LatestMisfortune of the World's Most Celebrated Picture ... · !t was a portrait of the "Mona Lisa"...
1
Latest Misfortune of the World's Most Celebrated Picture, Its Love Story Declared Pure Invention and Itself No Portrait oi' Its Painter's Sweetheart THE romnncfl of *'Mona Lisa." whlch has Inspired poet"* and story wTlfor.a fc-r three cen¬ turies, appears to ha7«> been com¬ pletely exploded by n French con¬ noisseur and art critic. According to this expert tho fa- mong picture does not represent a woman cP.Ued "Mcna Lisa"; it does not represent th? wwt«.theart of the painter Da Vlncl or r-ny woman of his ago, tmt It la an idealized plc- <ur« of Faint Anne, *.he mother of the Blessed Virgin Miry. If Da Vlncl evar panted e plctnrw of a woman called ">"ona Lisa." the expert argues that ft 1b the work o* the artist entitled "Portrait of an Unknown Woman," r.ow In the Uf- f)z 1 Gallery at Florence. The connolpe^uy -t-Jio has made these discoveries 1s Andre Charles Coppler, who writes In "I,e? Arts," one of the loading ETropean publica¬ tions devoted to tho fine urtR. Everybody knowe, of course, the old romance that b«s grown around T)a Vinci's picture, it 1s said that !t was a portrait of the "Mona Lisa" or "Lady Lisa," whose maiden name wrs Gherardini and who was the ¦wife of a gentleman named Fran¬ cesco del Giocondo. at the time the picture was -.minted. The romance tells us that the painter adored his intorest'ng- modal, that he spent four years In painting her picture, that ho kept her surrounded with lute play¬ ers and entertainers In order to ox- cite the enigmatical smile that sr.akes her picture so fascinating. "Th:romance has been taken up «r.d embroidered upon by niar.y ^ ritci's * f genius. It has been u^o.l « Theophlle GauMer and Arsene He is say«. in France and by Walter Pater, lti Ln^land. When the great picture was stolen from the Louvre i*o years apo all the literature that had been woven around it was recalled F:r.d d;s issed ail over tho world. >'. h> n It was discovered and returned a few weeks airo there v.a-s universal rejoicing that a work of suoh un- ' nua lied beauty ar.d interest had ben restored. The <*o!d, clear eye or M Coppler. the * xpert. saw through the immer.sri structure of romance that had been built around the "Mona Lisa." Ik- found that the original author!'\ the statement that It was a portr;,;- of Mona Lisa del Giocondo wa- Glorgio Vasari, the old Italian wrlter "n art. Theophlle Gamier and a the other *.-tnan<rers had picked up f> brio; HMUerticT.t In Vnsnrl and bui t *>11 their structure of romance upon it.. M. Coppler turned tn this state¬ ment of Ya^nri and foi:n d that ho described tho wom¬ an of the picture hH'lne i;ithir L (-..fiirows and humid eyes" ^tnoi.g other f " u t u res Ti en M. Coppler turned to the pic¬ ture ca' ed ' Mona I i«n" and found t ;.at 1; did not have i ny eyebrows at nil and certainly did not have ' humid cye«." These are t be » r- rct words of \ a «¦ ! 1 : ile bops, n for Fr n esco del Gi > . <>; do a portrait of Mo: .. !,|sa. his wife. h :d eft It unflu- d afi'f having vx,r>;.'; on 1* f-.r f"U yo.irs. Mo v <> ' .. I learn to what II dni art oen iml- i tie 1 ,inir< may Mti-fy 1 iiu*« f »¦n>. .ly by examining o! the skin, could not be rendered in e. more natural manner. The nose, with It? pink and delicate r;octrll«, i^ indeed that o! a llring person. Tho mouth, its opening, its extremities Joined by the vermilion of the lios to the carnation of the cheeks.that U no mere coloring, It ts flesh Indeed. In the hollow of the bosom the attentive observer can surmise the beating of the pulse; In short we must admit that the face is of a skill to make one tremble and to cause tho cleverest artist In tho world to shrink from attempting to reproduce it. "The gifted T-eonardo to arrlvo at such perfection employed this means among others. While the beautiful Mona Lisa was posing, he had al- wayB near her sins- or«. mmdclans and testers in order 1 > keep her in a Kont'e r:;* ict> a:i avoid that aspect Vasan's Statement on Which _ .he Romance About "Mona Lisa" Was Based Spoke of Her Eyebrows. Note That This Picture Has No Eyebrows. It Is Said to Represent St. Anne. j t«.