When Ann Pizzorusso looks at this beautiful painting by Leonardo da Vinci, she sees only rocks. Pizzorusso is a geologist-a scientist who studies the earth. To her, the rocks in this painting tell a story that art experts should hear.
This painting hangs in the National Gallery museum in London, England. A Da Vinci painting very much like it hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. Both are called Virgin of the Rocks.
For years art experts have argued about whether both were really painted by DaVinci, a great 15th century artist. Now Pizzorusso has joined the debate. She says Da Vinci would never have done rocks like the ones in the London painting.
While the rocks in the Paris painting are exactly like real sandstone cliffs, the rocks in the London painting look all wrong, says Pizzorusso. "They miss the point, geologically." The clifftops in the Paris painting are worn, showing the effects of weather and time. In the London painting, the rock has the same texture from top to bottom. It doesn't look like the sandstone Da Vinci would have seen in the parts of Italy he knew.
Da Vinci was not only a great artist but also a great scientist and nature lover. He made detailed sketches of plants, animals, the human body and the outdoors. Pizzorusso says he would never have done such bad rocks.
Does this mean the painting is a fake? Not necessarily. In Leonardo's day, artists often had students help them do their work. Perhaps the rocks were painted by a student, says Andrew Kemp, an art historian at Oxford University in England. But, he says, other parts of the painting, like the angel's face, are so beautiful, they are "just miraculous." No one but Leonardo could have pulled them off.
"]