Mona Lisa update

preservator

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Joined
Mar 23, 2001
Posts
2,211
Loc
Wilmington, DE
According to the ABC evening news, the problem
with the Mona Lisa seems to be confined to curvature of the surface of the panel, which is
good news. Now all they have to do is stabilize
its climate.

Hugh
 
Shew I'm glad about that. I probably only got about 8 or 9 hours of sleep last night because I was worring about this!
 
sheesh .... all they needed to do was laminate her to a 3/4" piece of Masonite, and that would be that ... might even want to laminate some clear acrylic to her surface while they're at it ... ;)

(how come they never ask ME for advice..?)
 
I would just put my drymount press on about 320 or 325. Then turn it off, put her in it and leave it over night. Im sure that will fix everything.
 
Hugh:

But WHY did the curvature of the panel change suddenly, after all these years? Was there something about the recent conservation work, or a new hanging environment, which could have caused it?

Could they "stabilize the climate", in ways other than by sealed framing, and a sophisticated HVAC system typically used in museums?

I guess if you're getting your information like the rest of us, from ABC News, then you may not know the answers to these questions. But I would appreciate your speculation.
 
They mentioned that the painting had been housed
in an individually air conditioned setting and
such systems can be tricky to run. We are used to
engineering for whole buildings or at least zones, and setting up systems that are orders of
magnitude smaller can entail surprises. That is
only the wildest of speculations.

Hugh
 
When I was at the Louvre in 1997 the Mona Lisa had been on display in it's own display box - made of acrylic I think. Believe it or not you could actually take pictures of it but not of most other things there. Do you think that the "flash bulb effect" might have had something to do with the current issues? :D

Cyndi
 
I read an article a few years ago about the periodic inspection of the Mona Lisa. The focus of the article was not only on the procedure, but on the somewhat charged atmosphere of the conservators involved...they were all a little giddy at the thought of actually touching the painting (albeit with cotton gloves on). The process involved removing the panel from the display and very carefully measuring the various dimensions with calipers and micrometers. The desiccant in the area was refreshed and the panel was reinstalled.

The French certainly have different thoughts on flash cameras in museums. When I, moving bovine like with the rest of the herd, went to see the Mona Lisa a couple of years ago, there were any number of tourists with fancy cameras taking flash pictures of their significant others posed with Mona in the background. The intensity of flashes rivaled the red carpet paparazzi at the Oscars.
 
There is a company in Hong Kong that will duplicate any painting for hardly anything. Why don't they just order a new one if the old bent one is bothering them so much?

Heck, I'll even give them a few hundred dollars for the old one, should cover the cost of the new one completely.

I think the old one would look great in my bathroom. My towels are blue, so I would have to put a blue frame on it though.

John
 
Mona Lisa with an epicanthic fold? I like it. It speaks to the idea of a global community.

But, John, I always caution against framing to match your decor unless you are thinking of the piece as a disposable decorative accent.

Also, it might be difficult to fit that warped board into a frame.

How about just propping it up on a shelf. Or sticking it to the wall with circles of duct tape on the back?

Kit
 
Kit, I was thinking maybe the steam in the bathroom would help it to bend back flat into the frame. Duct tape, is without a doubt the most handy tool, besides beer, that any red blooded American man could have. I don't think it would be a good idea to use on the Mona Lisa though, it might leave marks on the wall.

John
 
Originally posted by JRB:
it might leave marks on the wall.

John
Good point, John. I didn't think of that.

(You realize we're probably going to be struck dead by the picture framing gods* for this, don't you?)

Kit

*I don't mean Ron and Charles
 
I too thought it was weird that we were allowed to take flash pictures of the Mona Lisa. Does anyone no much about the glass or acrylic that houses the frame and painting? I've yet to hear about a glazing product that can block anything other than UV and this issue has confused me ever since we visited the Louvre back in 2002.

Either they let you take pictures of ANYTHING over there or security was playing poker while we were there! You should see the shots I got at the Louvre and the Musee D'Orsee... I didn't use my flash (except at the Mona Lisa, if you can't beat 'em join 'em) and got great quality close ups with my AE-1... literally close ups... like 8" away from Van Goghs, Monets, Renoirs, etc. I tried to record the frames in most of the shots for future reference, but some of them I wanted to capture the texture of the painting. I've been to teeny local museums that have MUCH more strict rules.
 
