THE MONA LISA AS AN ANTI-TERRORIST WEAPON

This has totally nothing to do with Dan Brown’s ridiculous nonsense he made up for The Da Vinci Code.  It has everything to do with the most famous smile in the history of art.

Oceans of ink have been wasted on the “mystery” of Mona Lisa’s smile – when for anyone familiar with Renaissance culture it was no mystery at all.  Leonardo painted her smile as expressing the essence of the Renaissance, and the painting became famous because it was recognized as such by the participants of that culture.

Particularly the King of France, Francis I (1494-1547).  Leonardo (1452-1519) began the painting in 1503 and completed it in 1507.  His model was Lisa Gherardini (1479-after 1540), the wife of a wealthy Florence silk merchant, Francesco del Giocondo, who was a close friend of Leonardo’s father Piero.  It was Piero who commissioned his son to paint a portrait of his friend’s wife.

As “mona” is a common Italian contraction of “madonna” or “my lady” – the equivalent of English “madam” – the painting became known as Mona Lisa – Madam Lisa.

In 1516, Leonardo took the painting with him to visit the French king at his palace at Amboise in the Loire Valley.  Francis took one look at it and paid Leonardo 4,000 gold coins called écus, an unheard-of fortune for a painting at the time.  Francis knew he was looking at the literal embodiment of the Renaissance.

That embodiment is in Mona Lisa’s smile, in her eyes, and in her hands.  The Renaissance Italians had a word for it:  Sprezzatura.

It is a distinctly Renaissance term, not used in modern Italian, for which there is no corresponding word in English.  Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529), a renowned Renaissance diplomat, discussed it his Book of the Courtier, which defined the ideal Renaissance gentleman:

“The perfect courtier or gentleman has a certain grace or sprezzatura, enabling him to perform whatever is done with such mastery that it appears to be without effort, almost without any thought about it… obvious effort or struggle is the antithesis of grace.”

This is the effect or consequence of sprezzatura, not what it is.  Sprezzatura is a kind of serenity, a serene unconcern with the trials of life and the envy of others.  It is supreme self-satisfaction, a satisfied self-confidence. It is a total at-ease with oneself, with one’s soul and one’s body.

Now look at the Mona Lisa in a new light, understanding that Leonardo painted her eyes, her hands, and above all her smile as expressions of sprezzatura:

You see it, don’t you?  That’s the source of the Mona Lisa’s magic.

Yet, however familiar folks of the Renaissance were with sprezzatura and could recognize it in Mona Lisa, they found Leonardo’s painting shockingly revolutionary.  It was one thing to see sprezzatura in a man – but it was a complete challenge to cultural norms to see it in a woman.

Renaissance etiquette required that a lady never looked directly into a man’s eyes, never dared to smile with bold and unapologetic self-confidence.  Thus the initial derision of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo’s contemporaries, who accused him of painting a street prostitute.  She had to be, for no lady of refinement, no wife of a prominent wealthy Florentine, would ever pose in such a manner.

Leonardo knew exactly what he was doing.  So did Francis I.  Leonardo was determined to make the ideals of the Renaissance, this new age of rebirth, this recapture of classical civilization, universal and applying to all.  What better way to accomplish this than with the shock of demonstrating them in a woman, making her man’s equal?

In nine years, Leonardo had so well succeeded that King of France celebrated and announced to all Renaissance society the value and truth of his revolutionary painting.

Now let’s talk of how we can scare and intimidate the hell out of Moslem Jihadis with the Mona Lisa.

The Mona Lisa is far and away the most famous painting in the world.  Even all Jihadis except those that grew up and still live in a cave, have seen it.  What I’m working on with some folks in Washington is a world-wide campaign to distribute pictures of the Mona Lisa with this caption in bold block black letters:

You’re scared of her, aren’t you?

And this message:

To all advocates of Islamic Jihad and Islamic Sharia law:  Look into this woman’s eyes.  You don’t see any fear, do you?  This woman is not afraid of you.  Which is why you are afraid of her.  Women who have no fear of you frighten you, don’t they?

Look at this woman’s smile.  You see her laughing at your Sharia law, don’t you?  She has nothing but contempt for your beliefs that women are sub-human and not the equal of men.  That smile infuriates you, doesn’t it?  She doesn’t care.

We the people of Western Civilization don’t care either.  We ask this question:  Do you have the courage to ask yourself why you are afraid of her, why you are afraid of women?  Only when you stop being afraid of women will you be real men.

Until you have this courage, we of the West will not consider you real men.  Real men who are not afraid of looking into this woman’s eyes.  Isn’t it time you stopped being afraid?

The best way to distribute this is on the Internet.  Thus this message is being translated into Arabic and will be posted on Islamic websites around the world.

The Mona Lisa will be an anti-terrorist weapon.  Leonardo would understand.