Did DaVinci tell her “SMILE, MY LADY” ?
[With some insights about Lady Lisa, gleaned during the summer trip to Italy.]
It was the strangest creole version of English I’ve ever heard- a young black couple got into the Trenitalia coach and started off very animated conversation. I closed down the book I’s reading as there’s more interesting stuff to listen to. The brain strained and stretched trying to decode their English, while pretending to enjoy the Tuscan landscape in shimmering summer heat. Then I pulled out the mp3 player and pretending to listen to the music, recorded bits of that for brain-teaser-fun with friends. It reminded me of the fun I had reading Bill Bryson’s “Mother Tongue” about the origin, history, growth, diversity and tons of trivia about English, when he mentioned about a creole (in Papua New Guinea, I guess) in which “gras-belong-fes” is the word for beard!. : ))
About an hour after I boarded the train from Pisa to Firenze (Florence), it reached Empoli, modern industrialised town 32km W of Firenze. If I had one more day to spare, I would have got down there to head for Vinci town, supposed to be on a picteresque vine- and olive-planted hill-slope 10km N of Empoli. Apr 15, 1452, Leonardo was born in Anchiano nearby Vinci.
Abt 30km south of Firenze in Tuscany province is Villa Vignamaggio, set amidst formal Italian gardens at the centre of a beautiful old estate founded by the Gherardini family in the 14th c. In 1479, Antonio Maria Gherardini celebrated the birth of a new baby, Lisa, at Vignamaggio. It’s believed that, around the age of 24, Lisa sat for a portrait by Leonardo, one of Tuscany's most celebrated artists of the day, shortly after her marriage to the wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo. The likeness famously captured the smile of La Gioconda, whose noble title was "Ma Donna Lisa"(My Lady)- Shortened to Monna Lisa or Mona Lisa.
[See the tag-plate of Mona Lisa at the Louvre below]
It was the strangest creole version of English I’ve ever heard- a young black couple got into the Trenitalia coach and started off very animated conversation. I closed down the book I’s reading as there’s more interesting stuff to listen to. The brain strained and stretched trying to decode their English, while pretending to enjoy the Tuscan landscape in shimmering summer heat. Then I pulled out the mp3 player and pretending to listen to the music, recorded bits of that for brain-teaser-fun with friends. It reminded me of the fun I had reading Bill Bryson’s “Mother Tongue” about the origin, history, growth, diversity and tons of trivia about English, when he mentioned about a creole (in Papua New Guinea, I guess) in which “gras-belong-fes” is the word for beard!. : ))
About an hour after I boarded the train from Pisa to Firenze (Florence), it reached Empoli, modern industrialised town 32km W of Firenze. If I had one more day to spare, I would have got down there to head for Vinci town, supposed to be on a picteresque vine- and olive-planted hill-slope 10km N of Empoli. Apr 15, 1452, Leonardo was born in Anchiano nearby Vinci.
Abt 30km south of Firenze in Tuscany province is Villa Vignamaggio, set amidst formal Italian gardens at the centre of a beautiful old estate founded by the Gherardini family in the 14th c. In 1479, Antonio Maria Gherardini celebrated the birth of a new baby, Lisa, at Vignamaggio. It’s believed that, around the age of 24, Lisa sat for a portrait by Leonardo, one of Tuscany's most celebrated artists of the day, shortly after her marriage to the wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo. The likeness famously captured the smile of La Gioconda, whose noble title was "Ma Donna Lisa"(My Lady)- Shortened to Monna Lisa or Mona Lisa.
[See the tag-plate of Mona Lisa at the Louvre below]
posted by Sujith at 10:40 PM
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