Leonardo da Vinci: Self Art and Nature

Description

Published to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci's death, this incisive and illuminating biography follows the three themes that shaped the life of Leonardo and forever changed Western art and imagination: nature, art and self-fashioning. Leonardo spent his childhood in the Tuscan countryside among farm workers before entering the most reputed artistic workshop of Florence. There he bloomed as one of the leading painters of his time, and began applying his skills to explore and question the world. By the 1480s he had transformed himself into an ideal court artist and was a familiar of kings; by the 1510s he left behind him the solemn image of a magus philosopher. Following the chronology of his life, Leonardo da Vinci: Self, Art and Nature examines Leonardo as artist, courtier and thinker, and explores how these aspects found expression in his paintings, as well as his work in sculpture, architecture, theatre design, urban planning, engineering, anatomy, geology and cartography. It concludes with observations on Leonardo's relevance today as a multidisciplinary artist, one who combined imagination and science to shape his own self and the world.

Francois Quiviger is a fellow of the Warburg Institute, University of London, where he previously worked as a librarian, curator of digital resources, researcher, and teacher. He has written on Renaissance art theories, academies, wine, banquets, and sensations, and is the author of The Sensory World of Italian Renaissance Art, also published by Reaktion Books.

"Well worth the attention of history of science enthusiasts."-- "The Well-Read Naturalist" "This book presents a compact and pleasurable overview of the Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, attending to his painting, social milieu, and scientific pursuits. Quiviger sketches out Leonardo as a person as very much a part of the communities he inhabited, an individual possessed of considerable skills in his capacity as a courtier, and one with a mind very much oriented to nature as a site for persistent intellectual inquiry. . . . A digestible overview of the artist that deftly draws together analysis of his major artistic projects while signaling at the myriad sources and preoccupations that so drove Leonardo's restless mind."-- "Renaissance Quarterly" "A highly readable narrative on the world's best-known artist. Here, Leonardo is viewed from multiple perspectives, including his reputation in our time as the creator of the most expensive painting ever sold, and during the High Renaissance when Leonardo was not only a celebrated artist but also a courtier, humanist, and mechanical engineer. Providing glimpses into his work as an interdisciplinary artist, Quiviger addresses the personal and professional aspects of Leonardo's diverse interests directly and succinctly. The goal of this small but very fine volume is to offer a tantalizing introduction to a historical figure that has already received attention and adulation from generations of scholars stretching as far back as the early sixteenth century to the first art historian, Giorgio Vasari."-- "Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Reforme" "Sheds new light on aspects of the social, cultural, and intellectual environments in which Leonardo lived and worked. This is a book that will add more than many to our understanding of Leonardo as not just a painter but as a polymath."--Francis Ames-Lewis, Birkbeck College, University of London "Quiviger's book on Leonardo da Vinci is proof that very good things can come in small packages. . . . It is difficult to overstate how refreshing this no-nonsense, learned, and engaged biography is--particularly in the context of all that has been written about this artist. Highly recommended"-- "Choice" "The five-hundredth anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci's death has naturally unleashed a tsunami of books about the Renaissance genius, few of which add anything new to what's been written before. This one, though, stands out by offering a novel approach to an understanding of Leonardo's character, the thirst for knowledge that drove him, and the way he navigated the rigid and often precarious society into which he was born--and how his art related to all this. . . . It's admirably written, clear and concise and assuming little background knowledge of Leonardo, his times, or the practice of art. . . . The book is also attractively produced on high quality paper and lavishly illustrated in color. It serves as an ideal introduction to the great man as well as providing deeper insights into his personality and motivations than many biographies."-- "Magonia Review of Books" "Within the new literature, Quiviger's is the most compelling attempt to present a compact survey in English of Leonardo's career as a painter. Traditional in its organization, its chapter divisions correspond to Leonardo's movements between the cities where he resided, with a separate chapter on Leonardo's writings on painting."-- "Burlington Magazine"