,895 --> 00:29:18,565
the curls falling sensually
over her shoulders,
542
00:29:19,698 --> 00:29:23,035
and there's another
radical innovation, her pose.
543
00:29:24,002 --> 00:29:25,994
Traditionally, Renaissance paintings
544
00:29:26,137 --> 00:29:27,371
would be in profile.
545
00:29:27,505 --> 00:29:29,140
lt would be like me standing like this,
546
00:29:29,206 --> 00:29:30,975
and you'd only see the profile.
547
00:29:31,375 --> 00:29:36,044
But what Leonardo does, it is as
548
00:29:36,110 --> 00:29:37,046
he's calling Lisa.
549
00:29:37,146 --> 00:29:39,748
He calls Lisa,
Lisa turns towards him,
550
00:29:39,815 --> 00:29:41,917
looks at him, looks at you,
551
00:29:42,050 --> 00:29:45,686
and she has the upper part of her
body looking somewhere else.
552
00:29:45,753 --> 00:29:46,821
So it's a snapshot,
553
00:29:46,954 --> 00:29:48,822
it is in the middle of a movement,
554
00:29:48,922 --> 00:29:51,424
and he's been able
to do that and thus
555
00:29:51,591 --> 00:29:54,093
introducing into
portrait painting something
556
00:29:54,260 --> 00:29:55,961
which existed
of course in sculpture,
557
00:29:56,095 --> 00:29:58,463
in a single portrait.
558
00:29:59,764 --> 00:30:01,032
This was a- such an achievement,
559
00:30:01,232 --> 00:30:05,002
that Raphael
and others started imitating it.
560
00:30:06,136 --> 00:30:08,071
lndeed nowadays
when a photographer
561
00:30:08,271 --> 00:30:09,272
takes a picture of you,
562
00:30:09,439 --> 00:30:10,206
he'll always say
563
00:30:10,406 --> 00:30:12,974
please don't look at the camera,
look slightly away and so on.
564
00:30:13,008 --> 00:30:15,509
They will try to disturb
the staticity
565
00:30:15,743 --> 00:30:17,078
of the- of the pose,
566
00:30:17,212 --> 00:30:19,413
and in so doing,
whether they know it or not,
567
00:30:19,646 --> 00:30:22,782
they are reproducing
Leonardo's great discovery.
568
00:30:24,446 --> 00:30:26,082
And then there's her gaze
569
00:30:29,049 --> 00:30:33,152
But is she looking directly at us
or through us?
570
00:30:33,285 --> 00:30:34,687
ls she even looking past us,
571
00:30:34,820 --> 00:30:37,923
over our shoulder at something
we can't see?
572
00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:40,723
Leonardo understood the compulsion
573
00:30:40,777 --> 00:30:42,523
we all feel when we first meet someone,
574
00:30:42,620 --> 00:30:45,423
to try to read the character
from the face.
575
00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:48,424
He challenges us to
interprete her thoughts.
576
00:30:48,620 --> 00:30:51,025
To capture, in his words,
577
00:30:51,120 --> 00:30:54,926
the emotions of her mind
and the passions of her soul.
578
00:30:57,023 --> 00:30:58,524
But he teases us,
579
00:30:58,691 --> 00:31:02,127
he draws a veil of ambiguity
across her features,
580
00:31:03,293 --> 00:31:04,861
and then of course,
581
00:31:05,028 --> 00:31:06,930
there's the riddle of that smile.
582
00:31:59,628 --> 00:32:01,431
It's one of the reasons,
583
00:32:01,508 --> 00:32:03,531
the smile so endlessly fascinates people,
584
00:32:03,628 --> 00:32:05,531
it's because they can't quite make it out.
585
00:32:05,628 --> 00:32:07,932
But I think that something of this is to do
with the fact that
586
00:32:08,628 --> 00:32:10,533
it's lopsided, the smile.
587
00:32:10,628 --> 00:32:14,003
Now look at this.
If I cover this side of the picture,
588
00:32:14,028 --> 00:32:15,535
now that is quite severe,
589
00:32:15,628 --> 00:32:18,536
If I turn around the cover,
590
00:32:18,628 --> 00:32:21,537
this side of the face,
591
00:32:22,628 --> 00:32:26,538
Now she looks like she's smiling
592
00:32:26,628 --> 00:32:30,539
And you see that the smile is also
mirrowed in a way by the landscape,
593
00:32:30,628 --> 00:32:34,540
because the landscape seems
both sided too.
594
00:32:34,628 --> 00:32:38,941
On the left hand side here,
you see the water level in the frame,
595
00:32:39,028 --> 00:32:42,042
and on the right hand side it
seems to be higher than the frame,
596
00:32:42,128 --> 00:32:45,543
protruding from that
right hand side of the picture
597
00:32:45,828 --> 00:32:47,844
And of course Leonardo
did nothing by accident.
598
00:32:47,928 --> 00:32:51,545
He was fascinated by optical effects
599
00:32:51,628 --> 00:32:53,546
Something must be intentional on it.
600
00:32:53,628 --> 00:32:55,970
It gives you a real sense of unease
about the picture.
601
00:33:01,156 --> 00:33:02,457
What is she smiling at?
602
00:33:02,590 --> 00:33:04,325
What does she have
that we don't have?
603
00:33:04,492 --> 00:33:07,161
What does she know
about our thoughts,
604
00:33:07,294 --> 00:33:09,296
that we don't know?
605
00:33:09,496 --> 00:33:13,799
Leonardo was a man
listening to voices unheard
606
00:33:13,933 --> 00:33:15,801
by other people.
