The book Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson is a bestselling and critically acclaimed biography published in 2017. Isaacson, who had previously written biographies of Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein, draws upon thousands of pages from da Vinci´s notebooks to present a profound and vivid portrait of this Renaissance genius.
The central theme of the book is the connection between art and science in da Vinci´s life and work. Isaacson demonstrates that his genius was not merely a divine gift, but rather the result of insatiable curiosity, meticulous observation, and playful imagination — qualities that, the author believes, can be cultivated in all of us. By examining masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, the book shows how his knowledge of anatomy, optics, and mathematics contributed to the creation of these masterpieces.
Da Vinci´s notebooks, of which over 7,000 pages survive, serve as the foundation of this narrative. These notebooks contain anatomical drawings, engineering designs, studies of bird flight, water flow, and hundreds of other subjects. Drawing on these notes, Isaacson presents him not merely as a painter, but as a scientist, inventor, anatomist, and engineer who crossed the boundaries between disciplines.
The book also addresses personal aspects of da Vinci´s life, including his reputation as a perfectionist who left works unfinished, as well as his status as an illegitimate child, a homosexual, and a left-hander. In the final section, Isaacson offers lessons from da Vinci´s life for the modern world, presenting him as a model for learning for the sake of learning itself and for maintaining a childlike sense of wonder. Despite some criticism regarding an occasionally admiring and somewhat conventional approach, the book is widely regarded as an engaging and illuminating work that offers a unique portrait of one of history´s greatest minds.
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