SLEUTHING LEONARDO’S BACKGROUND

DALYA ALBERGE WRITES in The Guardian, May 11, 2024, “Mystery of Where Mona Lisa Was Painted Has Been Solved, Geologist Claims.”

Alberge recounts, “The landscape behind Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa has sparked endless debate, with some art historians suggesting the view was imaginary and idealised, and others claiming various links to specific Italian locations.”

But it took a combined geologist/Renaissance art historian, Ann Pizzorusso, to sleuth out the background and identify features of Lecco, a town on the shores of Lakes Como and Garlate in the Lombardy region of northern Italy.

 This and following images from The Guardian.

Italy’s lake region is one of my favorite places, its almost tangibly soft light being an artist’s delight.

Photograph: Ian Dangell Computing/Alamy. 

Dual Expertise. Alberge quotes how Ann Pizzorusso brought her dual expertise to her study: “ ‘Geologists don’t look at paintings and art historians don’t look at geology,’ she added. ‘Art historians said Leonardo always used his imagination, but you can give this picture to any geologist in the world and they’ll say what I’m saying about Lecco. Even a non-geologist can now see the similarities.’ ”

Photograph of Lake Garlate: Courtesy of Ann Pizzorusso from The Guardian.

Limestone and a Lake. Continues Alberge, “She [Pizzorusso] noted that the rocks in Lecco are limestone and that Leonardo depicted his rocks in a grey-white colour —‘which is perfect, because that’s the type of rock that’s there.’ ”

Alberge recounts, “Pizzorusso noted that Leonardo had always impressed on his students the importance of depicting nature accurately. For her latest Mona Lisa research, she visited Lecco, tracing Leonardo’s footsteps: ‘We know from his notebooks that he spent a lot of time exploring the Lecco area and the territory further north.’ ”

The Bridge. Multi-arch bridges are familiar sights in Italy. Alberge recounts, “Previous theories have included a 2011 claim that a bridge and a road in the Mona Lisa belong to Bobbio, a small town in northern Italy, and a 2023 finding that Leonardo had painted a bridge in the province of Arezzo.”

Indeed, as Alberge notes, “Anybody who sees a bridge thinks it was there. But Pizzorusso has compellingly pinned down the location with proof of Leonardo’s presence in the area, its geology and, of course, a bridge.”

Lecco’s 14th-century Azzone Visconti bridge. Photo: Courtesy of Ann Pizzorusso from The Guardian.

“This weekend,” Alberge reports, “Pizzorusso will ­present her evidence at a geology conference in Lecco. ‘I am actually euphoric about these findings—and there is a near-certain possibility that Leonardo painted [the landscape] from the exact spot where we are holding our conference,’ she said.” 

It’s not often that art historian and artist can be so closely associated. It helps to be a geologist as well. 

Ben fatto, professoressa! ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024