Do Go On - 1 - Why is the Mona Lisa so famous?

Episode Date: November 11, 2015

The Mona Lisa is the most visited piece of art in the world. But how much do we know about the painting? In this first episode, Dave Warneke presents a report on how the piece became world famous after an incident at the Louvre in 1911. We also discuss the man himself Leonardo Da Vinci, his dreams of a giant horse, and of course we talk A LOT about the Ninja Turtles. Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] the show and get rewards like bonus episodes:www.patreon.com/DoGoOnPod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serengy Amarna 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there. Canada, we are visiting you in September this year.

If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. Dave Warnicky and I'm here with one of my co-hosts, Matt Stewart. Hey Dave, how's it going? Good, thank you, Matthew. It's really good to be here.

So we're going to, we're sticking with the name Do Go On. We are going with Do Go On. We need want to add one more person to the trio that is Do Go On. I'm the Do, you're the Go, and the On is Jess Perkins. Always on. Always on. Hello, Jess. Hello, lads.

How are we? We are good, making podcast history, as you said before, we hit record, hopefully. Yeah. Do you think it'll be a trivia question one day? What was the first thing Dave Warnocky said on the historical first do-go-on podcast? I was honestly going to be a life goal of mine is to get a trivial pursuit question about me. Yeah. I think I'd have to be some sort of mass murderer, though, to get on there.

How many people did Dave Warnocky murder in 2017? What's your best chance so far in the first 25 years? What have you done that's the most noteworthy? Dave Warnocky. School captain of Altha Meets Primary School 2002. Hello. That's pretty good. Hello.

That's pretty good. Drama captain of Apple of College 2008. Not bad. Nice, Matthew. Any captain seats? Are you a leader? Year 9 SRC. Hello.

St. James East Bentley. Hey, but wait, wait. icing on the cake. The badge was given to me by our biggest, most famous alumni, Luke Beveridge. Now coach of the Western Bulldogs. Football team, thank you. At the time. La de da.

Thank you. Okay, so, ooh, Mr. Beveridge. There's also a rumor that I never found out of as true or not. Our other famous alum, no, was, he got expelled from a Frankston high school and came for one year, and he was the singer of 28 days. I don't know if that's true or not, but... Wow, rip it up. We were pretty proud of that.

Claim it, I reckon. So, but they don't get him back to present the... No, apparently not. So that's why I don't know if it's definitely true. I didn't see. His photo wasn't in the gymnasium like Luke Beverages was. Well, there we go. So, well, I think I'm going to outrank you here with the school captain.

Then my vice president is, of course, the drama captain. Because I was a very specific captain, but you were a captain of the whole school. But I was also school captain and sports captain in grade six. I don't know if that... That's what I'm talking about. I'm in grade six. Yeah, yeah. I wasn't a sports.

So I was both. Okay, pardon me. I was only a captain in the choir in grade six as well. So over to you, my fearless leader, Jess Perkins, school captain, sports captain, and drama and drama sports. I've just always been a natural leader, is what we're learning here. Absolutely. Yeah. What did you use your power for?

Oh, evil. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. In every SRC meeting that I can remember, did SRC is like a thing still? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is it? Yeah, student representative council. Yeah. Every meeting, it was one kid.

would be like, all right, first on the agenda, can we get a deep fryer in the touch shop? Yeah. We want chips at lunchtime. Hot chips, please. And the principal would be like, yeah, look, we're looking into it. We've been looking into it every week

since that guy from 28 days brought one to school and got expelled. What a great way to get expelled. Chips for all. Deep frying stuff in the locker bay. All right, guys, well, we are here. We are going to go on. The show is called Do Go On.

And what happens is the three of us are all interested in varying topics and stuff. I write. That is the, yeah, I think that's true about everyone. But for example, you mentioned you were really proud of knowing a guy called Luke Beveridge, and I'd never heard of him, even though that he's the coach of the football team that I claim to Barrett for. So very, very different hobbies, skills. and interests. And I also,

so we all know each other from performing comedy around Melbourne, but my job is to write trivia questions for a pub trivia company. Matt, you also work for this pub trivia company, your new quiz host, and you also have a job

part-time fact-checking questions for a TV quiz show. Yes. And Jess, you just love life. And I just love you guys, and I just like hanging out with you, so I thought, I'm in.

You're in? You're totally in. And I'm good at, trivia. I don't write it, but I'm generally pretty good at it. That's all it needs to be. Test her, test her. Give her everyone. No, no, don't, because now I've got cocky. What football team does Luke Beveridge coach?

Bulldogs. She's good. She's good. So, um, researching questions. I often get into a Wikipedia binge, like some sort of cycle or I can't get out, and I'm just suddenly reading about all kinds of stuff. I'm sure Matt, you read about things that you don't really need to know about when you're fact-checking. Totally. I think I would be surprised of Jess.

doesn't fall down similar holes, right? Of course, absolutely. I think everyone knows what the feeling of falling down a wiki hole is like. Yeah, it's the same as like a YouTube vortex. You know, like you watch one thing, or like you watch one tutorial or you look up one Wikipedia page and then three hours later you're like looking at Napoleon and you're like, what am I doing here? It's in a real, it's really fascinating.

Yeah, totally. Well, this show is all about those fascinating things that you read about at 4 a.m. And you've got no reason to know it. No one to tell it. And that's what we're going to do on this show. Each week we're going to take it in turns to prepare a report, a class presentation, if you will, if we're going to keep going with the school sort of metaphor that we've got going on. And to the other two, sort of teach them about something that we've learnt during the week in one of our Wikipedia binges. So I'm going to go first with our report.

And we're going to go on about something at length. And that is, well, it started with a question. so I'm going to ask you guys a question and that is when you think of art do you guys like art? Yeah. You know of art? No, I just like, I think

I just love, you know that same people say that sort of cliches. I don't know a lot about art but I know what I like. And what I like is my favorite art. Is it, do you know, what are you going to talk about? Can I?

Well, I'm just going to ask, when you think of art, this is probably for you, what do you think of? What piece? It might be a sculpture or a painting, installation, if you will. Before you even brought up that question, I already had a piece of art in my mind.

Do you know a guy called Frederick McCubbin? Oh yes, a very famous Australian artist. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he did like a lot of bush landscapes and stuff. He did this painting called The Pioneer. Yeah. And it was like one of those three paintings and one paintings. It's called a Triptitch.

Trip Titch. Triptitch, T-R-I-P-P. That sounds way better than three paintings and one. Because I feel like he would have finished it and gone, check this out, I've done a three paintings in one. No, he might have said triptych. No, absolutely.

You call it a trip-ditch over the three panels sort of go together and that's one sort of piece. And I know the one you mean. Yeah, my parents have a print of it. Of the painting. Sweet. Yeah, yeah.

