Just last year, an art historian announced that he had discovered the numbers 7 and 2 written on the bridge in the background of Leonardo's most famous painting. That announcement would have certainly sent many conspiracy theorists scurrying for their codebooks, convinced of the enormity of importance of two numbers signifying … what?
Now, another art historian has taken that one step further and connected the two numbers to an existing bridge. (What? No secret society? Well, it depends on how you look at it — perhaps.)Carla Glori, the most recent art historian, has announced her conclusion that the 7 and 2 are part of a year — 1472, to be exact. Glori is convinced that the bridge in the background of the painting is actually the bridge in Bobbio, Piacenza, which was nearly destroyed by flooding in — you guessed it, 1472.
So Leonardo incorporated a real bridge into the background of a portrait that he painted inside, during a number of sittings. But hey, he might have gone outside in between sittings (maybe even leaving his subject sitting patiently in the studio) and added the landscape. After all, he wouldn't have wanted the background to be blank. And that background probably wasn't pasted in there in a day, either.You'd think as well that the numbers 1 and 4 would be still hidden among the brushstrokes. We have not, as of yet, heard of such a discovery, nor do experts agree on who exactly is smiling that enigmatic smile in the painting. Is is Lisa del Giocondo? Is it Leonardo's imagining of himself in female form? Who knows? Many people care.
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