I always suspected that Mona Lisa was a bit
of a wild cat. Something to do with the Cheshire cat smile. Oh, I know, it has
been analysed to death – from toothache to the pleasure of labour pains to
muscle dystrophy to sucking on a lozenge. Okay, that’s not been explored yet.
Anyhow, New York artist Ron Piccirillo is a guy I’d like to go on a safari with.
It is so difficult to spot tigers in the wild, and I am quite certain that he
will. He can see them. Just like that.
Piccirillo has transformed a yawn moment
into something exciting. Leonardo da Vinci’s subject is surrounded by animals,
he believes. Most people look at paintings as they are meant to be, but our
artist here turned it horizontally and found a leopard, an ape, a buffalo and
even a crocodile or snake right near the subject’s right shoulder. I suppose da
Vinci maintained an element of delicacy and refrained from painting Mona Lisa
horizontally.
I have tried to notice all those animals and it is the lady who seems the most beastly, because she is primal. Those other figures look like mushroom clouds to me.
But let it not be said that Piccirillo has not attempted an indepth analysis. What started as a “Geez, that kinda looks familiar” moment has turned out to possess some history.
