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页面提取自-TheEconomistUK June182022mona Lisa
页面提取自-TheEconomistUK June182022mona Lisa
Addis, definitely you can change Ethiopia,”
he remarked in an early interview. Glossy Artistic mysteries
promotional videos depict the renovation
scheme as a symbol of national unity. In
The other da Vinci code
the runup to elections last year, in which
FLO RE NCE
the ruling party won over 90% of the seats
Where did the “Mona Lisa” smile?
contested, state media broadcast drone
footage of the revamped city at the top of
the evening news. “Abiy believes that pub
lic spaces and monuments create the im
F or centuries, two of the most in
triguing questions about Leonardo da
Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” were “Who?” and
that keenly interested him at the time.
According to this theory, da Vinci repre
sented the area not as it was, but as, in an
age of the Ethiopian state which he wants “When?” A discovery made at Heidelberg unrealised scheme, he intended it to be.
to project to his citizens and to the world,” University in 2005 pretty much an Mr Cotte, who was asked by the Lou
says a former adviser. swered both. A note written in a manu vre (where the “Mona Lisa” hangs) to
To grasp the kind of image he has in script in the library confirmed the ac create a digital image of the painting, is
mind, compare it with the style of the count of da Vinci’s first biographer, the inventor of the multispectral camera:
eprdf, Abiy’s Marxistinspired predeces Giorgio Vasari: that the sitter was a mer a device that can detect not only the
sors. They viewed the city in essentially chant’s wife, Lisa Gherardini. The note drawing below the surface of an oil
functional terms; their flagship urban pro also helped date the masterpiece to painting, but also, where they exist,
jects were mostly largescale bits of infra between 1503 and 1506. intermediate layers of work. It was
structure such as housing estates and a A third conundrum—“Where?”—is among these, under what appears to be a
lightrail system. Aesthetic concerns were still in dispute. But on June 3rd a French pointed rock, that he found a preparatory
secondary. Alula Tesfay Asfha of the Uni engineer, Pascal Cotte, declared that he sketch showing that da Vinci intended it
versity of Tsukuba notes the constructivist and a collaborator had identified the to represent a castellated tower.
style of the period, in which buildings landscape in the background of the The landscape of the “Mona Lisa” also
were designed to a minimum standard and painting. Arguments had previously includes a huge overhanging precipice.
aimed to cater to as many people as possi been made for stretches of countryside That is similar to one that da Vinci in
ble. In practice this often meant drab high in the Marche region and between Milan cluded in a sketch of a fortress contested
rises built with cheap aluminium frames. and Genoa. During a presentation in by Pisa and Florence in the war that
Abiy’s priorities are very different. His Vinci, near Florence, Mr Cotte contended flared between them in 1503 (around the
ruling Prosperity Party has ditched the that the artist was more plausibly de time he was painting Gherardini). The
stateled economics of the eprdf for a picting a part of his native Tuscany—one fortress with the nearby precipice—and a
more liberal, consumerist kind of capital tower, known as the Caprona tower—all
ism. In this new orientation, outward ap overlook the river Arno as it snakes from
pearances matter. Asked about the flowers Florence to Pisa. All three also feature in
placed along the road to the airport, Abiy drawings made by da Vinci to illustrate a
once said that “A mind that doesn’t see a plan about which, says Mr Cotte, he
good thing will not create a good thing.” In became “obsessive”.
a recent televised meeting he berated offi This involved diverting the Arno to
cials for neglecting to promote a uniform cut off Pisa’s water supply and give Flor
colour for buildings in the city. Since then ence an outlet to the Mediterranean. In
its administration has ordered them to be the early 1500s, with the two citystates at
painted in one of 13 shades of grey. war, the idea was under active consider
ation. Mr Cotte argues that a channel
The emperor’s new roads winding through desolate countryside at
For Abiy, an evangelical Christian, the the right of the “Mona Lisa” is too wide to
beautification may have a religious dimen be a road, as some have speculated, and
sion, too. Tekalign Nega of the Ethiopian is instead the driedup bed of the Arno as
Graduate School of Theology argues that da Vinci envisaged it once his plan had
the stress on urban aesthetics reflects the been adopted.
tenets of the prosperity gospel, in which It never was. But if Mr Cotte’s theory is
earthly splendour and divine favour are right, it might just explain why Gherardi
closely entwined. A clean and shiny Addis ni, a Florentine, wears such a contented,
Ababa, according to this way of thinking, is Look behind her if inscrutable, smile.
a step on the road to both heaven and a
peaceful, prosperous Ethiopia. “It’s about
giving you a foretaste of what is about to “These changes are necessary.” obsessive city management as befitting a
come,” Tekalign says. Others, though, worry about warped mere mayor. Equally, though, it suggests a
Yet it has provoked mixed reactions priorities. The first phase of the redesign much grander precedent. When Haile Se
from Ethiopians. Few question the value of was estimated to have cost $1bn. As Abiy lassie saw the marble plaques installed in
more and better used public spaces. The has pointed out when asked about his Africa Hall, the first seat of the African Un
land beneath Sheger Park, for instance, had plans, much of the cash is from private ion, he ordered the removal of the names
languished for years. Many architects and sources or overseas (China and the United of all the officials involved in its construc
urban planners appreciate their newfound Arab Emirates). But Ethiopian taxpayers tion except his own. “What have they
status. Recently the government opened a are on the hook too, even as their conflict done?” he is said to have asked. Abiy was
swanky urbandesign centre; it is holding hit economy collapses. “The public must recently revealed to be following in his pre
competitions for major public develop have a say in it,” grumbles Simon Chernet, decessor’s footsteps by building himself a
ments. “The city was sleeping,” says Sofo a 25yearold resident of the capital. luxurious new palace. He seems to have a
niyas Solomon, a finalist in one of them. Some disparage the prime minister’s similar sense of his own place in history. n
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