2024-05-11 16:43:59
Combining her two areas of expertise, Mona Lisa: Geologist Discovers Lecco, Italy”>Ann Pizzorusso ensures that the background of the painting represents the town of Lecco, on the shores of Lake Como in the Lombardy region of northern Italy.
A centuries-old debate about to be settled? This is what geologist and historian Ann Pizzorusso says, who claims to have found the landscape behind Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. While many art historians believe that the background image is imaginary, Ann Pizzorusso assures that the background of the painting represents the town of Lecco, on the shores of Lake Como in the Lombardy region, north of Italy. ‘Italy.
“I am so excited by my discovery,” she explained to the British daily The Guardian. To arrive at such conclusions, Ann Pizzorusso combined her two areas of expertise. Thus according to the historian, the bridge painted by Leonardo Da Vinci represents the Azzone Visconti Bridge built in the 14th century in Lecco. The illustrious artist is said to have gone there 500 years ago. “We know from his notebooks that he spent a lot of time exploring the Lecco region and the territory further north,” explains the historian.
However, Ann Pizzorusso is not the first to claim to have discovered the bridge which would have been represented by Leonardo da Vinci. In 2011, an art historian declared that it was the bridge in the small town of Bobbio, in northern Italy. Last year, another specialist claimed to have identified the crossing work in the background of the portrait of Mona Lisa. According to him, the Italian painter had chosen a small town located in the province of Arezzo.
Similar rock formations
But focusing on the bridge isn’t enough for Ann Pizzorusso. “The arched bridge was omnipresent throughout Italy and Europe and many looked the same. It is impossible to identify an exact location from a bridge alone. Everyone talks about the bridge and no one talks about the geology,” she observes. “Geologists don’t look at paintings and art historians don’t look at geology,” she adds.
“Art historians said Leonardo was always using his imagination, but you can give this picture to any geologist in the world and he will say what I say about Lecco. Even a non-geologist can now see the similarities,” assures Ann Pizzorusso.
She points out that the rock formations in Lecco are mainly limestone, which according to the historian corresponds to the gray-white hue of the rocks represented by Leonardo da Vinci. She notes that the Italian painter always insisted to his students on the importance of representing nature accurately. Furthermore, she points out that in contrast to Lecco, neither Bobbio nor Arezzo has a lake. “So we really have perfect proof in Lecco,” says Ann Pizzorusso.
Experts won over by this theory
“Art historians all speculate about where the Mona Lisa was painted. Anyone who sees a bridge thinks it was there. But Pizzorusso clearly located the spot with evidence of Leonardo’s presence in the region, its geology and, of course, a bridge,” Michael Daley, director of the ArtWatch UK observatory, told the Guardian.
The Mona Lisa doused with soup
An opinion shared by other specialists. “I do not doubt for a second that Pizzorusso is right in his theory, given his perfect knowledge of the geology of the Italian country and more precisely of the places where Leonardo traveled during his lifetime, which could correspond to the mountainous landscape of the Mona Lisa” , explains Jacques Franck, specialist in Leonardo da Vinci.
This weekend, Pizzorusso presents his evidence at a geology conference in Lecco. “I’m really euphoric about these discoveries. There is an almost certain possibility that Leonardo painted (the landscape, editor’s note) from the exact place where we are holding our conference,” she said.
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