The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1914-01-06

Al
ber elusive smile puzzled the
slAOs .. +o the Uffizi gallery in Flor
VIZ italy, but Sunday she held au-
en's' there again and 10000 people
a a,sl nv, while the officials of the gal
lll'l hosought them not to get ex-
cl'T- . Mona Lisa had been recreant;
"a heen missing and unaccount-
sue 49, oS months. For four centu-
eu % poris had been her home. Nat
TIC ~. che became tired of it and
u a., q little change. This, her
,oriod Of retirement for four
r;oe was spent in plain wood
''- Eov in Florence, Italy, beneath
raos and the tools OF trade OF
-o,sa Dainter, Vincenzo Perugia,
- admits being the man who abb
.,a her from the Louvre, in Par
,nonst %, 1911. She might not
,ro baen found even yet had not
narngia offered her for sale to deal
-. ,ointings and antiquities named
" Cor $4,000. Geri "bit," agreed
90 +.ke the picture and notified the
police. - III = +ho+ IN
,.n-i1Ion's collection of finger prints
=. paris the marks of the house
1ain+or are recorded. He was ar
.+oa once for carrying firearms and
-Eo no1ice took his print. This is
;5artfcal with the one on the glass
tbar covered the painting in the
Torvre and the world is wondering
,rb, the police did not use their
,,roins and connect the print with
some one on file at Bertillon's place.
Mona Lisa is one Of the world s
,,roo+ast paintings. 1t is said that the
offar of 100000 made by the Brit
isb government for the picture was
;ndignantlv refused. Million-dOllar
offars have been so common as to
oronsa no comment. 1t is the proper
thing to do after you have made your
nile in oil or steel or pork to offer
a 100000 for Mona Lisa; it gives
YOU standing as a patron of art and
helms disnerse the odor of oil or the
s+ockyards or the foundry. Besides
von are sure the offer will be re-
fused.
Lisa Gherardini was pretty mem
her Of a noted Neapolitan family,
who in the days when the world was
Young, three years after Columbus
discovered America, IN 1895, in
short. wed Francesca del Giocondo, a
citizen of prominence in Florence.
It is well that Signor Giocondo deter
mined to have Leonardo da Vinci
paint his wife's portrait, for he thus
gave to the world probably its most
famous painting.
It was about the year 1900 that
Madonna Lisa began sitting for her
picture. 1t was not a day of snap
shots. She kept sitting every fail
day for at least four years. 1t is
certain that the portrait was finished
prior to 1906.
1t was named La Giocondo. The
French, after Mona Lisa moved over
the border, perpetrated pun and
called it La Joconde, which is equiv
alent to the girl who laughs
Her Battling Smile.
1t is said that, in order to get that
smile, da Vinci employed musicians
and buffoons to perform while the
fair lady was sitting. That smile is
the famous, elusive thing about the
painting On it hangs the painter s
i fame; about it volumes have been
written in the 400 years since it be
gan to mystify the world; friends
have Quarreled over the meaning Of
mat smile; its real depth cannot be
fathomed.
The SMILE wrote Claude Phil.
u lips is not so much one of youthful
n buoyancy and JOY in existence as ar
q Interrogation. penetrating into the
8 very being of the onlooker, but al.
q lowing no penetration, no divinatior
The riddle of the Sphinx is trif1ing
ION his part in return" In other
@words, it's a puzzle.