The three Mona Lisas
By: Rab Hatfield
Publisher: Officina Libraria; Officina Libraria srl
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Milano
Language: eng
Number of pages: 235
ISBN-13: 9788897737391
Copyright date: 2014
Subjects: Criticism and interpretation; Mona Lisa (Leonardo, da Vinci)
Description: "In this study Rab Hatfield provides a thorough, no-nonsense analysis of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa or La Gioconda. The book begins with a consideration of the generally known sources and documents and a careful look at the painting as we know it now. There follow discussions of rarely examined laboratory photographs and of a recently discovered annotation by Ser Agostino Vespucci in a book he owned of letters by Cicero, from which we learn that Leonardo left a portrait of "Lisa del Giocondo" unfinished no later than October 1503. The book concludes with a hitherto unknown letter written in 1515 by Filippo Strozzi to Lorenzo de' Medici, Captain General of the Florentine Armies and soon to become Duke of Urbino, describing some supposed advances these two men made to Mon(n)a Lisa. The laboratory photographs and newly discovered sources make it clear that the Mona Lisa has probably been reworked twice, that it in fact depicts Mon(n)a Lisa del Giocondo, and that it would be better if we spoke of it as La Gioconda rather than the Mona Lisa"--Cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-225) and index.