The Mona Lisa Myth: How new discoveries unlock the final mystery of the world's most famous painting - Paperback

by Christopher Heath Brown (Author), Jean-Pierre Isbouts (Author)

Following the announcement of another Mona Lisa portrait by Leonardo da Vinci, held in a Swiss bank vault for over 40 years, this book is the first to analyze the meaning of this astonishing discovery, and how it radically changes our understanding of the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. By tracing Leonardo's movements in Florence on an almost day-to-day basis, Drs. Isbouts and Brown are able to reconstruct the fascinating chronology of the Mona Lisa portrait, and show how the subject ultimately became an obsession in the latter part of Leonardo's life. The authors posit that whereas the Swiss Mona Lisa is clearly a portrait drawn from life of a young Florentine woman, the Louvre Mona Lisa is the culmination of Leonardo's lifelong quest for the mystery of motherhood, as expressed in his more than ten paintings of the Madonna motif. Written as narrative history, yet grounded in modern scholarship, The Mona Lisa Myth not only shatters the portrait's mythology, but also offers a bold new interpretation of the world's most famous painting that will revolutionize our understanding of Leonardo life and work.

Author Biography

Dr. Jean-Pierre Isbouts is an acclaimed art historian and graduate professor at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California. His bestselling books on art and archaeology include National Geographic's The Biblical World (2007) and In the Footsteps of Jesus (2012). Dr. Christopher Heath Brown is an Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon who practices in North Carolina. His experience in cosmetically and functionally reconstructing the faces of many patients enables him to analyze the Mona Lisa portrait from an entirely fresh perspective.