The world's most famous painting has the Louvre all aflutter

LISA Gherardini, the wife of Florentine merchant Francisco Del Giocondo, is the most famous woman in the world. She looks much younger than her 500 years.

In fact, she radiates health. Her eyes continue to follow - perhaps even haunt - viewers, her smile is as enigmatic as ever, and her folded hands have never looked smoother.

Yet there is one noticeable difference: for the eighth time, she has changed locations within the Louvre, the former palace that has been her home since 1798. But this time, the move is final...

Immortalised in the early 16th century by painter Leonardo de Vinci (1452-1519), she is also known as the Mona Lisa - or La Joconde in French (Monna is an abbreviation of Madonna, or Madame in Italian).

To help her feel at home in her new quarters and because she was a bit cramped in her previous location, the Salle des Etats (the lady's previous address) was closed for a four-year makeover and entirely refurbished by Peruvian architect Lorenzo Piqueras.

The main objectives was to give the six million people who visit the Louvre every year to admire the Mona Lisa better viewing experience while avoiding traffic jams in this section of the museum. In the past, high visitor affluence had blocked access to many masterpieces of Italian painting.

As a result, the immense room, which covers some 840 square metres, has been renamed the Salle de La Joconde. Illuminated by natural lighting flowing in through a new glass window, the room has also been fitted with new roofing and wood flooring, as well as air-conditioning and improved acoustics.

Mona Lisa now sits regally in her new showcase, a temperature-controlled, completely airtight and meticulously locked enclosure.

Mounted on a free-standing wall about two-thirds into the room, she hangs opposite a royal masterpiece, the monumental Marriage at Cana by Veronese (1528-1588): the Louvre's largest painting, measuring 6.77 by 9.94 metres.

Some fifty works from the Golden Century of Venetian painting (16th century) line the side walls and the back of the free-standing wall: pieces by illustrious artists such as Titian, Tintoretto, Bassano, Veroness and Lorenzo Lotto.

Given the difference in size between the two star paintings (a thin poplar backing measuring 77 by 54cm and 13mm wide for the Mona Lisa!), they could not be mounted side by side.

Architect Lorenzo Piqueras explains: 'I wanted to avoid placing the Mona Lisa and the Marriage at Cana in the same field of vision. The best solution was to hang them across from each other, so that viewers would have to turn their backs on one of the paintings in order to admire the other".

In addition, the two masterpieces are separated by a distance of 28 metres, in keeping with the desire expressed by Veronese and his patron.

The colossal painting was originally commissioned or the refectory of the convent of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, which is just over 28 metres in length.

Visitors now enter the Salle de La Joconde via the Grande Galerie, the highlight of the Louvre's Italian collection, via two new openings on each side of the wall supporting the marriage at Cana. Another entrance exists behind the Mona Lisa.

When glimpsed from the main entryway to the room, the Mona Lisa appears very small indeed...She "beckons" visitors toward the room's centre of gravity (in fact, judging from the opening day's experience, admirers actually storm toward this area!), leaving a side path open for viewing the Venetian collection.

The entire room is top-lit (both naturally and artificially) via state-of-the-art techniques. The artificial lighting is diffused through invisible luminaries: fluorescent fixtures located in the roof trussing.

Protected by thick, extra-clear and non-reflective glass ("the best on the market", emphasizes Cecile Scaillierez, the curator who has been caring for the Mona Lisa for the past twenty years and has even written a book about her), La Joconde is also illuminated from below by a discrete spotlight integrated into the wooden podium encircling the painting and which contains a veritable electronic arsenal.

The architect placed the famous painting so that viewers' eyes would be at the same levels as the Mona Lisa's hands.

You may wonder how this unsigned and undated work- for which not a single preparatory drawing has ever been discovered - become the world's most famous painting.

The painting's probable execution date (between 1502 and 1506) and the sitter's identity were revelled by Florentine painter Giorgio Vasari, who published Leonardo's biography in 1550, some 31 years after the celebrated artist's death - even though he had never seen the work or met the painter!

In 1517, Leonardo took the unfinished work with him to France, where Francis I had invited him. The Mona Lisa was apparently acquired by the king in 1518 - for a considerable and undisclosed price.

The piece was soon hailed as the masterpiece of the era, the apex of 16th century portrait painting, inspiring generations of painters -none of whom ever succeeded in reproducing the famous sfumato technique ("smoky" in Italian) invented by Leonardo and which, as Scaillierez explains, "aims to bring out contours and emphasize shapes by crating smoother contrasts and outlines".

Yet it was not until the 20th century that the Mona Lisa became a global superstar. After enduring minor harassment from the young Cubist movement, which was up in arms against "official art", the painting was stolen on 21 August 1911.

French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who had mischievously suggested that the Mona Lisa be burned, was arrested but the thief turned out to be an Italian immigrant who wanted to restore the painting to its country of origin. He was caught when attempting to sell it.

In the midst of great pomp and circumstance, the Mona Lisa returned to Paris on 11 December 1913, after being displayed in Florence, Rome and Milan. But she continued to endure ridicule, inflicted for example by Dada painter Marcel Duchamp, who gave her a pointy moustache! During World War II, the painting was safely hidden in five different locations.

The Mona Lisa completed two other triumphant trips: to Washington D.C. and New York in 1962-63, and to Japan in 1974, with a stopover in Moscow.

Nippon Television Network sponsored the renovation of the Mona Lisa's new home, to the tune of 4.81 millions euros. But this time, the lady only took one day off from the public eye, to make her move.

Claudine Canetti

Louvre website: www.1ouvre.fr

(Actualite En France)