| Show J i 1 r r i y t 1 4 r I 0 Y V a Why It Is Feared This Modern Must Suffer Even EvenY More Than the One of Centuries Ago Did From the Jj Y f Task of Living Up to Her rier Famous Portrait 4 I On the right Sir John Lavery the distinguished English t p Titian an and the charming model mode artist and the love whom he both painted and dt loved from the cele cele- celebrated M E ck always painting e painting by byr y r Hans Makart F rY E y f r a i y I I f Pc 5 r 1 r Y W o x rya k 3 1 y r Ill Lady LaVO Lavery English one of Eng Eng- lish society's greatest great t beauties e EVERYBODY has bas heard beard of SirI Sir EVERYBODY I John Lavery the famous Eng Eng- English r lish painter and his bis extraordInarIly extraordinarily extraordinarily beautiful American wife What makes them all the more interesting and remarkable is the fact that Sir John IS ISso isso so fascinated with his l wife's es e's charms that he paints them over and over again agam and will have no other woman for his model mode Many have hs thought that Lady Lavery should be the proudest and 9 r A Aa o oOn a On the right Da Vinci's immortal Mona Lisa also p known as La Gioconda the picture which is thought to have made the woman H Y who posed for it grievous grievous- grievously ly unhappy for the rest of s il her life r Below Lady Lavery who whoP P d already 1 may be beginning 4 an even worse unhappiness z than poor Mona Lisa Liga had bad fi ot of wives to have her husband husband honor her a beauty in thIs way and ts flood the world wIth de idealizations idealizations hons of her face sr r i and figure which h ch chmay B J may perhaps en- en endure en endure Fv ti dure as long as the art loving lovings J s f world But now it is qty beIng a suggested i that very ver possIbly S Sher her ladyships ladyship's lotis lot lk is after all not SF- SF SFa x y such an enviable em p Jai k i that one one that perhaps u ua ua ua a result of her admiring t tY tr Y f t ing husbands husband's numer numer- numerous 1 VP r ous portraits of her hershe she already is feeling a aas W r and experiencing an S 3 unhapPiness like that whIch r is thought to have overwhelmed the th 3 Italian beauty who c r rL L rl rZ Z posed centuries ago for forDa forDa k y Da Vinci's Immortal Mona Lisa If U one portrait of her was as enough to rob the original Mona Iona Lisa of ofa a i 4 all peace peace of mind for forthe forthe forthe the rest of her life then what that hat may Lady La ery expect as a result re- re suit sult of the many portraIts portraits por- por portraits traits of her which SIr John is continually pro pro pro- producing Don Marquis the fa- fa famous famous fa famous poet novelist and playwright right recently visited ParIs Pans and while gazing at Da VInCI'S DaVinci's Mona Lisa which hangs in the Louvre there he had some very interest interest- interesting interesting ing ideas as to the psychological effect of having posed for even one painting that becomes famous And it seems as asif asif if they apply with immensely greater force lorce to Lady Lavery who ho has been the inspiration for so many pictures I should like to know knoY kno something of the existence of the wife of Francesco del Giocondo after alter Leonardo spent four ears cars loitering over her portrait says Mr Marquis l While Leonardo was as painting her says he had jesters making jests and musicians playing on theIr instruments so that her face would not lose losa that charming and enigmatic smile Four years of holding a pose to say nothing of the jests and music employed to encourage her must have taken a good deal out of f the he lady There must j r Ns 4 c jW y have been tImes when she bhe loo looked loo ced at the un- un unfinished u finished andT finished portrait and felt what Pater put into words centuries later Hers is the head lead upon v which all the ends of the the- world are come and the eyelids are a lIttle weary But how much wearIer than the eyelids of the portrait must have MonaLisa been the eyelids of the real Mono Mona Lisa that After After that four years she could never have been in one sense quite the same acme again she could never have felt much capacIty for fresh new enthusiasm And in another way and quite t terribly she must have gone on always being and trying to be just the same as the por- por por portrait trait The habit of posing forgo for so long would fix her features in to the pose instead of being able to look like a new self she would be bo able after a v while hIle to look only lake the self that had into gone tho the por por- por- por trait portrait Even when hen she was waa not sitting for Leonardo along about the second or thIrd year she would find it difficult to realize that she ehe was as not sitting And a II little later a more lamentable thing bythe yet would happen her by the time tame the portrait was finished the L Y t 1 R g g 3 YV t rs rr s r w w r 4 Qc a w F Fr r CY i ig 1 pa p pj f y ta a dom x ri a af ata j i v G t R Lf t J c t sy JS twi wi r d i rs e i i r ad J K r ry v r ra a yA gi cy r rrY rY mi 1 f fy y C c actual woman would be a trifle older than the portrait for Leonardo would keep heep the portrait at the age at which he had begun it And three or four years after tho pOl portrait tI alt was fin finished Mona Lisa would began to perceive that people who ho loved probably her probably her husband and undoubtedly undoubtedly edly Leonardo among them them sere them were ere begin begin- beginning beginning ning to turn from her to the picture were beginning gradually to transfer to the Mona Lisa In the portrait the devo devo- devotIon devo- devo devotion devotion tion and infatuation which wInch they had for for- formerly formerly for formerly merly shown for the real Mona Lisa It is conceivable that she sha was ns a woman who looked in her mirror a great deal and at this stage she herself would be forced to acknowledge ledge that the MonaLisa Mona Lisa LIsi of Leonardo was more beautiful than the living laving wife of Francesco del Giocondo And this would rouse in her a fierce feminine determination to look Jook exactly lake the picture as long as she possibly could And she would dress in no other fashion and arrange her hair in no other manner and sit on her chair and dis- dis display display display play her hands in exactly the same way ay as in the tha portrait For a year or two and among her hel less natured good-natured frIends thIs would bo be smiled