The
Mona Lisa is often used as a
rhetorical example by
analogy when
letterbox advocates argue that "
pan and scanning" a
widescreen movie is the
moral equivalent of
cutting down the Mona Lisa to fit in a new frame--
i.e. altering a work of art in a way that does not have the
artisan's approval.
Most people do not appreciate the irony in this argument. Evidence we have today (consisting largely of copies painted by Leonardo's students and apprentices) suggests that the Mona Lisa was originally a landscape--that is, wider than it was tall (with Mona Lisa herself in the center of it)--and that at some point it actually was cut down to fit its current portrait frame.