Becoming Mona Lisa : The Making of a Global Icon

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Her smile, eyes, and forehead have fascinated centuries of art lovers and common Joes; but what is the secret of the Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci's Louvre masterpiece? University of London history professor Donald Sassoon thinks that he knows some of the answers, but to find out what they are, you have to read his enthralling 350-page chronicle.

Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, the perennial favorite of visitors to Paris' Louvre and probably the most famous work of art in the world, has been the object of so much study, fable and parody that it's hard to believe nobody ever thought of writing this book before. Sassoon tells the story of Leonardo's masterpiece, distinguishing what's known about the artist and his quirkily smiling model (is she smiling?) from the wild conjecture the painting has generated over the years. Starting out as the undistinguished (some would say not even very pretty) wife of a wealthy merchant in sixteenth-century Florence, Italy, Lisa Gherardini—with the help of a genius—became a national emblem in Napoleonic France, then a femme fatale in the nineteenth century and a keeper of dark secrets in Freud's twentieth, and has ended up the despised-yet-adored symbol of art itself in contemporary culture. Like a pop superstar, she seems to have successfully reinvented herself to suit every changing fashion for 500 years—though, of course, it is we who have ceaselessly reinvented her.
—Eric Wargo

Library Journal

No one can dispute the importance of the mural, titled Cenacolo, that Da Vinci painted in the refectory of a small church in Milan, Italy. In approaching one of the most copied creations in history, Steinberg (The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art) analyzes previous scholarship and reconsiders the geometry, narrative, and composition of the original while examining the thousands of copies made during the last five centuries. Among the notable observations here is the author's confrontation of a notion that he says has "tyrannized" the literature on the mural: that the picture freezes a single moment. Steinberg convincingly argues that the "moment" has more duration than previously was thought. Another fascinating chapter is devoted to the role and meaning of the hands and feet in the picture. This is an important addition to Da Vinci studies, and scholars, students, and serious lay readers with an interest in the Last Supper or the evolution of Western art will be rewarded by time spent with this volume. Highly recommended for any art collection. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

On the eve of its 500th anniversary (in 2003), the story of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Is it the world's greatest painting, as well as the most famous? Curators at the Louvre, where the Mona Lisa is displayed, don't like such labels, states Sassoon (History/Univ. of London; 100 Years of Socialism, 1997); in fact, the painting is a mixed blessing for the museum. Despite strict prohibitions, visitors insist on photographing it, and under no circumstances can it be withdrawn from display, for fear of public outcry. Many visitors are interested in no other work of art. The Mona Lisa is universally recognized, revered, distorted, and parodied. But unlike Mickey Mouse, it is clearly a product of high culture, part of the accepted canon of art and much admired in Leonardo's time. Sassoon discusses the artist's innovative use of sfumato, a technique that gives a "smoky" texture to backgrounds and an aura of mystery to eyes. The lady's mystery is further enhanced by her uncertain identity, which art historians have never pinned down. Why does she smile? Sassoon suggests that Leonardo provided entertainment for his model as she posed, but still the enigma of that smile, what she knows that you will never know, cannot be explained. In Napoleonic France she was seen as a bold new republican, casting off the pretensions of nobility, looking at you frankly and directly. Almost simultaneously, English and French writers began canonizing her: she was a courtesan, perhaps, or Leonardo's plain-clothes Madonna, or both. Then, reproduced in engravings, her fame spread worldwide; by the 20th century she was being used to sell cosmetics, chocolate, champagne, wigs, coffee, motorcycles, olives,cigars, and false teeth. There may be more information here than most readers want, but Sassoon admirably summarizes the famous lady's mysterious past.