607
00:33:16,835 --> 00:33:20,972
The smile to me is essentially saying
608
00:33:21,072 --> 00:33:24,608
l know things
that you will never know.
609
00:33:24,775 --> 00:33:28,645
l understand you
and the world in ways
610
00:33:28,811 --> 00:33:31,046
that you will never conceive of.
611
00:33:31,180 --> 00:33:33,315
lt's his message to the world,
612
00:33:33,515 --> 00:33:37,452
it's essentially his message
to himself at the same time.
613
00:33:37,552 --> 00:33:40,621
That's why l think in this portrait,
614
00:33:40,754 --> 00:33:43,056
he's painting biography
615
00:33:43,190 --> 00:33:45,892
and autobiography
at the same time.
616
00:34:06,608 --> 00:34:08,543
Leonardo's mother
was a peasant girl
617
00:34:08,676 --> 00:34:09,710
Caterina,
618
00:34:09,877 --> 00:34:12,880
who had a brief liaison
with his father Ser Piero.
619
00:34:13,815 --> 00:34:15,783
She was later married off to a man
620
00:34:15,883 --> 00:34:16,518
in the next village,
621
00:34:16,651 --> 00:34:20,219
but she's said to have
wet-nursed Leonardo
622
00:34:20,353 --> 00:34:22,321
for at least 18 months.
623
00:34:24,991 --> 00:34:28,894
Then he was brought up
by his step-mother Donna Albiera.
624
00:34:30,996 --> 00:34:34,499
Both women are said to have been
deeply affectionate and loving,
625
00:34:34,899 --> 00:34:36,867
but the separation
from his birth mother
626
00:34:37,034 --> 00:34:39,970
suggested another interpretation
of the Mona Lisa,
627
00:34:40,103 --> 00:34:42,639
to the founding father
of psycho-analysis,
628
00:34:42,772 --> 00:34:44,540
Sigmund Freud.
629
00:34:46,374 --> 00:34:48,609
We begin to suspect the possibility
630
00:34:49,776 --> 00:34:51,344
that it was his mother
631
00:34:51,477 --> 00:34:54,447
who possessed
the mysterious smile,
632
00:34:54,580 --> 00:34:56,448
the smile that he had lost
633
00:34:56,582 --> 00:34:58,750
and that fascinated him so much,
634
00:34:58,917 --> 00:35:02,086
when he found it again
in the Florentine lady.
635
00:35:04,388 --> 00:35:06,056
ln Leonardo's later painting,
636
00:35:06,256 --> 00:35:08,024
''The Virgin and St Anne''
637
00:35:08,157 --> 00:35:10,026
Freud saw the same smile,
638
00:35:10,092 --> 00:35:12,228
the Mona Lisa smile,
on both women,
639
00:35:12,461 --> 00:35:14,897
as he saw it, both mother figures.
640
00:35:23,770 --> 00:35:26,739
Both of these women adored him,
641
00:35:26,906 --> 00:35:32,277
which becomes
in the classical Freudian sense,
642
00:35:32,410 --> 00:35:35,479
the perfect situation
in which a child,
643
00:35:35,646 --> 00:35:39,216
a male child,
is likely to become homosexual.
644
00:35:42,418 --> 00:35:44,520
Leonardo probably was in the sense
645
00:35:44,653 --> 00:35:46,788
of we talk about being gay,
646
00:35:46,955 --> 00:35:47,789
l think he was gay
647
00:35:47,956 --> 00:35:49,157
l think he probably slept with men,
648
00:35:49,324 --> 00:35:51,993
l think that all the evidence
in terms
649
00:35:52,159 --> 00:35:54,995
of what we know about his life,
and also his art.
650
00:35:56,596 --> 00:35:58,631
Most of the drawings are of men
651
00:35:58,798 --> 00:36:01,033
and it's centred
really round the midriff.
652
00:36:02,668 --> 00:36:04,469
You look at the care and the detail
653
00:36:04,536 --> 00:36:08,005
and the obsession
with the ideal male form.
654
00:36:08,105 --> 00:36:12,175
lt is repeated and drawn over again
and again and again,
655
00:36:12,376 --> 00:36:14,077
which doesn't compare
to anything like the way
656
00:36:14,177 --> 00:36:16,812
in which the female form
is represented.
657
00:36:16,979 --> 00:36:18,414
Leonardo's faces often seem
658
00:36:18,514 --> 00:36:21,983
to have some kind
of sexual ambiguity.
659
00:36:23,918 --> 00:36:25,653
And here is that smile again
660
00:36:25,820 --> 00:36:27,821
on his most androgynous figure,
661
00:36:27,955 --> 00:36:30,223
the Portrait of St John.
662
00:36:30,357 --> 00:36:33,092
He too seems to have
some secret knowledge,
663
00:36:33,226 --> 00:36:37,162
some understanding of what
lies hidden in the darkness.
664
00:36:40,465 --> 00:36:43,100
What of Lisa dal Giacondo herself?
665
00:36:43,234 --> 00:36:44,601
While she sat for Leonardo,
666
00:36:44,735 --> 00:36:47,103
did she too have a secret?
667
00:36:47,404 --> 00:36:51,206
One that might explain
the mystery of her smile?
668
00:36:52,307 --> 00:36:54,176
lt's my personal thought
669
00:36:54,309 --> 00:36:56,811
that she is indeed pregnant.
