Leonardo da Vinci

edited by Marco Versiero

The volume, dedicated to the Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci, is not a simple monograph of the artist’s life, but is rather an intricate composition. In an unprecedented manner, historical sources and artistic productions are woven within this volume, expertly measured in an informed, yet accessible language. Owing to his major panel paintings and other works of less renown (numerous sketches and drawings, for example), the multifaceted quality of da Vinci’s career is uncovered. Da Vinci’s oeuvre embodies the coexistence of not only classical art, with its more “traditional” subjects but also military art, with drawings of innovative war machines; urban landscapes with hydraulic devices; and anatomy with its particularities of rare beauty. They are reproduced in images of highest quality, equipped with captions in English and Italian. The entire production should be read, furthermore, in light of a juxtaposition and confrontation with other innovators and figures of his time, among them Savonarola and Machiavelli, who are addressed in supplemental discussion notes.

This innovative book does not overlook even the latest discovered works, including the controversial La Bella Principessa (The Beautiful Princess), the Isleworth Mona Lisa, and the most recent and quite extraordinary Salvator Mundi.