Renaissance

A Smile Reframed: Was the Mona Lisa Actually Mrs. Yelland of Surrey, England?

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In a tantalising discovery, a recently unearthed cache of correspondence housed in a disintegrating trunk at an estate auction in Dorset has ignited fresh controversy over the true identity of the sitter in Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. According to the letters, written in a brisk, looping English hand and signed by one “Letitia Yelland,” … Read more

Letter: Marco di Manchester? Marco di Merseyside more like!

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Dear Sir, As someone who has spent three decades preserving, cataloguing, and,when necessary,defending the ecclesiastical art of Northern England, I read Dr. Livia Helmstrom’s recent monograph on Marco di Manchester (Marco di Manchester: A Northern Light) with both admiration and incredulity. Admirable for its zeal, to be sure, but more so for the sheer elasticity … Read more