Speaking of my primary school, we had one hanging in the library. Ah, there you go. Great painting. Where you were a captain, right? You were a library captain? Yeah, that's right. No, I installed that painting.

because I was a big Frederick McCabin fan. Now, he's a very famous Bush artist, and you think of art, you think of that. I'm a Macabin man. What's your exposure to Macubin? How did you get into the Maccubbs? I got into Maccabin via a different painting. I think it's called The Lost Girl,

and that was my parents had a printer that at home, which I quite like, but there's nothing can compare to a trip ditch. Yeah. Do you use that way correctly? Yeah, thank you very much. Well done. Yeah, I was thinking, like when you said,

art, I was just thinking of like Statue of David. By Michelangelo. That is correct. Quite famous, that one. Well, we might talk a bit about Michelangelo here, but I'm thinking of a painting. What would you say is the world's most famous painting?

After McCabin's triptych. After McCabin's triptych, after the painting of Michelangelo's Statue of David. It would have to be something like The Scream or the Mona Lisa. Mona Lisa. Mona Lisa, we have a winner. Now the Mona Lisa, it's featured in the 20th century, it featured in over 2,000 advertisements.

It's in the most visited gallery in the world, the Louvre. They estimate that 80% of the near 10 million people that visit every year go just so they can see that little face hanging on a wall. Yeah, I did. That's crazy. So we're going to talk about the Mona Lisa today, and my first question was going to be, have you guys been to the Louvre in Paris? Have you come face to face with the lady herself? I sure have. And it's... How was the... She's smaller than you think. It is. She's not that big.

She's a little lady. It is an insanely overwhelming and underwhelming thing I found. Because I visited, so I went in the off season. So it was Christmas Eve in 2013. It was raining and I still had to line up outside for an hour. That's how popular this place is. And you go in there and you've heard about it all your life and you think, I think a lot of people, they think of paintings, they think of,

Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and you get there and you're face to face with her and it's so small. Yeah. So that's sort of super underwhelming. But then it's overwhelming because it's in this pretty small room and there's more people than you ever thought even existed. Yeah. And you found really funny as well.

I felt sorry for the other paintings that are in that room because you turn around directly opposite the Mona Lisa is this enormous. Well, I've researched that maybe. Have you really? It's called The Wedding at Kana by another artist called Verenaise. And that is the biggest painting in the entire museum. It measures six metres by ten metres. Yeah, it's huge.

And it's beautiful. It's amazing. It's got 130 different full-sized people painting in it. One of whom is Jesus Christ. And still, no one is looking at it. To me, I'd be way more interested in seeing that. But to answer your question about the loose. Louvre.

Is I saying that right? Yeah. I went, I have been, I've been, I don't know, I haven't been inside there. So is it true to say that I've been there? Yeah. I've been near there. You've been to the Louvre, but you haven't been in the Loulew. Yeah.

There was a really, unlike you, I was there in the middle of summer. It was a beautiful day. I'd never seen such blue skies. But the line was still pretty long. And I mean, I, like, I didn't have to line up at all. Wow. I just could not be, but I would have. Point at your face and go,

I was like, excuse me, you've probably seen me on YouTube. I was the captain of my school. Yeah, no, so I did not go inside. But I thought that triangle thing looks cool. Yeah, it does look pretty cool. The pyramid thing.

The glass pyramids out the front. So I was into that, but yeah, I was by myself. Who queues for like an hour or so by yourself? See, I was with a group of friends and we got to Paris on a Friday and then we're looking up like things we can do.

And there was a little note on the website that was like, people under 25 get in for free on Friday nights. And we were like, let's all go! So we got him for free. Wow. People,

he just showed our ID. There was like, my four friends went first and he went, yep, yep, we got to me and he was. Did he actually say, yep,

or was he? No, I was going, yes, because he could see that it was Australian licences. And then he looked at mine, he looked at mine and went,

no. And I was like, oh, no, and then he's like, ha ha ha ha ha. And they're going to let me in. I am a comedian. I was like,

oh, the French, they are funny. Oh, they are very, very funny. Actually, I found the most overwhelming thing ever is that you're in the room, like I say, with a million other people, it's disappointingly small. It only measures 77 by 53 centimetres.

Wow. So, like, less than a tenth of the size of this other massive penny across the road from it. It's behind glass, so many people there, and one part of you is trying to connect with the most famous piece of art in the entire history of mankind. And at the same time, there's also about six people

taking a selfie where they're looking like they're picking her nose. It's like the biggest cultural, oh God, this is not good. I just, to me, like, I kind of get the reason why you go see it. I love being in a place where something's so famous that you sort of get this, I get this weird feeling like I can't believe them in the same room as this thing. But at the same time, I've seen it, it's a picture, right? I've seen pictures of it, which are pretty accurate. I think they're photos often.

I know exactly what it looks like. And if you're not gaining anything because the scale of it's pretty small, I don't really get the point. You can't go up close, yeah. Yeah, if it's some huge thing, oh, look, I'm saying like a dickhead. No, no, no, but I know what you mean.

Please go on. I know what you mean, because I thought the same about a lot of landmarks, because I'm like, I've seen so many photos of them, like leaning to RAPES. You're like, oh, I've seen it. But then you go and it's like,

oh. Yeah, there is someone at cool about being in the same places. Yeah. And it was kind of nice to be like, wow, that's the actual Mona Lisa. That's pretty cool. That's a very old painting. No, right, let's go get.

That sort of stuff blows me away, actually. You know, when you're in a place and you're like, this thing was literally touched by Leonardo. I was going to say DeCaprio. That is a real, yeah. He is a pretty big box office star, but I don't think even he would be allowed to touch the picture. Okay, so if the Mona Lisa is the most famous painting in the world, I continually claim it is, what do we know about it? Surely if it's famous, what do you guys know?

Surely you would know a lot about it, right? Well, I know it was painted by Leonardo. Da Vinci. Da Vinci. That's so bad, I'm not, like, I'm not fucking around. I just, my instinct is to say DiCaprio. Yeah. Is that bad? Who was, he was from the past.

Yes. It was like from the 1500s or something earlier. Yes, that's correct. What else do we know? I'm going to know bits and pieces as you say them, but I can't. recall them now. What's the most famous thing

about Leonardo to you? He was an inventor as well as a painter. And a ninja turtle. Oh, we're going to talk about Ninja Turtles. We are going to get there. We are definitely

going to talk Ninja Turles because I'm a big fan. He's left-handed. He's left-handed like me. Sinister. I'm pretty sure he was. Yes, definitely left-hand. We're going to talk about the great man, Leonardo. We're going to talk about He had a beard. Ninja turtles.

His mates called him Leo. Do you think it's weird that we don't know that much about something that's so famous? Yeah. And then I think that's weird, but then I think people know less about art than ever. And I know this because a few weeks ago I was doing one of these trivia nights. I was hosting a corporate trivia night for a big real estate firm in the city here in Melbourne. And one of the questions was pretty easy. It was in Florence, in 1501.

What Italian artist began sculpting the giant statue of David? Ah. That we've already talked about. The answer is everyone knows, Michelangelo. But one guy, after I ask this question, stands up loudly and yells, mate, how the fuck am I supposed to know that? That's like asking, who sculpted the bronze statue of Ron Barrassi outside the MCG? And he was serious.

Serious. So I know, morally, I've lost faith in humanity. People know nothing about art. We're going to talk about the most famous painting on earth today, the Mona Lisa, and why it is so incredibly famous. So, a bit of a background. Mona Lisa, as you guys know, has already told me, is painted by Leonardo da Vinci in Florence, in Italy, in about 1503.

