POET AND HIS LADY

Radio Record, 11 March 1938, Page 15

POET AND HIS LADY

Death of d’ Annunzio Recalls Strange Connection Between Eccentric Genius and the Famous Theft of Mona Lisa

Special to the "Record" by

E. M.

DORKIN

HE death of Gabriele d’Annunzio last week wrote finis to as fiery and spectacular a career as any the century has seen. The footnotes called him poet, novelist, critic, soldier, reformer. . . but no footnote told half the story of the man’s amazing eccentricity. Here is a story about d’Annunzio that might well be taken as typical of his life-drunkenness with art, fame and living. Was he the man behind the man who stole da Vinci’s famous painting, Mona Lisa, from the Louvre? D’‘Annunzio himself never denied the rumour. If he inspired the theft, it would be but another incident in a life crammed with grotesque adventures.

HE theft of the celebrated painting, da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, was committed under such circumstances as to suggest the hand of a genius from the beginning. On July 24, 1910, the newspaper, "Cri De Paris," made the startling statement that a month previously the Mona Lisa, known in France as La Joconde, and in Italy as La Gioconda, had been stolen. M. Homolle, director of the Louvre Museum, denied the story. The great paintings were protected by heavy glass, he said. But a year later, in 1911, there was so much complaint about the heavy glass obscuring the paintings, that some were removed, including that protecting La Joconde. At ounce there wus no denying that the original Mona Lisa was gone, replaced by a copy. Nowhere does D’Aununzio say that he planned the theft. He merely intimates that the man who did it was curiously like himself. He does not explain why the man who did steal] the Mona Lisa turned it over to him. Mona Lisa’s Fat Hands Anyhow, the experiment was a most dismal failure, because of Mona Lisa’s fat hands. It happened that Duse, regarded by 1)’Annunzio as the reincarnation of Mona Lisa, had long, slender hands, one of the most beautifully expressive pairs in the world, and now the sensitive poet turned from these painted ones in disgust. The years the painting was missing are just the ones D’Annunzio was in France, poe UT the poet-suldier’s inspirations have not all been women. There was "Adolphus," the goldfish, which Isadora, Duncan told about in her book, "Chapters From:

My Life." Wrote Isadora: "At the Hotel Trianon D’Annunzio had a goldfish which he loved. It was in a wonderful crystal bowl, and D’Annunzio used to feed it and talk to it. The goldfish would agitate its fins and open and shut its mouth as though to answer him. One day, when I was staying at the Trianon, I said to the maitre d’hotel: " "Where is the goldfish of D’Annunzio? Sorrowful Story "‘Ah, madame, sorrowful story! D’Annunzio went to Italy and told us to take care of it. "This goldfish," he said, "is so near to my heart. It is a symbol of al! ny happiness." And he kept telegraphing: "How is my beloved Adolphus?’ One day Adolphus swam a little more slowly round the bowl and ceased to ask for D’Annunzio. I took it and threw it out of the window. . "*But there came a telegram from D’Annunzio: "Feel Adolphus is not well!" I wired back: ‘Adolphus dead. Died last night." D’Annunzio replied: "Bury him in the garden. Arrange his grave." " ‘So I took a sardine and wrapped it in silver paper and buried it in the garden, and I put up a cross: "Here lies Adolphus!" ""‘P’Annunzio returned: "Where is the grave of my Adolphus?" **I showed him the grave in the garden, and he brought many flowers to it and stood for a long time weeping tears upon it’." HEN no ransom was asked for the Mona Lisa and no clue found, the authorities gave up hope. Then, in 1913,. the priceless panel was recovered in Italy, not in the possession of * (Continued -on page 38.).

