One of the world’s most renowned and revered pieces of art is legendary Italian artist Leonardo Da Vinci’s Monalisa painting. The world-famous painting has been part of pop culture for as far as one can remember, also forming the basis of the mystery novel, The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Apart from being known for its beauty, the Monalisa painting has always been shrouded in mystery due to the unknown surroundings painted and the identity of the woman in the painting. These have baffled historians for centuries. However, Italian historian Silvano Vinceti has now finally claimed to have solved the mystery of the location painted in the piece of art.
According to a report in the Guardian, Vincetti is convinced that the surroundings are part of a small town in Tuscany of Italy. The village of Ponte Buriano, a suburb of Arezzo in Tuscany is now believed to have been the location painted in the Monalisa painting. The bridge visible in the painting according to Vincetti, located at Arezzo is the Romito di Laterina.
Vinceti stated at a press conference at the Foreign Press Association in Rome on Wednesday that the Arno [River]’s characteristic shape along that stretch of land matches what Leonardo painted in the landscape to the left of the woman in the renowned painting. Vinceti located the bridge using records from the past and aerial photographs. The number of arches made him reach his conclusion. Four arches make up the bridge in the well-known oil painting, mirroring the number of arches in Romito di Laterina.
According to records about the Medici family, the bridge was active and in use between 1501 and 1503, Vinceti said. At that time, Leonardo was busy at work in Cesare Borgia and Piero Soderini in the Val d’Arno region. The bridge provided a diversion that cut the distance between Arezzo, Fiesole, and Florence travel time by several hours.
As far as the woman depicted in the painting goes, no one knows for sure who she was but some historians believe her to be Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy Florentine merchant.
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