Good year. Good year. For wine and art. If you still had wine. Are you holding on to that bottle? Oh, yeah. For my first born. Worth a fortune.

That's right. On my first born, 600th birthday, they can crack open this delicious Vinci. Vinci wine people argue about how long you painted it for but the Louvre let's go over them because we've all been there not in there but been there

they argue well they tell everyone that started in 1503 and you painted it to 1506 so some people say you're still touching it up 15 years later towards the end of his life but let's say you did it for a few years

touching it up then Leonardo himself touch oh my goodness it's terrible Matt just winked at me oh he did to me, it feels gross. Don't wink after you said touch up.

So the vinchman, Leonardo himself, really, really interesting guy, and not only because he is the namesake of my personal favorite Ninja Turtle, which is Leonardo. Oh, the leader. That makes sense. School captain. I also carry two swords with me everywhere I go, just like the real one.

How about you guys? Did you have a favorite ninja turtle? It's hard. I mean, it's like picking your favorite child. Mine, I... Oh, really? That difficult, because I thought most kids had, I like them all, obviously. They're all ninjas and turtles. Whoa. I always forget which color was which.

Mine was Donatello. I was gonna save. No, I think I liked, which one was blue? That was Leonardo. Yeah, okay, maybe I'll, yeah, I think. Well, you are a leader as well, so that makes sense. I'm sensing that you're not as big a fan as Matt or I. I think my brother was really into it, so I think I rejected it a little bit.

Yeah, because I was like, no, that's not cool. And I think, I think, I think, I, I think, I, My favourite would have been Michelangelo if it was, you know, if it was just a being fully honest kind of thing. Oh, right. You know, it was one of them being fully honest kind of things. So now you're an adult and you can make real choices. Well, you're rethinking. No, I mean, as a kid, I picked Donatello.

I think it was because he was like a bit of an underdog. No one's favorite was Donatello. Yeah, because one, he was a nerd that did computers and machines. Two, he carried a wooden stick. A bow staff is what they called it. sure. Yeah, all right, that versus two sorts. Come on, man. Yeah, but it, like, the wooden stick seemed to hold up really well against things. And he, like, he was still good. He spun it around and stuff. Yeah, he did a bit of pole vaulting. So he was, he was, yeah, the thoughtful

kind of one. And then Michelangelo was the funny one, which I think is who everyone's favorite was at the time from memory, but that, I think that was why, and I think that's a similar reason why, yeah, why I'm a George Harrison fan, you know, because he's like, not ever, you know, Or even Ringo. I've been in argument saying Ringo's got some skills. You think Ringo could beat Leonardo? Well, I feel like Ringo is probably the Donatello of the Beatles. Oh.

Oh, okay. I reckon McCartney would be the Leonardo. Michelangelo would be the Lennon. Leaving George Harrison as the rude one, Ruffalo. Oh, yeah, no, that doesn't work out at all. Yeah, he was... In the theme song, he was... So maybe he's...

Maybe McCartney is Raphael. He called him a cool but rude. Cool but rude. And then someone is a party dude. Michael Angelo, party dude. Oh, here's a great fact about that theme song. This is a killer fact. Okay.

The guy that created two and a half men, Big Bang Theory, all those kind of shitty shows, Chuck Law. Yeah. Is he his name? I always pronounce that lorry in my head. Oh, I also thought it was Chuck Law. No, it probably definitely is. In the 80s was a musician,

which obviously still makes music, but he was a musician and songwriter, and he co-wrote the theme song. That is an amazing fact. A teenage mutant ninja turtles. That's a talented dude. I know, but obviously it made a lot more money from telling the worst jokes ever seen on television. It turns out that he's also funny but rude.

No, what was it? Cool but rude. Cool but, wow, yeah. He was rude anyway. All right, we're going to get slightly sidetracked here. Charlie Sheen is a party dude. Definitely. We're going to get slightly...

So sorry. About everything. Thanks to singing on the show. We're going to get slightly sidetracked to talk about all the Ninja Turtle's namesakes real quick because they're all cool, some of them rude in their own right. So your favourite, Matt, Donatello,

possibly your favourite too, Jess. He's the oldest. He's the oldest. He was the only one that didn't paint. He just sculpted. And he lived to be 80 years old. Which back then was... Really old.

He was born in 1386, died in 14, 66. Wow. Second oldest is our man, Leonhardt. we're going to talk a lot more about. He lived to be 67, died in 1519. Then we've got Michelangelo, who lived to be 88 years old. Wow. So that's also 16th century, died in 1564.

And he sculpted David and Pieta, not as famous as the Ron Brassy MCD statue, of course. Did you look up who did the... The Ron Barrassey? Definitely not Michael Angelo. But he completed both David and Pieter his two most famous statues before. was 30 years old. What have we done with our lives, Dave? Not enough.

We've got five years. But also, if we live as long as him, we've got 50... Oh, good point. 60 more years to go. And so he did a lot of great stuff, obviously the Sistine Chapel ceiling, the Vatican, the last judgment, fresco on the wall, also in the Vatican. So he lived to be 88, which at the time is like a thousand years old. It's so old.

He outlived Raphael, who's the youngest of the four, by 44 years, even though Raphael is born eight years after him. So then we have Raphael, who possibly is my new favorite, Ninja Turtle, because he was born in 1483, died in 1520. He was only 37, and this is what we know about his death. According to Vasari, who was an artist biographer at the time, Italian guy called Vasari, this is what he wrote about Raphael. Raphael's premature death on Good Friday, April 6th, 1520,

which was also possibly his 37th birthday, was caused by a night of excessive sex with his mistress and model Luti after which he fell into a fever and not telling the doctors that this was its cause was given the wrong cure which killed him. Wow. So there you go.

So he had a lot of sex, had a fever, was too embarrassed to tell the doctor that he'd just been banging all night. They gave him the wrong medication, which killed him. What a time to be alive when he was. you're embarrassed that you've been banging all night. What a badass. You'd think he'd walk into like high-fiving.

Doctor, you know what's up? I've got a sex disease. Big time. Really, they should have just, should have just give him like a... Should have given him like a cigarette or something to relax. Like, sit back. Really?

Raphael. Cool but rude. Cool, but rude. All right. Then we have Leonardo, who is the namesake for the leader of the turtles. It's not hard to see why that he's the leader, because he was ridiculously good painter. we seem to be also a sculptor, an architect, a musician, a mathematician, engineer, inventor, as we already discussed, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer.

Dude. So what? What an overachiepe. He's like the Waleed Ali of the olden days. But you know what they like? At least you'd want Waleed at a party because he seems like a cool dude. Like you'd like to have a chat to him. I feel like Leonardo's got too many feathers in his hat.

And you just be like, oh man, come on. You'd be going all the time. Stop talking shit. Yeah. Well, he's not talking. He's writing shit. He wrote 13,000 pages of notes and drawings in his lifetime. And for you, left-hander, he mainly wrote using mirror image cursive, which is where you write backwards from left to right.

