Mystery of Where Mona Lisa was Painted Has Been Solved

The painting’s bridge, lake and rocks might have finally identified the landscape. Photograph: IanDagnall Computing/Alamy
The painting’s bridge, lake and rocks might have finally identified the landscape. Photograph: IanDagnall Computing/Alamy
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Mystery of Where Mona Lisa was Painted Has Been Solved

The painting’s bridge, lake and rocks might have finally identified the landscape. Photograph: IanDagnall Computing/Alamy
The painting’s bridge, lake and rocks might have finally identified the landscape. Photograph: IanDagnall Computing/Alamy

A geologist and Renaissance art historian is claiming to have solved the centuries-old debate on the location of the Italian landscape behind Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

Ann Pizzorusso, the author of the 2014 book “Tweeting Da Vinci,” is claiming she cracked the case, The Guardian reported.

In her expert opinion, Leonardo portrayed parts of the city of Lecco, on the shore of Lake Como in the Lombardy region of northern Italy, in his 16th-century masterpiece.

Pizzorusso claims she pinpointed the bridge, mountain range and lake featured in the painting’s background as Lecco’s Azzone Visconti bridge, built in the 14th century, the Alps which overlook the area and Lake Garlate, located south of the city.

Leonardo is known to have visited the area about 250 miles north of his home region of Florence about 500 years ago.

“I’m so excited about this. I really feel it’s a home run,” Pizzorusso told The Guardian.

She credited her knowledge of both geology and art for the findings, saying, “Geologists don’t look at paintings and art historians don’t look at geology.”

Using her knowledge of rocks, she also identified the greyish-white ones in the artwork, which was painted between 1503 and 1519 and now hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris, as limestone, which is prevalent in Lecco.



India’s Monsoon Rains a Fifth Below Normal So Far

Indian commuters use umbrellas during a hot afternoon in Kolkata, India, 14 June 2024. (EPA)
Indian commuters use umbrellas during a hot afternoon in Kolkata, India, 14 June 2024. (EPA)
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India’s Monsoon Rains a Fifth Below Normal So Far

Indian commuters use umbrellas during a hot afternoon in Kolkata, India, 14 June 2024. (EPA)
Indian commuters use umbrellas during a hot afternoon in Kolkata, India, 14 June 2024. (EPA)

India's monsoon has delivered a fifth less rain than normal so far this season, the weather department said on Monday, in a worrying sign for the vital agricultural sector.

Summer rains, critical to economic growth in Asia's third-largest economy, usually begin in the south around June 1 before spreading nationwide by July 8, allowing farmers to plant crops such as rice, cotton, soybeans, and sugarcane.

India has received 20% less rainfall than normal since June 1, according to data compiled by the state-run India Meteorological Department (IMD), with almost all regions except for a few southern states seeing shortfalls and some northwestern states experiencing heat waves.

The rain shortfall in soybean, cotton, sugarcane, and pulses-growing central India has risen to 29%, while the paddy-growing southern region received 17% more rainfall than normal due to the early onset of the monsoon, according to the data.

The northeast has received 20% less rainfall than normal so far, and the northwest some 68% less.

The lifeblood of the nearly $3.5-trillion economy, the monsoon brings nearly 70% of the rain India needs to water farms and refill reservoirs and aquifers.

In the absence of irrigation, nearly half the farmland in the world's second-biggest producer of rice, wheat and sugar depends on the annual rains that usually run until September.

"The monsoon's progress is stalled. It has weakened. But when it revives and becomes active, it can erase the rain deficit in a short burst," an IMD official told Reuters.

The official sought anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Heat wave conditions are likely to prevail in northern states for a few more days, but temperatures could start coming down from the weekend, the official added.

The maximum temperature in India's northern states is ranging between 42 and 47.6 degrees Celsius (107.6 to 117.7 degrees Fahrenheit), about 4-9 C above normal, the IMD data showed.