- 385 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
"Insightful and beautiful.Ā .Ā .Ā . A wonderful study of how Leonardo's art and science are interwoven." āWalter Isaacson, author of
Leonardo Da Vinci
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
Shortly after Leonardo da Vinci's death, his peers and rivals created the myth of the two Leonardos: there was Leonardo the artist and then, later in life, Leonardo the scientist. In this pathbreaking biographical interpretation, the art historian Francesca Fiorani tells a very different and much more interesting story.
Taking a fresh look at Leonardo's celebrated but challenging notebooks and other sources, Fiorani shows that Leonardo became fluent in science when he was still young man. As an apprentice in a Florence studio, he was especially interested in the science of optics. He aspired to use this knowledge to captureāas no artist before him had ever doneāthe interior lives of his subjects, to paint the human soul in its smallest, tenderest motions and vicissitudes. And then he hoped to take one further step: to gather his scientific knowledge together in a book that would be even more important than his paintings. In The Shadow Drawing, Fiorani revises our understanding of Leonardo the artist's most renowned paintings and reconstructs the wisdom Leonardo the author hoped to impart. The result is both a stirring biography and a bold reconsideration of how the Renaissance understood science and artāand of what was lost when the two were sundered.
"Fiorani's lively intellectual adventure gives us new understanding and appreciation of Leonardo's cross-fertilization of art and science. It is a perceptive biography of Leonardo exploring the frontiers of science but also a brilliantly informative guide to his paintings." āRoss King, author of Brunelleschi's Dome, Leonardo and the Last Supper, and Mad Enchantment
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
Shortly after Leonardo da Vinci's death, his peers and rivals created the myth of the two Leonardos: there was Leonardo the artist and then, later in life, Leonardo the scientist. In this pathbreaking biographical interpretation, the art historian Francesca Fiorani tells a very different and much more interesting story.
Taking a fresh look at Leonardo's celebrated but challenging notebooks and other sources, Fiorani shows that Leonardo became fluent in science when he was still young man. As an apprentice in a Florence studio, he was especially interested in the science of optics. He aspired to use this knowledge to captureāas no artist before him had ever doneāthe interior lives of his subjects, to paint the human soul in its smallest, tenderest motions and vicissitudes. And then he hoped to take one further step: to gather his scientific knowledge together in a book that would be even more important than his paintings. In The Shadow Drawing, Fiorani revises our understanding of Leonardo the artist's most renowned paintings and reconstructs the wisdom Leonardo the author hoped to impart. The result is both a stirring biography and a bold reconsideration of how the Renaissance understood science and artāand of what was lost when the two were sundered.
"Fiorani's lively intellectual adventure gives us new understanding and appreciation of Leonardo's cross-fertilization of art and science. It is a perceptive biography of Leonardo exploring the frontiers of science but also a brilliantly informative guide to his paintings." āRoss King, author of Brunelleschi's Dome, Leonardo and the Last Supper, and Mad Enchantment
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Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access The Shadow Drawing by Francesca Fiorani in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Art & History of Renaissance Art. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Notice
- Dedication
- Prologue
- Part I: How Science Taught Leonardo How to Paint
- Part II: How Leonardo Painted
- Part III: How Leonardo Taught the Science of Art
- Part IV: How Leonardoās Science of Art Was Lost and Found
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Acknowledgments
- Index
- Illustration Credits
- Also by Francesca Fiorani
- A Note About the Author
- Newsletter Sign-up
- Contents
- Copyright