670
00:36:57,011 --> 00:36:59,013
ln the first place
if you look at her hands,
671
00:36:59,180 --> 00:37:01,715
here she is, she's supposed to be
a relatively young woman
672
00:37:01,882 --> 00:37:04,117
in her early 20's,
there's no question
673
00:37:04,217 --> 00:37:05,651
that she has swollen fingers
674
00:37:05,785 --> 00:37:07,553
As you look carefully at the picture,
675
00:37:07,720 --> 00:37:08,887
there's no question
676
00:37:08,987 --> 00:37:11,856
that she's holding her hands
in a particular attitude,
677
00:37:12,023 --> 00:37:13,491
that we're accustomed to seeing
678
00:37:13,625 --> 00:37:17,728
on the upper abdomens of women
far advanced in pregnancy.
679
00:37:18,025 --> 00:37:19,728
In 1502, 1503,
680
00:37:19,929 --> 00:37:23,366
Lisa dal Giacondo
was expecting a child,
681
00:37:23,499 --> 00:37:24,733
2nd child.
682
00:37:24,834 --> 00:37:26,735
They're moving into
a new house the next year,
683
00:37:26,902 --> 00:37:28,703
so it may well be quite prosaic
684
00:37:28,837 --> 00:37:32,173
that this was to celebrate
her pregnancy.
685
00:37:35,837 --> 00:37:38,373
Although it's perfectly obvious, of course,
686
00:37:38,437 --> 00:37:41,741
that Leonardo wasn't physically
atracted to women,
687
00:37:41,837 --> 00:37:45,275
he was fascinated by them
both as an artist and a scientist
688
00:37:45,337 --> 00:37:48,376
Most men of this time for instance
really believed
689
00:37:48,437 --> 00:37:52,474
that the male was responsible
uniquely for the act of procreation.
690
00:37:52,537 --> 00:37:56,475
But Leonardo realized that the
man's role was quick and easy.
691
00:37:56,537 --> 00:38:00,576
Was the woman's which was complex
and full of mistery.
692
00:38:00,637 --> 00:38:03,774
He was convinced that women
693
00:38:03,837 --> 00:38:06,175
were key to the process of procreation.
694
00:38:19,240 --> 00:38:21,475
While he painted
the Mona Lisa during the day,
695
00:38:21,575 --> 00:38:25,111
he would come here to the Hospital
of Santa Maria Nuova
696
00:38:25,245 --> 00:38:29,313
and spend the night
cutting up female corpses.
697
00:38:29,445 --> 00:38:32,113
He was determined to learn
everything about females.
698
00:38:32,245 --> 00:38:34,313
Not just about the surface
of the body,
699
00:38:34,445 --> 00:38:39,213
but what lay underneath.
700
00:38:39,545 --> 00:38:42,414
Leonardo was the very first
anatomist,
701
00:38:42,545 --> 00:38:44,614
to document the female body.
702
00:38:45,594 --> 00:38:48,930
This astonishing drawing
is called The Great Lady
703
00:38:49,063 --> 00:38:50,397
in the margins are some of
704
00:38:50,498 --> 00:38:53,233
Leonardo's characteristic
notes to himself,
705
00:38:53,433 --> 00:38:55,435
ideas that will become
the foundation
706
00:38:55,635 --> 00:38:58,838
for a new science, Embryology.
707
00:39:00,441 --> 00:39:03,743
Begins with the formation
of the infant,
708
00:39:03,877 --> 00:39:06,612
put in such parts
as our successively composed
709
00:39:06,779 --> 00:39:09,481
according to the duration
of the pregnancy
710
00:39:09,615 --> 00:39:12,350
and how it is nourished until birth.
711
00:39:13,153 --> 00:39:16,489
Leonardo da Vinci
makes the first ever drawings
712
00:39:16,556 --> 00:39:18,258
of the human foetus in the womb.
713
00:39:19,556 --> 00:39:23,758
He was making this, he'd obviously been
doing the disection at the time
714
00:39:23,856 --> 00:39:25,759
that he was painting the Mona Lisa.
715
00:39:25,856 --> 00:39:28,960
That seems so extraordinary to me.
716
00:39:29,592 --> 00:39:31,494
This disection, which is really
not a dissection,
717
00:39:32,594 --> 00:39:35,462
It's a great synthesis of everything
that he was learning
718
00:39:35,562 --> 00:39:37,497
about the human body.
719
00:39:37,564 --> 00:39:43,732
Is, I think, almost the most remarkable,
anatomical drawing ever made
720
00:39:43,964 --> 00:39:48,233
It's a drawing about what makes
a living body, a living body.
721
00:39:48,932 --> 00:39:49,933
And one of the things
722
00:39:50,033 --> 00:39:51,302
he's most interested
in his anatomy,
723
00:39:51,435 --> 00:39:57,574
is this cycle of life,
death and maturity.
724
00:39:58,807 --> 00:40:01,475
And think he's doing Leda
at the same time,
725
00:40:01,575 --> 00:40:04,311
this painting about generation.
726
00:40:04,445 --> 00:40:08,681
Here is this wonderful image
of a bird -
727
00:40:08,781 --> 00:40:10,549
we know Leonardo's obsession
with flight -
728
00:40:10,716 --> 00:40:12,718
mating with a woman,
729
00:40:12,851 --> 00:40:15,053
and producing babies from eggs.
730
00:40:16,254 --> 00:40:17,422
What a subject for Leonardo!
731
00:40:17,522 --> 00:40:19,557
You know she is
absolutely perfect.
732
00:40:19,690 --> 00:40:21,732
lt's all the mysteries of generation,
733
00:40:21,825 --> 00:40:23,394
all in one package.
734
00:40:29,425 --> 00:40:31,294
I think if you put,
735
00:40:31,425 --> 00:40:33,305
as we've done literally, this together
736
00:40:33,425 --> 00:40:34,796
and think that
737
00:40:34,825 --> 00:40:39,397
Leonardo, with his great culture
and things in his mind,
738
00:40:39,425 --> 00:40:43,098
in a sense, saw this inside her body.
