[MUSIC PLAYING] BETH HARRIS: We
thought we would start by looking at what is perhaps
the most famous painting in the world, and whether we can
actually even really still see. SAL KHAN: Right. Because I have seen this before. And I've even visited
it at the Louvre-- I know I'm pronouncing it wrong. Yes, you're right. This is probably the most
famous painting world. BETH HARRIS: And I just
read that most people spend about 15 seconds in the Louvre
looking at the painting, which is a funny statistic. SAL KHAN: Well, it's
stressful, because there's people behind you. And on top of that, it's
actually surprisingly small when you see it in real life. I mean, now that I'm
able to take my time, and not worry about
the tourists behind me, and I'm looking at
it for real, I'm already-- things are jumping
out at me that I actually had never noticed before. BETH HARRIS: Like what? SAL KHAN: Well, it looks
like the scenery is some kind of like Vulcan
territory or something. [LAUGHING] There's this--
it's like mountainous, and well, I guess, there's
a little bridge in there. There's a road. I guess I never paid much
attention to that before. Yeah, actually, I'd
never even noticed this chair she was
on before either. You can see hand resting on it. Actually-- and I never
noticed that there's a ledge, right behind
her, where's there jars. I could probably keep going. BETH HARRIS: I like your
analogy to Vulcan territory, as a Star Trek fan myself. That landscape is otherworldly
and very mysterious. But it's Interesting,
isn't it, how the bottom part of the
landscape at her neck and below looks like an inhabited
landscape with a winding road and a bridge, but the landscape
that's at her neck and head is more mysterious and looks
very much like another planet? SAL KHAN: That's right. And actually, when
you point that out and how that painting
is divided based on where those landscapes and
the ledge divide the painting, I don't have my ruler
out, but I would guess that it's pretty
close to the golden mean. BETH HARRIS: I think
you're probably right. Those things that look
like jars are actually the bottom of columns cut off
on either side of the painting. SAL KHAN: So Leonardo da Vinci
actually painted the columns, and it was cropped? BETH HARRIS: That's right. And so the space
that she's in would have made a lot more
sense as a balcony. SAL KHAN: Well, you know,
all of this-- actually, just take a step back. I mean, we started with
this presumption that it's-- and it's true-- that
it's probably the most famous painting in the
world, but I guess, I've never quite gotten why. I mean, is this just
a case of marketing? BETH HARRIS: I think it happened
in 1911, when the painting was stolen from the
Louvre and disappeared for a couple of years
and became notorious. At that point in
the 19th century, the "Mona Lisa" was not the most
popular painting at the Louvre. Paintings by other artists,
like Titian and Raphael, were much more popular and
even valued more highly for insurance purposes. So it really probably is
only in the 20th century that she became as
important as she is now. SAL KHAN: If you go
back 150 years ago, "Mona Lisa" was
not something that was just ingrained
in our culture. BETH HARRIS: She was important. People were interested
in her, and people were writing about her and they
said some interesting things. But she wasn't as
famous as she is now. And also, don't forget that
the technology to reproduce her existed only, really, in
the 20th century in terms of mass color reproductions. And so her currency has
certainly increased, I think, in the last 100 years or so. SAL KHAN: I see. If you go back 150
years, there was probably no such thing as super
famous paintings. BETH HARRIS: I think that
might be true, actually. There were paintings that
were famous, or important, but not celebrities in the
way that the "Mona Lisa" is. SAL KHAN: Right. Not something that every person
on the street would recognize. BETH HARRIS: Yeah. And of course, now
I think most people would say that what's
so interesting about her is her look and her smile,
which have been interpreted in many different ways. SAL KHAN: Yeah, I know. And I know that's
kind of, I guess, one of the claims to
fame of the painting. And you see that. I mean, people like to look
at it-- is she smirking, is she happy, is she sad. All of these things. Is she looking at you. All of these things
that people try to-- but, I guess, trying
to look at it without all of the social programming that
I've had around this painting, it strikes me is an
interesting painting. And it seems very
technically well done. And there's something
very bright, and just kind of an
aura around her face. I don't know if I wasn't
programmed to really know this painting and if I were
