Leonardo da Vinci

Abstract

"He was history's most creative genius. What secrets can he teach us? The [bestselling biographer] brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography. Drawing on thousands of pages from Leonardo's astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson weaves 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. His creativity, like that of other great innovators, came from standing at the intersection of the humanities and technology. He peeled flesh off the faces of cadavers, drew the muscles that move the lips, and then painted history's most memorable smile on the Mona Lisa. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper. Isaacson also describes how Leonardo's lifelong enthusiasm for staging theatrical productions informed his paintings and inventions. His ability to combine art and science, made iconic by his drawing of what may be himself inside a circle and a square, remains the enduring recipe for innovation. His life should remind us of the importance of instilling, both in ourselves and our children, not just received knowledge but a willingness to question it; to be imaginative and, like talented misfits and rebels in any era, to think different."--Jacket.

Contents

Acknowledgments -- Main Characters -- Currency in Italy in 1500 -- Note regarding the cover -- Primary periods of Leonardo's life -- Timeline -- Introduction: I can also paint -- Chapter 1: Childhood -- Chapter 2: Apprentice -- Chapter 3. On his own -- Chapter 4: Milan -- Chapter 5: Leonardo's notebooks -- Chapter 6: Court entertainer -- Chapter 7: Personal life -- Chapter 8: Vitruvian Man -- Chapter 9: The horse monument -- Chapter 10: Scientist -- Chapter 11: Birds and flight -- Chapter 12: The mechanical arts -- Chapter 13: Math -- Chapter 14: The nature of man -- Chapter 15: Virgin of the Rocks -- Chapter 16: The Milan portraits -- Chapter 17: The science of art -- Chapter 18: The Last Supper -- Chapter 19: Personal turmoil -- Chapter 20: Florence again -- Chapter 21: Saint Anne -- Chapter 22: Paintings lost and found -- Chapter 23: Cesare Borgia -- Chapter 24: Hydraulic engineer -- Chapter 25: Michelangelo and the lost Battles -- Chapter 26: Return to Milan -- Chapter 27: Anatomy, round two -- Chapter 28: The world and its waters -- Chapter 29: Rome -- Chapter 30: Pointing the way -- Chapter 31: The Mona Lisa -- Chapter 32: France -- Chapter 33: Conclusion -- Coda: Describe the tongue of the woodpecker -- Notes --