739
00:40:43,125 --> 00:40:47,798
And I think, you start to think, well that is
how Leonardo looked at it.
740
00:40:49,061 --> 00:40:52,831
He thinks he's really getting
to the mystery of life.
741
00:40:52,925 --> 00:40:55,398
The cyclical nature of the death of things
742
00:40:55,699 --> 00:40:57,401
and the birth of things.
743
00:40:57,677 --> 00:40:59,612
Of course this then refracts
back beautifully
744
00:40:59,779 --> 00:41:01,880
into the landscape
and the notion of -
745
00:41:02,047 --> 00:41:04,582
of the cyclical change of things,
746
00:41:04,682 --> 00:41:08,452
and how landscape changes
over vast periods of time.
747
00:41:12,389 --> 00:41:16,459
When you see a scene
of the primeval
748
00:41:16,592 --> 00:41:21,729
or primordial world behind
the person being portrayed,
749
00:41:21,896 --> 00:41:25,499
it immediately puts you
in mind of creation
750
00:41:25,633 --> 00:41:27,968
of early forms that will evolve
751
00:41:28,101 --> 00:41:29,436
into what we are today.
752
00:41:29,569 --> 00:41:32,338
Now in the foreground,
you are looking
753
00:41:32,538 --> 00:41:33,872
at a woman who represents
754
00:41:34,073 --> 00:41:36,374
exactly the same thing.
755
00:41:38,243 --> 00:41:41,245
lt strikes me as
it's a very unstable picture.
756
00:41:41,412 --> 00:41:43,680
You have these towering
mountains behind,
757
00:41:43,847 --> 00:41:44,815
they're overhanging,
758
00:41:44,948 --> 00:41:46,683
they look like
they might fall down,
759
00:41:46,783 --> 00:41:48,451
tumble down any time.
760
00:41:48,584 --> 00:41:50,219
The lakes are very full,
761
00:41:50,352 --> 00:41:51,753
it looks like they might come
762
00:41:51,920 --> 00:41:54,622
tumbling over the dam
and wash away the bridge.
763
00:41:54,756 --> 00:41:57,658
And l do wonder whether
what he's depicting here
764
00:41:57,825 --> 00:42:00,894
is how he imagined
the Arno Valley
765
00:42:01,061 --> 00:42:04,697
would have looked,
in previous times.
766
00:42:04,897 --> 00:42:06,832
There is some very
clear evidence
767
00:42:06,966 --> 00:42:08,634
in the notebooks that he thought
768
00:42:08,800 --> 00:42:11,069
there used to be a lake
where Florence stood,
769
00:42:11,169 --> 00:42:13,571
and there was a lake lower
down the valley as well,
770
00:42:13,671 --> 00:42:15,306
and maybe this is what he's seeing
771
00:42:15,472 --> 00:42:16,540
with these 2 lakes.
772
00:42:16,640 --> 00:42:20,476
He's imagining what the landscape
used to look like.
773
00:42:22,845 --> 00:42:24,813
So what's going on here?
774
00:42:24,947 --> 00:42:26,348
How does the Mona Lisa connect
775
00:42:26,481 --> 00:42:29,884
with the strange primeval
landscape behind her?
776
00:42:29,984 --> 00:42:31,785
lt's time to get out of the city,
777
00:42:31,986 --> 00:42:34,221
and go back to where it all began,
778
00:42:34,321 --> 00:42:35,755
the Tuscan landscape,
779
00:42:35,889 --> 00:42:39,759
where Leonardo spent
his childhood and formative years.
780
00:42:41,355 --> 00:42:42,889
The Valley of the River Arno
781
00:42:43,022 --> 00:42:44,891
wasn't just his playground,
782
00:42:44,991 --> 00:42:47,026
it was his laboratory.
783
00:42:47,192 --> 00:42:49,361
Here he studied
the principles of flight,
784
00:42:49,528 --> 00:42:53,564
the dynamics of water,
light and perspective.
785
00:42:58,128 --> 00:43:00,501
So is the apparently
fantastic landscape
786
00:43:00,728 --> 00:43:03,464
behing the Mona Lisa
real or imagined?
787
00:43:04,380 --> 00:43:06,248
Here 30 miles from Florence
788
00:43:06,382 --> 00:43:09,684
the River Arno
is crossed by the Buriano Bridge.
789
00:43:10,082 --> 00:43:12,684
Is this the bridge behind the Mona Lisa?
790
00:43:15,988 --> 00:43:17,389
What we do know for sure
791
00:43:17,556 --> 00:43:18,990
is that Leonardo knew the bridge
792
00:43:19,057 --> 00:43:21,225
and the surrounding
area intimately.
793
00:43:21,556 --> 00:43:24,990
The Buriano had a vital strategic
importance to the city of Arezzo.
794
00:43:25,392 --> 00:43:28,061
And just a year before beginning
work on the Mona Lisa,
795
00:43:28,228 --> 00:43:29,796
Leonardo was sent here,
796
00:43:29,929 --> 00:43:31,330
as a Military Engineer,
797
00:43:31,397 --> 00:43:34,966
to the infamous warlord
Cesare Borgia.
798
00:43:38,736 --> 00:43:41,271
And only minutes away
from the Buriano Bridge
799
00:43:41,405 --> 00:43:43,173
there is another
connection
800
00:43:43,240 --> 00:43:45,375
with the Mona Lisa.
801
00:43:45,942 --> 00:43:48,878
This epic landscape
is known to locals
802
00:43:48,978 --> 00:43:50,746
as The Valley of Hell.