«>xjvi>%xErr.< .J ?. VrCPI)j | Picture of St. Anne bv Leonardo in the t\ h-:i 1. it; which ),» ori?.rdo ha- rojup .1 .. Louvre, Showing the Same Face r. ¦¦¦'* . the So-calied "Mona Lisa." I .. have 11s<¦., k. 1 r v, x% hi'-h .. c <i-,- !r. If' : y t- rt mi it I ¦\vitb niddy tints -au.] <-n«-ci v.'Hh perfect verity. "'j ho la he which riindo them at- . ¦xti'-iiu ;i w ith < i: <i< :¦ u< y; t:i. eyebrows, their insertion In the !i<- their r«tthur pr6i.<--.jnc«-l tl tit-st' tii* .r curvc followinr. '¦>< f.r f.'iUyno ;ui.l incljiii* hoi;, niways incv Ji.-ii/lc in ;»¦ »rr i :ii(-. "Iii lit! portrait lii<to 1 r .iniUc .o :-utrarti\ . thai it liion* divino haii liuiutin t.» .<».>.. upon. !!«.!<. \vt ti" that, according t:; Yasari'.- I,i<>n:i:*d'i <.i. i . .! J:¦ ri!sh th*.* T'-'inarka'i"n' picturv :ii< vritcr d< acribc^;, y «_¦ l Iiic "Moi.a Li-a" by Ma'.nardi, Which Illustrates the Practise Among Florentine Painters in of Representing the Most Saintly or Divine Persons Without Eyebrows. Picture of "The Virgin and Child" Leonardo's Day i1* linished. Then. again, Leonardo could not have painted (Jinevra ri'Aimriso Henel, as V»-nri states, fi.r she died In I fTH, befoiv ho painted anything. Ho nays nothing r.f the beautiful hands of the "Mona l.i-a," i'fir of ih*j won.lorfu'. land ca(>e be- >1 i:td her. as h v ! surely have done it' he bad seen the pietur« i »eht r.»yi".R V isai IV cn-dibiMty (if!- Ftroyed tlio solo foundation for tin* remain e. ior it pr ved that Yaaari had never Kt-on the "Moaa Lisa" when lie wrote ab<>ut it. Lvery t'aer that M. Ooppior subsequently inves¬ tigated tend. <1 to disprove the idea that the picture could represent Del (jioeondo's wife. Leonardo \ as only In Florence a ff\\ nnutiis :it the p«'r:"d the picture was said to have been painted, and during all this time ho was under the orders of an Imperious prince, (iiuiiano de Med'.cl, who would not iiave left hi in ti .».. to dally with the portrait of a sweetheart to the ac- fiiiiij ,inii.jMit t.r slow music. The s.rt: ' 'aas evidently entirely occupied with the commands of (ittiliuno de Mt dici. Tt.n ( lv authentic record con¬ cern: us tho picture is by Leonardo himself, who states that it was exe- * ited by the commands of Glullnno sle Medici, without saying whom It represent 3. fiullinno do Medici was exiled fruio Florence In 1191 and returned in tr>iwhich is the enrlest date when lie could have taken Leonardo into jiis service. Leonardo remained in Florence only a few* months after ibis time, us Don Giuliano took him away to Koine and thence to other cities. Leonardo went, to France in 1 r»I<3. "aking the "Mona Lisa" with him, and died there. Yaaari was born in ir.lL', and never wnnt to France, so that lie could never have seen the picture except, at the age of four, which would hardly enable him to write his enthusiastic description of it. The absence of eyebrows in the picture is most significant. It was the custom of the Indies of rank in Florcnc* . in Leonardo's time, to re move their eye brown completely with great pain and trouble, because it was believed that thl^ fashion added to their charm of expression and in¬ crease! their resemblance to the ptatues of classic antiquity. The picture then represents a lady of rank. Now, the wife of Francesco del Qiocondo was not of high rank, and she was a Neapolitan and would probably not have followed the Flor¬ entine custom of removing the eye¬ brows. NoiV, It is noticeable "tjial Leonardo and the other Florentine artists of his time in their religious pictures always paint the very saintly or divine