So you can read it properly if you hold a mirror up to it. Because that's easier for a left-hander to do, writing the wrong way. But that is the worst. That is the worst code of all. time. Yeah. Because, I don't know, maybe mirrors weren't as widespread at the time, but if you were going to tell him, hey, mate, every house in the whole world is going to have a mirror soon.

Yeah. This isn't going to be difficult, so. This is terrible. Wow. But he invented and proposed inventions of things like parachutes, flying machines, weapons, including an early machine gun, before the gun. A giant crossbow, an armored car, scuba gear, and my personal favorite, the world's largest horse.

I've invented a horse. No, no, they exist. Wait, can I... I know, that's good, but the one that got me there was the armoured car. Cars weren't invented for another 400 years. None of a gun. That's how good this guy is.

He looks ahead and improves inventions that don't exist here. He's like, now I'm pretty sure broadband's going to be better than dial-up. Sorry? Sorry, what? Pardon? He's pretty good. But the world's biggest horse, he wanted to make a statue of a horse out of bronze,

but it never got built because... It's better than a barassie. They had to give away the bronze, not for a barassie. They had to give it away to the French to bribe them to not invade Italy. So they were like, here, have this giant horse worth of bronze.

And they were like, thank you. Thank you, we won't not invade. Which sucks because if you think about how valuable a giant horse of bronze made by Leonardo would be worth now. Yeah. It'll be worth way more.

And just a bonus fact again, the world's largest horse statue was completed in Mongolia in 2009. Maccabi Diva. I think it was the Maccabi Diva. Tribute. That's right. It's Genghis Khan riding Maccabi Diva in Mongolia. No, it's Genghis Khan, not a horse. It is 40 metres tall.

40 meters. Which is taller than Christ's the Redeemer, the massive statue in Brazil. Wow. Why have I never heard of this? It's so big. It's one of, mainly because you've probably never been to Mongolia, Matthew. I have never been to Mongolia. I need to Google that.

Put it on the list. Yeah, add that to list, just for the horse. It's impressive. It's running on his list. Leonardo's... If you were a fan of the original big horse, the Leonardo one, fear not, because five centuries later, they finished Leonardo's horse. In the 70s, Charles Dent, a United Airlines pilot.

He wanted to complete the unfinished sculpture. So he set up efforts to organize finance to make the project happen. However, it proved more difficult than he originally thought. So it took 15 years for this pilot to put it together. And it was going to cost two and a half million US dollars to make it these days. And sadly Dent died in 1994 before they could make it. But he was quite wealthy, so he left his private art collection to the LVDHI. What do you guys think that would stand for?

H is a horse, right? Leonardo da Vinci, wait LVDHI Horse Initiative This is Horse Incorporated Leonardo da Vinci's Horse Inc which is the name The worst charity of all time

Now guys it's alright Tax Rider So he sold his art So we got another million bucks for the fun So finally in the 90s Nina Akuma An artist finished Two full-size cast of the horse

Which was guess how big it was Um, okay. Is it bigger than... It's a huge one. 50 metres. No, it's smaller than the Kangas Khan. Okay. 10 metres.

It is only 7.3 meters. Oh my God. So what... Pretty big horse. I don't think there's real horses that big now. That's right. This was Leonardo da Vinci seeing a genetic modification ahead of his time again. So, St. Gangus Khan's horse, the 40-meter one, could literally step on.

Yeah. Easily. What a piece of shit. Little horse. Who cares? You are a joke. Stop wasting our time. But Leonardo da Vinci, whose name just means Leonardo of Vinci.

It's not his surname. He did not have a surname. Right. I did not know that. So Leonardo of Caprio. Is that true too? No, no, no. That's D and this is Da Vinci.

I'm sorry. Sorry to say there. It's a great joke though. Great one. Oh, wait. You said joke, but it was just a question. Yeah, I think it was just a question. What is...

You don't know all these things, but what does Leonardo DiCaprio mean? What does it mean? It means pretty good, but not good enough for an Oscar. That's what it means. So Leonardo da Vinci was born out of wedlock, controversial, in the town of Vinci in Tuscany to a wealthy lawyer type named Piero. And his mother was a peasant called Caterina.

So his father married four times, Piero, and in his lifetime he's married four times. and was nicknamed Pimp Daddy the Vinci, which roughly translates as Pimp Daddy of Vinci. That's not true at all. But he married four times. Wait, that's not true, Dave? Come on.

Pimp Daddy of Vinci? I think back then that's what they would have said. Pimp Daddy, I reckon. But not much is known about Leonardo's childhood, but he received an informal education. I love this, informal, but the subjects he studied were Latin, geometry and mathematics. Pretty informal.

Pretty informal. Just the three? Wow. So, which if you want to have a genius child, it's probably the curriculum, I reckon. Yeah. Latin. Latin. Latin.

Your geometry, your maths. Yeah, Latin's pretty useful for sure. Definitely. Wish I'd paid more attention in Latin. Yeah, I wish I'd paid less attention to geometry and more attention in Latin. Yeah. The only Latin I know is the Saints motto, which is, I've never heard it said, but it looks like it's pronounced Fortius quo fidlius.

Oh. And it means... Strength through loyalty. Oh, I like that. My school motto was Ecclesia filet, daughters of the church. Oh. Yeah, it's a bit later. My school motto was Warrenide High School, so you came here.

I don't think that's true. Does daughters of the church mean the priest was your dad? No, not the priest. Daughters of the church, the church being the community. Oh, the community was your dad. Yeah. Or mum. dad.

I'm also my mum's daughter, Matt. It's not a different word for that. I'll see how it works. Well, I don't. We're all learning here. We're all learning. So thanks for that, Matt. I'm sorry, everyone.

I'm too reclined. I feel like I'm too relaxed. No, but it's great when you just chuckle to yourself. It's very entertaining. I love it. And the best part is as well, like, I can't see Dave's mouth. It's covered by the microphone. So it's just his eyes, which are very expressive.

So it's great. I do a lot of expression with my eyes, which out there in podcast, you can appreciate it to the full extent. Just Google image me and zoom in on my eyes. So sorry to get distracted, Dave. Please. Do go on. Oh, thank you. Thank you very much.

At age 14, Leonardo was apprenticed to a renowned artist Varroquio. Imagine it was like the celebrity apprentice. I just sort of that. Just imagine you're fired from art. Thanks, Trump. There's not enough apprenticing these days, especially to become an artist. No one apprentices to become an artist, do you?

No, because it's in your heart. You can't teach it. Now, these days it's more of a three-step program. It's step one, you get a scarf, two, you start bringing coffee. Three, you accept a life of poverty and sadness. I have all three of those things. Am I an artist? You are an artist.

Yay! That's right, the unfulfilled artist. What is my art for? I did some stand-up at a spoken word art recently. Every other actor was a poet, and they said that what I did was also could be considered art. What? And I shed a tear. The fact that they had to say that out loud doesn't sound like the gig went very well.

It did not go very well. That was Matthew there. What he was trying was art. It did not. I asked from the... He was trying. No, no, exactly. What he could do is could also be described, could also be described, possibly a bit of art.

It went more like this. Certainly not comedy. From the stage, I was getting a relatively quiet response. And I said something like, I'm pretty intimidated being here with all you artists. And then someone said, hey. What's this is? A poetry heckler. Hey, nah, what you're doing's art as well.