803
00:43:52,578 --> 00:43:54,446
These primeval rock formations
804
00:43:54,578 --> 00:43:57,447
rise hundreds of feet out of nowhere
805
00:43:57,578 --> 00:44:01,748
to form a ridge running some
30 miles along the Arno river.
806
00:44:10,484 --> 00:44:13,220
The rocks appear frequently
in his notebooks,
807
00:44:13,353 --> 00:44:17,056
and there are similar forms in
the backgrounds of other paintings.
808
00:44:20,259 --> 00:44:22,194
The Virgin of the Rocks.
809
00:44:28,734 --> 00:44:30,569
The Virgin and St Anne.
810
00:44:33,636 --> 00:44:36,305
Little rivulet streams have
carved their way
811
00:44:36,439 --> 00:44:38,840
down through these rocks
and formed
812
00:44:38,974 --> 00:44:41,342
the amazing shapes
that you see today.
813
00:44:41,476 --> 00:44:42,543
And that's l'm sure
814
00:44:42,644 --> 00:44:45,846
what Leonardo understood
had happened.
815
00:44:48,215 --> 00:44:51,984
The Mona Lisa gives a very clear
sense of time passing,
816
00:44:52,118 --> 00:44:55,454
l think particularly in the landscape
in the background.
817
00:44:55,587 --> 00:44:57,856
There you have a clear depiction
818
00:44:57,989 --> 00:44:59,957
of the geological cycle.
819
00:45:00,124 --> 00:45:02,993
You have the river starting up
in the mountains,
820
00:45:03,127 --> 00:45:06,096
these very jagged,
unstable mountains.
821
00:45:06,296 --> 00:45:09,665
lt wends its way down
bringing the sediment with it,
822
00:45:09,799 --> 00:45:12,134
until it eventually gets to the sea
823
00:45:12,267 --> 00:45:14,235
and Leonardo had this idea that it
824
00:45:14,336 --> 00:45:17,204
then was taken back up
to the mountains again,
825
00:45:17,338 --> 00:45:18,405
and would start again.
826
00:45:18,506 --> 00:45:22,008
So you have this continuity,
this continual cycle
827
00:45:22,142 --> 00:45:24,777
of geological time
forever really.
828
00:45:30,645 --> 00:45:32,480
ln Leonardo's time,
the natural world
829
00:45:32,680 --> 00:45:35,016
was regarded
as a heathen wilderness,
830
00:45:35,149 --> 00:45:38,285
best avoided
by God-fearing people.
831
00:45:39,349 --> 00:45:41,185
But Leonardo was not God-fear.
832
00:45:41,785 --> 00:45:44,354
Like his contemporary
Christopher Columbus,
833
00:45:44,485 --> 00:45:46,454
Leonardo was an explorer.
834
00:45:47,021 --> 00:45:49,155
He had an insatiable curiosity
835
00:45:49,356 --> 00:45:51,824
to observe and chart
the unknown world.
836
00:46:04,360 --> 00:46:07,262
l came one day to the mouth
of a great cavern.
837
00:46:08,029 --> 00:46:09,364
l had never been here before,
838
00:46:09,497 --> 00:46:11,866
never been aware of its existence.
839
00:46:12,366 --> 00:46:14,234
l stood for a time peering in to see
840
00:46:14,368 --> 00:46:16,836
what forms had been
created there by nature,
841
00:46:17,003 --> 00:46:19,505
but the darkness
of the cave was deep.
842
00:46:20,172 --> 00:46:22,941
l felt fear, and desire.
843
00:46:23,075 --> 00:46:25,610
Fear of the mysterious cavern,
844
00:46:25,777 --> 00:46:27,478
desire to see whether
there might be
845
00:46:27,611 --> 00:46:29,947
any marvellous thing
within its walls.
846
00:46:31,715 --> 00:46:32,849
Look!
847
00:46:37,820 --> 00:46:39,054
What is it?
848
00:46:39,187 --> 00:46:40,522
lt's a whale!
849
00:46:44,291 --> 00:46:48,862
Think how many years this beast
850
00:46:48,995 --> 00:46:51,497
has ploughed its way
through the oceans,
851
00:46:52,732 --> 00:46:56,168
chasing the tuna fish,
buffeting the ships,
852
00:46:57,602 --> 00:47:00,204
creating great storms in its wake.
853
00:47:04,541 --> 00:47:07,877
Oh time! swift destroyer
of all things living,
854
00:47:08,077 --> 00:47:09,545
how many Kings,
855
00:47:09,712 --> 00:47:11,647
how many peoples
have you brought low
856
00:47:11,847 --> 00:47:14,549
since this creature
was flung here to die?
857
00:47:15,116 --> 00:47:17,885
lts bare bones become the columns
858
00:47:17,985 --> 00:47:19,853
to support a mountain.
859
00:47:21,888 --> 00:47:23,056
He's at the mouth of the cave
860
00:47:23,156 --> 00:47:25,091
and he's afraid to go in,
861
00:47:25,224 --> 00:47:28,527
but his curiosity is pulling him in.
862
00:47:28,627 --> 00:47:30,629
And ironically what does he find,
863
00:47:30,762 --> 00:47:32,030
when he gets in there?
864
00:47:32,130 --> 00:47:35,566
he finds the fossil of a great fish,
very likely
865
00:47:35,733 --> 00:47:39,669
a whale, and the beginnings
therefore, of the earth.
866
00:47:39,803 --> 00:47:42,138
Everything is tied in, in his work.
