Why not Pizza?

Look! Mona Lisa is eating pizza. Of course: they are both quintessentially Italian. What could be more appropriate? Well, stickler that I am, I recall that Mona Lisa lived just exactly at the time of Columbus. Tomatoes, chili peppers, bell peppers -- all garnishing the slice in her hand -- are from the New World. They took years, even centuries, to become European favorites. So her pizza was very different -- if she had pizza. But that's the thing about the image of Mona Lisa. It has meanings all its own, and when you see it on a restaurant sign -- it means what it means.

These photos are new illustrations of what I was saying in earlier posts: Mona Lisa: Renaissance Pasta or, What Did Mona Lisa Eat? and What Mona Lisa Didn't Eat