Download or read book Leonardo da Vinci written by Walter Isaacson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-10-17 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The #1 New York Times bestseller from Walter Isaacson brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography that is “a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it…Most important, it is a powerful story of an exhilarating mind and life” (The New Yorker). Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson “deftly reveals an intimate Leonardo” (San Francisco Chronicle) in a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy. He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper. His ability to stand at the crossroads of the humanities and the sciences, made iconic by his drawing of Vitruvian Man, made him history’s most creative genius. In the “luminous” (Daily Beast) Leonardo da Vinci, Isaacson describes how Leonardo’s delight at combining diverse passions remains the ultimate recipe for creativity. So, too, does his ease at being a bit of a misfit: illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical. His life should remind us of the importance to be imaginative and, like talented rebels in any era, to think different. Here, da Vinci “comes to life in all his remarkable brilliance and oddity in Walter Isaacson’s ambitious new biography…a vigorous, insightful portrait” (The Washington Post).
Download or read book The Complete Work of Michelangelo written by Michelangelo Buonarroti and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 597 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Leonardo da Vinci Masterworks written by Rosalind Ormiston and published by Flame Tree Illustrated. This book was released on 2019-10-23 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "For lovers of art history, this lavishly illustrated and well-written book is an absolute gem." – Italia! Magazine Leonardo da Vinci was the epitome of the Renaissance humanist ideal, a logical polymath of epic proportions who excelled and had interests not just in art but in invention, anatomy, architecture, engineering, literature, mathematics, music, science, astronomy and more. His oeuvre is astounding and he is rightly famed for his masterpieces of painting such as the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, and his astonishingly technical and graceful drawings. The phenomenon that was Leonardo would not of course have flourished to such an extent had it not been for the patronage and sponsorship of the Medici family, who commissioned a large proportion of the art and architecture of the era and fostered a fertile climate for creativity. This sumptuous new book offers a broader view of this master artist in the context of this environment, alongside the work of other key artists who benefited from the Medicis, from Brunelleschi through Donatello to Michelangelo and Raphael.
Download or read book Leonardo Da Vinci Master Draftsman written by Leonardo (da Vinci) and published by Metropolitan Museum of Art. This book was released on 2003 with total page 802 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handsome book offers a unified and fascinating portrait of Leonardo as draftsman, integrating his roles as artist, scientist, inventor, theorist, and teacher. 250 illustrations.
Download or read book The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci Complete written by Leonardo da Vinci and published by Library of Alexandria. This book was released on 2020-09-28 with total page 1118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A singular fatality has ruled the destiny of nearly all the most famous of Leonardo da Vinci's works. Two of the three most important were never completed, obstacles having arisen during his life-time, which obliged him to leave them unfinished; namely the Sforza Monument and the Wall-painting of the Battle of Anghiari, while the third—the picture of the Last Supper at Milan—has suffered irremediable injury from decay and the repeated restorations to which it was recklessly subjected during the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries. Nevertheless, no other picture of the Renaissance has become so wellknown and popular through copies of every description. Vasari says, and rightly, in his Life of Leonardo, "that he laboured much more by his word than in fact or by deed", and the biographer evidently had in his mind the numerous works in Manuscript which have been preserved to this day. To us, now, it seems almost inexplicable that these valuable and interesting original texts should have remained so long unpublished, and indeed forgotten. It is certain that during the XVIth and XVIIth centuries their exceptional value was highly appreciated. This is proved not merely by the prices which they commanded, but also by the exceptional interest which has been attached to the change of ownership of merely a few pages of Manuscript. That, notwithstanding this eagerness to possess the Manuscripts, their contents remained a mystery, can only be accounted for by the many and great difficulties attending the task of deciphering them. The handwriting is so peculiar that it requires considerable practice to read even a few detached phrases, much more to solve with any certainty the numerous difficulties of alternative readings, and to master the sense as a connected whole. Vasari observes with reference to Leonardos writing: "he wrote backwards, in rude characters, and with the left hand, so that any one who is not practised in reading them, cannot understand them". The aid of a mirror in reading reversed handwriting appears to me available only for a first experimental reading. Speaking from my own experience, the persistent use of it is too fatiguing and inconvenient to be practically advisable, considering the enormous mass of Manuscripts to be deciphered. And as, after all, Leonardo's handwriting runs backwards just as all Oriental character runs backwards—that is to say from right to left—the difficulty of reading direct from the writing is not insuperable. This obvious peculiarity in the writing is not, however, by any means the only obstacle in the way of mastering the text. Leonardo made use of an orthography peculiar to himself; he had a fashion of amalgamating several short words into one long one, or, again, he would quite arbitrarily divide a long word into two separate halves; added to this there is no punctuation whatever to regulate the division and construction of the sentences, nor are there any accents—and the reader may imagine that such difficulties were almost sufficient to make the task seem a desperate one to a beginner. It is therefore not surprising that the good intentions of some of Leonardo s most reverent admirers should have failed.
