The Private Life of Mona Lisa

If you like history, this is the book for you.I enjoyed this one very much, it has a lot of good information, is well researched, in brief: it is a very smart novel.La Mure weaves masterfully the knowledge of history and art history in his tale, which is a reconstruction of Mona Lisa's life. The turbulent history of Medici Florence is described, you will know about the not so competent (to say mildly) French king's invasion, the costumes and fashion of the day,(yes, the ladies shaved their eye brows), the rule and intrigues of Medici clan (of course the papacy is involved too, as the Medici manipulated the church politics, their machinations are more interesting than conspiracy theories), Savanarola and bonfire of vanities, the expectations the society had relating to the gander roles and age, politics of the wool and silk trade, just to name some material. Of course, there is also Leonardo, and even though, as the other reviewer rightly pointed out, it is unlikely that he painted Mona Lisa for the Medici,it is a well constructed tale.Leonardo himself is shown in a kind of unflattering light, so, if you read about him as a candidate of being a head of a secret society (he is a very unlikely candidate),and secret codes in his art (in fact he was not coding more than others),you may be disapointed encountering Leonardo as a rather annoying procrastinator, the reality is shown here is this novel.Lets face it: according to what we know about him, he was a procrastinator.This is why he left only few pictures (Dan Brown made a mistake stating that he painted hundreds of pictures), this is why he never had a workshop like the other artists, even though he dreamed about Academia Vinciana.Some of his projects failed, and he was not able to achieve such good relations with his patrons as the others who delivered the work on time. This is of course not the only explanation why he was less respected than for ex. Rafael or others in Florence, but you get a good insight what a character he was in real life, and why his character might have contributed to his problems in life. My point is that the characterization of Leonardo is very well done, well researched, and of course refreshing in times in which we mythologize Leonardo so much.I think his real character may have been very much so, like described in this book. I recommend this book highly. The Private Life of Mona Lisa brings the reader to Renaissance Florence, and this a very vivid tale, so, in case you plan a trip to Florence, it will help you to visualize how the life was than. You will view this city with different eyes.(Don't forget to read Vasari's rather gossipy account of famous artists lives also, (he was a Renaissance artist himself).

It was not only entertaining but very informative and highly researched. I never knew so much of Italy in the Renaissance, of Leonardo da Vinci and Lisa de'Gherardini. It has also sparked an interest in me for the de Medici clan. Although the theory the work is based upon, that the Mona Lisa was painted for Guilio de Medici, and is of an old lover, is outdated, the book does not loose its historical significance. The work also made one think of the circle of life. I definetely recommend it for anyone with an interest in history.