Leonardo da Vinci Kindle Edition

Walter Isaacson offers a comprehensive, well-written, intimate, and riveting biography on one of the world’s most misunderstood geniuses. Throughout the book, Isaacson sought to convey the thoughts and motivations of Da Vinci in a fathomable manner — and he achieved just that. The book was replete with pictures and elucidations of both his art work and scientific endeavors, with most of which found in his notebooks of 7000 surviving pages. Despite the inherent obscurity of Da Vinci, Isaacson presented us with a veracious and chronological dissection of his 67 years as a painter, polymath, inventor, architect, engineer, writer, musician, sculptor, mathematician, geologist, botanist, and anatomist; most importantly, Isaacson described the interplay between all of Da Vinci’s disciplines and, with his profound imagination, how he interweaved the numerous fields, producing astonishing results. The book sucessfully imparted to the reader the hallmarks that made Leonardo Da Vinci a singular genius — a genius with traits that starkly contrast with that of the renowned intellectuals of the past. One of which, perhaps the most important, was that he was imbued with an insatiable curiosity, an affinity for the aspects of nature that most people lack the interest for. Another was that he was able to dance across the smudgy line between fantasy and ingenuity, which is the perfect blend to fuel innovation

Chernow, Isaacson... thin air up here. Great reading, entertaining and informative. da Vinci is an interesting person who lives in interesting times and Isaacson makes both aspects come alive. Glad I bought hardback, looking forward to discussing this book with my son in 20 years.

A little too much detail of his paintings for me, but certainly a well research and thoroughly insightful narrative about one of the great geniuses mankind has produced.

Although I was surprised about the repetition in the text and the relative poor quality of the illustrations, the life of Leonardo is totally fascinating. A good read.

The Smartest Person Who Ever LivedBy Bob Gelms In my “it does not count” opinion, the smartest person who ever lived was, unquestionably, Sir Isaac Newton. An awful lot of people disagree with me. The preponderance of their opinions puts Leonardo da Vinci in the number one spot. For the purposes of this issue we will confine our investigation to da Vinci as number one. Mostly because America’s number one biographer, Walter Isaacson, has just published Leonardo, the best biography I have ever read on Leonardo da Vinci. When I was in 4th grade in St. Thomas Moore grade school on the south side of Chicago, we had a series of biographies written for grade school kids. Most of the series was taken up with the saints. They had, however, a few biographies of famous people in history. The bookcase that housed this series was right next to my desk. One day, as was usual, I was bored so I reached over and pulled out the book on da Vinci. It didn't take long before I was hooked. The term “Renaissance Man” was new so I asked the kindly, ever so patient, Dominican nun who was only interested in the welfare and intellectual growth of her students. (sarcasm) She pronounced it for me and told me what it meant. Up to that point in my life it, for sure, was the coolest thing I had ever heard. From that point on I was fixated on Leonardo da Vinci. There were a lot of surprises in store for me because the biography I read in that Catholic grammar school of course didn’t mention that da Vinci was vegetarian, gay, illegitimate, left-handed, a heretic who produced some of the finest religious paintings in history and the world’s leading procrastinator. When I heard that Walter Isaccson was publishing a new biography, Leonardo, my first thought was, “Does the world really need ANOTHER biography of Leonardo da Vinci? After all there are only about 32,000 of them!” My second thought was that if there was any writer who could bring something fresh, exciting, and surprising to the subject of da Vinci's life, it was, without a doubt, Walter Isaccson. Mr. Isaccson does not shy away from difficult subjects. He has written about Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, and Benjamin Franklin. His biography of Leonardo da Vinci is dazzling. In Leonardo, Mr. Isaccson gives us a superb scrutiny of of the master's paintings. It is to our everlasting benefit that the author seems to possess an extraordinarily discerning eye for these works in addition to an erudite mind capable of critical analysis. This brings a whole new aspect to the career of Leonardo da Vinci. According to Mr. Isaccson, da Vinci looked at the world around him and saw that everything was related to everything else, something of a theme during the High Renaissance. Da Vinci, however, took it to regions unknown. For example, he didn’t see that there was much of a difference between science and art or between art and the study of nature. All you need to get an idea of the relationship between art and science is to take a look at his breathtaking rendition of Vitruvian Man. The sensitive viewer will see a spectacular work of art but also the ideal of human proportions and geometry. Sfumato is a painting technique invented by da Vinci to give depth to the edges of his subjects. It gives a sense of three dimensions. Coupled with the glazes he used, he got that smoky hazy feeling that seems to pervade his paintings. Mr. Isaccson points out that da Vinci got this effect by carefully smearing the paint. It has been thoroughly documented that on a few of his works, Leonardo da Vinci inadvertently left his fingerprints, which have been used to confirm that he painted a few that weren’t, at first, attributed to him. This book is filled with little gems like that. The amount of detail Mr. Isaccson provides is prodigious. Buy Leonardo, if for no other reason than to read the chapters on the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. They are just riveting and well worth the price of admission. I can’t fit all of da Vinci's interests in this review but the eminent art historian Kenneth Clark’s comment on Leonardo da Vinci seems to encapsulate his whole personality. Clark called him, “the most relentlessly curious man in history.”

Todavía no lo termino pero cada página es mejor que la anterior. Si eres fan de da Vinci, no dudes en leerlo porque te hará todavía más fan.Está muy fácil de digerir y súper bien explicado, sientes que te sumerges en el mundo de Leonardo

Though I've only read a third of the book thus far, the author is a skilled writer and keeps the reader engaged in the story. Furthermore, he did his research and referenced the ideas and concepts that he mentions throughout the chapters I read.

This book is a true masterpiece. Very well written and the hardcover edition is great, high quality paper and print. One of the finest books I've ever read.

This is one of the best books I have ever read: fascinating, fabulously well illustrated (every painting mentioned is illustrated on the page!), wide-ranging, complete, and chock full of interesting facts and observations about Leonardo's world: the nature of his illegitimacy, the roles of his parents at different times in his life, the effects of his homosexuality (not many!), the nature of his apprenticeship and the innovations in painting that he worked out for himself (sfumato, e.g.) I LOVED how Isaacson completely disregarded any line between "art" and "science" (the so called two solitudes), and showed how Leonardo and his contemporaries used observation to inform both their paintings and sculptures, and their works of stagecraft and engineering. I also loved how patronage was described, how the various patrons courted Leonardo and his fellows, cut them slack, rewarded them, etc. etc. The economic context was brought in: the cost of keeping our hero in food, clothing and wine, for example. A masterpiece. Too bad the author has since wasted his time on a jerk like Elon Musk... though I may buy it in case he has worked some magic on that person.

Very well written. I am not very much into biograpfies, but after this book I decided to read other books of this author.