Mystery of Mona Lisa
QUESTION
There is a bridge and large body of water in the background of the Mona Lisa painting. Is this a real place?
The nature of the landscapes in the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci have long been debated. Most art historians believe they combine reality and fantasy.
In the background of the Mona Lisa, painted between 1503 and 1506, it’s clear that da Vinci is toying with perspective, presenting it from a bird’s-eye view.
People of Arezzo in the Val di Chiana, a valley in Tuscany, maintain their landscape is depicted in the Mona Lisa.
There is sound evidence for this. Among his many talents, da Vinci was a pioneering cartographer and is known to have mapped a great lake in the valley, which may be the one in the picture.
his map shows a large lake north to south in the valley. It’s been surmised that he assembled a series of imagined aerial vistas and sequenced them with his map to create the landscape.
The present-day appearance of the Val di Chiana is quite different to da Vinci’s time. Land reclamation over the centuries has left two small remnants of the original lake, Chiusi and Montepulciano, linked by the Passo alla Querce canal.
The fragment of a bridge depicted in the painting is said to be Ponte Buriano, a spectacular seven-arch stone bridge completed in 1277, that crosses the River Arno at Arezzo.
however, this is not universally accepted. In 2011, Italian art historian Carla Glori identified it as the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge) in the medieval town of Bobbio.
Also known as Ponte Gobbo (humpback bridge) or Ponte del Diavolo (Devil’s bridge), Glori contends that if you look closely at the painting you will see the arch on the right is damaged, which reflects the state of the bridge in 1472.
Various other theories have been proffered by art historians. Some have suggested da Vinci was depicting Lake Iseo in the Italian Alps, which explains the snow-capped mountains.
Da Vinci left us with a puzzle that may never be answered, only adding to the mystery and splendour of his work.
Carrie Woods, March, Cambs.
QUESTION Who was the first woman to play in a symphony orchestra?
hISToRICALLy, a woman’s ability to play a musical instrument would have been celebrated as a sign she was well bred. In the 19th century there were some fine female composers including Fanny Mendelssohn, Maddalena LombardiniSirmen and Clara Schumann.
In 1898, the first women’s orchestra was founded in Berlin by the conductor Mary Wurm, a former student of Schumann’s. It was another 15 years before women were to play in a symphony orchestra.
In 1913, the Queen’s hall orchestra in London, led by Sir henry Wood, founder of the henry Wood Promenade Concerts, which became The Proms, received 137 applications to fill six vacancies.
he hired six women: violinists Jessie Grim son, Dora Garland,e.M. Dudding and Jean Stewart, and viola players S. Maturin and Rebecca Clarke.
It was hailed as ‘mixed bathing in the sea of music’ by suffragette and composer ethel Smyth.
Fears that the women’s salaries would undercut those of the men were quashed when the hall’s manager Robert Newman ensured they were paid the same.
The breakthrough was not immediately followed by other orchestras. Sir Thomas Beecham complained about women performers: ‘A pretty one will distract the other musicians, and an ugly one will distract me.’
Sir hamilton harty, conductor of the halle orchestra, went as far as to purge the orchestra of women players who had joined during World War I.
In 1921, Wood affirmed his support of women musicians: ‘I shall never conduct an orchestra without them in the future . . . They have a great talent for the violin and a wonderful delicacy of touch . . . they are sincere, they do not drink and they smoke less than men.’
Mrs Diana speight, Bristol.
QUESTION When was Elvis Presley first called The King?
eARLy promoters used colourful phrases in their advertising to describe elvis, including ‘hillbilly Cat’, ‘Memphis Flash’ and ‘Atomic Powered Singer’.
It wasn’t until his popularity flourished following his 1956 national TV appearances and the release of heartbreak hotel that reporters began associating him with royalty.
The earliest known reference to elvis as The King comes from the Waco News Tribune in 1956, when reporter Bea Ramirez described him as ‘the 21-yearold king of the nation’s rock ’n’ roll set’.
The following day, in The Daily oklahoman, Jack Jones described elvis as ‘a king of the teenaged cats’.
Writing in the Memphis Press-Scimitar, Robert Johnson anointed elvis Presley with the title ‘king of rock ’n’ roll’.
on May 4, 1956, he described the audience reaction to an early Las Vegas appearance at the New Frontier hotel. In noting the more adult crowd wasn’t overwhelmed by elvis, Johnson wrote: ‘The applause was scattered. A cold audience and the fledgling king of rock ’n’ roll was in a foreign land.’
elvis was unhappy that he was called The King. During a Press conference following his opening in Las Vegas in 1969, he pronounced Fats Domino to be the real king of rock ’n’ roll. When people called him The King, he would respond with the words: ‘The only king is Jesus.’
Mark Finch, Maidenhead, Berks.
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