Mona Lisa
From TARDIS Index File, the free Doctor Who reference.
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| Mona Lisa | |
| Also known as: | Mia Bella, La Giaconda |
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| Appearances: | DW: City of Death NSA: The Art of Destruction SJA: Mona Lisa's Revenge |
| Actor: | Suranne Jones |
Earth's most famous painting, the Mona Lisa, was painted (multiple times) by Leonardo da Vinci.
[edit] History
In 1505, posing as a Human known as Captain Tancredi, Scaroth of the Jagaroth commissioned da Vinci to paint six copies of the Mona Lisa. (DW: City of Death) Da Vinci had to borrow oil paint from Giuseppe di Cattivo, his neighbour, in order to finish the paintings, but this paint was in fact part of a sentient meteorite that d'Cattivo had recovered. (SJA: Mona Lisa's Revenge) The painting was modelled on Mia Bella. While the Doctor did not destroy the six "forgeries" (if, in fact, they could be considered forgeries, since they were all painted by Da Vinci), he did ensure that future X-ray machines would be able to discover their provenance by writing "THIS IS A FAKE" on the blank canvas of each. (DW: City of Death)
At some point, one of the six paintings came to hang in the Louvre gallery in Paris, France.
In 1979, Scaroth, posing as Count Scarlioni, stole the one known copy and sold the rest so as to raise money to fund his time travel research. (DW: City of Death)
By 2007, one of the fakes ended up at Leamington Spa Lifeboat Museum, and was placed along with several alien artefacts and other oddities in a secure section of the museum. (WEB: Leamington Spa Lifeboat Museum website)
At least three of the other copies were held by UNIT in the Underbase in Sydney, Australia. (DWM: The Age of Ice)
As late as December 2009, the "original" was still displayed in the Louvre in Paris. (DWAM: A Date to Remember)
By 2010, one copy of the Mona Lisa made its way to the International Gallery in London. Because d'Cattivo's work, The Abomination, also painted with the sentient meteor, was nearby, Mona Lisa was able to reanimate in the form of Mia Bella and made her way out of the frame, replacing herself with Phyllis Trupp. She animated a Sontaran blaster from a painting by Clyde Langer and, along with her number one fan, Lionel Harding, went about to find The Abomination. She put various policemen and Sarah Jane Smith into paintings, while she animated The Dark Rider to take care of Clyde, Luke Smith and Rani Chandra. By the time Mona Lisa found The Abomination, she realised that, in order to set him free, she needed d'Cattivo's Chinese Puzzle Box, which Harding destroyed. Clyde was then forced to draw another Puzzle Box, which she animated. Just as The Abomination rose, Luke used her energy to animate Clyde's drawing of K-9, who killed the Abomination, therefore returning Mona Lisa to her rightful place, inside her frame, where she would remain forever. (SJA: Mona Lisa's Revenge)
Despite the city of Paris being destroyed in 2086 by the Ice Warriors, (NA: Transit) the painting clearly survived, since at some point during the 51st century, the Doctor helped carry the Mona Lisa up Mount Everest on a camel in order to preserve it from a war. (NSA: The Art of Destruction)
At some point in the future, a recreation of Paris called Perfect Paris was made as an example of the perfect city. In the city's version of the Louvre hung a replica of the Mona Lisa. (DWAM: A Date to Remember)
