Da Vinci's Ghost
Genius, Obsession, and How Leonardo Created the World in His Own Image

Few mortals have captured the imagination of so many as has Leonardo Da Vinci. We tend to see him as the ultimate genius of the Renaissance period. Yet, as Toby Lester reminds us here, he was a man of remarkable imagination who was self-educated, unable to retain full-time employment because he faile......more

Albert Einstein wrote that the mind “always has tried to form for itself a simple and synoptic image of the surrounding world.” During the Renaissance, when the ancient Greek idea of man as the measure of all things leapt to the forefront of intellectual life, the human body became a preferred objec......more

You may not have known it was called the "Vitruvian Man" but you are doubtless familiar with the Da Vinci's drawing of the man with the intense stare in the circle and square - reproduced in posters, T-shirts, mugs, etc. This is the story of that drawing, inspired by architect Vitruvius, who proceed......more

A remarkable book for its research and detail. I actually didn't realise there were differing ideas as to what Da Vinci's Created Man really was/is. To me I thought it was Da Vinci capturing man in motion, or rather the upper and lower limbs as the torso keeps in the same position. But there is so m......more

Apparently Da Vinci’s most famous drawing, Vitruvian Man, was an idea that was well known and employed by architects and artists during the Renaissance. Historian Toby Lester does a solid job of tracing the origin and application of the Platonic ideal of man prior to Da Vinci’s rendering of him. Thi......more