PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; INTRODUCTION; Introduction: Leonardo and the "abbreviators"; 1. A Strange Career; 2. Looking; 3. Body and Machine; 4. The Living Earth; 5. Telling Tales; 6. Lisa's Room. Leonardo's Afterlife; GALLERY; LEONARDO'S LIFE IN OUTLINE; FURTHER READING
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.
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.
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