Il Ponte Vecchio

 

Joseph Moussa

 

2005  

watercolor with pen and ink detail 

13 1/8 x 11" image and paper size 

ink, lower right 

1 of 1 unique 

titled, dated "Firenze 2005", and copyrighted beneath signature; annotations in Italian, written backwards in "mirror writing" format, in the upper half of image 

 

Fabriano watercolor wove 

 

 

21965 

$400.00 

In the upper margin of this work the artist has written a lengthy annotation in Italian, in the "mirror script" format often associated with da Vinci (we've flipped the secondary image horizontally for readers to decipher). Da Vinci often wrote his personal notes in mirror script, which scholars sometimes consider his way of dealing with the left-handed individual's predicament of smudged ink and graphite. Indeed, with its lightly drawn geometric mapping, this image of the famous Italian bridge, straddling the river Arno, holds a few nods to da Vinci, as well as to Giacomo Andrea de Ferrara, the Renaissance architect often considered an influence of da Vinci's.