To commemorate the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci's death,
world-renowned da Vinci expert Martin Kemp explores 100 of the master's
milestones in art, science, engineering, architecture, anatomy, and
more.
Leonardo da Vinci was born in the small Tuscan town of Vinci in April
1452. Over the centuries, he has become one of the most famous people in
the history of visual culture. Spring 2019 marks the 500th anniversary
of his death in May 1519, with exhibitions and events planned across
Europe and the United States. This lavishly illustrated volume by Martin
Kemp--one of the world's leading authorities on da Vinci--offers a fresh
way of looking at the master's work. Kemp focuses on 100 key, broadly
chronological milestones that cover an extraordinary range of topic
across Leonardo's many fields of discipline: painting, where he brought
new levels of formal and emotional grandeur to his works, including The
Last Supper and Portrait of Lisa del Giocondo (the "Mona Lisa");
anatomical studies, which are extraordinary for their sense of form and
function (Studies of the Optics of the Human Eye and Ventricles of
the Brain); engineering marvels, noted for their range and
extraordinary visual quality (Gearing for a Clockwork Mechanism and
Wheels without Axles and Designs for a Flying Machine); and his
progressive engagement with a range of sciences--anatomy, optics,
dynamics, statics, geology, and mathematics.
