<p>Despite so much being written about Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance, many questions about the Tuscan artist's life and works remain shrouded in mystery:</p><ul><li>Why isn't the painting exhibited at the Louvre Museum the Mona Lisa?</li><li>Why do we find so many pagan symbols in Leonardo's Christian representations?</li><li>Was Leonardo really the son of a notary and a slave?</li><li>Why is there such a lack of work from Leonardo's early life-perhaps his most important period?</li><li>Why do we have paintings of the Americas well before the first trips of Christopher Columbus?</li></ul><p>Riccardo Magnani, economist-turned-Leonardo expert, reconstructs the political and economic world around da Vinci, illustrating how he was influenced by the biggest "discovery" of all, the Americas. </p><p><em>This is not Leonardo</em> provides the key to understanding Leonardo's visual language, within the context of the Renaissance and its artists-essential to fully comprehend his work and the many clues he left behind. </p><p>Magnani reveals little-known facts about Leonardo's education, long suppressed by the Catholic Church-from his use of iconography of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Byzantines, to his influence by the Neoplatonic movement led by George Gemistus.</p><p>Thanks to the new insights presented by <em>This is not Leonardo,</em> the dogmatic prism that our Western society has employed for so long to understand Leonardo da Vinci can now finally be challenged.</p>