Product Description

Painting Mona Lisa offers an explanation behind the mysteries surrounding da Vinci's famous portrait -- why did Leonardo keep the Mona Lisa with him until his death? An intricately woven tale of betrayal, love and loss, which unravels the mysteries surrounding da Vinci's most famous portrait. April 26, 1478. Giuliano de Medici, brother of Lorenzo the Magnificent, the head of the powerful Florentine Medici family, is assassinated. Ten years later, a young Lisa Gherardini listens to the story of Giuliano's death, unaware of the significance it holds for her future. Drawn into the Medici circle by her passion for the Arts, Lisa meets the Medici's most luminescent friend: da Vinci. Against the turbulent backdrop of Savonarola's Florence, the two become conspirators and eventually each other's saviours in this parallel love story of infinite twists.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #272386 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

Review
Praise for 'The Borgia Bride': 'Love, lust, incest and murder: this historical romance has it all.' The Mail on Sunday 'From sexual passion to mortal danger, the dramatic shift of real historical events will keep the reader turning the pages.' Philippa Gregory 'Corset-busting escapism.' The Sunday Times

About the Author
Jeanne Kalogridis was born in Florida in 1954. She earned a BA in Russian and an MA in Linguistics from the University of South Florida and went on to teach English as a Second Language at the American University in Washington, D.C. She now lives with her husband on the West Coast of the US, sharing a house with two dogs. Her interests include yoga, Buddhism, languages, art, and reading everything ever published.

Customer Reviews

extremely enjoyable
I got a taste for Jeanne Kalogridis after reading The Borgia Bride so I bought this book on the strength of that. The story follows the life of a young girl living in Florence during the late 1400/early 1500's. While the title and blurb gives the impression that the whole story revolves around Lisa and Leonardo da Vinci, it doesn't. It follows her through her first marriage with a man she loved and second marriage with a man she hates and her involvement in the secret plans to bring back an outlawed ruler. There are many twist, some that are quite expected and others that I would never have guessed. While based on fact this story is very very far off being a non-fiction story as there are crucial errors. Despite this I found the book extremely enjoyable.

A beautiful romp through history
After reading The Borgia Bride I was left with a taste for more of Jeanne Kalogridis, and Painting Mona Lisa certainly sated my appetite. Although not living up to The Borgia Bride, a book I just couldn't put down, Painting Mona Lisa was a brilliant book to escape with at the end of a long day. The characters were well formed, and certainly quite different to how they are painted (excuse the wordplay) in history. Overall I enjoyed the book and look forward to more from the author, my only worry being she has set such great expectations, I hope she can live up to them!

Good story, poor research!
I read the book in quickly and found the plot well constructed and the characters well portrayed. The writing swept me along and I was keen to find out how the story would be resolved. Jeanne Kalogridis has taken a very difficult time in Florentine history and has woven a fictional thread about it that simplifies and makes understandable the politics of the time. I thought it a great shame that whilst she probably spent a lot of time researching Savanorola and the Medici family she did not spend as much time on the history of Florence. The Santa Trinita bridge is a main route used by many characters in the book to get from one side of Florence to the other. The bridge was built between 1567 to 1569; the action of the book starts in 1478! Being aware of this made me wonder how accurate the rest of the historical backdrop was. I am not nitpicking; I think if you set out to write a book using people from history then the least you should do is to get your facts right. If you like a good story, with good twists and turns, a love interest, a bit of history and famous artists then you would probably enjoy this. If you want historical accuracy then I think you should avoid this.