Leonardo Da Vinci: The Flights of the Mind - Softcover

Charles Nicholl

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140296816 ISBN 13: 9780140296815

Publisher: Penguin, 2005

Synopsis

Leonardo da Vinci is the most mysterious of all the great artists, continuing to inspire and intrigue centuries after his death. Who lies behind the legend of the 'Renaissance genius'? What is the real story behind his elusive masterpieces and tantalizing notebooks? Prize-winning author Charles Nicholl has immersed himself for five years in all the manuscripts, paintings and artefacts to produce an 'intimate portrait' of Leonardo. He uses these contemporary materials - his notebooks and sketchbooks, eye witnesses and early biographies, etc - as a way into the mental tone and physical texture of his life and has made myriad small discoveries about him and his work and his circle of associates. This compelling, lyrical biography explores Leonardo's life as never before, brilliantly illuminating the man behind the enigma.

About this title

Review:

‘A masterpiece of imaginative reconstruction’ -- Richard Holmes, Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year

‘A splendid and encompassing biography’ -- Peter Ackroyd, The Times

‘Charles Nicholl, in this bright, cunning, intrepidly intelligent biographical study, has startlingly demystified his enigmatic subject’ -- Peter Conrad, Observer

‘Gripping, beguiling ... brings a genius down from his lonely pedestal and into the world’ -- Daily Telegraph

‘Leonardo da Vinci isn’t merely a lovely book, it’s Leonardesque ... At its best, it glows’ -- David Gelernter, The New York Times

Synopsis:

Leonardo is the greatest, most multi-faceted and most mysterious of all Renaissance artists, but extraordinarily, considering his enormous reputation, this is the first full-length biography in English for several decades. Prize-winning author Charles Nicholl has immersed himself for five years in all the manuscripts, paintings and artefacts to produce an intimate portrait' of Leonardo. He uses these contemporary materials - his notebooks and sketchbooks, eye witnesses and early biographies, etc - as a way into the mental tone and physical texture of his life and has made myriad small discoveries about him and his work and his circle of associates. Among much else, the book identifies what Nicholl argues is an unknown portrait of the artist hanging in a church near Lodi in northern Italy. It also contains new material on his eccentric assistant Tomasso Masini, on his homosexual affairs in Florence, and on his curious relationship with a female model and/or prostitute from Cremona. A masterpiece of modern biography.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0140296816
• ISBN 13: 9780140296815
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 623