Research Catalog

Leonardo da Vinci

Title
Leonardo da Vinci / Walter Isaacson.
Author
Isaacson, Walter
Publication
  • ©2017
  • New York, NY : Simon & Schuster, 2017.

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Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person.

TextUse in library JFE 17-11565Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Description
xii, 599 pages : illustrations (chiefly color); 25 cm
Summary
"He was history's most creative genius. What secrets can he teach us? The [bestselling biographer] brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography. Drawing 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. His creativity, like that of other great innovators, came from standing at the intersection of the humanities and technology. He peeled flesh off the faces of cadavers, drew the muscles that move the lips, and then painted history's most memorable smile on the Mona Lisa. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper. Isaacson also describes how Leonardo's lifelong enthusiasm for staging theatrical productions informed his paintings and inventions. His ability to combine art and science, made iconic by his drawing of what may be himself inside a circle and a square, remains the enduring recipe for innovation. His life should remind us of the importance of instilling, both in ourselves and our children, not just received knowledge but a willingness to question it; to be imaginative and, like talented misfits and rebels in any era, to think different."--Jacket.
Subjects
Genre/Form
  • Biographies.
  • Biography.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (pages 533-570) and index.
Contents
Main Characters -- Currency in Italy in 1500 -- Note regarding the cover -- Primary periods of Leonardo's life -- Timeline -- Introduction: I can also paint -- 1. Childhood -- 2. Apprentice -- 3. On his own -- 4. Milan -- 5. Leonardo's notebooks -- 6. Court entertainer -- 7. Personal life -- 8. Vitruvian Man -- 9. The horse monument -- 10. Scientist -- 11. Birds and flight -- 12. The mechanical arts -- 13. Math -- 14. The nature of man -- 15. Virgin of the Rocks -- 16. The Milan portraits -- 17. The science of art -- 18. The Last Supper -- 19. Personal turmoil -- 20. Florence again -- 21. Saint Anne -- 22. Paintings lost and found -- 23. Cesare Borgia -- 24. Hydraulic engineer -- 25. Michelangelo and the lost Battles -- 26. Return to Milan -- 27. Anatomy, round two -- 28. The world and its waters -- 29. Rome -- 30. Pointing the way -- 31. The Mona Lisa -- 32. France -- 33. Conclusion -- Coda: Describe the tongue of the woodpecker.
Call Number
JFE 17-11565
ISBN
  • 9781501139154
  • 1501139150
LCCN
  • 2017020817
  • 99974392294
  • 99975970184
OCLC
980433369
Author
Isaacson, Walter, author.
Title
Leonardo da Vinci / Walter Isaacson.
Copyright Date
©2017
Publisher
New York, NY : Simon & Schuster, 2017.
Edition
First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
Type of Content
text
still image
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 533-570) and index.
Other Form:
Online version: Isaacson, Walter. Leonardo da Vinci. New York : Simon & Schuster, 2017 9781501139178 (DLC) 2017021625
Other Standard Identifier
99974392294
99975970184
Research Call Number
JFE 17-11565
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