personages without eyebrows, while those of lesser importance are shown with the 'plebeian eyebrows. We see this very well in Mainardl's beautiful picture of "The Virgin and Child," now in the Louvre, in which the Virgin and Holy Child are scru¬ pulously devoid of eyebrows, while fiomo of the attendant children pos¬ sess them. These artists naively im¬ agined that persons of Kreat impor¬ tance In heaven should be made to iook like tho most noble and fash¬ ionable ladies of tho day. The "Mona Lisa" then must be u lady of high rank or a very gr«jat. saint. There is no record of any otlK-r portrait pointed by him at this time, since we have seen that tho statement of Vasari cannot bo re¬ garded as an authentic record. Copyright, 1011, by the star Company. Great Britain Rights Reserved. ff the Romance About "Mona Lisa" Had Any Basis »n Fact It Must Have Referred to This Unnamed Portrait of a Woman with Eyebrows, Now at Florence. M. Ooppier turned to Leonardo's religious paintings and tnado .1 most Interesting discovery. He found that the face of th« "Mom Lisa" bears a close resemblance to tbe face In Leo. nardo's picture of Faint Anne, also l:i the Lou\-re. There is the same enigmatical smile, not so masterfully treated as that In the "Mona Lisa," the same absence of eyebrows, the same peculiar cast of features. M. Copplor found the same type of face In many other religious paintings by Leonardo, and he found it In men a* veil as in women saints. In M. Coupler's opinion, then, th<' so-called "Mona Lisa" is a picture of St. Anne, and should be labelled a.4 6uch. It Is not the portrait of any person. It may have had a model originally, but In this form it is the idealized saintly type of face which the artist has given in many reli¬ gious pictures, notably In his ad¬ mirable "Madonna of the Rocks." There remains one nv>re point ¦which will completely dissipate th*» romance of the "Mona Lisa. ' I'id Yasari have any authentic picture by Leonardo in mind when ho spoke ryt a woman with "eyebrows" ond hii- raid eyes?" It appears highly prob¬ able that he had in mind the small picture of an "I'nknown Woman" now in the I'fllzl Gallery In Florence. Vasnri must have scon this picture. He certainly represents » woman with eyebrows and with what may be callfsl "humid eyes." It is known that this whs a picture of Leonardo's youth, ntul that it was not painted at tho time when In the fullness of ills powers and in the service of Ciuliano d«s Medici is said to have painted the "Mona Lisa." The picture is a comparatively uninspired one as compared with the so en I led "Mona Lisa." Tho wife of Francesco del Glocondo Is not believed to have been in Florence in Leonardo's youth. There Is no ground for associating any romance with this picture. In any case, It would be necessary to Invent an entirely new one. M. Coppler supports bis argument with a wealth <>f references, wltli carefully verified dates and with extracts from authentic records. Using a Picture Puzzle to Keep Out Feeble->linded Aliens PICTURE puzzle Is being u.-ed * tlon authorities as a teat for defective aliens at Ellis Ifdand. I? is known (in the ITealy picture puzzle. The complete picture show* & horse aud colt. Seven pieces are removed from this and the alien Is icqulred to put them Into position. The puzzle Is very pimple, as the ob¬ ject to bo attained requires. It seems to be established that a normal alien will do the puzzle with¬ in two minutes. At a time when Con press i< talking about imposing a literary test, on im¬ migrants, this puzzle is worth consid¬ ering. A tost requiring aliens to rend and write may exclude many persons of great natural intelligence. Kvery- body wishes to exclude idiots from this country. The picture puzzle, it i* claimed, will shut out the feeble¬ minded, but let In the intelligent but unlettered alien. Dr. M. K. (rwyn. of the United States