Author: Bülent Atalay Publisher: National Geographic Books ISBN: 9781426202858 Category : Art Languages : en Pages : 260
Book Description
"When the seeds of modern thought were planted in 15th-century Italy, no one sowed more of them than Leonardo da Vinci. For the millions of readers today who ponder the mysteries behind his sketch-filled notebooks and enigmatic paintings, National Geographic presents Leonardo's Universe. This richly visual reference reveals the spellbinding Renaissance world like no other, painting a vivid picture of the historic backdrop of this astounding period that revolutionized art, science, philosophy, and politics."--BOOK JACKET.
Author: Toby Lester Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1439189250 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 312
Book Description
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.
Author: Bulent Atalay Publisher: Smithsonian Institution ISBN: 1588343537 Category : Art Languages : en Pages : 297
Book Description
Leonardo da Vinci was one of history's true geniuses, equally brilliant as an artist, scientist, and mathematician. Readers of The Da Vinci Code were given a glimpse of the mysterious connections between math, science, and Leonardo's art. Math and the Mona Lisa picks up where The Da Vinci Code left off, illuminating Leonardo's life and work to uncover connections that, until now, have been known only to scholars. Bülent Atalay, a distinguished scientist and artist, examines the science and mathematics that underlie Leonardo's work, paying special attention to the proportions, patterns, shapes, and symmetries that scientists and mathematicians have also identified in nature. Following Leonardo's own unique model, Atalay searches for the internal dynamics of art and science, revealing to us the deep unity of the two cultures. He provides a broad overview of the development of science from the dawn of civilization to today's quantum mechanics. From this base of information, Atalay offers a fascinating view into Leonardo's restless intellect and modus operandi, allowing us to see the source of his ideas and to appreciate his art from a new perspective.
Author: Kenneth D. Keele Publisher: Academic Press ISBN: 148327747X Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 400
Book Description
Leonardo Da Vinci's Elements of the Science of Man describes how Da Vinci integrates his mechanical observations and experiments in mechanics into underlying principles. This book is composed of 17 chapters that highlight the principles underlying Da Vinci's research in anatomical studies. Considerable chapters deal with Leonardo's scientific methods and the mathematics of his pyramidal law, as well as his observations on the human and animal movements. Other chapters describe the artist's anatomical approach to the mechanism of the human body, specifically the physiology of vision, voice, music, senses, soul, and the nervous system. The remaining chapters examine the mechanism of the bones, joints, respiration, heart, digestion, and urinary and reproductive systems.
Author: Harry Berger (Jr.) Publisher: Univ of California Press ISBN: 9780520071810 Category : Art Languages : en Pages : 548
Book Description
"Harry Berger is a brilliant, tenacious, indefatigable close reader of Renaissance texts. . . . In fact, his remarkably restless and capacious intelligence illuminates virtually the whole range of Renaissance cultural artifacts and then turns upon itself to illuminate its own theoretical assumptions and critical procedures. . . . The essays in this book are essential reading for students of Renaissance culture."--Stephen Greenblatt, University of California, Berkeley "This collection of Harry Berger's essays is a major and long-awaited event for students of Renaissance literature and art. Readers in other fields will also be interested in following an exceptionally innovative mind as it moves across many disciplinary boundaries."--Margaret W. Ferguson, University of Colorado, Boulder
Author: R. M. Berry Publisher: University of Alabama Press ISBN: 9781573660310 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 322
Book Description
Meanwhile, R-, a 20th century historian writing a novel about Leonardo, meditates upon the same question in the midst of an apocalyptic traffic jam, as military helicopters fill the air with tear gas, AIDS demonstrators run amok, and a hospital evacuates its patients onto a nearby sidewalk.
Author: Ben Lewis Publisher: Ballantine Books ISBN: 1984819267 Category : Art Languages : en Pages : 402
Book Description
An epic quest exposes hidden truths about Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, the recently discovered masterpiece that sold for $450 million—and might not be the real thing. In 2017, Leonardo da Vinci’s small oil painting the Salvator Mundi was sold at auction. In the words of its discoverer, the image of Christ as savior of the world is “the rarest thing on the planet.” Its $450 million sale price also makes it the world’s most expensive painting. For two centuries, art dealers had searched in vain for the Holy Grail of art history: a portrait of Christ as the Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci. Many similar paintings of greatly varying quality had been executed by Leonardo’s assistants in the early sixteenth century. But where was the original by the master himself? In November 2017, Christie’s auction house announced they had it. But did they? The Last Leonardo tells a thrilling tale of a spellbinding icon invested with the power to make or break the reputations of scholars, billionaires, kings, and sheikhs. Ben Lewis takes us to Leonardo’s studio in Renaissance Italy; to the court of Charles I and the English Civil War; to Amsterdam, Moscow, and New Orleans; to the galleries, salerooms, and restorer’s workshop as the painting slowly, painstakingly emerged from obscurity. The vicissitudes of the highly secretive art market are charted across six centuries. It is a twisting tale of geniuses and oligarchs, double-crossings and disappearances, in which we’re never quite certain what to believe. Above all, it is an adventure story about the search for lost treasure, and a quest for the truth. Praise for The Last Leonardo “The story of the world’s most expensive painting is narrated with great gusto and formidably researched detail in Ben Lewis’s book. . . . Lewis’s probings of the Salvator’s backstory raise questions about its historical status and visibility, and these lead in turn to the fundamental question of whether the painting is really an autograph work by Leonardo.”—Charles Nicholl, The Guardian “As the art historian and critic Ben Lewis shows in his forensically detailed and gripping investigation into the history, discovery and sales of the painting, establishing the truth is like nailing down jelly.”— Michael Prodger, The Sunday Times
Author: Rose Sgueglia Publisher: Pen and Sword History ISBN: 1526761068 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 230
Book Description
Leonardo Da Vinci was left-handed. That’s probably why he wrote backwards from right to left to avoid smudging ink on his hand as he made notes on his latest works and visionary discoveries. Words could only be read with the help of a mirror making it taxing for anyone but himself to quickly decode his handwriting. There are many theories exploring the reason why he kept using “mirror writing” in all his manuscripts. Some historians say that he was trying to make it more challenging for people to steal his ideas while others claim that it was a clever attempt to hide scientific findings from the intolerant Roman Catholic Church of the Renaissance. Whatever the logic behind this, the constant association with mirror writing and studies on the human body anatomy, made him one of the most enigmatic figures of his and then of our century. This biography investigates Leonardo and his different roles from anatomist to inventor, architect, painter, rumoured to be templar and scientific pioneer. Despite leaving several of his works incomplete, Leonardo managed to influence generations of artists and still today remains a highly regarded figure in both the artistic and scientific sector.
Author: Bülent Atalay
Author: Toby Lester
Author: John Phillips
Author: Bulent Atalay
Author: Kenneth D. Keele
Author: Harry Berger (Jr.)
Author: R. M. Berry
Author: Claire J. Farago
Author: Ben Lewis
Author: Rose Sgueglia