at and discussed as a most amusing evidence e of vanity But in fhe file more mOle years it would have taken a very natured ill-natured person Indeed to smile at Mona Lisa for in or that time the real woman would have become a caricature of the picture heartbrokenly ridiculous grotesquely pa- pa pathetic pathetic pa pathetic She would now accentuate the pose she would assert it and herself she would flutter nutter the hands to declare that they were the same she would droop the eyelids and flash sudden glances intend intend- intended intended ed to be bo warm and sly and languorous from beneath them and do it too oo often She would let the famous smile cut deeper into checks that were not now so 60 exquisitely e modeled And all tro ire time she would tell her herself herself herself self fiercely fiel cel- cel celand and def that she sho he was she was the same woman and that the hands as graceful and the brow was sues as unwrinkled and sometimes shE would have an angry manner which chal chal- chali longed i hel he her world orld to think differently differently- the but while the she told herself this she would I have hours B of despairing knowledge that It was a lie he This strain and anxiety would ago Mona Lisa more rapidly than the aver aver- average average average age woman and age her less fortunately but but still stall she sho would not be able because of long habit to cease being a n more and more tragic caricature of Da Gioconda s Before Defore her lier heart broke entirely there thero would be a period of the most intense and bitter and consuming hatred of the portraIt and hatred of Da Vinci For ForS Fort t it S 4 about her a calm and a placidity and a sense of 7 ya S gl dignity recaptured and y III Y j e W ll i increased And with age W K os she would attain to anew a l- l new beauty 1 f 1 t fJ A I t s 1 Below Sit Sir John f Laverys Lavery's y J f vw much admired R Aida a Moorish Maid y in which many critics think tt Jg 1 t t the artist ar has a s tried to show y what he believes his adored Jf S K wife might have looked rt fi p bornt i 1 like if she had been born bom t S in ln some me Moorish desert end en en- en t f r camp ent instead d 0 of f In in t the h e X city of Chr Chicago ago t x A d then one dar she might overhear it saId that the widow of Francesco del Gro GIO Giocondo condo although an old woman was more beautiful than the portrait that Leonardo had paint painted of her in her ber youth And she smile to think how much that would have meant to her fifteen years and before and smile the second time to think that it could mean a great deal still Is this the ute unhappiness that menaces Lady Lavery that perhaps already has descended on her 6 as a result of her husbands husband's insistence on painting only her And can she find any anyway n way of escaping it iU 9 1 There is perhaps no nomore now nomore w more famous portraIt i in the tho whole world than b bM M that of the Mona LIsa or La Gioconda as s th the French call it be b e p r cause she was the wIfe a of a Florentine gentle to s 's 4 man named Francesco Francesca del Giocondo Every N y body who looks at It S icy seems to have a dIffer dIffer- dIfferent l ent interpretation of fit r F a s the subtle smIle on the I S face of this S Sphinx ls e woman Some even deny its subtlety claiming it to tobe tobe be the usual expression expressionS S r of a rather stupId Ital ian peasant type Near ly a I way s however f persons who have seer seen n the original claim that thata a rc r c ra c they are haunted by a ae e peculiar fascination in inthe inI inthe the strange smile and I s u that they have found it hard to take their eyes d df f away from the rious penetrating gaze Da Vinci had created a wom wom- woman d dd dr dan d r an who had 1 stolen love and youth youth and admiration admiration ad- ad admiration from her She herself was a cheated and baffled ghost She would now begin to think herself actually hideous and to call herself a hag and would take a queer perverted pleasure in stabbing herself with these pains at moments And there would be other moments when hen standing before the picture it would suddenly seem to her that in answer to her prayers the woman of the picture was the hideous one and the hag and she herself had become young oung and loved and again again and un- un under under un under der the influence of this brief hallucination hallucination tion she would make herself more pitIful and ludicrous and tragic than ever But Dut finally her heart would break and after afler her 1101 heart was broken hatred and anger would pass completely from her and she would cease to care caro any any- anything anything anything thing about the picture at all And her own real life for so many years inter inter- interrupted interrupted interrupted would begin to pulsate again and she sho would attain finally to that strange peace of oC those who have hae learned to forego peace that unexpected happi happi- happiness happiness ness of those who have learned to do without happiness and there them would be Y m tW a Just rust what Leonardo da Vinci himself intend intended ed the smile to convey con is something nobody knows So effective is this expression whether it is the disagreeable smile ofa of a e woman or a beautiful veil veal of mystery that the painting is one of the most pre pre- precious precious cious possessions of the Louvre in Paris When it was stolen in 1911 by a picture cleaner clenner and disappeared for two whole years the loss was a matter of intel na national concern a discussion for tor prime I-a I a ministers and diplomats as well ell as art lovers the tha world over The thief took down the mystery womans woman's portrait with merely a turn of the wrist hid it under his blouse and dropped the frame on the back stair of the museum but if it he had hud walked off of wIth a mountain he ho could not have cae sed a greater furor This was not only because the She he painting was wag valued at but also because it had bad taken so great a hold upon the imaginations of those who had looked upon it Terrible or beautiful whichever v iva g had Im l 1 Aj way persons taken the strange emile it r was agreed that it was too extraordinary e a thing tiling to be bo lost anda and a tireless thIef ensued tiled erding eldIng to two years ears later latel ici when hen search the arrange a sale of the turf ture turf at a Paris art dealers pie pic pi Co w 1 |
