# Brilliantly written \[Mona Lisa\]
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brilliantly-written-mona-lisa/546753
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [July 15, 2010, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brilliantly-written-mona-lisa/546753 "2010-07-15T05:47:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Megs11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Megs11)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2010, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brilliantly-written-mona-lisa/546753/1 "2010-07-15T05:47:15Z")
[COLOR=“Purple”]Hi,
Just wanna say that this article on Mona Lisa is very well written. Congrats on its success!!
Regards,
Megha:)[/COLOR]
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### Author:  [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2010, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brilliantly-written-mona-lisa/546753/2 "2010-07-15T09:40:56Z")
> [@Megs11](#):
>
> Hi,
> Just wanna say that this article on Mona Lisa is very well written. Congrats on its success!!
>
> Regards,
> Megha:)
This post has been ungraped by the ungrapist.
---
### Author:  [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2010, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brilliantly-written-mona-lisa/546753/3 "2010-07-15T13:41:23Z")
> [@Eutychus](#):
>
> This post has been ungraped by the ungrapist.
You have something against purple prose?
Incidentally, I assume the OP is referring to [this article.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1750/why-is-the-mona-lisa-so-famous)
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### Author:  [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2010, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brilliantly-written-mona-lisa/546753/4 "2010-07-15T19:49:20Z")
It is well-written and informative.
> [@](#):
>
> Mona herself is rendered with extraordinary vividness–one has a sense of viewing the living woman. (The effortless realism of photography has perhaps diminished our capacity to appreciate this.)
I think that is an important observation.
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### Author:  [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2010, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brilliantly-written-mona-lisa/546753/5 "2010-07-15T23:46:15Z")
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, **Megs11** , glad to have you with us. I’m especially glad to have you here, when you start a thread with praise of a Staff Report that I wrote! Thanks!! Glad you enjoyed it. And thanks, as well, **Irishman**.
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2010, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brilliantly-written-mona-lisa/546753/6 "2010-07-21T22:32:33Z")
I think there may be another factor with regard to the Mona Lisa, which is that there simply aren’t very many of his paintings around. What with his engineering and design work, investigations into the natural sciences, and sculpting there wasn’t much time left to produce paintings. Of the ones he did produce, many soon disintegrated or discolored due to what Wikipedia calls “disastrous experimentation with new techniques” (Right, Leo, let’s try doing a fresco on _solidified_ plaster. That worked out great, didn’t it?)
By contrast, with an artist like Rembrandt who just painted, painted, and painted, there are scores of his works in museums all around the world.
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### Author:  [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brilliantly-written-mona-lisa/546753/7 "2010-07-27T20:46:26Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#):
>
> By contrast, with an artist like Rembrandt who just painted, painted, and painted, there are scores of his works in museums all around the world.
Even so, having seen works by both artist in person Rembrandt was a far superior painter.
Very nice work on the piece, **Dex**.
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### Author:  [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2010, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brilliantly-written-mona-lisa/546753/8 "2010-07-28T10:36:34Z")
> [@Eutychus](#):
>
> > [@Megs11](#):
> >
> > Hi,
> > Just wanna say that this article on Mona Lisa is very well written. Congrats on its success!!
> >
> > Regards,
> > Megha:)
>
> This post has been ungraped by the ungrapist.
I wonder if the grapist had any idea of the endurance his legacy would have.
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### Author:  [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2010, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brilliantly-written-mona-lisa/546753/9 "2010-07-28T11:21:36Z")
[QUOTE=Richard Pearse]
I wonder if the grapist had any idea of the endurance his legacy would have.
[/QUOTE]
ASIDE: For those of you who joined in the last five years or so, and this seems Greek, please see [Glossary of Straight Dope terms](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=320298), whence:
> [@](#):
>
> **The Grapist** or **To Grape** – There was a poster (quickly banned) called “The Grapist” who would repost other people’s posts and color them purple. The name originated from an Onion article about unpopular McDonald’s characters.
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### Author:  [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2010, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brilliantly-written-mona-lisa/546753/10 "2010-07-28T14:30:59Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#):
>
> ASIDE: For those of you who joined in the last five years or so, and this seems Greek, please see
Heck, I’m a charter member and it was Greek to me.
Powers &8^]
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### Author:  [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2010, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brilliantly-written-mona-lisa/546753/11 "2010-07-28T15:57:57Z")
ASIDE: I’m glad you didn’t say “it was Grape to me.” I prolly shoulda used Italian rather than Greek in my ref, since this is ostensibly about Mona Lisa. And, yeah, obscure in-references are always lost on the new comers, and are often lost on old-timers (me included) as well.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brilliantly-written-mona-lisa/546753/12 "2010-08-03T16:15:15Z")
I hadn’t seen this Staff Report before - well done, **Dex**! Probably one of the best I’ve ever read.
And BTW, fans of the painting will definitely want to read the heartbreaking 1963 Ray Bradbury short story “The Smile.”
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2010, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brilliantly-written-mona-lisa/546753/13 "2010-08-10T12:45:13Z")
It is good, Dex. You keep the interest throughout what is actually a lot longer than it seems. And you pack more information in there then I would’ve thought possible in a Staff Report.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2016, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brilliantly-written-mona-lisa/546753/14 "2016-01-13T15:12:32Z")
Bumped, because **Dex** ’s fine Staff Report is back on the front page.
Another related thread that I found interesting: [Francesco del Giocondo commissioned da Vinci to paint the Mona Lisa Why didn't he end up owning it? - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=766572)
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### Author:  [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2016, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brilliantly-written-mona-lisa/546753/15 "2016-01-13T15:33:06Z")
I agree that this is an excellent piece of research and writing. The best one I have seen, however, is [“Who wrote the bible”](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1985/who-wrote-the-bible-part-1), by Dex and Eutychus.