Mona Lisa:
A Life Discovered
A genius immortalized her. A French king paid a fortune for her. An emperor coveted her. Every year millions of visitors trek to view her portrait in the Louvre. Yet while everyone recognizes her smile, no one knows her story. Meet the woman who became the most famous artistic subject of all time.
Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered blends biography, history and memoir to introduce Mona (Madame) Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo—daughter of Florence, woman of the Renaissance, wife, mother and muse. Intrigued by new findings confirming the identity of Leonardo’s model, Dianne Hales set off on a personal quest for the flesh-and-blood woman in the world’s most praised and parodied painting.
Who was this ordinary woman who rose to such extraordinary fame? Why did the most renowned painter of her time choose her as his model? What became of her? And why does her smile enchant us still?
Mona Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, a quintessential woman of her times, was caught in a whirl of political upheavals, family dramas and public scandals. Descended from ancient nobles, she was born and baptized in Florence in 1479. Wed to a truculent businessman twice her age, she gave birth to six children and died at age sixty-three in 1542.
Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered transports readers to the squalid street where Lisa was born, traces her colorful family history and captures the tumult and pageantry of Renaissance Florence. Her story creates an extraordinary tapestry of daily life in a city bursting into fullest bloom and a culture that redefined the possibilities of man—and of woman.
Praise

Headlines
“Go Away with…Dianne Hales” (Chicago Tribune)
“Book Brahmin: Dianne Hales,” Shelf Awareness
The Life of Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, the (Most Likely) Real ‘Mona Lisa’ (The Daily Beast)
Mona Lisa Mania: Our Bizarre Infatuation with That ‘Happy Woman’ (Biographile)
5 Things You Never Knew about Mona Lisa (Metro U.S.)
The 10 Worst Things That Happened to Mona Lisa (Huffington Post)
Tuscan Traveler’s Picks—A New Book on the Life of Mona Lisa
How Mona Lisa’s Smile Led to Love Affairs and Suicides (New York Post)
Mona Lisa: Bay Area Author Finds the Woman Behind the Smile (L’Italo-Americano)
Can Mona Lisa Rest in Peace? (Huffington Post)
The Real Mona Lisa Turns 535 (Huffington Post)
A CNN Summer Entertainment Guide best book
One of USA Today’s 30 “hottest titles this season”
A BBC Book of the Week!
A Library Journal nonfiction top pick for August 2014
Featured Alternate of the History Book Club, Book of the Month Club, BOMC2,
Military Book Club, Scientific American Book Club, and Quality Paperback Book Club

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