867
00:47:42,271 --> 00:47:46,575
The search for
the maternal power of generation,
868
00:47:46,741 --> 00:47:50,378
and then the perpetuation
of the species.
869
00:47:53,647 --> 00:47:55,248
Here's another sea creature.
870
00:47:55,415 --> 00:47:56,583
A thousand more.
871
00:47:56,749 --> 00:47:59,418
These shellfish once
lived underneath the ocean,
872
00:47:59,585 --> 00:48:01,220
so how do you think
they got up here,
873
00:48:01,320 --> 00:48:02,688
on the top of a mountain?
874
00:48:02,788 --> 00:48:05,290
The Great Flood? Noah?
875
00:48:05,456 --> 00:48:06,457
According to the Bible,
876
00:48:06,557 --> 00:48:08,526
fossils were carried
onto the top of mountains
877
00:48:08,626 --> 00:48:10,093
by Noah's Flood,
878
00:48:10,227 --> 00:48:12,295
but to Leonardo this was nonsense,
879
00:48:12,462 --> 00:48:14,931
because fossils were
not just found in one,
880
00:48:15,064 --> 00:48:17,132
but many different layers of rock.
881
00:48:17,299 --> 00:48:19,701
Did the Great Flood sweep them
up in one mass
882
00:48:19,835 --> 00:48:22,603
and line them up in neat little rows?
883
00:48:23,304 --> 00:48:24,805
So what he realises is,
884
00:48:24,972 --> 00:48:27,140
that it actually it was just a coming
885
00:48:27,307 --> 00:48:28,808
and a going of the sea.
886
00:48:28,975 --> 00:48:31,477
The sea would come and wash
over the land at some point
887
00:48:31,611 --> 00:48:32,912
and deposit these fossils,
888
00:48:33,012 --> 00:48:34,613
and then it would wash away again,
889
00:48:34,680 --> 00:48:36,548
and the fossils
wouldn't be deposited.
890
00:48:36,681 --> 00:48:38,149
And therefore you would gradually
891
00:48:38,249 --> 00:48:39,917
build up these layers,
892
00:48:40,051 --> 00:48:43,453
and this was incredibly important
893
00:48:43,620 --> 00:48:45,855
because it was another 150 years,
894
00:48:45,989 --> 00:48:48,024
really, before this theory was-
895
00:48:48,157 --> 00:48:50,926
we call it the law of
Superposition
896
00:48:51,060 --> 00:48:54,829
before people realised that
that's what actually happened.
897
00:48:55,330 --> 00:48:58,299
Such heretical observations
were unpublishable,
898
00:48:58,466 --> 00:48:59,933
but they provided Leonardo
899
00:49:00,067 --> 00:49:02,602
with a new theory of creation.
900
00:49:02,769 --> 00:49:04,837
Only observation he said,
901
00:49:05,037 --> 00:49:06,505
is the key to understanding,
902
00:49:06,639 --> 00:49:09,241
and his observations told him
that the earth
903
00:49:09,341 --> 00:49:12,443
could not have been created
in 6 days,
904
00:49:12,577 --> 00:49:16,847
that it took thousands,
if not millions of years,
905
00:49:16,980 --> 00:49:19,349
of geological changes
906
00:49:19,516 --> 00:49:23,652
of atmospheric changes,
of biological changes.
907
00:49:23,719 --> 00:49:25,520
So to him the evidence
was everywhere.
908
00:49:25,721 --> 00:49:27,489
There was no question
about the way
909
00:49:27,656 --> 00:49:28,957
the earth had evolved
910
00:49:29,090 --> 00:49:33,527
and evolved the same way
a human being evolves.
911
00:49:36,729 --> 00:49:38,331
Drawing together all these threads,
912
00:49:38,531 --> 00:49:41,433
lt seems to me that
the Mona Lisa provides us with a snapshot,
913
00:49:41,567 --> 00:49:43,835
of the mature Leonardo's mind,
914
00:49:43,935 --> 00:49:46,471
a distillation of all
that he had discovered,
915
00:49:46,604 --> 00:49:48,539
through a lifetime's observation,
916
00:49:48,672 --> 00:49:51,174
into the secrets of nature.
917
00:49:52,610 --> 00:49:55,580
All his life Leonardo
had wanted to control nature.
918
00:49:55,713 --> 00:49:57,582
He mapped town and countryside,
919
00:49:57,615 --> 00:50:00,417
planned to subdue
and divert great rivers.
920
00:50:00,518 --> 00:50:03,819
He cut through mountains,
built bridges
921
00:50:03,953 --> 00:50:07,189
all to re-arrange
and order God's creation.
922
00:50:13,559 --> 00:50:17,128
But order had its flipside
in disorder and chaos.
923
00:50:17,262 --> 00:50:19,063
Leonardo knew that nature
924
00:50:19,197 --> 00:50:22,199
could be both unpredictable
and terrifying.
925
00:50:25,299 --> 00:50:27,067
lt strikes me
it's a very unstable picture,
926
00:50:27,201 --> 00:50:28,235
towering mountains
927
00:50:28,368 --> 00:50:30,136
and they look like
they might fall down,
928
00:50:30,270 --> 00:50:31,871
tumble down in time.
929
00:50:32,005 --> 00:50:34,407
Unease about the picture.
930
00:50:34,507 --> 00:50:38,109
was undergoing big, deepest
cataclysmic changes imaginable
931
00:50:44,079 --> 00:50:46,547
The River Arno
has always been unpredictable
932
00:50:46,647 --> 00:50:49,716
and subject to
often devastating floods.
