Mona Lisa or Meowna Lisa?
“The smallest feline is a masterpiece” - Leonardo da Vinci
Nya: Who this purrty cat in the painting?
Anyā: There was once this dude called Leonardo in Italy. An artist.
Nya: Like me?
Anyā: Yea. Something like that. But you’re probably better, since you’re a cat.
In Italy, there was this nobleman Francesco - a rich man high up in the ranks. He had a cat, an aristocat. He called Leonardo (let’s call him Leo for short, ok?) one day and paid him good money to paint a picture of his catto.
You probably know this from experience, Nya. You know how each painting takes so long that it’s impossible to sit still?
Nya: Yea, it impawsible. Art takes time to make.
Anyā: So Leo sat the catto down and asked the catto to pose. But after 30 seconds, the catto ran away. Because it was impawsible to sit still and pose.
Nya: What a shame, she a purrty catto. I lick her face.
Anyā: But Leo was supposed to still finish the painting. Noblewoman Lisa, Francesco’s wise was luckily around. She sat down instead to take catto’s place. Leo ended up finishing the painting with Lisa.
It took him really long to finish this, he kept painting until 1517.
Nya: That’s a long time. There’s no way the aristocatto could have sat down for 14 years to pose.
Anyā: I know right? Catto probably had better things to do.
Anyway, because lady Lisa was kind enough to sit down for this painting, people called it the painting of My Lady Lisa. In Italian, that’s Ma Donna Lisa - ma donna is like Ma’am or Madam in English. People love slang, and the words kept getting shorter and shorter. From Ma Donna Lisa, people smushed the words together to make it Madonna Lisa. The Italians, they made it even shorter, Monna Lisa.
We English folk call it Mona Lisa though, but some of the Italians seem to reserve the title of mona only for pussies.
Nya: So Mona Lisa is My Cat Lisa? But what’s the version with the catto called in English?
Anyā: Something like that. *pat pat*
The version with the catto, let’s call it Meowna Lisa in English- well, because cats sometimes meow, right? This lady Susan Herbert did us good by imagining what Mona Lisa would be like if the catto had posed.
Meona Lisa is seen as the ideal catto. What a great face she has. The corners of her mouth, where she holds fish. And the corners of her eyes, from where she spies fish.
Nya: Thamk you Susan. You helps us cattos through histurry be seen. Yes she purrty, she would look nice with fish also. Maybe even chimken.
Anyā: Yes.
Meowna Lisa is the most popular painting in the world. It is a testament to how popular cattos are around the world.
Nya: How do I become so popular?
Anyā: Hmmm, maybe you could go to the Lourve, and steal the painting. That’s how this painting became so popular. Someone tried to steal it in 1911. It was eventually returned and more of the public came to know about it because of this story.
Maybe that could be your claim to fame Nya, being a cat burglar. No?
Nya: Nice try. I is a pawfessional cat, but I only makes art, not makes crime.
Editor’s Note
I’m sure you’ve guessed this by now: commissioning Leonardo to paint a picture of a cat is not real. I just said that to please Nya.
Leo was commissioned to paint a picture of Lisa, or so it is thought. It is true, I’ve read that the Italians like to call the painting Monna Lisa because ‘Mona’ is a vulgarity in some dialects.
Dear Italians & other art enthusiasts, if any of you are reading this and can give me more confirmation about this - please write to me to tell me more! Feel free to correct me where I stand to be wrong.
Did you enjoy this little snippet about the Mona Lisa?
There are many other stories behind this piece. Let me know if you’re interested or remain curious about this painting.
I love this, it is so imaginitive! Can we also get a picture of Nya?