And I'm like, really? I say good sir. I respect to the art form. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Now let me return to my little jokes. I think we might be one of the shittiest art forms.

I think we're only just above interpretive dance. Oh, we are definitely above interpretive dance. Right? I'd hope so. But they take themselves so seriously that they probably... No, that probably is art. Stand-up takes itself pretty seriously. Can do.

I'm trying to think, is there any art form that we are better than? Clowning? No, but some of them are quite good. Yeah. Damn it. What about, um... Still better than sport, guys. Still better than sport. Well...

I need this, Matt. I need this. We're better than sport. So Leonardi... Leonardi. The Illuminati of Leonardo. Leonardo at his workshop was exposed to an array of art forms, mediums. He was exposed to metalwork, carpentry, chemistry, plaster casting, drafting, sculpting and of course painting.

And according to Vasari, who's the guy before that wrote about Raphael dying of hot sex, so I trust more than any other source I've ever read before now. He wrote that Leonardo collaborated with his master Varaccio to paint an angel holding a robe, which was the style at the time. Leonardo was so superior to his master that Farokio never painted again Oh my goodness which is Maybe why there's no art apprentices anymore

It's sick of being shown up Actually that story's not true Because I read later on that they continued to collaborate later on in life But anyway Leonardo graduated the workshop And he was an accredited master age 20 What? Pretty good Accredited, so there was some sort of body Some sort of certificate

Yeah right I had zero qualifications at 20 I was like halfway through a degree. I was half into an arts degree at 20. Yeah, me too. Oh, God. Look how far we've come. I don't know if people are going to remember us in 500 years, guys.

His father, Pimp Vinci, then set... Pimp Daddy. Pimp Daddy, pardon me. Sorry, the correct title. Set up Leonardo in his own workshop. So really a bit of a spoiled brat there. Because his dad was quite wealthy, wasn't it? Yeah.

Even though, like, having millions of kids. Yeah. With millions of women. What a pimp. What a pimp, daddy. Leonardo then traveled all around Italy, doing all these amazing things mentioned earlier. But he actually finished very few projects,

especially giant equine statues. So he was an idea's man, but didn't have a lot of execution. Because he lamented that before he died, that he never completed a single work in his own eyes. So on his deathbed, they asked him if he would like a glass of water. And then when he said, nay, they thought he meant no

but he was in fact doing an impression of his giant horse oh Dave he died of dehydration oh Dave that's not true when I wrote that on the computer

I laughed out loud for a good two minutes I was like you know what I deserve a chocolate milk I took a break that's a sign of a good joke when you write it and you laugh

and then you read it a minute later and you're still laughing yeah this is going in this and then when it gets zero reaction from you except for oh Dave that was

pretty brutal, Jess. Sorry. No, you said that and I thought, yep, what I do is art. I am an artist. Okay, so that's Leonardo. What about this Mona Lisa chick? What do we know about Mona Lisa? You know what you guys anything about it?

No, I don't know anything about it. Is her name actually Lisa? Well, wait, what does Mona mean? I've got so many questions. I've got answers to all these questions, don't you worry? Leonardo started painting Mona Lisa in Florence in 1503, as I said before. Also, he was 51. So we've still got time to start our best project.

Right. Sort of our, because that's the most famous thing, started at 51. For a long time, there was extraordinary debate over who the woman in the painting was. Over time, people suggested a whole array of possible subjects. Some people even suggested that it was Leonardo himself, a self-portrait in the painting. Most historians, however, believe the woman in the painting to be Lisa del Giocondo. Do you think the fact that it is a woman in the painting sort of suggest it isn't a self-portrait? Hey, Matt, it's art.

Sorry. It can be a self-portrait. Maybe that's how he saw himself. Right, okay, look, I feel like an arthole. An art-sol. That's right. If you do a lifetime of... Oh, Jess.

No, I deserve that, yeah. If you do a lifetime of Latin and geometry, you're going to be... Difference is, Jess, you didn't write that on the computer and bring it here. Yeah. I thought of it and hated it immediately. Still sipping my milk. Still sipping my milk. That was a great joke.

So, everyone thought, a lot of historians think it's Lisa del Giochondo, who was the wife of a wealthy silk merchant, Francesco del Giocondo. But this wasn't confirmed. Francesco of the Delaconto. Oh, Matt. Oh, Matt. Oh, Matt. But this, it wasn't.

He just chuckles to himself. That's what I was doing at home. Yeah, no fair. But I had the decency to do that, leave that at the door. Please, Matthew. I've got some damn facts to get through here. So everyone thinks at least to tell Geacondo right, but for 500 years, people are like,

nah, I'm pretty sure it's someone else, and I can't prove it, until 500 years later, in 2005, so not that long ago, 10 years ago, a scholar at the Heidelberg University in Germany, found written... I was thinking, Heidelberg here. Not Heidelberg, Melbourne.

I was like, wow. Go Heidelberg. Yeah, put him on the map, finally. We've got the Austin Hospital, and now this. In Germany, scholar found written by hand in the margin of a book printed in 1477. They found a note from Leonardo contemporary Agostino Vespucci that said Leonardo was currently working on a portrait of a woman called Lisa Del Geocondo, and it was dated 1503.

So there you go. The only reason that we know who Mona Lisa is for sure is because someone, 500 years ago, vandalized an art book. Thank goodness. Thank you. So next time you're at the library, just write some notes in there and you can claim that you are changing the history of art.

Next time I'm on the train, I'm just going to leave a little tag. Leonardo da Vinci is currently working on. It would be more like Dave Warnocky is currently working on a podcast called. Do go on. Check it out at. Do we know if Leonardo himself named the painting,

or did that happen later? So, well, the title, Mona, was given to it because Mona, so this is the English translation. So in French, it's known as La Jaconde, which is La Jaconda, and in Italian it's known as La Giaconda, named after her last name. But it's called the Mona Lisa in English because Mona in Italian is a polite form of a dress, originating as Ma Donna, so two words, MA and then Donna, similar to Ma'am or Madame. in English and then this became Madonna

one word like the artist Madonna spells her name and then it was contracted to Mona as a short form so that's why it's called and then people in English are just calling it Mona Lisa Oh wow So just I don't know that And how long has the French called it

The La Joconde Yeah how long of it because that is the Is that the surname of the No that's the That's the So in Italian She spells her last name with a G

and in French it's spelled with a J. There's no J in Italian. But that's Lisa's surname, right? Is that true? Yeah, it's true, yeah. Lisa's her name. So, like, surely that was a big clue as to who the painting was of, right? Well, yeah, that's what people were claiming, but you still couldn't prove it for a long time.

So it's been its name for a long time, though, and only recently that little note said, look, I'm going to say, just based on the fact that that's what it's been called forever, that I believe it is Lisa La Fontaine. La Fontaine, La Chaconne or La Joconda. Francesco Gioconda, the wealthy silk merchant I mentioned before, Lisa's husband. He commissioned Leonardo to make the portrait of his wife to celebrate his daughter, Andrew's birth and the purchase of a new family home, so they wanted to make the painting.

