Tigress Mom

Posted: December 5, 2011 in Daily Briefing

Looking to meet a fascinating woman? Elizabeth Lev, an American art historian who lives in Rome, is ready to make an introduction. She’s a Renaissance countess named Caterina, and Lev’s intimate portrait of her, The Tigress of Forli: Renaissance Italy’s Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de’ Medici, is as riveting as any novel. But Sforza is no fictional creation. Rather, she is a woman of culture and politics who left one Signor Machiavelli none too happy and whose likeness can be found in the Sistine Chapel. Lev talked to National Review Online’s Kathryn Jean Lopez about her dear friend, whom she’d love for you to get to know. (She’ll explain, and leave you wanting more.)

Keep reading this post . . .

Anne Greve

MAGDALENA SOEST OFFERS THE MONA LISA CODE

Using methods of research which follow previously untrodden paths Magdalena Soest offers a novelly researched biography of Caterina Sforza. The exceptionally gifted author delves into the life of that most fascinating figure of the Italian Renaissance, brings her person to life. Caterina’s relationship to Leonardo is portrayed in a subtle way, and the artist, who had painted Caterina’s portrait in order to retain it permanently in his possession, emerges from Soest’s work with a new light drawn on his life and personality.

Anne Greve
Kate Gebhard

Undoubtedly, Caterina Sforza was the model for the “Mona Lisa”. German art historian Magdalena Soest (‘Caterina Sforza ist Mona Lisa. Die Geschichte einer Entdeckung’, 2011) has sufficient proof of Leonardo portraying Caterina.
Mrs Soest says that Caterina was badly off financially at the time and could not at all have afforded to commission a portrait. According to Soest, Leonardo was his own ‘commissioner’, he himself wanted to possess Caterina’s portrait – as he loved her for her beauty, enigma, androgynousness … Caterina was the embodiment of his ideal man, you see.