Painting Mona Lisa aka I, Mona Lisa

A Conversation with Jeanne Kalogridis

Could you tell us a little bit about your background and when you decided that you wanted to lead a literary life?

I was a shy, scrawny, unpopular kid with frizzy hair and thick glasses; since I had no social life, I read. I adored dark fantasy and science fiction, and I was writing my own stories as soon as I could hold a pencil. My mom and sisters were always dragging me to the mall on weekends, so while they shopped, I hung in the local bookstore. I think the defining moment for me came when I picked up a copy of Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man in a Waldenbooks. His writing was so beautiful, so lyrical… I decided then I wanted to write like that.

“Of course, I had heard of The Da Vinci Code-who hasn”t?’

Who are some of your favorite authors?

Margaret Atwood, Angela Carter, Philippa Gregory, Tracy Chevalier, and Chuck Palahniuk.

Is there a book that most influenced your life or inspired you to become a writer?

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury. And his The Martian Chronicles. When I worked on my first novel, I bought new copies of those books and consciously tried to imitate his style.

You have already authored a historical novel about Renaissance Italy, The Borgia Bride. What was the inspiration for I, Mona Lisa?

Italy at the turn of the sixteenth century is pure gold for an author. The times were turbulent, the advances in the art world amazing, the characters mesmerizing. I fell in love with the period while writing The Borgia Bride. When I started reading about Renaissance Florence, I realized I had to write a novel set there. Of course, I had heard of The Da Vinci Code-who hasn’t? In every bookstore, Mona Lisa’s eyes were staring at me. I began to wonder about the woman who had posed for Leonardo’s painting. The more I read about her, the more intrigued I became.

Do you scrupulously adhere to historical fact in your novels, or do you take liberties if the story can benefit from the change?

I scrupulously adhere to historical fact. If a fact is recorded, I don’t contradict it. I do take liberties in writing possible scenes behind the scenes, and in giving the characters motivation to explain their actions. We can never really know what the characters were thinking or what they really intended; that’s where fiction enters the story.

And to what extent did you stick to the facts in writing I, Mona Lisa? How did you conduct your research?

Let me answer the second question first. While I rely on the Internet, I don’t trust everything I read online-I use the Web to direct me to published experts on the topic. Then it’s off to a bookstore or a university library, where I usually check out thirty or forty titles on my subject.

Now, for the first question: I was forced to speculate more while writing I, Mona Lisa for the simple reason that little is known about Lisa Gherardini. While I adhered to my historical time line-to the very day, where the Medici and other historical figures were involved-I took advantage of the freedom offered by Lisa’s relative anonymity. This allowed me to involve her in a conspiracy.

“We’ve seen the Mona Lisa’s image so often that we dont’t really see it anymore.”

What is it about Mona Lisa that you hoped to reveal to your readers?

We’ve seen the Mona Lisa’s image so often that we don’t really see it anymore. It’s been copied so inelegantly so many times that she now seems homely, even mannish. If you look at a fine print of the original and try to forget all the cartoonish rendering of it, you’ll begin to see the breathtaking beauty of the woman who posed for it.

I wanted people to lose their jaded reaction to that person. I would like them to realize that they’re looking at a five-hundred-year-old image of a real woman who left her session with Leonardo and lived a real life.

Why do you think readers are so drawn to historical fiction?

Because history is fascinating-and fact is often stranger than fiction. Also, readers of historical fiction love to learn, and this permits us to do so in a very enjoyable way.

What do you see when you look at the Mona Lisa? Please share a few thoughts about your reaction to da Vinci’s famous portrait.

As I mentioned above, when you stare at a fine print of the original-I have one, and I stared at it every day that I worked on the novel-you begin to see the woman’s true beauty. And you see how fine and elegant and tender Leonardo’s rendering was. She literally melts into the shadows. But bear in mind that we are looking at a painting that, sadly, is distorted by an ugly yellow film and was retouched by insensitive “artists” over the centuries. I read Vasari’s comments about the painting, written fifty years after Mona Lisa was painted. He describes the fresh bloom of pink on Lisa’s lips, the blush on her cheeks, the vein in her neck that seems almost to be beating. He speaks of the very pores from which her eyebrows emerge. All of those details have been lost, but when I look at the portrait now, I try to imagine them.

Who are some of your favorite historical figures?

My namesake, Joan (in French, Jeanne) of Arc-yes, she was deluded, but she kicked butt and made a man a king. I read a lot of biographies of strong women when I was growing up; I admired Marie Curie, Elizabeth Blackwell (first female M.D. in the U.S.), Elizabeth I, Boudicca (who gave the Imperial Roman army a run for its money), Jane Addams, and Susan B. Anthony.

There are, of course, fascinating men. I always adored Leonardo because he was passionately interested in everything and pursued knowledge without the encumbrance of a formal education. Vlad the Impaler is another favorite of mine, for much grislier reasons, as is Cesare Borgia.

“While I adhered to my historical time line-to the very day, where the Medici and other historical figures were involved-I took advantage of the freedom offered by Lisa’s relative anonymity.”

Are you currently working on another book? And if so, what-or who-is your subject?

Yes, I’m working on The Bloodiest Queen, a novel about Catherine de’ Medici. When I was working on I, Mona Lisa, I became fascinated by the Medici family, and so did some extracurricular reading. Catherine was a brilliant, shrewd, strong woman who overcame a horrific childhood to become queen of France. I was immediately drawn to her for three reasons: first, she is arguably the most capable, intelligent person ever to rule France; second, she is blamed for the worst bloodshed in French history, the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre; and third, she was obsessed by the occult and an intimate of Nostradamus.