Public Health Service, de¬ scribes in the Medical Record how bev uses the puzzle: "The picture with the cut out parts lying by its aide are ahown to the alien, and lie is tobl that this is a picture which can be completed by filling in the vacant spaces with the pieces lying by the side of the pic¬ ture. He is also told that the piece* .will all go in easily when placed in the right position.that 1t is not nec¬ essary to use foroe. The parts are bo cut ns to give a cine to the correct position by shape and color and ref¬ erence to animal a in the picture. If tiucccssful the time is recorded in minutes and seconds. A failure is recorded as 'F.' followed by tlie time within ten minutes during which the alien works at the test' before de¬ ciding that he cannot do it. "Normal aliens over sixteen years successfully by the irninigra- of ape will usually solve the picture within two minutes; defectives on the other hand, require more than five minutes, if they are successful at all. The main portion of the picture gives comparatively little trouble except t<» the idiot ami Imbecile, who bore fail utterly. The fitting of the two com¬ ponent triangles into the large tri¬ angle takes ordinarily twice as much time an the rest of the picture. It is here that the defective fhows up so glaringly with his absurd mistakes. Tiie fact that the two right triangles are the component parts of the isoK<Y'les triangle is not noticed at all until by a process of elimination by lilting the lest they are the only two pieces left on the board. At this point I have frequently seen the alien lift tip the board and look under¬ neath to see if there were some parts missing. Almost invariably this is left to the last, although during the fitting of the rest, of the picture be may pick up one of the triangles only to drop it immediately in favor of romo other pari of the picture. "Although no single lest, is sufficient for a diagnosis, as u general thing it will be found that immigrants who take more than three minutes to cor¬ rectly solve this puzzlo should bo gone into further before deciding that they are normal. It has been found in praetice that an nlien who solves the picture puzzle in two minutes or less will usually solve the llealy frame and I'ernald test (two other tests, used for aliens) equally as well, but 1 have not been able .so far to deter¬ mine the lower ago limit at which success is attainable for the picture puzzle, as most of my eases have been over sixteen years of age. Huu the few instances in which I had an opportunity of testing the picture .puzzle in nine, ten and twelve-year- olds they have failed to solve the triangle although successful with the rest of the picture." 3
Transcript of LatestMisfortune of the World's Most Celebrated Picture ... · !t was a portrait of the "Mona Lisa"...
Latest Misfortune of the World'sMost Celebrated Picture, Its
Love Story DeclaredPure Invention and Itself No
Portrait oi' Its Painter's SweetheartTHE romnncfl of *'Mona Lisa."
whlch has Inspired poet"* andstory wTlfor.a fc-r three cen¬
turies, appears to ha7«> been com¬
pletely exploded by n French con¬noisseur and art critic.According to this expert tho fa-
mong picture does not represent a
woman cP.Ued "Mcna Lisa"; it doesnot represent th? wwt«.theart of thepainter Da Vlncl or r-ny woman ofhis ago, tmt It la an idealized plc-<ur« of Faint Anne, *.he mother ofthe Blessed Virgin Miry.
If Da Vlncl evar panted e plctnrwof a woman called ">"ona Lisa." theexpert argues that ft 1b the work o*the artist entitled "Portrait of an
Unknown Woman," r.ow In the Uf-f)z 1 Gallery at Florence.The connolpe^uy -t-Jio has made
these discoveries 1s Andre CharlesCoppler, who writes In "I,e? Arts,"one of the loading ETropean publica¬tions devoted to tho fine urtR.Everybody knowe, of course, the
