High Renaissance Art & Mannerism, Individual Artists, Italian Art

Leonardo

Name: Leonardo
Author: Martin Kemp
ISBN: 9789681680107

by Martin Kemp

Available on Bookshop Write a review

Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.

Overview

En esta obra se desbroza el denso manto de leyendas que existen en torno al más celebrado genio de todos los tiempos y pone en tela de juicio los mitos e interpretaciones que, basándose en suposiciones y prejuicios, tienden a falsear la historia de este hombre extraordinario. Esta fascinante exploración de la vida y la obra de Leonardo nos brinda penetrantes y excepcionales conclusiones sobre qué es lo que hizo tan especial a este hombre renacentista.

Synopsis

Library Journal

A leading authority on Leonardo da Vinci, Kemp (University Professor of the History of Art, Trinity Coll., Oxford) attempts to set forth a succinct, understandable, unified account of da Vinci's creative and intellectual life while departing from the framework of his first monograph on the artist, which emphasized developments of his thought within a biographical narrative. Here, briefly addressing his ongoing personal and literary dialog with the artist's legacy for over 30 years, Kemp focuses on thematic continuities in the Renaissance master's career. He first discusses da Vinci's career in terms of the nature of the commissions he received, the monies he attracted, and his duties in the courts he served. While he illustrates his excursus with more than 40 plates and figures, as well as 24 full-color, thumbnail "gallery" images of da Vinci's known paintings, Kemp only briefly refers to many of the images he cites. Contextual rather than iconographical, his approach is nevertheless fascinating, enlightening, well written, and easy to read. Covering an eternally popular subject and written by an expert who presented his subject in a new way, this significant, though not seminal, publication is highly recommended for most large public and academic libraries.-Cheryl Ann Lajos, Free Lib. of Philadelphia Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

About the Author, Martin Kemp

Martin Kemp is University Professor of the History of Art at the University of Oxford, Trinity College. The author of The Oxford History of Western Art, he is an eminent art historian who has carried out extensive research into the art, science, and technology of Leonardo.

Reviews

There are no reviews yet. Log in to write one.

Editorials

Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

Another stab at decoding the real da Vinci. "The only fully valid source of knowledge, for Leonardo, was looking at real things and phenomena," writes Kemp (History of Art/Trinity Coll., Oxford), who in six chapters examines just what it was Leonardo looked at, learned, and passed on to posterity. Leonardo's notion of looking is encapsulated in the English verb "to see," avers the author; it means both "to look at" and "to understand" or "comprehend." Outlining Leonardo's experimental investigations, such as dissections, observations of nature, and fortifications, Kemp links them to his extraordinary notebooks and paintings. The sheer weight of the artist's ambition caused a number of problems. Far from being a genius who methodically produced one extraordinary scientific discovery or painting after another, Kemp demonstrates that Leonardo failed to finish several commissions and apparently never sold a painting; the observations in his famous notebooks were often brilliant, occasionally disorganized and haphazard. The weight of Leonardo's ambition sometimes caused his graphic technique to collapse as his drawings recorded everything his fertile mind observed on a small piece of paper. Similarly, Kemp's attempt to explicate the polymath Leonardo in a short book from time to time suffers from the weight of its ambition. The chapters on art (the author's specialty) read much more easily than the ones on scientific issues, which make earnest but hard going as technical terms are tossed about as if a casual reader should understand them. But Kemp's experience offers just as many pleasures and benefits; after a career spent researching the artist, he's well suited to provide a personal accountof Leonardo, enriched by anecdotes and contemporary analogies. At the close, he succinctly reviews why Leonardo is worth studying, using the Mona Lisaas a case in point and giving a marvelous description of the experience of seeing the painting out of its frame and bullet-proof case. It makes an exceptional finale. A noble attempt to bring a legend down to earth. Agent: Caroline Dawnay/PFD