The da Vinci Legacy

How an Elusive 16th-Century Artist Became a Global Pop Icon

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Pub Date 30 Apr 2019 | Archive Date 15 Aug 2019

Description

For the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death, an acclaimed art historian and an art connoisseur uncover how this elusive artist became a pop icon with megastar status in modern times.

Virtually everyone would agree that Leonardo da Vinci was the most important artist of the High Renaissance. Although he produced few finished works, it was Leonardo who singlehandedly created the defining features of Western art: a realism based on subtle shading; depth using atmospheric effects; and dramatic contrasts between light and dark.

What has never been told before, however, is how these revolutionary inventions were inserted into the bloodstream of Western art—and how they made Leonardo the internationally-renowned icon he is today. This is the great mystery of Leonardo’s legacy: if his tangible output was so limited, how did his mystique as a solitary genius survive five centuries of European history? And why does it continue to fascinate us in modern times?

The Da Vinci Legacy is the first book to unravel this mystery by taking an immersive journey through the art, literature, science, and politics of Europe, from the Renaissance to today. Through captivating text enhanced by one hundred color images, this book takes off where Walter Isaacson’s portrait of Leonardo left off. It captures not only the reason for the enduring allure of The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper but also explores the secrets of Leonardo’s creativity, and the strange phenomena that intervened to make sure Leonardo was not forgotten to the dusty pages of history.


The release of the book will coincide with the broadcast of The Search for the Mona Lisa, a dramatized documentary produced by Pantheon Studios in Santa Monica, Calif., which optioned the rights to The Da Vinci Legacy. Scheduled for broadcast on Public Television in May of 2019, the film was shot on location in Italy and France with more than 60 actors and extras, including renowned Italian actor Alessandro Demcenko as Leonardo da Vinci. Pantheon Studios previously produced the feature-length documentary Walt: The Man Behind the Myth, the official biography of Walt Disney, now streaming on Netflix.

For the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death, an acclaimed art historian and an art connoisseur uncover how this elusive artist became a pop icon with megastar status in modern times.

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Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781948062343
PRICE US$26.99 (USD)
PAGES 328

Average rating from 12 members


Featured Reviews

A thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this title.
As a fan of most things da Vinci related, I must say I thoroughly enjoyed this book offering a different aspect from which to consider our understanding and appreciation of the great Leonardo da Vinci. The numerous works trying to piece together scarce clues to the life and work of this gifted man, or attempting to understand what made his mind and spirit tick like some magical machine, are too many to count. This read elegantly separates the work and legacy from the man of mystery, and in doing so provides an enjoyable stroll through some of the highlights of art history, pictures most gratefully included! Just what is it that not only allowed this man and his art to endure, but to in fact thrive in comparison to other masters with much more extensive portfolios? Was it merely luck or something more? Read this lovely book and rediscover the magnificent talent of the original Renaissance man and the greats (both appreciated and neglected by the passage of time) that willingly took up his torch cementing one of the greatest legacies the art world has ever known.

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