Mona Lisa and Leonardo

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519), is one of the most brilliant people who has ever lived, the paradigm of Renaissance genius. Captivated by the remarkable combination of Da Vinci’s artistic talent and scientific genius, López Rosetti has spent more than twenty years researching and studying his work.

Basing his narrative on neuroscientific insights into the nature of genius and creativity and employing a fictional device, the author lets the Mona Lisa, the protagonist of Da Vinci’s most famous painting, speak. She is intimately involved with his creative work from the very first brushstroke and she assumes the task of revealing Leonardo’s backstory and the historical and cultural characteristics of his time. The Mona Lisa, who accompanies Da Vinci up until his final days in the castle of Clos-Lucé, France, comes to life and, from her privileged perspective, reveals the intimate personal traits that characterized this extraordinary and complex figure, whose anatomical studies revolutionized the history of art and anticipated many later discoveries of medical science.