Alan Yentob tells the story of how the Mona Lisa came to be the most famous work of art in the world. It's a tale full of notoriety, glamour and intrigue as the Mona Lisa is abducted, vandalised and exploited across the centuries. With the help of leading scholars and original research Alan also finally solves the central mystery of the Mona Lisa - who she is and why she's smiling.
Spurned by the Venetians, Leonardo designs war machines for the bloodthirsty tyrant Cesare Borgia before returning to Florence, where his lifelong obsession with flight culminates in the design of a flying machine, which we build and test. But it is in Florence, while painting the Mona Lisa, that he becomes locked in a bitter rivalry with the sculptor Michelangelo, which will end in his undoing.
Learning his craft at the heart of the Renaissance movement in Florence, Leonardo survives arrest to win the patronage of the powerful tyrant Ludivico Sforza, Duke of Milan. While working for Sforza, he paints Madonna of the Rocks, works out why the sky is blue and becomes the first person to properly dissect a human body. He also becomes a practical engineer.
An exploration of the life of Leonardo da Vinci.