Why not paint your daughter if it's for her birth? Or it's just like, hey, good job. Anyway, maybe this guy can see in the future and be like, look, no one's going to give shit about a baby. that people are going to care about my plain looking wife. With no eyebrows. There we go. Leonardo had no income at the time, which probably explains why he took the job.

Because he was famous in his lifetime. People knew who he was. But he had to stop the job because he was given a more valuable commission. So he was never paid for the work and never gave it to them. So they never got it. They never even got it. And now it's like hella famous. Super.

That freaks me out. Imagine if you got famous hundreds of years after your day. Your death? Like, just because everyone knows her face now. Yeah. But in her lifetime, no one knew her face. But if that, if it was given to them, it probably never would have become famous. Yeah, that's right.

Because it would have just been in their private collection. No one would have ever seen it. Yeah, but if she came back to life now, it would be super weird. But do you reckon she'd be mad too? That would be, wait, you saying it would be weird because she, you're saying it would be weird because, oh, look, I'm famous. This is weird, not a woman from me. 500 years ago has come back to life. Okay, a bit of Colm A, bit of Colom B then.

I think both of those would be equally strange. Wow. But then 15, 16, Leonardo, so this is like 13 years later, was invited by King Francois I, the first, to work near the King's Castle in France. So this is the King of France. And it's believed that Leonardo took the Mona Lisa with him and continued to work after he moved to France.

So that's the controversy if he continued to paint it later on. And he may have done it. until two years before his death, and he died in 15, 18, as said before. And after he died, Leonardo passed on, 67 years old. Had a pretty good innings for the time. Not bad. The painting was inherited, among other works,

by his pupil and long-time assistants, Salai, S-A-I, S-L-A-I, who was also another person, people claimed may have been the subject, because he was like a little assistant that went with him everywhere. And the King of France brought the painting off Salai and kept it in the palace of Fonton.

blue. I think I'm just quietly now that. Where it remained until Louis XIV, moved the painting to the Palace of Versailles. Because obviously, probably heard of Versailles, the big famous painting. Been there. Sorry, just a little.

And it survived the... Been there. Matt have you also seen Versailles? I've seen it, but I didn't go in. Yeah. Yeah, I saw it as I flew over. Nice. The line was like two hours long,

and I was like, I don't really care that much about this palace. I just looked around the garden, and then I went home. Yeah. Is that true? From the outside. A lot of those... I really should have gone in, but it was...

Yeah, it's the biggest house I've ever seen. Yeah, it is. Oh, wow, a big house. Some would argue, a palace. A palace. Well, it's palatial. It's a palatial house. It's bigger than my house.

Yeah, no, by quite a lot, I would assume. At least double. At least double. I've pricked my ears up. Yeah, well, hello. I should have gone in. Bloody goose, I am. You bloody goose.

You bloody goose. It was moved to the Lube after that, but before it spent a brief, period in the bedroom of Napoleon. Speaking of Napoleon earlier. During the Franco-Prussian War, it was again moved from the Louvre to another place to keep it safe.

So it's seen a lot of shit, it's done a lot of stuff. It's been owned by some very, very famous people, that kind of stuff, but that's not why it's known to us today. It's known to us because of an event that happened in 1911. That's relatively recent. It's only 104 years ago. So on August 22nd, 1911. So it was in the Louvre at this time.

An artist named Louis Baru, an artist who did his own stuff, but he also copied other artists, work, and then sold them on the street. So we'd go into the Louvre, do a sketch, and then sell it as a copy, because there was no photocopies in 1911, guys. Weird. Can you believe the more you learned?

Leonado had. Yeah, I was going to say, he'd invented one. He'd already invented the scanner. Yeah, he'd gone one ahead. He's like, no, I'm pretty sure we're going to have a paper-free digital age one day. 3D printers he'd already thought of. What a guy. So he went into the Louvre, this guy, Louis Burrude, to do a sketch of the Mona Lisa to sell it on the street.

And he saw where it's supposed to be on the wall, four iron pegs were hanging. So it wasn't there on the wall. And he went to see a garden. He was like, hey, where's the painting? And they said, relax, man. It's probably just being photographed for postcards and stuff. So that's how they would make money. At the Louvre, they would make extra money at the time.

They still do that. So he was like, they're just doing press. Don't worry about it. copy something else. But this guy wasn't satisfied with that. So he went away. He came back at the end of the day and it still wasn't there. So he was like to the same guard, hey, I don't want to be that guy.

Relax, dude. It's not here. So they were like, the guys like, I'll go check with the manager of the gallery. And it was stolen. Oh my God. Matt, it's a podcast. You have to react audibly. Yeah.

Oh. There we go. What had happened was former Louvre worker. an Italian guy called Vincenzo Perugia. Vincenzo. Vincenzo. Say it with me, Matt. Vincenzo Peruzi. You must serve. Perugia.

I think they pronounce their G's as S's. Perousy. Okay, so, anyway, Vincenzo, let's just call him that. Vinnie. He had pulled off, Vin, Vin, Vin, Meister, had pulled off the greatest art theft of the 20th century, possibly of all time. Now, when do you guys think of great art thefts, or any theft, bankers, bankers, robberies, that kind of stuff. I think of Frederick McCubbin.

Stealing our hearts. One panel at a time. One panel at a time. But when you think of theft, you think of... Ocean's 11, yes. Yeah, bank vaults being broken. That's right, people cartwheeling through laser beams, dropping from the ceiling, doing all kinds of stuff.

Three years of planning, blueprints, maps like and stuff. No, no, that is not how Vincento put it to a Girols, right? he rolls in a much more casual way. On the Sunday night, the night before, Perugia had hid in a broom cupboard in the Louvre, knowing that the next day the museum would be closed, because it's closed on Mondays. He emerged on Monday morning,

wearing a white artist smock that he used to work there in, because he used to put glass on top of the... People were like, hey, the art's not lasting long enough, we should put glass on all of them, so for a few months, it took thousands and thousands of artwork, had to have glass put on him. So he was that guy for a bit.

Then he quit, but he kept his white art smock. So he comes out of the broom cupboard. Just casual. You know what I'm saying? And at the time, there's a lot less guards on a Monday because it's close. So there was no one in there. He walked into the room where the Mona Lisa is hanging. And he just grabbed it off the wall, went to a stairwell, took it out of its frame,

chubbed it down the front of his white art smock, did it up, and walked out the fucking front door. And he was gone That's amazing He passed a guard station on the way out But the guard was getting a glass of water Oh my God That's awesome Can you imagine when he would look like

Just hobbling down the street With a big canvas to stuff Because it's painted on wood That's the thing about it So he didn't just roll it up or anything Oh she painted on wood So it's a solid Yeah it's painted on wood

So he's just got this solid 77 by 53 centimetre Is she oil? Oil on wood? Yes I think she's a water colour. She's a watercolour. I think Pazel.

She. Faber castel. Police, she has a name. And it's Lisa Del Giacondo. Sorry, Lisa. So, old mate Vincenzo took it back to his apartment and Paris lost their shit. It was in the papers around the world. But here's how unknown it was at the time.