933
00:50:49,816 --> 00:50:51,785
As recently as the 1960's,
934
00:50:51,951 --> 00:50:54,120
it caused terrible destruction
to buildings
935
00:50:54,287 --> 00:50:56,789
and works of art in Florence.
936
00:50:56,989 --> 00:50:58,890
Leonardo himself had witnessed
937
00:50:58,990 --> 00:51:02,427
as a child one of the worst
of all deluges,
938
00:51:02,593 --> 00:51:05,396
one he recalls years later.
939
00:51:06,730 --> 00:51:08,865
The air was darkened
by the heavy rain
940
00:51:08,965 --> 00:51:11,067
driven aslant by the crosswinds.
941
00:51:11,234 --> 00:51:14,069
The fire rent and tore
the clouds asunder,
942
00:51:14,169 --> 00:51:16,504
what fearful noises
were heard through the dark air
943
00:51:16,638 --> 00:51:19,107
as thunder violently shot through
to strike anything
944
00:51:19,240 --> 00:51:20,841
that lay in its course.
945
00:51:20,975 --> 00:51:22,576
What weeping and wailing
946
00:51:22,709 --> 00:51:26,446
as terrified beings flung themselves
into the waters
947
00:51:26,613 --> 00:51:29,415
How many mothers wept
for their dead children?
948
00:51:29,548 --> 00:51:32,617
their arms raised to heaven
as the hills collapsed
949
00:51:32,751 --> 00:51:35,486
into the depths
of the flooded valley.
950
00:51:40,191 --> 00:51:43,427
Leonardo even produces a record
of the aftermath,
951
00:51:43,627 --> 00:51:47,297
furniture, books, the detritus
of everyday life,
952
00:51:47,430 --> 00:51:50,733
heaped up after the terrible
flood subsided.
953
00:52:01,608 --> 00:52:03,376
The deluge drawings are in a sense
954
00:52:03,543 --> 00:52:05,444
the ultimate reflection of this idea
955
00:52:05,545 --> 00:52:07,579
that there is a superior force,
956
00:52:07,713 --> 00:52:10,315
and these are vast forces
957
00:52:10,448 --> 00:52:12,550
and what happens
in the human heart,
958
00:52:12,717 --> 00:52:15,653
what happens in the mind
are all little microcosmic
959
00:52:15,853 --> 00:52:17,754
reflections of these vast forces,
960
00:52:17,854 --> 00:52:19,322
so it's a complete spectrum.
961
00:52:19,456 --> 00:52:20,790
And towards the end of his life,
962
00:52:20,923 --> 00:52:22,758
there are these amazing visions where
963
00:52:22,858 --> 00:52:26,995
there is an insight that however
much you understand the forces,
964
00:52:27,128 --> 00:52:28,463
there is an awesome dimension
965
00:52:28,596 --> 00:52:31,599
which is outside human
ability to control.
966
00:52:40,906 --> 00:52:44,476
The presence that rose thus
so strangely beside the waters,
967
00:52:44,676 --> 00:52:46,544
is expressive of what in the ways
968
00:52:46,644 --> 00:52:50,747
of 1000 years, men
have come to desire.
969
00:52:50,914 --> 00:52:53,950
She is older than the rocks among
which she sits,
970
00:52:54,083 --> 00:52:56,919
like the Vampire
she's been dead many times,
971
00:52:57,052 --> 00:52:59,688
and learned the secrets
of the grave.
972
00:53:00,188 --> 00:53:03,024
What was the relationship
of a living Florentine
973
00:53:03,124 --> 00:53:05,359
to this creature of his thought?
974
00:53:06,093 --> 00:53:07,694
By what strange affinities
975
00:53:07,828 --> 00:53:11,030
had the dream and the person
grown up thus apart,
976
00:53:11,164 --> 00:53:13,966
and yet so closely together?
977
00:53:16,368 --> 00:53:18,036
Leonardo
never delivered the portrait
978
00:53:18,136 --> 00:53:20,171
of Lisa dal Giacondo.
979
00:53:20,338 --> 00:53:21,372
He carried it with him
980
00:53:21,539 --> 00:53:24,674
wherever he went
for the last 16 years of his life
981
00:53:24,775 --> 00:53:27,377
even into exile.
982
00:53:36,510 --> 00:53:37,644
At the age of 61,
983
00:53:37,778 --> 00:53:40,447
Leonardo left ltaly never to return.
984
00:53:40,613 --> 00:53:42,215
Younger
and more fashionable artists
985
00:53:42,315 --> 00:53:43,583
like Raphael and Michelangelo,
986
00:53:43,616 --> 00:53:46,320
were now flavour of the month
and regularly gaining
987
00:53:46,416 --> 00:53:48,620
the most glamorous commissions.
988
00:53:52,787 --> 00:53:55,055
This is where his journey ended,
989
00:53:55,188 --> 00:53:58,725
at the French town of Amboise
in the Loire Valley.
990
00:53:58,825 --> 00:54:01,127
lf Leonardo was under appreciated
in his homeland,
991
00:54:01,260 --> 00:54:04,596
he was certainly welcomed
by the French King.
992
00:54:07,130 --> 00:54:09,732
Francis l was determined
to import the glories
993
00:54:09,832 --> 00:54:12,134
of the Renaissance.
994
00:54:15,267 --> 00:54:17,936
ln recognition of Leonardo's
unique status,
995
00:54:18,069 --> 00:54:20,038
he gave him a large manor house,
996
00:54:20,138 --> 00:54:22,740
right next door to the royal castle.
997
00:54:22,910 --> 00:54:25,412
Leonardo's last years
were not easy.
998
00:54:25,512 --> 00:54:29,448
He suffered a stroke which meant
he lost the use of his right hand.
