Library & Information Science, General & Miscellaneous Art, Renaissance Art, Types of Art, Other Artistic Techniques, Drawing Techniques, European Art, British History - General & Miscellaneous
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Overview
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was arguably the greatest draftsman in the history of Western art. Best known as a painter, he also excelled as a sculptor, architect, musician, anatomist, botanist, engineer, geologist, and mapmaker. But since he completed few of his projects, most of his work is known to us only through his drawings and notes. The collection of drawings by Leonardo at Windsor Castle is the most important in the world. This selection from Windsor Castle of one hundred sheets covers every aspect of his genius, reproducing in color for the first time many unfamiliar drawings as well as a range of better-known works. Included are preparatory sketches for the paintings such as the Adoration of the Magi and the Last Supper, designs for equestrian monuments, war machines, and costumes for court entertainments; studies relating to his enduring interest in water, flight, the divinely beautiful, and the comically grotesque; his striking and highly accurate maps; his analyses of human and equine proportion; and his studies in anatomy, taking the subject single-handedly from medieval traditions to the threshold of modern knowledge.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
When Leonardo da Vinci, a peasant girl's illegitimate son, in 1502 entered the service of bloody politician Cesare Borgia, the pope's illegitimate son and the model for Machiavelli's prince, the protean artist created magnificent, sophisticated maps of towns, cities, fortifications and Italy's coast. This is but one little-known aspect of da Vinci's work highlighted in a riveting collection of drawings, including the amazingly ethereal and lyrical A Tree, grotesques (e.g., An Ill-matched Couple), the Deluge series and apocalyptic renditions of the end of the world. This striking catalogue of an exhibition at Buckingham Palace through early 1997 ranges from a beautiful, expressive study of a woman's hands to preparatory sketches for The Last Supper, full-bodied mythological fantasies, designs for weapons and lucid, accurate anatomical illustrations (The Embryo in Utero). In an engaging essay complementing 120 color plates, Clayton, a curator at Windsor Castle, follows Leonardo's travels from Florence to France through his drawings. (May)Library Journal
The disheartening paucity of finished works by Leonardo da Vinci is partially recompensed by the superabundance of surviving drawings. This excellent selection of 100 drawings from the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle offers not only an exquisite sampling of Leonardo's extraordinarily diverse graphic oeuvre but also a genuinely accessible scholarly introduction to the drawings as a whole. Brief but penetrating introductory essays aptly characterize the activities of each phase of his career, while the carefully wrought catalog entriescomplemented by fine color reproductionsexamine the manifold functions for which the drawings were employed. Students of Leonardo will appreciate curator Clayton's straightforward characterizations, his thoughtful reexamination of some pieces, the chronological setting, and his ability to articulate scholarly complexities in a lucid and unpedantic fashion. For most libraries.Robert Cahn, Fashion Inst. of Technology, New YorkFrom Barnes & Noble
These drawings from the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle reveal the remarkable cross-fertilization of ideas that occurred between Leonardo da Vinci's numerous fields of study, from anatomy and botany to music and mapmaking. Covers the range of his enormous repertoire, reproducing in color for the first time many unfamiliar drawings, as well as a range of better-known works. 9 1/2" x 11". Color & b&w illus.Book Details
Published
January 1, 1998
Publisher
Artabras
Pages
168
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780896601017