Mona Lisa landscape location mystery 'solved'
A hidden clue in Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa identifies the exact location of the landscape which provides the background to the world's best known painting, an Italian art historian claims.
Carla Glori believes that a three-arched bridge which appears over the left shoulder of the woman with the enigmatic smile is a reference to Bobbio, a village which lies in rugged hill country south of Piacenza, in northern Italy.
Her theory is based on the recent discovery by another art historian, Silvano Vinceti, of the numbers 7 and 2 artfully concealed in the span of the stone bridge.
Miss Glori believes the numerals are a reference to 1472, the year in which a devastating flood destroyed Bobbio's bridge.
Historical records show that the bridge, known as the Ponte Gobbo or Ponte Vecchio (the Old Bridge), was swept away when the River Trebbia burst its banks that year.
"Leonardo added in the number 72 beneath the bridge to record the devastating flood of the River Trebbia and to allow it to be identified," said Miss Glori, who sets out the theory in a new book, The Leonardo Enigma.
Leonardo was born in the town of Vinci in Tuscany but travelled extensively in Italy during his lifetime and worked in Venice, Rome and Bologna.
The artist started painting the Mona Lisa in 1503 or 1504 in Florence, but did not finish it until years later, after he had moved to France to work under the patronage of King Francois I.
Most art historians believe the background, which features valleys and mountains, is an idealised, composite landscape drawn from the artist's imagination, but Miss Glori is convinced that it depicts a specific place.
The painting was kept in the Palace of Versailles until it was moved to the Louvre Museum in Paris, and remains the property of the French state.
It is believed to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy Florentine silk merchant.
In addition to discerning the number 72 beneath one of the bridge's arches, Mr Vinceti, the president of Italy's National Committee for Cultural Heritage, claimed last month to have found mysterious symbols concealed in the Mona Lisa's eyes.
He believes the letters LV – a possible reference to Leonardo's initials – appear in the right pupil, while other letters, possibly CE or B, appear in the left eye.
But other experts have contested the claim, saying that the so-called hidden symbols are in fact cracks which appeared over the centuries in the oil painting.
