Artist, anatomist, architect, botanist, cartographer, engineer, mathematician, musician, scientist, sculptor—the word “polymath” cannot provide the full measure of Leonardo da Vinci’s extraordinary talents. If you only know Leonardo as the painter of the famous, much-copied portrait Mona Lisa, seize the chance to brush up your knowledge and discover what is meant by the term Renaissance Man with this book. It is an instant and expert guide to the breadth and brilliance of da Vinci's greatest innovations. Illustrated with inventive graphics and supported by studies of his key paintings, it is the ultimate book to quench your da Vinci curiosity.
Leonardo Da Vinci was a famous polymath and the original Renaissance Man. I swear I read this already, but according to Goodreads, I have not. Looking further into it, I believe I read something similar about Da Vinci, but not this book.
The book tries to focus on various aspects of Da Vinci's life and work to paint a larger image. It works as an introduction, a "lite" version of Da Vinci's works. Although Da Vinci is now a larger-than-life figure, he did make mistakes. Da Vinci thought he solved the Squaring of the Circle problem, but his solution had an error. Of course, humanity didn't know it was impossible until 1882, so he can be forgiven for that.
I enjoyed the book, and I learned some things about Leonardo Da Vinci. As I mentioned, the book works as an introduction. If you want something deeper, you should check out the resources section at the end.
Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.
Very interesting overview of Leonardos achievements. The descriptions of his techniques for drawing and artwork for me as a non-artist, will help me appreciate all art a bit more. His philosophy seems a bit quaint. His inventions were far-seeing, even if they were not achieved in his lifetime.
The style of book, like others in the series was a bit annoying. The side notes in the margins, were as bad a having footnotes - the print is too small to read comfortably. The artwork though good, was confusing as sometimes modern images have been superimposed on top of his drawings. Also I would have liked to know where the originals are - e,g, the bird eye view of the map of Tuscany.
I always feel awestruck in the presence of beautiful minds. It would be incredible to have known Mr. Da Vinci. This book gives a simple yet accurate insight into his ingenious scope of thought, knowledge and talent. Such polyvalence can only be admirable, if not enviable.
This is a keeper! It was an easy read, but still full of new and valuable information. I'll be keeping this close at hand as a reference source. It's definitely inspired me to improve my own journal keeping. First thing is practice sketching what I see around me when I write.
It may be called '30 seconds' but each page has detail of each part of Leonardo's life and creations, together with a full page illustration on the opposite page, along with references to other parts in the book.
This book briefly summarizes the key aspects of Leonardo Da Vinci's works, with beautiful illustrations to go alongside it. An enjoyable quick read, which I recommend.