Leonardo da Vinci

I enjoy reading biographies and have discovered that many times, history can best be learned through study of the people who make it. You can study the Renaissance, but reading biographies of the leading figures of the period can many times give one a better understanding of the events and people of the period.

This biography of Leonardo Da Vinci was enlightening to me, because while I was certainly familiar with much of his life and work, there were certainly aspects of which I was completely in the dark. In addition, this was much more than a biography. The author, Walter Isaacson, has written biographies of Albert Einstein, Steven Jobs and Benjamin Franklin (do I detect a trend?). In this book, not only does he cover all of the basics of any biography, he applies in-depth critique of much of Da Vinci's work.

Like the previous subjects of Isaacson’s work, Da Vinci was an unquestioned genius, one of the greatest of any era. The depth and breadth of his interests and achievements remain unprecedented in human history. One thing I learned from this biography was the fact that a majority of Da Vinci’s work was never finished. Many of his musings and projects were purely fantastic and speculative, though ground breaking at the time. His studies of lighting, perspective, anatomy, hydraulics and optics were sometimes centuries ahead of their time and played a large role in the success of his art work.

I would be remiss if I failed to comment on the quality of the book itself. It includes numerous, high quality illustrations of Da Vinci’s most famous works of art, as well as dozens of pages from his incredibly detailed and diverse notebooks. The paper quality is extra glossy and very thick, resulting in a 600 page book that feels like it weighs ten pounds. I’m not sure how this translates to Kindle, but at under $20, this is a library quality tome that will display well in printed form, and speak well of its owner.… (more)

Overall impression: It isn't magnificent, but it's solid and admirable enough. Lots of editorial slips. Also a fair amount of repetition. I wonder how much of the author's expertise is borrowed.

Beautiful printing job. Really nice paper, enough so that I couldn't bring myself to mark errors or make marginal comments. Coated stock favors fine color reproductions of works. I liked the detailed descriptive explanations of the paintings and drawings and the emphasis on placing them within their physical, historical, and biographical contexts. I also learned some things that I have since applied in the art classes I take, such as the reason for the use of sfumato techniques (blurring the edges of things), and in looking at the work of other artists, such as their treatment of perspective and their rendering of movement.

A few quotes I liked:

Paper turns out to be a superb information-storage technology, still readable after five hundred years, which our own tweets likely won't be. (page 4)

The glory of being an artist, [Leonardo] realized, was that reality should inform but not constrain. (page 47)

Any person who puts 'Describe the tongue of the woodpecker' on his to-do list is overendowed with the combination of curiosity and acuity. (page 178)

This is the heart of Leonardo's philosophy: the replication and relationships of the patterns of nature, from the cosmic to the human. (page 487)

On the other hand, in addition to numerous dubious word choices (fulsome, bevy, enormity), we have egregious sentences like this one, which mixes no fewer than six metaphors:

Leonardo's willingness to pursue whatever shiny subject caught his eye made his mind richer and filled with more connections. (page 363)

We also have, in the course of more than 600 pages, some pertinent things that are overexplained and some that are never explained at all. For instance, I had to go elsewhere and dig around on the internet to find out what he meant by "nutcracker man," a term he used over and over but never defined.

Random curious fact: The Mona Lisa's eyebrows may have been lost. They were described in detail by a contemporary. The painting was done in many layers, and they may have been taken off during a cleaning, an explanation that makes more sense than that Leonardo left them off or that the sitter didn't have any.


I liked Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs a lot, and I grant that this one tackles a much more difficult and complex subject. Although it gets bonus points for ambition, I still have to take off for ways in which it falls short of the mark. As is so often true for me, I wonder why the obviously high budget didn't spare more for editorial support.… (more)

Wonderful book with a great story to tell! The illustrations were well done and truly worth the high(er)-cost of this book. Leonardo's life story and personal history were captivating, and the author presented just the right amount of detail. The explanations were appropriate for both the art expert as well as the layman. I would highly recommend this book to any art-lover and to any lover of biographies. Isaacson is a master!… (more)

An excellent biography that is somewhat non-traditional and not strictly chronological because out of necessity it focuses more on Leonardo's work than on biographical details. The solid information on his life is limited, but Isaacson makes up for it by wonderfully annotating his paintings and notebooks. Very well illustrated with Leonardo's work. The text ties into the illustrations beautifully. Four stars instead of five because the text is a little repetitious at times.… (more)

