Product Description

Leonardo is the greatest, most multi-faceted and most mysterious of all Renaissance artists, but extraordinarily, considering his enormous reputation, this is the first full-length biography in English for several decades. Prize-winning author Charles Nicholl has immersed himself for five years in all the manuscripts, paintings and artefacts to produce an ‘intimate portrait’ of Leonardo. He uses these contemporary materials - his notebooks and sketchbooks, eye witnesses and early biographies, etc - as a way into the mental tone and physical texture of his life and has made myriad small discoveries about him and his work and his circle of associates. Among much else, the book identifies what Nicholl argues is an unknown portrait of the artist hanging in a church near Lodi in northern Italy. It also contains new material on his eccentric assistant Tomasso Masini, on his homosexual affairs in Florence, and on his curious relationship with a female model and/or prostitute from Cremona. A masterpiece of modern biography.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36023 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 656 pages

Daily Telegraph
‘Gripping, beguiling … brings a genius down from his lonely pedestal and into the world’

Peter Conrad, Observer
‘Charles Nicholl, in this bright, cunning, intrepidly intelligent biographical study, has startlingly demystified his enigmatic subject’

Peter Ackroyd, The Times
‘A splendid and encompassing biography’

Customer Reviews

Of da Vinci the painter, not of the multitalented man
Nicoll manages to give a good view of the personality of Leonardo da Vinci, by describing what is known about da Vinci's childhood and then proceeding to describe his career as a *painter* in chronological order. Although in describing character Nicoll occasionally falls in depth into Freudian mumbojumbo, he has to be complemented that he does recognize that it is only fantastical speculation. The style of Nicoll is enjoyable and easy to read.
If you want to a good description of da Vinci the painter and his career, then this is the book for you. Nicoll goes in detail to the creation of many paintings of da Vinci, both those well known to general public and those less well known.
However, if you want a biography of da Vinci the multitalented man, then this book is definitely not for you. More space is given for description of a single art project that never came to be than is given to all the inventions and scientific contributions of da Vinci. As an example, Nicoll mentions that in the field of anatomy da Vinci's original contribution was greatest, and then proceeds to give six pages and two illustrations on the topic. And, unfortunately, most of these six pages is on the usefulness of the study of anatomy to a painter. More room is given to speculations about the possible identity of a female model in a painting lost hundreds of years ago than is given to the actual contribution of da Vinci to the field of anatomy. There is no description of the state of anatomical knowledge at the time and no description of how Leonardo added to this knowledge.
If you did not know anything about da Vinci before reading this book, you would finish with the impression that he was a mere painter and sculptor who never really did anything else - except dreamt of flying because of some Freudian type of childhood problem. Admittedly, paintings are perhaps the most lasting contribution of da Vinci, but they are not the reason why his figure appears in comics and novels, e.g. in Pratchett's Discworld books in disguise of Leonard da Quirm.
If the painting part was cut by 50 % and replaced by more detailed description of his other activities, this could be a very good book.

The man and his time
Superbly researched, beautifully written, this book vividly evokes the life and times of one of the truly great geniuses of all time. All the fascinating aspects of this complex man's personal life and manifold professional achievements (and failures) are described.

Strongly recommended for anyone with an interest in Da Vinci, Italian history and art or just a great biography.

A struggle in places but worth the perserverence
This book is an enlightening read about a truly remarkable man. Da Vinci lived like no other man of his time and like few since. This book explores his life in great detail and although it gets a little dry at times, generally it is a fascinating and inspiring read. Worth sticking with to get a great deal out of it.