to see this in the museum amongst many, many
others, that I would-- it really jump out at me. BETH HARRIS: Portraits really
took off during the Renaissance beginning in the 1400s in Italy. And Leonardo painted
this in Florence. And that's because of humanism. One way that we
define humanism is taking an interest
in human beings, and the things of this
world, and human achievement, and individuality. All of those values
becoming more important in the 15th century. And so we begin to see
a lot more portraits. Also with the beginnings
of a wealthy merchants class in Florence
in the 15th century, people could afford portraits
and begin to want them. At first, portraits were painted
with the figure in profile. But later, especially
in northern Europe, artists like Durer
or Memling started to put their figures
in believable spaces. SAL KHAN: Right. BETH HARRIS: And so,
Leonardo's really the first artist in
Italy to do those things. To make an oil painting, which
is a relatively new medium in Italy. SAL KHAN: What did
people use before oil? BETH HARRIS: They used
fresco and tempera painting. Tempera for panel painting. So this is oil on wood,
whereas before, artists would paint tempera on wood. Tempera tends to look more
flat than oil paint, where you can really get a sense of
modeling and light and dark. So Leonardo's making this
three-dimensional figure, and he's using another
technique called sfumato, which means a kind
of smokey haziness. So he obscures the hard
outlines around the forms, which tend to flatten them. One of the things that's fun to
talk about with the Mona Lisa, too, is all the
things that people have said about
her over the years. You might not be
aware of the fact that Sigmund Freud actually
had a particular interpretation of the Mona Lisa. SAL KHAN: Yes, I'm sure he did. [LAUGHTER] I'm somewhat skeptical of him. I would like to interpret
his interpretations someday. But yes. BETH HARRIS: Freud said that
the "Mona Lisa's" smile combined the two ways that we tend to
look at women in our culture. In one way, she's very
mothering and nurturing. And in the other way,
she seems very seductive. SAL KHAN: I think that
says more about Freud than about Leonardo. BETH HARRIS: You could be right. [LAUGHTER] And later artists, another
artist that you already know, Duchamp-- SAL KHAN: Duchamp, my favorite. BETH HARRIS: Your favorite. He took a reproduction
of the "Mona Lisa" and drew a mustache on her. SAL KHAN: I could
imagine him doing that. [LAUGHTER] BETH HARRIS: I think the
moustache is interesting, because there is something not
entirely feminine about her. Something a little
bit masculine. SAL KHAN: Do you
think it's that? Or I mean, I guess there
is a certain-- I mean, it's kind of old now, especially
because Duchamp did it, I'm guessing, 80, 90 years ago. But there is something
hilarious about drawing a mustache on a feminine form. We all remember doing
it as school kids-- just getting a kick out of it. And I could see it's especially
funny for this painting. BETH HARRIS: Taking
something that's so high art and making it silly, you know? SAL KHAN: Exactly. BETH HARRIS: Recently,
the Prado in Madrid, found what turns out to be,
after some scientific testing, a copy of the "Mona Lisa,"
which in and of itself is not that unusual,
but it turns out that their copy was made
by another artist sitting right next to Leonardo copying
what he did stroke for stroke. And they can tell this by
analyzing the under drawing. SAL KHAN: Yeah, she
looks much younger. BETH HARRIS: She has eyebrows. SAL KHAN: Oh, that's right. It makes you appreciate it. That's where the creepiness
comes from, because the "Mona Lisa" we see looks
jaundiced-- it's yellow. And so, the painting is
a little bit different. The face is a little
bit different, but we can assume that
the colors might have not been that different. BETH HARRIS: Exactly. And it's a really interesting
thing to think about. What she would look
like if she was cleaned. And if she would still
mean what she means to us. If she-- SAL KHAN: Oh, I don't
think she would, because when I look at
this cleaned painting, it loses a lot of the mystery. BETH HARRIS: Yeah, I agree. And you can then understand
the Louvre's decision not to clean her. SAL KHAN: I mean, the cleaned
one, she looks better. She looks younger. She loses a lot of
the motherly aspects that Freud seems to
want to ascribe to her. Yeah, because the colors are
brighter, they're more vibrant, it's not as muted as the one
that we've learned to like. BETH HARRIS: Yeah. Although, her reputation has
grown over the years, who's to say that we won't care
so much about her again. SAL KHAN: There might be
a post-celebrity world at some point. [LAUGHTER] [MUSIC PLAYING]