Isaacson put Da Vinci into sharp focus for me, not simply relaying the details of his life but describing the interrelationships among Da Vinci's art, engineering and scientific endeavors. In that context, Da Vinci's achievements seem even more spectacular but did not need Isaacson's occasional direct interjection of his favorite opinions into the text. Of the three biographies of Isaacson's I have read this one surpassed his Franklin book but not his Steve Jobs book.… (more)

People throw around the word genius a lot these days and you can become pretty jaded about it. That’s why reading about someone as staggeringly brilliant as Leonardo can be a bit exhausting. Not only is it the sheer number of things he pioneered or perfected, but the detail Isaacson goes into. That is the main reason it took me most of a year to finish this book. Another is that it is a bit repetitive in the sense that his paintings, studies, notebooks and life circumstances didn’t differ that much and all received the same breathless awe.

Not that he wasn’t deserving; he was. He more than many others. Here are a few things I learned and loved about Leonardo -

> He was gay and almost out...as out as you could be at this time
> He eschewed religion, but paid it lip service as the times and patrons dictated
> He had a fine sense of frivolity and whimsy
> He invented musical instruments, but didn’t play them
> He didn’t complete a lot of paintings and left very few completed ones behind considering how revered he is as a painter
> He is the first person to have understood and explained that arteriosclerosis is a function of time
> He discovered that the blood itself makes heart valves work
> He was often distracted and did not complete a lot of his work, or else bring it to its most logical conclusion
> He hardly published anything
> Some paintings are lost as are some notebooks, but surprisingly a lot survived

Early on we understand that while Leonardo was a book buyer and had an extensive library, he wasn’t formally educated and considered it a benefit. He was of the opinion that rote learning stifled true discovery and thinking. He preferred to experiment and not just take someone else’s conclusions as the truth. Admirable and the genesis of the modern scientific method. It is too bad that he didn’t publish his findings as they could have been beneficial decades and even centuries before someone else found the same thing and it became commonly accepted or the de facto best practice.

An amazing person and an interesting book, but one that tried my patience at times.… (more)

THREE REASONS TO BUY THE HARDBOUND EDITION OF THIS BOOK....

1.) It is a great reference book. It is perfect to have around on a coffee table and share the gorgeous photos inside with family, friends, guests. Included are obviously the Mona Lisa and Last Supper, but also Michelangelo's David and Leonardo's many, many drawings and doodles. If you want to have one "show-off" book this is it. It is also a great gift.

2.) It is a great product. This edition is the epitome of a printed book. Pick it up - surprise! For its size, it's incredibly heavy. Why? The publisher wisely chose a particularly heavy paper stock, one that would do justice to the 144 illustrations. The cover, the four-page timeline of Leonardo's life, the cast of characters....all contribute to this first rate book. If you are browsing and come across this book, be sure to read the two paragraph Coda at page 525. It's incredibly fascinating, pay no attention to the subject matter, just read it. I would have used it as intro material.

3.) Though I am a huge Kindle fan and read most of my books on a Kindle I feel the hardbound version of "Leonardo" is the only one to read, mainly because of the color illustrations. And you will probably want to do a lot of flipping around.

Isaacson tells his story well, starting with Leonardo's early life as the bastard son of a well to do Florence notary. Throughout, the author does an excellent job of relating Leonardo's life within the context of life including politics, economics and entertainment of the times. Don't be put off by the length - many of the illustrations are full page and the 525 pages before Notes is actually 300 plus pages of text, very readable. The sheer volume of Leonardo art, studies and projects is staggering as is the frustration with his propensity to abandon so many uncompleted and undocumented. Reading the book I found it incredible that Leonardo discoveries continue even into the 21st century.… (more)

An exploration of creativity, curiosity, and cooperation in the life of a unique contributor to our modern grasp of the world. From time to time the writer repeats himself, for instance when discussing authentication of Leonardo's works. A well told tale. Reasoning by analogy.
The books starts stating that the word genius is greatly overused and ends making the point that Leonardo certainly deserves that designation.
Even Leonardo’s procrastination becomes seen as perfection being the enemy of good enough, and Leonardo’s way of letting his ideas percolate.… (more)

Leonardo was the quintessential Renaissance man, although not the first. Enamored with all things artistic, scientific, mathematical, and biological, he spent his life painting, engineering, and recording in his journals studies from the world around him. Only late in his life did he even leave Italy. His lifestyle was one that could be dangerous outside of enlightened communities, but such was his creative genius that he was a coveted associate of brutal warlords such as the Sforza's (Milan), the di Medici's (Florence) and the Borgia's (Valencia, Rome).

