Leonardo Da Vinci: Scientist, Inventor, Artist

by Thomas Buchsteiner (Editor), Otto Letze (Editor)

a book about the life of leonardo da vinci's life work

Genres: Art

221 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1997

Reviews

[Jaimie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's challenging to come close to the completeness of the Taschen artist publications, but this well-wrought exhibition catalogue is a worthy opponent (and addition to the collection). I picked up this book at random after surreptitiously exacto-knifing my way into some still-sealed boxes at the library sale (what, I had to since they had no intention of actually putting this lot onto the sale tables out of sheer laziness), and I'm sure glad that I risked the wrath of the sale supervisors to do so. Obviously I'm missing the full intention of the publication, having missed the show in Germany by many years and distance, but that didn't stop me from appreciating the artistry that curated the show. The author eloquently summarizes the show's key elements and themes through the introductory essays as well as discusses each artwork or group of pieces with short but detailed summaries. In some ways he actually made the subject matter more accessible than Taschen's comprehensive guide, since the text was far more concise and approachable than most academically treated artwork essays. Even the highly religious subject matter was made more palatable to my very anti-Christian self by this treatment, as it gave just enough information to pique my interest without getting bogged down in the minutia of Christian mythology and religious iconography. I also surprisingly was very impressed with the physical qualities of hte book - good size, excellent paper (and therefore print) quality, and well thought-out layouts for each page and overall flow resulted in a very pleasurable reading experience.

[Lo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some wonderful diagrams and pictures of Leonardo’s art, inventions and theories. Some familiar, others make you think he was a man out of time as they say.