What has made the Mona Lisa the most famous picture in the world? Why is it that, of all the 6,000 paintings in the Louvre, it is the only one to be exhibited in a special box, set in concrete and protected by two sheets of bulletproof glass? Why do thousands of visitors throng to see it every day, ignoring the masterpieces which surround it? For nearly 500 years the painting - and the mysterious smile on the face of the sitter - has been a source of mystery, speculation and reverence. In this book Donald Sassoon describes not only the Mona Lisa and its history, but its mythology, and the processes which combined to raise it to its current unrivalled level of fame. He examines Leonardo's innovative techniques; the problems concerning the identity of the sitter; what happened after to the painting after it left Italy when Leonardo joined King Francois I's court in France; the copies made in the 17th century; its celebration by 19th-century intellectuals; and its theft. A narrative history of how Leonardo da Vinci's painting of the Mona Lisa came to be the most famous in the world - and one of the most powerful cultural icons of our time.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
Possibly the world's most famous single work of art, Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece has long haunted imaginations and inspired admiration. This is a narrative history of the unique work, which attempts to explain why the Mona Lisa has achieved quite the fame and status that it has: in the Louvre it is the only painting exhibited in a specially secure box, and now has its own room. Sassoon looks at various aspects of the painting's history, such as the innovative techniques used in its creation, the questions over the identity of the sitter, its subsequent history and copies, its theft, its appropriation by the surrealists then the advertising industry, and so on. With such a vast amount of information, conjecture and detail to draw on, Sassoon's book does the subject proud, being both well informed and entertaining. His study is well produced and strikingly illustrated. Ultimately, however, it must be said that the more the Mona Lisa is dissected as a cultural phenomenon, the further we are from understanding just why it is so 'special' to so many. That appeal remains as elusive and enigmatic as its famous smile.
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
Illustrationen
24 col plates, With index
Maße
Höhe: 222 mm
Breite: 141 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-00-710614-1 (9780007106141)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
Donald Sassoon is Professor of History at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London. He is author of several books, including Contemporary Italy: Politics, Economy and Society Since 1945 and One Hundred Years of Socialism (Fontana 1997).
