Nutchele: Art: Stolen, Escaped, Recovered- Drawing the Mona Lisa

Learning about the Mona Lisa fits our theme very well. She was stolen, she was hidden, and she has been returned. She's had quite an exciting life for a painting.
For this class we thought about where we would take the Mona Lisa to get out of the museum and have a little adventure for the day. This is an idea I saw on Pinterest and fell in love with. I can't take credit for it. I did change it up a bit though and came up with my own lesson plan. I had the students stick with charcoal, conte crayon, and/or brown chalks. For the preschool class we kept it pretty simple. I showed them a poster of the Mona Lisa and told them she is famous for her "smile". Do you think she is happy, sad, or just thinking? What do you think she is thinking about? Let's pretend that she is tired of hanging on the wall in the museum. Where would you take her to have fun? What do you like to do or what is your favorite place to go?

For the longer class we spent some time talking about Leonardo da Vinci's drawings and I shared a few pictures of those. we talked about proportion/measuring objects by comparing them to the other objects around them, and shading. We stuck with charcoal and brown chalks again to look like Leonardo's sketches. For these sketches we drew and shaded a stack of rocks. You can see in the above photo one child's stack of rocks and his drawing of him with Mona Lisa. (so cute!) We also compared Leonardo's work to artists of an earlier time period to see the difference and why he was considered such a great artist.

Also for the longer class we went into a little more detail of Mona Lisa's past. She is 77cmX53cm and currently lives in the Musee du Louvre. She was "born" about 1503-06. Mona means "madam" in Italian. In 1797 Mona Lisa was kidnapped as a prize during the French Revolution and taken to a new home at the Louvre. According to www.arthistoryguide.com Napolean had her hung in his bedroom for a little while before taking her to the Louvre. In 1911 a thief hid in a broom closet until the museum closed, stole Lisa, hid her in his jacket, and walked out the front door. The thief, Vincenzo Peruggia, was caught in 1913 when trying to sell Mona Lisa to the Uffizi Gallery in Italy. He felt Mona Lisa should be returned to her home country. During World War II Mona Lisa was removed from the Louvre and hidden to keep her safe from invading armies. There are a number of places mentioned online saying where she was hidden, but I don't know how credible those sources are. In 1956 Mona Lisa was vandalized. Someone threw acid at her and another time during the same year someone threw a rock at her. Now she is protected behind climate controlled bullet proof glass.

So, if you are used to this exciting life and have been stuck inside in the same spot for a few decades, would you be a little bored? Where would you take the Mona Lisa? Just for a day. Write your story.