old romance that b«s grown aroundT)a Vinci's picture, it 1s said that!t was a portrait of the "Mona Lisa"or "Lady Lisa," whose maiden namewrs Gherardini and who was the¦wife of a gentleman named Fran¬cesco del Giocondo. at the time thepicture was -.minted. The romancetells us that the painter adored hisintorest'ng- modal, that he spent fouryears In painting her picture, that hokept her surrounded with lute play¬ers and entertainers In order to ox-cite the enigmatical smile thatsr.akes her picture so fascinating."Th:romance has been taken up
«r.d embroidered upon by niar.y^ ritci's * f genius. It has been u^o.l «Theophlle GauMer and Arsene He issay«. in France and by Walter Pater,lti Ln^land. When the great picturewas stolen from the Louvre i*oyears apo all the literature that hadbeen woven around it was recalledF:r.d d;s issed ail over tho world.>'. h> n It was discovered and returneda few weeks airo there v.a-s universalrejoicing that a work of suoh un-' nua lied beauty ar.d interest hadben restored.The <*o!d, clear eye or M Coppler.the * xpert. saw through the immer.sri
structure of romance that had beenbuilt around the "Mona Lisa." Ik-found that the original author!'\the statement that It was a portr;,;-of Mona Lisa del Giocondo wa-Glorgio Vasari, the old Italian wrlter"n art. Theophlle Gamier and athe other *.-tnan<rers had picked upf> brio; HMUerticT.t InVnsnrl and bui t*>11 their structureof romance upon it..M. Coppler turned
tn this state¬ment of Ya^nri andfoi:n d that hodescribed tho wom¬an of the picture
hH'lne i;ithirL (-..fiirows and
humid eyes" ^tnoi.gother f " u t u resTi en M. Copplerturned to the pic¬ture ca' ed ' MonaI i«n" and foundt ;.at 1; did not havei ny eyebrows at niland certainly didnot have ' humidcye«."These are t be » r-
rct words of \ a«¦ ! 1 :
ile bops, n forFr n esco del Gi >
. <>; do a portrait ofMo: .. !,|sa. his wife.h :d eft It unflu-
d afi'f havingvx,r>;.'; on 1* f-.rf"U yo.irs. Mo v <>
' .. I learn to whatII dni art oen iml-i tie 1 ,inir< mayMti-fy 1 iiu*« f »¦n>.
.ly by examining
o! the skin, could not be renderedin e. more natural manner. Thenose, with It? pink and delicater;octrll«, i^ indeed that o! a llringperson. Tho mouth, its opening, itsextremities Joined by the vermilionof the lios to the carnation of thecheeks.that U no mere coloring, Itts flesh Indeed. In the hollow ofthe bosom the attentive observercan surmise the beating of thepulse; In short we must admit thatthe face is of a skill to make onetremble and to cause tho cleverestartist In tho world to shrink fromattempting to reproduce it.
"The gifted T-eonardo to arrlvo atsuch perfection employed this meansamong others. While the beautifulMona Lisa was posing, he had al-wayB near her sins-or«. mmdclans andtesters in order 1 >
keep her in a
Kont'e r:;* ict> a:iavoid that aspect
Vasan'sStatementon Which
_.he RomanceAbout
"Mona Lisa"Was Based
Spoke of HerEyebrows.
Note That ThisPicture HasNo Eyebrows.It Is Said toRepresentSt. Anne.
j t«.«>xjvi>%xErr.< .J ?. VrCPI)j |
Picture of St. Anne bv Leonardo in the
t\ h-:i 1. it; which),» ori?.rdo ha- rojup
.1 .. Louvre, Showing the Same Facer. ¦¦¦'* . the So-calied "Mona Lisa."I .. have
11s<¦., k. 1 r v, x% hi'-h.. c <i-,- !r. If' : y t- rt mi itI¦\vitb niddy tints -au.] <-n«-ci v.'Hhperfect verity.
"'j ho la he which riindo them at-. ¦xti'-iiu ;i w ith < i: <i< :¦ u< y; t:i.eyebrows, their insertion In the!i<- their r«tthur pr6i.<--.jnc«-l tltit-st' tii* .r curvc followinr. '¦><
f.r f.'iUyno ;ui.l incljiii* hoi;, niwaysincv Ji.-ii/lc in ;»¦ »rr i :ii(-.
"Iii lit! portrait lii<to 1 r .iniUc.o :-utrarti\ . thai it liion* divinohaii liuiutin t.» .<».>.. upon.
!!«.!<. \vt ti" that, according t:;Yasari'.- I,i<>n:i:*d'i <.i. i . .!
J:¦ ri!sh th*.* T'-'inarka'i"n' picturv :ii<vritcr d< acribc^;, y «_¦ l Iiic "Moi.a Li-a"
by Ma'.nardi, Which Illustrates the Practise Among Florentine Painters inof Representing the Most Saintly or Divine Persons Without Eyebrows.
