chapter 322

Mona Lisa meets Hitler

7/22/2013

lesser known art in Virgil

It's true, while visiting family back home I discovered this rare 15th century model of Mona Lisa from the Louvre in Paris then the next day found Hitler hiding in a bunker in Homer. While the original is 500 years old even this casting is over 100 years old. People don't believe me, that's why I document with pictures.

verification: 

This "unidentified" plaster of Paris casting was in a Virgil basement home I visited. It had the marking shown in the insert but the owner knew nothing. Thru the magic of google I determined it to be an official reproduction from the Louvre itself in Paris of their marble Princess statue by Francesco Laurana  c1488. Yet this casting had to have been made prior to 1895 when they changed the marking to RMN.

The hard part was matching the likeness to the thousands of art pieces at the Louvre. With some luck it matched up to Princess Isabella who some believe was the model for the Mona Lisa , but it's probably the Giaconde chick.

However, this Italian Encyclopedia questions the commonly accepted attribution as the original has been in the Palermo Sicily Museum since 1900 after adorning the tomb of Giovanni Amato. They believe the Louvre (click History) statue may be more properly attributed to  Tommaso Malvito who worked for Laurana?

Surprised to find Hitler in the back room of the Brockway Truck Museum in Homer. Big Brockway trucks used to be made in Cortland but the military collection on the other side was awesome. Coulda taken hundreds of worthy pictures of excellent military artifacts covering ALL wars. For me it was the Nazi display that stood out. The KKK and underground railroad for slaves was a close second. For a small town it's an unbelievable assemblage.

a better site for Brockway historical facts.

.