“There’s this genuine sense that he is leaving something intangible, ineffable, unsaid” So, to have this sort of painting of a bourgeois woman and for it to become famous almost immediately is extraordinary. They were of interest inherently because of the value, status or public profile of the person who is being portrayed. The portrait is extraordinary because, at that time particularly, portraits were portraits. In reading the book, I found myself thinking that you could say something similar about Leonardo da Vinci himself. This relatively humble soil was able to give root to this extraordinary flower. The fact that the Mona Lisa in some ways was the product of an unspectacular, almost mundane middle class Renaissance milieu, makes the cultural phenomenon of the painting that much more remarkable. So, there is a genuine element of mystery which he has contrived. There’s this genuine sense that he is leaving something intangible, ineffable, unsaid. There Leonardo’s technique induces a sense that we think we can see more than we can. There is also an important element of mystery which is embedded in the picture, that is to say the ultimate unknowingness of the beloved woman. From people I called ‘Leonardo Loonies’, I get sent letters probably every week saying they’ve really cracked the secret of the Mona Lisa, ranging from alligators in the landscape to Persian messages of Nostradamus’ prophecies hidden in the painting. Obviously, the publicity of Leonardo cannot dodge Dan Brown and The Da Vinci Code.

The facts speak for themselves, and they lead us to some very grounded conclusions about the painting, and also about Leonardo. I love this passage! Which summarises so well the spirit of the book. And yet, almost as a final punctuation in your closing paragraph, you state that “There is one Mona Lisa. Of course, an air of mystery is perhaps fitting for a book with a subject like Leonardo da Vinci, whose life and work are suffused with myth and speculation.

The press release announces boldly that we’re to learn the secrets at the heart of the world’s most iconic work of art.

Foreign Policy & International Relationsįirstly, congratulations on your Leonardo da Vinci book in collaboration with Giuseppe Pallanti.

Leonardo da vinci biography book