Mona Lisa Conspiracy Theories

The Mona Lisa, painted by Leonardo da Vinci in 1503, is widely regarded as the most famous painting of all time. While there are numerous famous theories and stories about the work, including the classic ‘is she smiling or frowning,’ and the tale of the Louvre heist, there are actually some incredibly interesting lesser-known theories in circulation about the work. Whilst their legitimacy is unclear, the theories help to bring new and refreshing perspectives to the work.

The first theory is that of Picasso’s involvement in the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in August 1911. Suspicions about Picasso’s involvement in the heist were first aroused on the 29th of August, 1911, when a man named Joseph Géry Pieret visited the Paris-Journal and claimed that he had become an expert in stealing small artefacts from the Louvre. Pieret was able to supply proof of these claims, whilst supplying them with some incriminating evidence against the poet Apollinaire in the Mona Lisa Case. This admission would of course lead to Pieret becoming a key suspect in the case too, but his identity was kept anonymous by the Paris-Journal. The police eventually found the identity of the anonymous source which quickly led them to link both Pieret and Apollinaire to the case.

This is where Picasso became implicated; Apollinaire was a good friend of Picasso and part of the group known as the ‘Wild Men of Paris,’ who the police suspected of being a ring of art thieves. While both men were in fact innocent in this particular case, Picasso was indeed found to be in possession of two stolen objects from the Louvre, supplied to him by none other than Pieret.

Below are the details of the actual heist:

• The painting was stolen from the walls of the Louvre in Paris in August of 1911.
• The thief in question was called Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian handyman who had been hired to make protective glass cases for some of their artworks, including the Mona Lisa.
• Peruggia hid in a closet overnight, then emerged to take the painting, hid it under his jacket and attempted to leave the building.
• His plan was almost spoiled as the planned exit door was locked, but luckily another unsuspecting handyman happened to be passing by and unlocked the door.
• It took 24 hours for anyone to notice the painting was missing.
• The work was discovered once again in 1913 after a Florentine art dealer received a letter from ‘Leonardo’ stating that he had the painting.
• A meeting was set up with the dealer, aka Vincenzo Peruggia, and the director of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence during which the painting was presented.
• Peruggia had stolen the work in order to return it to its ‘Native Italy’.
• The police were called and he was arrested.
• The perpetrator spent only seven months in jail.
• The painting had been stored in a trunk in Peruggia’s apartment for the two years and was undamaged.

The next theory is that the Mona Lisa is, in fact, a self-portrait of Da Vinci as a woman. The identity of the sitter in the Mona Lisa is one of art history’s most talked about mysteries, with the most widely accepted theory being that she is Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, something which Giorgio Vasari stated. There is another theory about the Mona Lisa’s identity which brings a completely new perspective to the work; the Mona Lisa is actually a self portrait of Leonardo Da Vinci as a woman. Supporters of this theory site the artist’s love of riddles as their main cause of suspicion. She is looking at us with that half smile and knowing look — questioning whether we will we every work out the true answer. Additionally, artists including Lillian Schwartz have used computer programs to find similarities between the Mona Lisa and his other self-portraits. At one point, there were even plans to exhume the remains of Da Vinci in order to properly investigate these claims.

Mona Lisa compared to self portrait of Da Vinci

Another theory along a similar vein is that the portrait is not of Leonardo, but his good friend and suspected lover Gian Giacomo Caprotti, also known as Salai. It is said that Salai would regularly dress as a woman, so a portrait of him as a woman would not be shocking. Another convincing factor is that Salai would frequently sit for paintings by Leonardo, and upon comparison, the facial features of some of these portraits are similar to the Mona Lisa. This theory is heavily supported by Silvano Vinceti, the head of the National Committee for Cultural Heritage, who found striking similarities when comparing infra-red scans to other works depicting Salai.

Portrait of Salai next to the Mona Lisa

The last theory is that the Mona Lisa’s smile is a recovered memory of the smile of Leonardo’s mother. The smile of the Mona Lisa is another much debated subject; is she smiling or is she sad? It seems today that the overwhelming opinion is leaning in the direction of a smile, but there is another far more interesting theory about the famous woman’s face. Sigmund Freud theorised that Da Vinci was in love with his mother, from whom he was taken at an early age, so in his mind he had formed an image of her smiling at him. The same smile we see on the Mona Lisa is found on the faces of women throughout Da Vinci’s body of work, therefore it was theorised that this mysterious smile was in fact a recovered memory of his mother’s smile.