leonardo da vinci walter isaacson review

What secrets can he teach us?īased 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. The creator of Salvator Mundi (Saviour of the World) officially sold at auction in New York in November 2017 for the record-breaking sum of £341 million. And what a wealth of lessons there are to be learned in these pages.' David McCullough Walter Isaacson is at once a true scholar and a spellbinding writer. 'To read this magnificent biography of Leonardo da Vinci is to take a tour through the life and works of one of the most extraordinary human beings of all time in the company of the most engaging, informed, and insightful guide imaginable. “Vigorous, insightful.”-The Washington Post “A powerful story of an exhilarating mind and life.a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it.”-The New Yorker This is a monumental tribute to a titanic figure.' - Publisher's Weekly 'Isaacson’s scholarship is impressive-he cites not only primary sources but secondary materials by art critics, essayists, and da Vinci’s other biographers. 'Isaacson doesn’t claim to make any fresh discoveries, but his book is intelligently organised, simply written and beautifully illustrated.' Book of the Day, The Guardian. 'an illuminating guide to the output of one of the last millennium's greatest minds.' - The Observer 'Infinitely curious, easily distracted, vain and vegetarian, Leonardo is brought to vivid life in this accomplished biography.' - The SundayTimes. Isaacson is an assured guide to Leonardo’s fallibility – so many projects started, so few completed – as well as his extraordinary curiosity and his even more remarkable painterly skills that were sharpened by intense observation.’ Michael Prodger, Books of the Year - The Sunday Times Leonardo was resolutely human (illegitimate, vegan, in need of patrons) rather than the near deity of legend. For all his supernatural gifts as an artist and natural scientist. ‘Walter Isaacson keeps the mortal man to the fore.

‘Walter Isaacson is not an art historian, he’s simply a lover of Leonardo, who manages to communicate the sheer joy of this remarkable man’

Leonardo da vinci walter isaacson review