An irresistible insight into the world as it looks through the eyes of the most famous painting of all time.
You know her name. You've seen her face. Now, hear her voice.
How long does a painting live for? How many people live and die as it remains ever watchful? Welcome to the dazzling world of Leonardo da Vinci's studio. It's bursting with genius imagination, hard graft, towering commissions and needling patrons, as well as discontented muses, friends (such as the amiable Raphael) and rivals (the aggressively brilliant Michelangelo).
A whirlwind of politics, money, intrigue and power surrounds this simple portrait of Lisa Gherardini and, over five hundred tumultuous years, we watch as she becomes sought-after, stolen and, finally, infamous. Except for a chosen few who can hear her voice, she surveys everything, silently, all the while.
Deliciously vivid and compulsive, I, MONA LISA is at once entertaining, illuminating and inquisitive, asking questions about the position of women, the morality of ownership and the power of the brushstroke.
Fiction: general and literary, The Arts
Paperback
Natasha Solomons
384 pages
H: 216mm W: 135mm Spine: 27mm
Weight: 379 grams