With the completion of ‘LISABETTA – a stolen sister’, ‘the LISABETTA trilogy’ is now part of my literary history. The fanciful biography of Lisabetta’s hidden, forgotten, and overlooked life unfolds when the embittered spirit of Leonardo da Vinci’s kid sister steps outside her portrait to redress a five-hundred-year-old case of mistaken identity. And it soon becomes apparent that although the ‘Mona Lisa’ may be priceless… she must now become a woman worth saving!
I WRITE BY THE SEAT OF MY PREMISES THAT NUMBER 3 X 3:
1. THAT: Leonardo taught his kid sister to paint…and she taught him how to survive!
2. THAT: Leonardo da Vinci was able to paint the soul of a sitter into a portrait.
3. THAT: The true identity of the ‘Mona Lisa’ was lost due to a sixteenth-century typo.
4. THAT: The ‘Mona Lisa’ was Leonardo’s baby sister, Lisabetta.
5. THAT: Lisabetta is still trapped in her portrait after 500 years.
6. THAT: There’s a secret hidden in plain sight that will release her.
7. THAT: Jupiter, an autistic six-year-old boy visiting the Louvre with his troubled mother,
Veronica Lyons, is Lisabetta’s knight in shining armor.
8. THAT: In order to shine in their own right, ‘The Mona Lisa’ and Jupiter join forces
to reclaim their true identities…. and…
9. THAT: Jupiter’s fraught mother needs saving first!
THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE THREE!
THREE BOOKS… THREE LINKS:
1. ‘LISABETTA – a stolen glance’ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K6SBB78
2. ‘LISABETTA – a stolen smile’ https://www.amazon.com/dp/1775047113
3. ‘LISABETTA – a stolen sister’ https://www.amazon.com/dp/1775047121
THREE FACTS integral to all lost historical biographies:
1. Somebody was born.
2. They did something special.
3. Paper burns!
THREE NARRATORS:
1. Mona Lisa’s ghost – 1508
2. Veronica Lyons a troubled mother raising an autistic child – 2008
3. An omnipotent time traveler, traveling incognito
“To Leonardo, I remained, the fleshed-out sister of his middle-years.
Such was our close connection, that even as an apparition, I had density.” – Lisabetta
THREE CLUES HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT:
1. A 1463 government census documents a five-year old daughter named Lisabetta was a
member of Leonardo’s mother’s household when Leonardo was eleven years old.
2. ‘Leonardo carried one portrait with him everywhere and would not be parted from it.’
– Georgio Vasari – ‘Lives of the Artists’, c.1612
3. “To Leonardo, I remained, the fleshed-out sister of his middle-years. Such was our close connection, that even as an apparition, I had density.” – Lisabetta
THREE CHARACTERS share the fanciful story of Lisabetta’s hidden, forgotten, overlooked life:
1. THE GHOST OF LISABETTA – the woman made famous and rendered anonymous
in Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘MONA LISA’ masterpiece.
2. THE FRACTIOUS DIARIES OF VERONICA LYON’S – Lisabetta’s ‘landlady and
confidant’ when her young son, Jupiter, brings Lisabetta home from Paris in 2008.
3. A ‘FLY-ON-THE-WALL OMNIPOTENT HISTORIAN’ with skin in the Italian Renaissance Game, who shall remain unidentified until the last page.
1911 – ‘THE MONA LISA’ was stolen
THE ‘MONA LISA’ MAY BE PRICELESS… NOW SHE MUST BECOME A WOMAN WORTH SAVING!
THREE PROLOGUES… THREE EXCERPTS:
1. EXCERPT from the prologue of ‘LISABETTA – a stolen glance’
“In the spring of 1519, my brother Leonardo still believed he could fly. I, in turn, assumed my death in 1508 had been pure and uncomplicated, but then, my brother and I were always a pair of insatiable dreamers. We flouted the rules. We shared the same birthdate, April 15th. We were like twins born six-years-apart.”
2. EXCERPT from the prologue of ‘LISABETTA – a stolen smile’
“I am a long-lost memory. I am a mother, a sister, and an artist… I am a ghost. I am the Mona Lisa.
Veronica Lyons refers to my presence in her home as house arrest, an especially cynical observation considering she’s a dedicated recluse.
I call her my ‘little poet’ as a compliment as well as to mock her. She argues that although artists and writers are willing prisoners to solitude, she has risked her sanity by acknowledging my existence.
She accuses me of intruding on her privacy; I keep silent because I need her to continue invading mine.”
3. EXCERPT from the prologue of ‘LISABETTA – a stolen sister’
“Jupiter found me in the ‘living’ room – an unlikely place for a ghost to hang out. He always says goodnight after his bath.
Veronica’s son approached me silently, padding towards me barefoot, ready for bed, an angel slightly pink about the ears smelling of soap, his hair still damp… hugging a large book.
The expression on his sweet face was determined. He sat beside me and leaned his forehead on my arm. “This is you,” he whispered huskily and thrust the book in my lap. “Page 222, please.”
“In the spring of 1519, my brother Leonardo still believed he could fly.”
Veronica Knox 