Police had to circulate thousands of flyers with Mona Lisa's face on it. So people knew. what you would look like if they saw it. So these days, if it got stolen, you would instantly be like, oh, that's Mona Lisa. But at the time, even in Paris, people not sure what it was like. And the Washington Post even published the wrong picture when they wrote an article about it being painted. So it's just not known at the time. But you know what?

If you walked into your friend's apartment now and they had a Mona Lisa. They want. Yeah, but you'd just be like, oh, you've got a print of the Mona Lisa. That's cool, I guess. A print. A print. Not the original. Wait.

Is that beach towel, the real Mona Lisa? And what's this 10 metre by six meter painting on the other wall in your apartment? Oh my goodness. But the Loove, the Luz. They felt like losers. They closed for an entire week. Administrators lost their jobs. French borders were closed.

Every ship, every train was searched for the painting. But at the time, it wasn't even that famous. Yeah, but people were pretty, because obviously it's not that famous at the time. Leonardo da Vinci was still a legend at the time. So people are like, hang on, someone stole out Leonardo. That's pretty annoying. A massive reward was announced for its safe return. Paris was devastated as news spread of the loss of this very famous painting.

Seriously, it's a painting. And all they had left was four iron pegs and the frame that it once hung in. Oh, wow. Are this interesting, police started questioning people about the painting. one of whom was Geyama Pollenier, an avant-garde poet, who one of your mates, Matt, he's an art critic who he coined the terms cubism and surrealism. He's a friend to art, but he had also once claimed that the Louvre should be burnt to the ground. So his outrageous comments landed him in jail as being a suspect.

And when he was in jail, it became obvious it wasn't him, but he started pointing the finger at his friend one Pablo Picasso. He was living in Paris at the time, and they arrested Picasso, who was already successful at the time. Pablo Picasso's house in Paris, I walk past it. Did he go into any building in Paris? Did you just walk past everything? And what did his house look like?

It looked pretty good. I was like a townhouse sort of apartment thing, like a fully attached sort of thing. Didn't look very rich? No, it wasn't. But he was rich during his lifetime, though. That's right. He lived to be in his 80s as well.

Yeah. And yeah, so he was, when he died, he was estimated to be worth, he was over a billion dollars. Wow. What? Then, like serious money. This one was a walking tour of Paris of the, whatever district that was. Great, because Picasso was a self-made man. When he was young, I read that he used to have to burn his canvases to stay warm at night.

What? He didn't have enough money to pay for wood. Imagine what they'd be worse now. I know. Every time I go to the NGV, I always like go to, there's like one Picasso at the NGV. And I always go and have to... Weeping woman? Yeah, yeah, and I'm always like, Sup Picasso.

Sup Picasso. And I keep going. On this walking tour, they... Why can't I remember the name of that district? Anyway, they, um, the tour guide said that there's a story about Picasso that, um, he used to just get free stuff based on his fame. And so he, one time he had this big dinner and he, he, he, he had this big dinner and he, and drinks and stuff when it came time to pay the check.

He's like, how about I just give you this drawing? And the guy's like, yeah, that'd be amazing. He's like, can you, can you, and the restaurant, do you mind signing it? And he said, man,

I'm just trying to buy the meal, not the whole restaurant. Oh, Smackdown. And then he put on his sonnies and rode off on a motorbike. Um, Baccarso,

motherfucker. But he was a, He was about, so before, because he lived to be an old man in his 80s and made a lot less good stuff in his 80s, but anyway, he was still making art. And people obviously were thinking he was going to die, and he's also very, very famous. But a lot of his art he hadn't signed, and they were trying to work out what was his and what was knock-offs of his. So they were trying to get him to sign stuff, so people would often send him a painting.

You'd be like, hi, I own one of your works, can you sign it for me? And he got so sick of it that one day someone sent him a canvas. And he's like, yeah, I'll sign it. and he signed it hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times so that you couldn't see the image anymore and it was just blur of Picasso, Picasso, Picasso, Picasso. And he ruined his own artwork. He's like, there you go. I bet you that's worth heaps now, if they can.

What a shit. So we've got Perugia, everyone's freaking out about, it's made headlines, but then everyone thinks it's lost forever. So our thief, Vincenzo, there's just a simple house painter. That's his other day job. Meanwhile, lay low for two years keeping the painting just in a trunk in his apartment. And after two years, he decided to take it to Florence in Italy, back where he's from. And then he tried to sell the painting to an art gallery for what is worth $3 million in today's money,

which is a steal for the Mona Lisa. And the dealer was suspicious of it actually being real, as you would be. So he got the director of the famous Uffizi Gallery in Florence. He's like, all right, I'll pay the money if it's real, but I'll bring over the director. This doesn't sound like a good idea. And of course, it was real, and the director convinced Perugia, He was like, oh, it is real. Can you give it to me for safekeeping?

Oh, my God. This is even worse. And Perugi was like, yeah, okay. And then the director immediately called the police, and Perucci was arrested. So there you go. Oh, Perugie. Geez, he'd come so far. Two years, imagine.

Two years. So the painting was back. Big new story across the world again, increasing its fame. Look, Dave, just for the listeners, if you're going to sell a super famous piece of artwork, it's got to be on the black market. No, you can't get the director of the most famous gallery. in Florence. Because what are they going to do?

Yeah, sure, we'll buy it, we'll put it up. No one's going to call me on it. I think France is going to be pretty pissed. So, when Leenard de Vinci's master portrait returned when everyone was thought it was lost. And it did a tour of Italy and then returned to... Did a tour. The stadium tour.

The stadium tour. Matt, you've got to stop doing visual gags. Look, I'm just here for you guys. I love that... It's like the Mona Lisa Stadium tour with support from Van Gogh. So the first

they bring out Van Gogh and everyone's like oh it's pretty good. And then Mona Lisa comes out. Yeah! Encore! Encore! Oh my goodness,

I didn't think he was going to bring out the last supper, but he did. He did. So it was back to the Louvre in 1913. And meanwhile, Perugia,

he was like, no, I stole it for patriotic reasons. I'm not a thief. He said he wanted to bring the painting back to Italy after it was stolen by Napoleon, which is definitely untrue because it was bought

by the King of France 250 years before Napoleon was even born. So Perughey was like, no, I had good intentions. And even though he wanted a casual $3 million. So that kind of undermines that theory in my mind. People still debate about this, whether he was a good guy. He was put on trial, but the court kind of agreed that he did it for patriotic reasons. So they gave him a lenient sentence, and he went to jail for one year and 15 days. But he was hailed as a great patriot in Italy for bringing the portrait back home.

and he served only seven months in jail. But you know what? Like, I was going to say, oh, come on. But at the same time, all he did was steal a painting. Like, he didn't murder anybody. Yeah, still a year. That's a long time. But imagine being in prison, and they're like, what are you in for?

And you're like, style painting. You'd just get shanked. Oh, yeah. Big time. You'd be someone's bitch. That is, like, the pansy art crime. No, you guys forget. He was a great patriot.

Yeah. He would have been the king of that jail. Yeah. for stealing a painting. Good on him. Well, you know, the people that should have been thanking him were back over in Paris at the Louvre because before the disappearance of the painting,

it was hardly world famous and was only recognised by people in the art world that recognised. Because these days you go and see it, it's in its own room practically. It's got its own wall. But back then it was just, they were just in a room with dozens of other portraits.

