Mona Lisa with approximate original colors CC 4.0. Dianelos
The Tuscan-town of Laterina is thrilled to see news that an Italian historian has determined a ruined Etruscan-Roman era bridge in their area was the backdrop of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
Using drone photographs and historical records of da Vinci’s whereabouts, including those owned by the De Medici family, historian Silvano Vinceti says he feels very sure that the bridge over Mona Lisa’s left-shoulder is the Romito di Laterina bridge.
The most telling clue was the number of arches. Three candidates for the bridge depicted in the Mona Lisa all have different numbers of arches. The Ponte Buriano near Laterina has 6 arches, while the Ponte Gobbo, in the town of Bobbio near Piacenza, has more than 6.
The bridge in the Mona Lisa, however, has 4. Using drone photographs and by measuing the distance between the two banks of the river in Laterina, as well as the size of the single arch that remains from the historic bridge, Vinceti came to a mathematical conclusion that the Romito di Laterina surely had 4 arches.
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Laterina, in the province of Arezzo, sits on a river called the Arno in a valley where Da Vinci worked at the pleasure of the cardinal Cesare Borgia, and then for Piero Soderini, a statesman of the Republic of Florence—both of whom lived near the river. It was at this time that he painted the Mona Lisa in Florence in the early 16th century.
La Rocca Cultural Association – credit
The Romito di Laterina bridge across the Arno was a shortcut to a town called Fiesole, where Da Vinci also stayed, and then on to Florence, cutting travel times by 3 hours compared to other routes.
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Tuscany is no stranger to rivalries; the rivalry between Florence and Siena went back and forth for hundreds of years. The Mayoress of Laterina Simona Neri joked with the Guardian that the nearby town of Buriano, who boast about their bridge being used in the Mona Lisa, and who have posters and signposts up, will undoubtedly be unhappy to hear the news.
“There’ll be some rivalry; we’ll need to put a poster up, too,” she said, adding that “We need to try to protect what’s left of the bridge, which will require funding.”
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