Picture of"The Virginand Child"Leonardo's Day
i1* linished. Then. again, Leonardocould not have painted (Jinevrari'Aimriso Henel, as V»-nri states,fi.r she died In I fTH, befoiv ho paintedanything. Ho nays nothing r.f thebeautiful hands of the "Mona l.i-a,"i'fir of ih*j won.lorfu'. land ca(>e be->1 i:td her. as h v ! surely havedone it' he bad seen the pietur«
i »eht r.»yi".R V isai IV cn-dibiMty (if!-Ftroyed tlio solo foundation for tin*remain e. ior it pr ved that Yaaarihad never Kt-on the "Moaa Lisa"when lie wrote ab<>ut it. Lvery t'aerthat M. Ooppior subsequently inves¬tigated tend. <1 to disprove the ideathat the picture could represent Del(jioeondo's wife.
Leonardo \ as only In Florence aff\\ nnutiis :it the p«'r:"d the picturewas said to have been painted, andduring all this time ho was underthe orders of an Imperious prince,(iiuiiano de Med'.cl, who would notiiave left hi in ti .».. to dally with theportrait of a sweetheart to the ac-fiiiiij ,inii.jMit t.r slow music. Thes.rt: ' 'aas evidently entirely occupiedwith the commands of (ittiliuno deMt dici.
Tt.n ( lv authentic record con¬cern: us tho picture is by Leonardo
himself, who states that it was exe-* ited by the commands of Glullnnosle Medici, without saying whom Itrepresent 3.
fiullinno do Medici was exiled fruioFlorence In 1191 and returned intr>iwhich is the enrlest date whenlie could have taken Leonardo intojiis service. Leonardo remained inFlorence only a few* months afteribis time, us Don Giuliano took himaway to Koine and thence to othercities.
Leonardo went, to France in 1 r»I<3."aking the "Mona Lisa" with him,and died there. Yaaari was born inir.lL', and never wnnt to France, sothat lie could never have seen thepicture except, at the age of four,which would hardly enable him towrite his enthusiastic descriptionof it.The absence of eyebrows in the
picture is most significant. It wasthe custom of the Indies of rank inFlorcnc* . in Leonardo's time, to remove their eyebrown completely withgreat pain and trouble, because itwas believed that thl^ fashion addedto their charm of expression and in¬crease! their resemblance to theptatues of classic antiquity. The
picture then represents a lady ofrank. Now, the wife of Francescodel Qiocondo was not of high rank,and she was a Neapolitan and wouldprobably not have followed the Flor¬entine custom of removing the eye¬brows.NoiV, It is noticeable "tjial Leonardo
and the other Florentine artists ofhis time in their religious picturesalways paint the very saintly ordivine personages without eyebrows,while those of lesser importance areshown with the 'plebeian eyebrows.We see this very well in Mainardl'sbeautiful picture of "The Virgin andChild," now in the Louvre, in whichthe Virgin and Holy Child are scru¬pulously devoid of eyebrows, whilefiomo of the attendant children pos¬sess them. These artists naively im¬agined that persons of Kreat impor¬tance In heaven should be made toiook like tho most noble and fash¬ionable ladies of tho day.The "Mona Lisa" then must be u
lady of high rank or a very gr«jat.saint. There is no record of anyotlK-r portrait pointed by him at thistime, since we have seen that thostatement of Vasari cannot bo re¬garded as an authentic record.
Copyright, 1011, by the star Company. Great Britain Rights Reserved.
ff the Romance About "Mona Lisa" Had Any Basis »n FactIt Must Have Referred to This Unnamed Portrait of a
Woman with Eyebrows, Now at Florence.
M. Ooppier turned to Leonardo'sreligious paintings and tnado .1 mostInteresting discovery. He found thatthe face of th« "Mom Lisa" bears aclose resemblance to tbe face In Leo.nardo's picture of Faint Anne, alsol:i the Lou\-re. There is the sameenigmatical smile, not so masterfullytreated as that In the "Mona Lisa,"the same absence of eyebrows, thesame peculiar cast of features. M.Copplor found the same type of faceIn many other religious paintings byLeonardo, and he found it In men a*veil as in women saints.
