Da Vinci's Ghost: Genius, Obsession, And How Leonardo Created The World In His Own Image (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
"Da Vinci's Ghost" is about Leonardo Da Vinci's road, philosophies, and steps to making one of his famous pieces of work, "Vitruvian Man". Author Toby Lester went deep into Leonardo's journey to discovering the "Vitruvian Man". This author went into his early days when he first started drawing and painting. "Da Vinci's Ghost" also went into detail about some ancient figures that claim to have either seen, or have connected to the creation of the famous picture, along with the ancient "Ten Book" written by the inspiration for the name: Vitruvius. Then he went into depth about his young adult years when he started to travel; taking his paintings and designing abilities to Milan, Rome, and all around Italy. Lastly, the book has information on the geometric, and scientific way on how he made the "Vitruvian Man"."Da Vinci's Ghost" has a lot of cultural material of Italy in the book. One of the cultural artifacts of Italy is the architecture. In this book, there were times in Leonardo's life that he helped design buildings and statues. A second cultural artifact of Italy is it's fine arts and musical development. Back in medieval times, Italy was strongly known to have some of the best artists, musicians, actors, poets, writers, and philosophers. Some philosophers were Aristotle, Vitruvius, Claudio Sgarbi, Francecesco di Giorgio, Andrea del Verrocchio, The maker of the "Vitruvian Man" Leonardo himself, and many more. Lastly was there church relations with day to day activities. Back in medieval times, most art, music, books, even sports was under the churches consent. There were probably many reasons why author "Toby Lester" wrote this book, but the main reason why was probably to show all the factors that lead to Leonardo making the "Vitruvian Man". In the beginning of the book, the author said, "This is the story of the world's most famous drawing: Leonardo da Vinci's man in a circle and a square." The theme of this book is the arts relationship with human proportions. The quote carried on to say, "Art historians call it Vitruvian Man, because it's based on a description of human proportions written some two thousand years ago by the Roman architect."Would I recommend this book? That depends, are you interested in art, facts, and culture? If the answer is "yes", then I would recommend this book. If you don't think so than I probably wouldn't suggest it. Very much in the style of "The Swerve" -- lost, or nearly inaccessible classical knowledge, suddenly bursting to the surface of the Renaissance & transforming the world. However, the key difference lies in that it transformed the world in the most intimate way: by turning Leonardo of Florence in the Leonardo Da Vinci we all know. This is a gorgeous meditation on the impact of ideas on a young genius...and how that genius would be transmitted to posterity. A surprisingly philosophical look at history, and one worth reading.
What do You think about Da Vinci's Ghost: Genius, Obsession, And How Leonardo Created The World In His Own Image (2012)?
Very good description of the development of the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo and others.
—Lulu
Reading now. Fascinating. A grim reminder of how little I know.
—MariaLeeAnneScott
Actually this is a partial da Vinci biography.It's just OK.
—1995girl