A Poet And His Lady (Continued from page 15).

a master criminal, but of a mentally defective workman, named Perrugia. In court, Perrugia confessed that he had done the deed as one of four workmen who had placed glass around the painting. The man said his motive Was revenge for the many works of art Napoleon took from Italy, and thut until four days before his arrest it had been in the eustody of his accomplice, known only in the records as "Vincent i." Vincent was released "for lack of reliable evidence," and Perrugia was given only a year in prison because he was evidently the tool of some far more capable schemer,

OW for the poet’s part in the mystery crime. Gabriele D’Annunzio emerged from the war, not only one of the greatest poets and playwrights.of his time, but one of the leading war heroes who had lost an eye in air battle, and he kept on being a war hero, In 1919 he headed a band of Italian volunteers who seized the port of Kiume on the Adriatic and held it for fifteen months until his own Government ousted him. But fame had gone to his _ head, causing him to yield to what are called the eccentricities of genius. He felt himself of such historical importance that he must write memoirs revealing

his most intimate relationg with certain of his sweethearts. . Most prominent of these was the great tragedierine, Eleanora Duse. Since childhocd, D’Annunzio seems to have dreamed about Mona Lisa because be believed she bore the enigmatie smile of Italy, and also Duse’s resemblance to the Mona Lisa had often been notedy O D’Annunzio, indeed, Duse was the reincarnation of Lisa, with an important improvement which he did not notice at first, her hands. He compared her to "a thousand statues, all masterpieces." Then came a day when for no visible reason she no longer inspired the fickle genius, who thereupon bowed her out of his life with a little more ceremony, but not much more feeling than he would have dismissed an excellent workman who had _ finished his job around the house. The poet went on from sweetheart to sweetheart, breaking their hearts but getting little if any inspiration. It is related that one of them, Louisa Baccara, finding him making love to her sister, threw the poet out the window of "Tl Vittoriale," his "Victory" villa at Gardone, fracturing the skull that held the talented brain. This so impressed D’Annunzio that she and her sister are still members of his permanent entourage. Also he wrote her biography in _ his "Portrait de Loyse Baccaris." UT none of them could inspire him ‘ on the Mona Lisa theme as had the wonderful Duse. Now, from 1911 to 1915, there had been an severe inspiration famine hecause D’Annunzio’s creditors had taken possession of his villa and all its art treasures which had acted ag minor inspirations. These difficult yearg he spent in France, first at Paris, then at Arcachon. Again creditors were about to auction off hig belongings, when something miraculous happened. The French Government stepped in and paid off his debts! Did a grateful Government pay a foreign poet’s debts in return for a tip which made possible the recovery of France’s lost art treasure? . There is no certainty-only evidence. One fragment of it is found in a passage in D’Annunzio’s "Per l’Italia degli Italiana," published in 1923. In chapter 9, which is devoted to the Italian smile, the poet writes: "Among so many Italian things. which I conserve and illustrate in my-| self, I perpetuate also the Italiay smile." Then comes this startling gen- tence: "It is vain that the French should pretend to know the Italian smile, because they keep at the Louvre the Mona Lisa which I put back, satisfied and disgusted, as so many know and so many fear to examine closely." — THIS set D’Annunzio’s French translator, Chasse, hunting through all D’Annunzio’s works tor more evidence, and he found in a French translation of his "Leda and the Swan"-the announcement of q new work to be punlished under the title, "The Man Who Stole the Mona Lisa-A Report." The writer calls attention that this was to be a report, not a novel, in other words, a narrative of fact, not fiction, — "I recall," wrote D’Annunzio, in ane

Gther book, "when the sublime stealer of the Mona Lisa carried to my retreat the panel wrapped in an old stable cover, but I could not endure and I detested the white, flabby hands of Mona Lisa, forced to have them always before my eyes for days on end, during the metaphysical speculation which the robber proposed it would induce." It was also brought out that in discussing the English poet, Walter Savage Landor, D’Annunzig had once said : "Why could not a man, a poet, an artist, fall in love with a dead woman? It is not a novel, it is real life. One could fall in love with a picture. I know someone, for example, who fell in love with the Mona Lisa, not the woman who has lost all her colour, but the woman who was Mona Lisa. This man is the one who stole her from the Louvre. Some day I will write of the man who stole the Mona Lisa." OW much an obsession Mona Lisa was to the poet is brought out by Guy de Pierrefeu, who relates that D’Annunzio once said to a couple of guests: "In Italy I know of only two men who have shown the intelligence of genius. The first is Leonardo da Vinci, painter, sculptor, architect, mathematician." ‘And the second?’ the visitor asked. Shocked that anyone should doubt that the great D’Annunzio was the other, the poet merely looked at him in icy silence. !