In M. Coupler's opinion, then, th<'so-called "Mona Lisa" is a picture ofSt. Anne, and should be labelled a.46uch. It Is not the portrait of anyperson. It may have had a modeloriginally, but In this form it is theidealized saintly type of face whichthe artist has given in many reli¬gious pictures, notably In his ad¬mirable "Madonna of the Rocks."There remains one nv>re point
¦which will completely dissipate th*»romance of the "Mona Lisa. ' I'idYasari have any authentic picture by
Leonardo in mind when ho spoke ryta woman with "eyebrows" ond hii-raid eyes?" It appears highly prob¬able that he had in mind the smallpicture of an "I'nknown Woman"now in the I'fllzl Gallery In Florence.Vasnri must have scon this picture.He certainly represents » womanwith eyebrows and with what maybe callfsl "humid eyes." It is knownthat this whs a picture of Leonardo'syouth, ntul that it was not paintedat tho time when In the fullness ofills powers and in the service ofCiuliano d«s Medici is said to havepainted the "Mona Lisa." The pictureis a comparatively uninspired one ascompared with the so en I led "MonaLisa." Tho wife of Francesco delGlocondo Is not believed to have beenin Florence in Leonardo's youth.There Is no ground for associatingany romance with this picture. Inany case, It would be necessary toInvent an entirely new one.M. Coppler supports bis argument
with a wealth <>f references, wltlicarefully verified dates and withextracts from authentic records.
Using a Picture Puzzle to KeepOut Feeble->linded AliensPICTURE puzzle Is being u.-ed
* tlon authorities as a teat fordefective aliens at Ellis Ifdand.
I? is known (in the ITealy picturepuzzle. The complete picture show*& horse aud colt. Seven pieces areremoved from this and the alien Isicqulred to put them Into position.The puzzle Is very pimple, as the ob¬ject to bo attained requires.
It seems to be established that anormal alien will do the puzzle with¬in two minutes.
At a time when Con press i< talkingabout imposing a literary test, on im¬migrants, this puzzle is worth consid¬ering. A tost requiring aliens to rendand write may exclude many personsof great natural intelligence. Kvery-body wishes to exclude idiots fromthis country. The picture puzzle, it i*claimed, will shut out the feeble¬minded, but let In the intelligent butunlettered alien.
Dr. M. K. (rwyn. of the UnitedStates Public Health Service, de¬scribes in the Medical Record how bevuses the puzzle:"The picture with the cut out parts
lying by its aide are ahown to thealien, and lie is tobl that this is apicture which can be completed byfilling in the vacant spaces with thepieces lying by the side of the pic¬ture. He is also told that the piece*.will all go in easily when placed inthe right position.that 1t is not nec¬essary to use foroe. The parts arebo cut ns to give a cine to the correctposition by shape and color and ref¬erence to animal a in the picture. Iftiucccssful the time is recorded inminutes and seconds. A failure isrecorded as 'F.' followed by tlie timewithin ten minutes during which thealien works at the test' before de¬ciding that he cannot do it."Normal aliens over sixteen years
successfully by the irninigra-of ape will usually solve the picturewithin two minutes; defectives on theother hand, require more than fiveminutes, if they are successful at all.The main portion of the picture givescomparatively little trouble except t<»the idiot ami Imbecile, who bore failutterly. The fitting of the two com¬ponent triangles into the large tri¬angle takes ordinarily twice as muchtime an the rest of the picture. It ishere that the defective fhows up soglaringly with his absurd mistakes.Tiie fact that the two right trianglesare the component parts of theisoK<Y'les triangle is not noticed at alluntil by a process of elimination bylilting the lest they are the only twopieces left on the board. At thispoint I have frequently seen the alienlift tip the board and look under¬neath to see if there were some partsmissing. Almost invariably this isleft to the last, although during thefitting of the rest, of the picture bemay pick up one of the triangles onlyto drop it immediately in favor ofromo other pari of the picture."Although no single lest, is sufficient
for a diagnosis, as u general thing itwill be found that immigrants whotake more than three minutes to cor¬rectly solve this puzzlo should bogone into further before deciding thatthey are normal. It has been foundin praetice that an nlien who solvesthe picture puzzle in two minutes orless will usually solve the llealy frameand I'ernald test (two other tests,used for aliens) equally as well, but1 have not been able .so far to deter¬mine the lower ago limit at whichsuccess is attainable for the picturepuzzle, as most of my eases havebeen over sixteen years of age. Huuthe few instances in which I had anopportunity of testing the picture.puzzle in nine, ten and twelve-year-olds they have failed to solve thetriangle although successful with therest of the picture."
3
