Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered (2014) - Plot & Excerpts
I impulsively grabbed this book off the library new book shelf. Like Diane Hales, I have always had a fascination with this painting. My knowledge of art history as a child was limited to this and the Last Supper, which was always hanging up on a calendar in my grandma's kitchen, and many other grandma's kitchens. I thoroughly enjoyed this short book which is a personal musing about Lisa, Leonardo, and Renaissance era Florence. Diane Hales is fine writer whose prose flows effortlessly. She injects herself into the book appropriately, just enough to add interest to this amazing story. Now I just need to find a way to fly to Florence to see some of these antiquities... By using the lives of Mona Lisa and da Vinci to draw a transect across the last years of the renaissance in Florence, Hales has produced an excellent popular history. By being present in the story as a journalist she also tells the story of how she researched the work, and of the artifacts and memories of the time that reach into the 21st century.I am a Renaissance history enthusiast; but I learned new things from this book. The details that professional historians assume a journalist discovers with fresh eyes, and she lays them out as new jewels for fellow amateurs.Absolutely fascinating, especially for the student of women in the 16th century.
What do You think about Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered (2014)?
Loved this. Fun Read. Lets you know what is was like during the 1500's.
—Caleb
This was interesting conjecture delivered in a florid journalistic style.
—Tauria
Finally...I know who she is...was...is...and more!
—mich
