Leonardo da Vinci
Now a docuseries from Ken Burns on PBS!
The #1 New York Times bestseller from Walter Isaacson brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography that is “a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it…Most important, it is a powerful story of an exhilarating mind and life” (The New Yorker).
Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson “deftly reveals an intimate Leonardo” (San Francisco Chronicle) in 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.
He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper. His ability to stand at the crossroads of the humanities and the sciences, made iconic by his drawing of Vitruvian Man, made him history’s most creative genius.
In the “luminous” (Daily Beast) Leonardo da Vinci, Isaacson describes how Leonardo’s delight at combining diverse passions remains the ultimate recipe for creativity. So, too, does his ease at being a bit of a misfit: illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical. His life should remind us of the importance to be imaginative and, like talented rebels in any era, to think different. Here, da Vinci “comes to life in all his remarkable brilliance and oddity in Walter Isaacson’s ambitious new biography…a vigorous, insightful portrait” (The Washington Post).
The #1 New York Times bestseller from Walter Isaacson brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography that is “a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it…Most important, it is a powerful story of an exhilarating mind and life” (The New Yorker).
Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson “deftly reveals an intimate Leonardo” (San Francisco Chronicle) in 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.
He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper. His ability to stand at the crossroads of the humanities and the sciences, made iconic by his drawing of Vitruvian Man, made him history’s most creative genius.
In the “luminous” (Daily Beast) Leonardo da Vinci, Isaacson describes how Leonardo’s delight at combining diverse passions remains the ultimate recipe for creativity. So, too, does his ease at being a bit of a misfit: illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical. His life should remind us of the importance to be imaginative and, like talented rebels in any era, to think different. Here, da Vinci “comes to life in all his remarkable brilliance and oddity in Walter Isaacson’s ambitious new biography…a vigorous, insightful portrait” (The Washington Post).
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Community Reviews
蒙娜丽莎的微笑，最后的晚餐，达芬奇留下的惊世奇作让人们看到了一个天才画家，却不知画画只是他诸多才能的一面，他同时是一个天才的工程师，建筑师，解剖学家，数学家，优秀的舞台布景及导演。他散布于各个领域的兴趣及才能辅佐他创作了无法逾越的绝世之画。
生于文艺复兴时代的达芬奇并非婚内生子，这免了他子承父业的压力并给了他相对的自由。从未受过正规教育的他有着极其广泛的兴趣及细致入微的观察力，天空为什么是篮的？啄木鸟的舌头长啥样？种种于常人司空见惯的现象都是他的寻奇乐园。
年幼即显示出岀色的画画天赋的达芬奇青年时却谋求军事防御的工程师之职，虽直到中晚年才如愿任职军中，但这并不妨碍他作画之余潜心钻研工程原理 - 水波怎样形成的，机械运动的动力是什么…。而他的爱好远不限于画画及工程学，人笑的时候肌肉是怎么运作的，光线是如何传到眼睛里的，人体比例与数学的关系…。虽然达芬奇沉迷于自然界的花草星空及人体的骨骼血脉，却对发表他那些超于时代的发现以获功名毫无兴趣，后人在他的七千多页的记录着他那些天马行空的想法及创意的笔记中发现原来达芬奇的许多研究成果都远远先于后人的创造发明！
素食主义且同性恋的英俊开朗的达芬奇是一个时尚潮主，对友人慷慨大方，同时也是我行我素的艺术家，他可以为一个农妇作画，只因她激发了他的创作灵感，却无视贵妇重金酬谢画俏像的请求。他的跳跃性的兴趣爱好让他食言了许多应允的作品，他的完美主义让他留下了许多未完成之作，但也正是他的多方面的兴趣及才能，成就了他留芳百世无人超越的传世佳作。他对光线、几何、人的心理，人与自然之间的关系的的研究融刻出了最后的晚餐；他对人体肌肉骨骼的精通及几十年磨一画的执意成全了神秘完美的蒙娜丽莎的微笑！
我们凡人远没有达芬奇那样细致入微的观察力及神奇的创造力，但我们是不是应该有时也放慢脚步，停下来看一看小鸟是怎样歌唱，清风是如何拂面，小溪是何时汇入大海的？
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