Portrait Envy.

It was about 10 years ago when I saw the Mona Lisa; I was at the Louvre in Paris. I would love to tell you I was in awe when I saw this famous picture, but I can't because I was not. When you have seen the Mona Lisa so many times, and in so many different forms, you feel like you have seen it before, because you have.

The painting is obviously well protected and guarded. On the wall it indicated under no circumstances is flash photography allowed. Of course few pay attention to this request as flashes light up the room---what struck me as funny was how far back the people were when they were taking their picture and it was fairly likely a head would be in the way. Maybe that's why the security guards don't seem to care. But that's not always the case. In 1974, when the painting was on display in Tokyo, a handicapped woman sprayed red paint because she was upset with the museum's policy for handicap access. Earlier this year, a Russian woman threw a terra cotta mug at the painting, now housed in bullet proof glass because she was being denied French citizenship. In both cases the painting survived---however in 1911, the painting was stolen from the Louvre and was only returned after an attempt at being sold to another museum. I guess you have to ask the question..."What was he thinking???"

Going to art museums is fun---especially when you have the opportunity to see some of the classics up close. Not too close, just up close.

The photo above is a self portrait by Vincent van Gogh; what amazed me about this very famous painting is how small it actually is in size. van Gogh had an exhibit a few years back at the Chicago Museum of Art. I am sure it's me, but I was underwhelmed by the exhibit---it's not that he is a bad painter or anything like that, it's just that for the millions and millions of dollars his paintingw sell for, they just leave me shaking my head. I did enjoy the story of the removal of his ear and his friendship with Gauguin---no matter what friendship I had with a fellow photographer, I would not cut off my ear for them.

One area that does impress me about paintings from the era's of van Gogh and da Vinci, is how they have remained in tact over the hundreds of years after they were painted. In the area of photography this has yet to be proven as some of the oldest photographs are at best 175 years old---a far cry from the Mona Lisa that was painted nearly 500 years ago. I guess we'll have to see how long I keep writing Snap Shot to see if we hit the 500 year mark!

Thanks for stopping by.