Syndetics cover image
Image from Syndetics

Leonardo da Vinci / Walter Isaacson.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Simon & Schuster, 2017Edition: First Simon & Schuster hardcover editionDescription: xii, 599 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781501139154
  • 1501139150
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
I can also paint -- Childhood -- Apprentice -- On his own -- Milan -- Leonardo's notebooks -- Court entertainer -- Personal life -- Vitruvian Man -- The horse monument -- Scientist -- Birds and flight -- The mechanical arts -- Math -- The nature of man -- Virgin of the Rocks -- The Milan portraits -- The science of art -- The Last Supper -- Personal turmoil -- Florence again -- Saint Anne -- Paintings lost and found -- Cesare Borgia -- Hydraulic engineer -- Michelangelo and the lost Battles -- Return to Milan -- Anatomy, round two -- The world and its waters -- Rome -- Pointing the way -- The Mona Lisa -- France -- Conclusion -- Coda. Describe the tongue of the woodpecker.
Summary: "He was history's most creative genius. What secrets can he teach us? The author of the acclaimed bestsellers Steve Jobs, Einstein, and Benjamin Franklin brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography. Based 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. He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and technology. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. 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"-- Provided by publisher.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Biography Leonardo I73 Available 33111008832764
Adult Book Adult Book Northport Library Biography Leonardo I73 Available 33111007814623
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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 ).

"He was history's most creative genius. What secrets can he teach us? The author of the acclaimed bestsellers Steve Jobs, Einstein, and Benjamin Franklin brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography. Based 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. He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and technology. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. 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"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 533-570) and index.

I can also paint -- Childhood -- Apprentice -- On his own -- Milan -- Leonardo's notebooks -- Court entertainer -- Personal life -- Vitruvian Man -- The horse monument -- Scientist -- Birds and flight -- The mechanical arts -- Math -- The nature of man -- Virgin of the Rocks -- The Milan portraits -- The science of art -- The Last Supper -- Personal turmoil -- Florence again -- Saint Anne -- Paintings lost and found -- Cesare Borgia -- Hydraulic engineer -- Michelangelo and the lost Battles -- Return to Milan -- Anatomy, round two -- The world and its waters -- Rome -- Pointing the way -- The Mona Lisa -- France -- Conclusion -- Coda. Describe the tongue of the woodpecker.

Powered by Koha