Math and the Mona Lisa: The Art and Science of Leonardo Da Vinci - Hardcover

Atalay, Bulent

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1588341712 ISBN 13: 9781588341716

Publisher: Smithsonian Books, 2004

Synopsis

Math and the Mona Lisa "Math and the Mona Lisa" sees the transcendent unity of art and science in almost every aspect of Da Vinci's life and work. Atalay delves deeply into the underlying mathematics and aesthetics of science and art, paying special attention to the mathematical sequence called the Fibonacci series.

About this title

Review:

"The broad sweep of Professor Atalay's brilliant mind brings us an approach to understanding the Vincian genius that is so insightful, so original, and so well-reasoned that it immediately becomes an essential volume in the canon of Leonardiana. I read this monumental achievement in awe of the author's perceptions."--Sherwin Nuland, author of Leonardo da Vinci and winner of the 1994 National Book Award for How We Die.

"A masterful examination of the differences and similarities in the sciences and the arts, as embodied by that genius of both fields: Leonardo da Vinci. Professor Bülent Atalay has penetrated Leonardo's mind, in a way that is both highly readable and very informative."--Jamie Wyeth

"Bülent Atalay takes us on a delightful romp through millenia and across continents, bringing together art, architecture, science, and mathematics under the umbrella of Leonardo's genius. His writing is informed by his artist's eye for beauty, his historian's appreciation of context, and his scientist's love of order and symmetry. I read Atalay's description of Leonardo's The Last Supper not long after having visited the masterpiece in Milan, for the first time since its restoration. His words added an unexpected poignancy to that sublime experience. Leonardo is the prototype for the renaissance man--artist, architect, philosopher, scientist, writer. There are few like him today, but Atalay is indeed a modern renaissance man, and he invites us to tap the power of synthesis that is Leonardo's model."--William D. Phillips, winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics.

About the Author:

Bülent Atalay, a professor of physics at Mary Washington College, an adjunct professor at the University of Virginia, and a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, is also an accomplished artist whose lithographs have been published in Lands of Washington and Oxford and the English Countryside. He lives in Virginia.

About this edition

• Publisher: Smithsonian Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1588341712
• ISBN 13: 9781588341716
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352