Kittyfaces, I think the distance is about 6" in the Louvre. I was pointing something out to a friend of mine and mine finger was about 3" from the painting and the alarms went off! Guards I hadn't seen were at my elbow and it was "explained" to me that I shouldn't get that close! :eek:
 
When I went to the Sistine Chapel, I wept, not just at seeing such a beautiful work of art I had read so much about, but to think that we as human beings had kept it for so long so we could enjoy just looking at it.

I was at Curves this morning doing my resistance training when I mentioned FACTS to one of the ladies there. She asked me why I should care about standards and what other framers do to art. I said that if I had a medal that my grandfather had earned in the second world war along with his picture as a smiling young man and a cerificate he earned, would I not care if a framer ruined them for me? Would she care? Her eyes got round and she said, Oh, of course.

Just having the Mona Lisa, still smiling, after all these years, incredible.

Nona Powers, CPF
www.nonapowers.com
 
Ok, Nona seems to think a lot of this picture, I'll go $250.00, but that is it.

John
 
Originally posted by Kittyfaces:
I didn't use my flash (except at the Mona Lisa, if you can't beat 'em join 'em) and got great quality close ups with my AE-1...
You have an AE-1, too?? I thought I was the only one left with one! :D
I'm also surprised they let people take pictures of Mona Lisa with flashes. I had my camera at the Met once, and I got dirty looks from every security guard when I pulled it out of the bag, and the flash wasn't even attached.
 
Originally posted by JRB:
There is a company in Hong Kong that will duplicate any painting for hardly anything. Why don't they just order a new one if the old bent one is bothering them so much?

Heck, I'll even give them a few hundred dollars for the old one, should cover the cost of the new one completely.

I think the old one would look great in my bathroom. My towels are blue, so I would have to put a blue frame on it though.

John
Me, I personally want to frame it with a 1/2 white mat and a 1/2 wide black frame. It'll match all my other pictures that way.
 
OK, is it New Yorkers moving out here to the west coast, or are people all over the country doing that? I swear, I had a woman in last week that said exactly that. They do love their skinny little mats and frames, don't they?

John
 
Do you suppose if they let you take flash pictures of the Mona Lisa that it might not be the real McCoy - that the real one is in hiding somewhere and that the company in Hong Kong made a copy? Hmmm. How's that for a conspiracy theory?

I can't believe that the powers that be at the Louvre would allow flash pictures to be taken of any of their treasures. And what would be the point of taking a picture through plexiglass, etc.? I'd rather have a postcard.

The ubiquitous Mona Lisa is on the cover of the latest Games magazine.
 
Originally posted by JRB:
OK, is it New Yorkers moving out here to the west coast, or are people all over the country doing that? I swear, I had a woman in last week that said exactly that. They do love their skinny little mats and frames, don't they?

John
It happened to me when I lived in Pennsylvania, but it happens to me more now that I live in NY.
Almost every customer that walks into my store says they want the white mat, black frame combination. I try to show them other options, but the all keep coming back to the white/black. I can't stand it. It's to the point I want to chuck my black samples and white mats. GRRRRRRR :mad:
 
Preservator doesn't start that many threads, though he posts helpful responses regularly. It almost seems sacrilegious to frankenthread this one.

Oh well, too late.

It's to the point I want to chuck my black samples and white mats. GRRRRRRR
Sounds like a dream situation to me. Buy a box each of a couple of black mouldings, 500 sheets of white matboard, and save a few hours/day on design time.

I've been trying to figure out for 27 years what my customers want. Just about the time I figure it out, they've moved on to something else.
 
I also have wondered if it is the real Mona Lisa, Jana. It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that it is a canvas transfer.
 
I think they let tourists flash at the Mona Lisa for two reasons:

1. Tourists keep doing it anyway, so much so that security gets migraines trying to stop them.

2. Security knows that the plexiglas will flare in the flash. So, when someone thinks he's taking a picture of Mabel and the Mona Lisa, he's getting a picture of Mabel and a glowing box. Louvre officials go to bed snickering every night thinking about it.

I think the flash attached to the camera is the worst invention in all of photographic history.
 
Originally posted by HannaFate:
I think they let tourists flash at the Mona Lisa for two reasons:

1. Tourists keep doing it anyway, so much so that security gets migraines trying to stop them.

Hanna, would you like to rephrase that?

Otherwise I'm going to have to spend all day with an image in my head of guys in trench coats and the Mona Lisa just smiling and smiling at them.

Captain English
 
Why not just use some Liquid Nails, and put a cinder block on top and glue it to a really thick piece of 3/4" marine plywood??? You could use a few 20 penny nails to be sure it stayed flat.
 
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