Download or read book Leonardo Da Vinci written by Martin Clayton and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2018-11-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The year 2019 sees the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci.... In the Spring of 2019, selections of the finest of Leonardo's drawings will be shown simultaneously at twelve museums and galleries across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace will show 200 drawings during the Summer--the largest exhibition of Leonardo's work in almost 70 years--and many of those drawings will be displayed at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh the following Winter"--Foreword.
Download or read book Leonardo Da Vinci written by Jane Kent and published by Genius. This book was released on 2019-03-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why could Leonardo da Vinci paint the human form so accurately, in all its beauty? How was he educated and trained as an artist? What inspired his most famous work, including The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa? And what fun machine did he invent? Find out about this unique artist and the many areas, from architecture to flight, he drew on and influenced.
Download or read book The Art of Leonardo Da Vinci written by Roger Whiting and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leonardo da Vinci had an insatiable desire to understand the world around him and the place of humanity in it, and he believed that the knowledge he sought could only be gained through direct experience. This book contains many extracts of his writings, revealing the complex workings of his mind.
Download or read book Leonardo Da Vinci written by Martin Clayton and published by Royal Collection Trust. This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "First published in hardback 2012 by Royal Collection Trust".-Title page verso.
Download or read book Leonardo Da Vinci and the Art of Sculpture written by Gary M. Radke and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is renowned as a painter, designer, draftsman, architect, engineer, scientist, and theorist. His work as a sculptor is not commonly acknowledged, and many have argued that Leonardo believed that sculpture was an inferior art form ("of lesser genius than painting"). Challenging and overturning these assumptions, Leonardo da Vinci and the Art of Sculpture looks at the sculptural projects that the artist undertook, as well as the late Renaissance sculptures that were indebted to him." "Leonardo consistently drew inspiration from ancient sculpture, admired the work of such contemporary sculptural innovators as Donatello, and even trained under Andrea del Verrocchio, the preeminent bronze sculptor of late 15th-century Florence. Furthermore, Leonardo spent many years of his life working on two larger-than-life-sized horse sculptures - Sforza and Trivulzio - monuments to Francesco Sforza, the Duke of Milan, and to Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, his sucessor. Although neither was completed, the authors argue that these equestrian monuments show how Leonardo was intensely engaged with the design dilemmas of representing a horse rearing on its hind legs. Another highlight of the book is a group of new images of the John the Baptist Preaching to a Levite and a Pharisee, a recently restored large-scale work in the Florentine Baptistery that clearly demonstrates Leonardo's collaboration with Giovanni Francesco Rustici." --Book Jacket.
Download or read book Leonardo Da Vinci and the Book of Doom written by Simon Hewitt and published by Unicorn. This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This in-depth investigation into the art, politics and murderous cynicism of Renaissance Milan is is an academic detective story sketched out with erudition and journalistic panache. Debunking the outrageous claim by the notorious Lancashire forger Shaun Greenhalgh that he produced the mesmerizing portrait of a young girl that zoomed into the art world limelight in 2009, Hewitt proves that Leonardo was on intimate terms with both the sitter - Bianca Sforza, teenage daughter of the Duke of Milan - and her husband, Galeazzo Sanseverino, the Duke's Army Captain, effective Number Two and, as Hewitt convincingly demonstrates, the subject of Leonardo's enigmatic portrait The Musician. Hewitt brings the tragic Bianca to life, suggests why and by whom she was likely murdered,and explains why her Leonardo portrait was included in one of the most lavish books ever produced - whose co-illustrator, Giovan Pietro Birago, was paid even more than Leonardo. Finally, in one of the most significant artistic discoveries of recent times, Hewitt shows how Birago's artistic colleagues had no hesitation in lampooning the venerable Leonardo as a Ginger-Haired Gay. 'A remarkable book and a work of impressive scholarship yeteminently readable, helped along by the author's characteristic light touch,the snapshots of the major players and the quality of the illustrations. As adetective story it takes some beating. Chronicling Simon's discoveries, thefascinating people he met on his journey, and the exotic locations he ended upin, his role in piecing it all together is a story in itself' - JOHNFALDING formerly Arts Reporter, Financial Times 'A magnificent journey through time. An amazing book fromfirst page to last' - FRANÇOISE JOULIE Curator of Drawings, Musée du Louvre,Paris
Download or read book Da Vinci s Ghost written by Toby Lester and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-02-07 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Da Vinci's Ghost, critically acclaimed historian Toby Lester tells the story of the world’s most iconic image, the Vitruvian Man, and sheds surprising new light on the artistry and scholarship of Leonardo da Vinci, one of history’s most fascinating figures. Deftly weaving together art, architecture, history, theology, and much else, Da Vinci's Ghost is a first-rate intellectual enchantment.”—Charles Mann, author of 1493 Da Vinci didn’t summon Vitruvian Man out of thin air. He was inspired by the idea originally formulated by the Roman architect Vitruvius, who suggested that the human body could be made to fit inside a circle, long associated with the divine, and a square, related to the earthly and secular. To place a man inside those shapes was to imply that the human body could indeed be a blueprint for the workings of the universe. Da Vinci elevated Vitruvius’ idea to exhilarating heights when he set out to do something unprecedented, if the human body truly reflected the cosmos, he reasoned, then studying its anatomy more thoroughly than had ever been attempted before—peering deep into body and soul—might grant him an almost godlike perspective on the makeup of the world. Written with the same narrative flair and intellectual sweep as Lester’s award-winning first book, the “almost unbearably thrilling” (Simon Winchester) Fourth Part of the World, and beautifully illustrated with Da Vinci's drawings, Da Vinci’s Ghost follows Da Vinci on his journey to understanding the secrets of the Vitruvian man. It captures a pivotal time in Western history when the Middle Ages were giving way to the Renaissance, when art, science, and philosophy were rapidly converging, and when it seemed possible that a single human being might embody—and even understand—the nature of the universe.