Da Vinci was a perfectionist and procrastinator. The Mona Lisa was a commission he never actually finished. Other commissions similar were never completed. One masterpiece, The Last Supper, started degrading after just 10 years. Many of his engineering projects were never realized. He was even a consultant on warfare, but his siege ideas were never implemented.

Unfortunately, the library audiobook doesn't include the PDF with all of the images referred to in the book. I might have to buy it because as good as this book was, it's probably 10x better with pictures.… (more)

This book was excellent. I read it slowly so that I could savor every word. The book was very readable and Leonardo was an extremely interesting person. It must have been hard to be him. In today's world he probably would be under review for OCD or another type of mental illness. I learned so much and now I do want to step back and look at the world in a different way, stop and smell the roses!… (more)

Excellent book that is enhanced with great writing. I particularly enjoyed the interaction of Da Vinci in history. Interacting with the father of double entry accounting, Pacioli, artists such as Michelangelo, traders and noblemen and rulers. Art, engineering, science, and religion. Walter Isaacson never believed that history should be dull and dusty. This book brings the era to life in full color.… (more)

A biography written through the lens of Leonardo’s journals, this work by Isaacson is a comprehensive journey through the comprehensive but incomprehensible mind of a genius. Organizing by topic as much as chronology, Isaacson helps us see how Leonardo sought to understand all things and reveal the intersections and connections within.… (more)

A great read, its only real drawback being Mr. Isaacson's predilection toward fawning over the individual pieces of art displayed in a book printing on photo-quality paper, which gave it the curb weight of a Greyhound bus. The history, however, was a wonderful tour of Da Vinci's world and, as much as was possible, the workings of the great man's mind.… (more)

Whew! After quite a spell, I finished the book - well worth it, as it is quite detailed, with illustrations and images and explains the nature of Leonardo's genius. I was particularly taken with the discussion of Leonardo's interest in and knowledge of mathematics and various theorems which would not be [re]discovered for a couple of hundred years. A long read, but well worth it - enlightening and entertaining.… (more)

It took me almost one year to read this biography of da Vinci and it was not because it wasn’t interesting but because there was so much information about this genius to absorb.
Isaacson takes a chronological approach to Da Vinci’s life which began on April 15, 1452 near Florence until his death in Amboise, France, May 2, 1519.
What I retained from the story of his life were his insatiable curiosity, quest for knowledge, his perfectionism which led to procrastination and his ability to mingle the art of science and the science of art.
He filled notebooks with ideas, engineering experiments, anatomical drawings and shopping lists. His curiosity regarding the natural world, household inventories, the human body and basic engineering showed how his mind searched for answers to questions that amazed him. His obsession with how water flows inspired his engineering and architecture.
Dissecting corpses, drawing musculature, bones, fetuses allowed him to perfectly draw the human body and face.
His curiosity regarding the human blood circulation system and his conclusions regarding the function of the heart was centuries ahead of other scientists.
Da Vinci loved life, lived a very unconventional liberal lifestyle, was generous to his family, was almost always broke, had many friends and patrons and likely frustrated many of these with his inability to stay focused and finish projects.
He spent his final years in Amboise at a home owned by King François I who wanted this renaissance intellectual to be comfortable as the “first painter, engineer and architect to the King”.… (more)

Isaacson is a consummate biographer of scientific and technical men. This work on Leonardo da Vinci is a brilliant analysis of An exceptional man, someone who can easily be labelled ‘genius’.

Isaacson tells us little about who da Vinci was and focuses much more on what da Vinci did. He has absorbed da Vinci’s extensive writings that survive and has clearly been astonished at the breadth, depth, the sheer wonder of what he found. The range of subjects covered from arts and science, the depth of da Vinci’s studies and the juxtaposition of his notes on the page that reveal he was often thinking deeply about five different completely unrelated things at once and then drawing out that these things are actually related in some deep and previously unseen way.

This work led me to understand the artist and scientist in da Vinci better than any other biography of a similar figure has ever done. I was moved by Isaacson’s last chapter where he attempts to describe what genius is and how da Vinci’s character led him to be such a great man.

This book deserves a five star rating, but loses half a star because of the rather poor quality of the illustrations (of which there are many). Often Isaacson’s detailed descriptions of da Vinci’s paintings and drawings cannot be followed through the illustrations because the definition is too low - we cannot see the detail that both da Vinci and Isaacson want us to see.… (more)