Leonardo

Based on entirely fresh primary research. Leonardo presents important new information and perspectives on one of the most interesting men and greatest geniuses of all time. The following are only a few of the new and controversial findings offered by Payne in this highly readable book. The portrait of a bearded man universally accepted as a self-portrait is actually a drawing of Leonardo''s father. The subject of the Mona Lisa was not the wife of a merchant but the Duchess of Milan -- among the illustrations in the book are two earlier, seldom-seen Mona Lisas. Leonardo was not the son of a peasant woman, as it is generally thought he was, but of a high-born woman. Payne paints an extraordinarily convincing picture of Leonardo not only as a giant of his age, but also as a man, human, real, simple and natural. Besides dispelling many myths about him, the author places his subject realistically in his own time -- the summit of the Italian Renaissance with its wars and sudden upheavals, its unsurpassed artists and architects, its ambitious and often warring princes. This is a meticulously accurate book which reads like a swiftly paced novel. Robert Payne, author of some of the most widely read biographies of our day, now brings us a new and fascinating portrayal of Leonardo da Vinci. This is the third volume of our recently released Robert Payne Library series.