Download or read book I am Leonardo da Vinci written by Brad Meltzer and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-04-14 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The famous Renaissance artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci is the twentieth hero in the New York Times bestselling picture book biography series. This friendly, fun biography series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great--the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically themselves. Each book tells the story of an icon in a lively, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers and that always includes the hero's childhood influences. At the back are an excellent timeline and photos. This book features Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance artist and inventor. He always followed his interests, no matter where they led! His quest to fly led him to study birds' wings and his invention designs were the very earliest sketches of helicopters and other flying machines. Da Vinci's hard work and dedication to his curiosities is why we still remember him today. This friendly, fun biography series inspired the PBS Kids TV show Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum. One great role model at a time, these books encourage kids to dream big. Included in each book are: • A timeline of key events in the hero’s history • Photos that bring the story more fully to life • Comic-book-style illustrations that are irresistibly adorable • Childhood moments that influenced the hero • Facts that make great conversation-starters • A virtue this person embodies: Leonardo da Vinci's creativty is seen in everything he accomplished in his life You’ll want to collect each book in this dynamic, informative series!
Download or read book The Salvator Mundi of Leonardo Da Vinci written by Joanne Snow-Smith and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A proposito del Salvator Mundi di Leonardo e delle varie copie dello stesso soggetto attribuite alla scuola leonardiana.
Download or read book Leonardo Da Vinci The Renaissance Man written by Dan Danko and published by Campfire. This book was released on 2012-01-31 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer, Leonardo da Vinci was a genius who was well ahead of his time and the best example of the Renaissance man. This is the story of one of the greatest painters of all time, and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived. Leonardo grew up in the hamlet of Anchiano in Tuscany where he received an informal education. Young Leonardo had an unquenchable curiosity in life and moved to Florence where he took an interest in painting. At the age of fourteen, Leonardo began an apprenticeship with Andrea del Verrocchio. Here, his talent blossomed and as fate would have it, he was soon employed by the rich and powerful Duke of Milan. Soon, Leonardo moved to the city of Rome, where some of the greatest artists of the time lived. This tale traces the fascinating life of one of the best and most famous artists that the world has ever seen.
Download or read book Leonardo Da Vinci written by Laura Layton Strom and published by Children's Press(CT). This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A short look at the life of a genius.
Download or read book The da Vinci Legacy written by Jean-Pierre Isbouts and published by Apollo Publishers. This book was released on 2019-04-30 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death comes an immersive journey through five centuries of history to define the Leonardo mystique and uncover how the elusive Renaissance artist became a global pop icon. Virtually everyone would agree that Leonardo da Vinci was the most important artist of the High Renaissance. It was Leonardo who singlehandedly created the defining features of Western art: a realism based on subtle shading; depth using atmospheric effects; and dramatic contrasts between light and dark. But how did Leonardo, a painter of very few works who died in obscurity in France, become the internationally renowned icon he is today, with the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper the most visited artworks in the world, attracting nearly a billion visitors each year, and Salvator Mundi selling as the most expensive artwork of all time, for nearly half a billion dollars? This extraordinary volume, lavishly illustrated with 130 color images, is the first book to unravel these mysteries by diving deep into the art, literature, science, and politics of Europe from the Renaissance through today. It gives illuminating context to both Leonardo and his accomplishments; explores why Leonardo’s fame vastly overshadowed that of his contemporaries and disciples; and ultimately reveals why despite finishing very few works, his celebrity has survived, even thrived, through five centuries of history.
