{"id":272,"date":"2013-01-19T21:47:40","date_gmt":"2013-01-20T02:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/50.87.217.193\/blog\/art-as-celebrity"},"modified":"2015-03-07T00:09:15","modified_gmt":"2015-03-07T00:09:15","slug":"art-as-celebrity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/art-as-celebrity\/","title":{"rendered":"Art as Celebrity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\"LouvreMonaL1_W\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On January 2nd I spent at the day at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
\nIt was my 4th time there (since 1987) and I still haven't seen it all.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite things to do at the Louvre, is to watch other people
\nlooking at famous works of art.
\nThere is quite a mob scene in front of the Venus de Milo, but the
\njostling crowd in front of the Mona Lisa behaves as if Brad and Angelina
\n have just arrived on the Red Carpet.<\/p>\n

The first time I saw the Mona Lisa (arguably, the most famous painting in the world<\/a>)
\n was in 1987.
\nIt was my first time in Paris, and I was staying at a globetrotting
\nfriend's empty apartment for two days.
\nThis was the same friend who lived across the street from my flat in
\nHong Kong, and who now lives down the road from my in-laws on Oahu.
\nSmall world.<\/p>\n

Anyway, every time I visit the Louvre and make my pilgrimage to the
\nCourt of Madame Lisa, I think of how lucky I was the first time I saw
\nher.
\nShe was already protected behind bullet-proof glass, but she resided in a
\n smallish dark red room.
\nIt was near the end of the day, and we were the only people standing in
\nthe room.
\nThere was a velvet rope in front of her, so you had to stand a couple
\nfeet away from the wall, but there was no guard hovering anxiously.
\nI had a moment with the Master …
\na private moment when I could examine the painting and think about
\nDaVinci's artistic process….<\/p>\n

Today it is difficult to get close to the Mona Lisa.
\nThere is a thick curving wooden rail that draws a seven-foot wide
\nperimeter out from the painting, and then another several feet out,
\nthere is a long velvet rope that holds the bumping craning excited crowd
\n at a curmudgeonly distance.
\nConsidering the value of the painting, it is a wonder they let people
\nget within 10-12 feet of the enigmatic smile.<\/p>\n

As I stood with a docent behind the unruly crowd, I heard someone ask, "Why is she so famous?".<\/p>\n

The docent shrugged and smiled.
\n"She is famous for being famous<\/a>, like one of your celebrities.
\nNobody really knows why these days."<\/p>\n

Dan Brown<\/a> was not the first person to bring forth the idea of secret codes in DaVinci's artworks.
\nThere are scholars who have spent their whole lives interpreting the symbols they believe they've found<\/a>, especially since the high resolution scans of the painting.
\nThe painting is truly priceless, but has also been valued over $700 million.<\/p>\n

DaVinci purportedly carried around the 21" x 30" painting for 15 years, working and reworking, refining and treasuring Mona.
\nAfter his death, she went on to reside at<\/a>
\n Fountainebleu Palace and Versailles, in Napoleon's bedroom, and later
\nwas stolen by an Italian patriot who tried to sell the painting to the
\nUffizi Gallery in Florence.
\n Pablo Picasso was on the original list of suspects questioned and
\njailed for the theft!<\/p>\n

Today she's a rock star, and her most ardent fans push and shove to
\nstand behind the velvet rope, so they can take photos of the mysterious
\nlady with their glowing smart phones.
\n(see my Louvre photos<\/a> on my Flickr page)<\/p>\n

In the quilting world, as in fine arts, there are quilts that achieve celebrity status<\/a>…as famous as their makers and often more recognizable.
\nWhen I see an admiring crowd clustered around the top winning quilt in Houston<\/a>, I think of Mona Lisa and the magic of her transcendent smile.<\/span><\/p>\nShare Post:<\/strong>
\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On January 2nd I spent at the day at the Louvre Museum in Paris. It was my 4th time there (since 1987) and I still haven't seen it all. One of my favorite things to do at the Louvre, is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-creativity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1269,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions\/1269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}