999
00:54:29,615 --> 00:54:32,051
But his increasing infirmity
didn't seem to matter
1000
00:54:32,151 --> 00:54:33,418
to the young French King,
1001
00:54:33,618 --> 00:54:35,887
who treasured every moment
he was able to spend
1002
00:54:36,020 --> 00:54:39,590
with such a wise old man.
1003
00:54:41,820 --> 00:54:44,390
Many believe that this tunnel
in Leonardo's house
1004
00:54:44,520 --> 00:54:49,291
was directly connected to
the royal castle in Amboise
1005
00:54:49,420 --> 00:54:54,592
and that king Francis I used
it to visit Leonardo at nights.
1006
00:54:59,220 --> 00:55:01,293
They would talk through the night,
1007
00:55:01,424 --> 00:55:03,459
the old man and the young king.
1008
00:55:03,526 --> 00:55:05,228
So at last, towards the end of his life
1009
00:55:05,328 --> 00:55:07,929
Leonardo as so often misundertood
1010
00:55:08,396 --> 00:55:10,798
in taking to granted, he'd found a patron,
1011
00:55:11,065 --> 00:55:13,834
who really undertood
the nature of his genius.
1012
00:55:21,503 --> 00:55:22,873
In his last years,
1013
00:55:23,060 --> 00:55:24,427
Leonardo tried to put together
1014
00:55:24,561 --> 00:55:27,063
thousands of pages
of notes and drawings,
1015
00:55:27,230 --> 00:55:29,732
into a grand encyclopaedia.
1016
00:55:36,498 --> 00:55:40,500
But the task of compiling
the observations of a lifetime,
1017
00:55:40,667 --> 00:55:43,002
like so many of
his ambitious schemes,
1018
00:55:43,136 --> 00:55:44,971
remained unfinished.
1019
00:55:53,079 --> 00:55:55,748
While l thought
l was learning how to live,
1020
00:55:55,948 --> 00:55:58,316
l've really been
learning how to die.
1021
00:55:58,483 --> 00:56:00,852
As a day well spent
brings happy sleep,
1022
00:56:01,018 --> 00:56:05,322
so a life well used
brings contented death.
1023
00:56:12,124 --> 00:56:14,026
Leonardo died here in his room
1024
00:56:14,192 --> 00:56:18,162
in Clos-Luc� on 2nd May, 1519.
1025
00:56:18,296 --> 00:56:20,364
He was 67 years old.
1026
00:56:21,965 --> 00:56:23,934
It's to have died
in the arms
1027
00:56:24,134 --> 00:56:25,702
of the French King.
1028
00:56:25,868 --> 00:56:27,637
This is how the painter Ingres
1029
00:56:27,770 --> 00:56:30,706
imagined the scene
300 years later.
1030
00:56:31,839 --> 00:56:34,341
The great architect
Benvenuto Cellini,
1031
00:56:34,508 --> 00:56:37,709
who also served Francis I,
wrote this:
1032
00:56:39,583 --> 00:56:42,251
l have to record the words
the King spoke to me,
1033
00:56:42,352 --> 00:56:43,819
that he believed
1034
00:56:44,386 --> 00:56:46,421
there had never been another man
born in the world,
1035
00:56:46,588 --> 00:56:48,757
who knew as much as Leonardo.
1036
00:56:48,923 --> 00:56:50,825
Not so much about painting,
1037
00:56:50,992 --> 00:56:53,594
sculpture, and architecture,
1038
00:56:53,727 --> 00:56:57,664
as that he was
a very great philosopher.
1039
00:57:08,927 --> 00:57:10,364
It has taken 500 years
1040
00:57:10,527 --> 00:57:14,265
for many of Leonardo's ideas
to become a reality.
1041
00:57:14,532 --> 00:57:16,401
Even now, we can only begin
to understand
1042
00:57:16,502 --> 00:57:19,470
the sheer scale of his achievements.
1043
00:57:19,802 --> 00:57:22,373
When he began his restless
journey through life
1044
00:57:22,502 --> 00:57:25,270
the painter was regarded
as a little more than a lowly craftsman
1045
00:57:25,502 --> 00:57:27,170
Leonardo changed all that.
1046
00:57:27,402 --> 00:57:29,970
And in this one painting,
the Mona Lisa,
1047
00:57:30,303 --> 00:57:33,339
all the passions and
preoccupations of a lifetime,
1048
00:57:33,506 --> 00:57:35,540
come together.
1049
00:57:35,640 --> 00:57:38,476
The Mona Lisa is the first great
psicological portrait.
1050
00:57:38,640 --> 00:57:41,376
It's Leonardo's attempt to capture
the energy,
1051
00:57:41,640 --> 00:57:43,377
the essence of life itself.
1052
00:57:43,640 --> 00:57:46,478
Is not a mistery that is easily resolved.
1053
00:57:46,542 --> 00:57:49,211
But he has caught an
an instant and an eternity.
1054
00:57:50,812 --> 00:57:54,581
Like a magician
he's made the invisible, visible.
1055
00:57:57,484 --> 00:57:59,485
Don't pity the humble painter,
1056
00:58:00,619 --> 00:58:02,788
he can be lord of all things,
1057
00:58:03,222 --> 00:58:05,890
whatever exists in the universe,
1058
00:58:06,024 --> 00:58:09,460
he has first in his mind,
and then in his hand.
1059
00:58:11,128 --> 00:58:15,431
By his art he may be called
the Grandchild of God.
1060
00:58:17,128 --> 00:58:19,432
Subtitles by J. C. Germi
1061
00:58:21,128 --> 00:58:23,432
BBC 200383187
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