Mona Lisa: The People and the Painting

by Martin Kemp, Giuseppe Pallanti

Read this book and the world's most famous image will never look the same again. For the world's greatest cultural icon still has secrets to reveal - not the silly secrets that the 'Leonardo loonies' continue to advance, but previously unknown facts about the lives of Leonardo, his father, Lisa Gherardini, the subject of the portrait, and her husband Francesco del Giocondo. From this factual beginning we see how the painting metamorphosed into a 'universal picture' that became the prime vehicle for Leonardo's prodigious knowledge of the human and natural worlds.
We learn about the new money of the ambitious merchant who married into the old gentry of Lisa's family. We discover Lisa's life as a wife and mother, her association with sexual scandals, and her later life in a convent. We meet, for the first time, the illegitimate Leonardo's real mother and find out where he was really born. The tiny hill town of Vinci is placed before us, with its widespread poverty. We find out about the career and possessions of his father, a notable lawyer in Florence.
The meaning of the portrait that resulted from these human circumstances is vividly illuminated though Renaissance love poetry and verses specifically dedicated to Leonardo. We come to understand how Leonardo's sciences of optics, psychology, anatomy and geology are embraced in his poetic science of art. Recent scientific examinations of the painting disclose how it evolved to assume its present appearance in Leonardo's experimental hands.
Above all, we cut though the suppositions and the myths to show that the portrait is a product of real people in a real place at a real time. This is the book that brings back a sense of reality into the creation of the portrait of Lisa del Giocondo. And the actual Mona Lisa, it turns out, is even more astonishing and transcendent than the Mona Lisa of legend.

Genres: Art History, Art

304 pages, Hardcover

Published June 8, 2017

About the author

Martin Kemp is professor of the History of Art at Oxford University, and the author of many books including The Science of Art, Visualizations and the recent Leonardo. He is also a frequent contributor to Nature, the international science journal, where he writes on science and art. Together with Antonio Criminisi, he wrote an article in NEW 1_2005: "Paolo Uccello's 'Battle of San Romano': Order from Chaos" is the most recent report on how they apply 3D graphic techniques to the process of art history investigation.

Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[luis cornejo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent work about such an iconic painting. Not a book for beginners in the Leonardo’s universe or for those who are looking for “misteries” alla Dan Brown.
It rather takes us to the real lives of the protagonists around the painting. What I liked the most was the large amount of Information of those who surrounded Leonardo (Lisa and Francesco del Giocondo, Leonardo’s parents, the circumstances in which they lived 500 years ago...). I really enjoyed it and learned a lot.

[reveurdart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent scholarship and recommended for readers who want factual information about the real people behind the painting, supported by footnotes and pictures throughout.

Previously unknown informations are unearthed in this book. It covers a lot of diverse details and knowledge previously hidden, like Leonardo da Vinci's mother Caterina for example.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Il libro avvincente ma realistico che, grazie a due studiosi seri, mette fine a tante speculazioni e, con studi d'archivio e metodo scientifico, ristabilisce e scopre la realtà. Offre anche inediti angoli d'interpretazione sulla Monna Lisa, come nel capitolo sulla poesia contemporanea a Leonardo che è illuminante per capire la magia della figura rappresentata nel quadro. Strano che non sia stato ancora tradotto e pubblicato in italiano. Consigliatissimo!!

[Pierre Sabourin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tout ce que vous voulez savoir sur la Joconde, avec preuves à l’appui, y est décrit. Le spectre des connaissances présentées est impressionnant. A la fois les adresses à Florence ou les protagonistes vivaient, les liens avec les écrivains de l’antiquité et de la renaissance, les expériences scientifiques de Léonard, et les plus récentes analyses du tableau.

L’analyse de l’identification de la mère de Léonard, Caterina, est très intéressante et convaincante. Remet en question la Casa natale à Anchiano et les théories d’esclave.

La description détaillée, avec témoignages, du vol par Peruggia est de l’ordre du roman policier.

[Alberto · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly disappointing. I don’t know why but I keep finding Martin Kemp’s books increasingly overrated.

[Mary D'Alto · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was absolutely wonderful! The subject matter was my College Major, so of course I was intrigued from the start. Superbly written, wonderfully presented, this is a book to read again and again.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book was informative but not what I was expecting.