It was just any other thing, just another thing. Four hundred years later, she's finally hit the big time. Wow. So he kind of did her a favour. Absolutely. He made her famous. I can't believe before that, like, she wasn't that famous so that they had to print pictures

around. Yeah, people just didn't know. Wow. And then the legend sort of grew. So during the Second World War, the painting was again removed from the Louvre, taken to a lot of art was taken to several chattos in the French countryside. So the Nazis couldn't get it when they occupied Paris. I think this feels like every episode we should somehow.

bring up the Nazis. I think they slot into any topic. I knew they were only minutes away. Every time I read about something on Wikipedia. Wikipedia always is Napoleon or Hitler. They're always involved. We've tipped both those boxes today. Contractually obligated as we are.

Sponsored by Napoleon. And then in the 60s, the painting Tewood again, this time to America. Do you guys know this? It went to New York City and Washington, D.C. It was when JFK was in power and 1.7 million New Yorkers turned up to see it in the freezing month of February. So in one month, nearly two million people saw it. Then it went to Japan and Moscow 10 years later. And by this time, it was being used in advertisements, it's put on fridge magnets on T-shirts.

So the legend just kept getting bigger and bigger, more people recognise it until suddenly it's the most famous painting in the world. It's one of those things when the cult gets so big, now it's 100 years later. we've all forgotten why it got so big. Yeah. You just sort of accept it. It's like the Beatles, yeah, they're the biggest. You just accept it. Yeah.

You don't, like, I imagine people in another 40 years look back at the Beatles and be like, sorry, why were they big? They just were. They just were. Yeah. They were just the band. So that's what, Mona Lisa. And it's time to put a price on something you can't put a price on. What do you guys reckon it's worth?

I'll give you a bit of a clue here. The most expensive painting ever sold. It's currently another French artist. Gogan? Sold in February this year. Doe Gogan. We should call the episode Doe Gogan.

It was sold in February. So sorry. No, it's great. So sorry, Jess. No, no, no. Hey, you didn't get it. Oh, Matt. You come to my place here.

It was actually pretty good, do Gogan. It was great. So anyway, this Gogan... You deserve better than that, Jess. Do I? What about me? Dave.

Yeah, okay, sorry about this. May. The most expensive painting ever sold, $300 million. $300 million. Yeah, in February this year. So that's sold. So, Mona Lisa hasn't been sold for a long time.

Mona Lisa is worth a lot more than that. I'm going to go a billion. Go on for a bill? I'm going to go $100 billion. I'm going to say priceless. I'm going to say priceless. Well, you would be right. It is priceless because it went to the USA in the 60s.

They got an insurance quote on it, and it was valued then at $100 million, which today is $700 million. but they decided not to insure it and they just spent more money on security. Wow. Because you can't, because $700 million, if you go, that's like time machine money. Like, you would need, if it was destroyed, obviously you can't replace it. You would have to have enough money to build a time machine.

Yeah. Go back in time and stop the Nazis from ever coming to power. Do you think that it'll ever go anywhere else? Like I think it has to stay in the look. Yeah, no, they've said now that they won't let it out ever again. So, Matt, you blew your chance. It's not coming to Melbourne next year. I've been to Paris three times, and I've never...

Three times. I will. After this lesson that I've just had here, I'm going to go check it out next time. I was just wondering, though... Mm-hmm. So it's only famous because it was stolen, right? Is the painting even any good? It's just like a portrait.

I don't really get why that is amazing compared to... millions of other paintings. Well, like any sort of art, it's a question for yourself. Subjective. Do you enjoy the Mona Lisa? Well, I don't think I'd look twice at it if I didn't know it was... I think it's very difficult to get rid of the hype and the cult following that it has and subjectively, pardon me, objectively look at it and go,

if you did see that for the first time, would you look twice or would you just you just? just move along the wall to the... Yeah, the big thing. I play a game when I go to art galleries where, like, every room you go into, you can pick one. It's a great game. And you're right, I don't think I would pick her if I walked into a room with... Not even just the room that she's in with that 10 metre by six meter.

But in any room, I just be like, yeah, it's fine, whatever. I'd pick something else. It's a great point, great point. But isn't that crazy? Because I just assumed that there was something I didn't get. But it sounds like it was just because it was stolen. Yeah, but I didn't know that. It's a chance.

It's actually quite recently famous in terms of how old it is. Yeah, so only one fifth of its lifetime has been the big deal that it is. I think this podcast should go real big. I think this is going to educate some people and I think it's going to go viral. Okay, big call, big call. In 500 years. Yeah. That's right. When the technology no longer exists to listen to it.

I'm just going to finish on this. In 2005, Dutch researchers from the University of Amsterdam ran the painting's image through emotion recognition computer software. You know how people talk about. One of the things people talk about is the Mona Lisa smile. Like, oh, what is that expression? She's got.

It's very ambiguous. Different people see it different ways. Not anymore. We know the stats. She is, according to the smile, 83% happy. 83% happy. 9% disgusted.

6% fearful. Oh, Leonardo. 2% angry, less than 1% neutral. and thankfully zero percent surprised. Wait. With all those other things, wouldn't it be zero percent neutral? How can you be point something percent neutral, but 99 point something percent not neutral.

Anyway, look, I've just debunked that whole study there. It's almost like that study isn't that scientifically accurate anyway. It's almost like it's a waste of all of our time. Yeah. Hey, Jess, did you have a question? Yeah, I did. Oh, pardon me, yes, questions. No, no, no.

It's just, did Da Vinci have a family? Did he have kids? No. He just, he was just a lone wolf. No, no, he was a lone wolf. And the only, because there's not much written about his personal life. There was just one time there was a rumor that he was in a homosexual relationship with another man. And then at the time, at the time, which was.

He was in a homosexual relationship with another woman. Oh. No, and that was controversial at the time, obviously not very accepting 500 years ago, extremely religious society. But then he was able to, in quotation marks, clear his name. Oh, my God. But I'm pretty sure that he just wasn't a sexual being. Yeah, cool. Well, he had so much else going on.

Who has the time? Yeah, fair enough. No, that was my, just wondering if there were any other Da Vinci's out there. Sadly. And I think my favorite part of all of that, although, you know, that was fairly early and a lot of interesting things happened. But when he said he'd never finished a work, like in his eyes, nothing was finished. Yeah, that's in his eyes. I wonder what else he would have added to the Mona Lisa, for example.

Like, if he didn't feel that was finished or any of his other works weren't finished. He's going to put a hat on her. Just a bloody perfume. And fedora. Fedora and a cigar. Yeah. And like Gracho marks. Yeah.

A mustache. I just think you wanted to finish that goddamn horse. Yeah, maybe. That does sound like a real, what a frustrating feeling that must be that you just. feel empty. What a perfectionist. Yeah. So guys, that is the Mona Lisa, our first thing I did go on.

It was fascinating though. That was, yeah. I didn't know nearly any of that apart from the Ninja Turtles. That's our first report. We're going to come back next week with Matt or Jess doing a report on another topic. But if you had a good time, share it around. Tell the peeps and we'll see you guys next time. Later's.

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