MY 2 MONA LISAS HANGING OUT WITH KING DAVID IN MY LIVING ROOM

 

This is the gift I have to my 3 children, 7 grandchildren and myself along with Oil and Ivory, which explains the connection.

That’s my son, John Larry, climbing the ladder to install the famous Mona Lisa painting (a copy, of course) above by living room window where I watch birds, deer, squirrel and other animals feast on the food I put in my 2 birdfeeders, one with “WV” on it.

On the right is the finished product.

To the left of the Mona Lisa modeled by Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, a wealthy silk mercant's wife and the mother of 5 children, are 3 photos on the wall of MY Mona Lisa, who made my life Heaven on Earth for a half-century before she passed away in 2004. Mona Lisa was my play on her birth name of Mona Elizabeth (aka Lisa in my mind) because the doctor mispelled her name on the birth certificate. It should have been Monnie, for Monnie Compton, her grandmother.

To left of that are my imported photos of Leonardo da Vinci’s great work of art and MY Mona Lisa in blue top and pearls at the 30-year anniversary of her graduation from Williamson (WV) High School.

In my living room to the left of the Mona Lisa painting, my Mona Lisa and me in loving embraces is Michelangelo’s statue of King David.

This one is only 19.5 inches tall. The one in Florence is 17 feet high and carved from one solid block of ivory. It took years to complete.

Along with the Mona Lisa and King David I gave everyone and myself a copy of the book, “Oil and Ivory,” which explains how Leonardo and Michelangelo, living less than a mile apart in Florence, conceived and begin working on 2 of the greatest works of art of all time in the early 1500s.

I’ve been 10 feet from the Mona Lisa, behind glass to prevent vandals from throwing stuff on the painting, and seen King David and Rodin’s The Thinker, 15 feet tall if you include its pedestal in a 7.5-acre garden.

And meandered in the Sistine Chapel so long marveling at Michelangelo and Raphael’s great paintings on every wall, including the Last Judgment on the entire back altar wall (floor to ceiling, left to right) of people ascending into Heaven and descending into Hell, with the face of Pope Julius II who tried to rush Michelangelo to finish his great work as one of those descending into Heaven that Vatican police forced me to leave so that others could enjoy the mind-numbing masterpieces.

Never mess with a great artist. He’ll immortalize you as a bad person even if you are the Pope.