A Cozy Read

With all the hoopla associated with Christmas, family gone, leftovers eaten, wrapping paper and cardboard boxes in the dumpster, decorations down, and the artificial tree stored (artificial trees outsold natural trees this year, 60% vs 40%), I have been able to settle down with Walter Isaacson’s new book on Leonardo da Vinci.

Several features make the book unique: It is printed on premium grade glossy paper that make the numerous illustrations pop; Isaacson gives a rather detailed overview of Leonardo’s life in the first few chapters before discussing da Vinci’s major contributions so that chronology does not interrupt the flow of achievement. Although written by a scholar of the highest degree, the writing style makes the book easy and enjoyable to read. The last chapter discusses Leonardo’s self-taught traits that allowed him to will his way to brilliance (makes great blog material that you can count on reading here). 

The book has many magical nuggets unminted by my mind. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist the alliteration. In more prosaic words: the book had a lot of stuff I didn’t know.) Here are just a few:

·      A light background makes an object look bigger than a dark background

·      Leonardo was a producer of pageants and plays. He used his artistic and technical skills in stage design, costumes, scenery, music, mechanisms, choreography and automatons.

·      The incredible perspective tricks that contribute to the majesty of The Last Supper.

·      His ability to show intentions of the mind through gestures in his artwork. Leonardo wrote: A picture of human figures ought be done in such a way as that the viewer may easily recognize, by means of their attitudes, the intentions of their minds.

·      The design of a cathedral should reflect the proportions of the human body as depicted in The Vitruvian Man.

These are just examples. If I were to write about all the things I learned from Isaacson’s book the information would fill a small volume…and I’ve read less than half the book so far.  

I’ll close with this intriguing statement from Isaacson:

The fact that Leonardo was not only a genius but also very human—quirky and obsessive and playful and easily distracted—makes him more accessible. He was not graced with the type of brilliance that is completely unfathomable to us. Instead, he was self-taught and willed his way to his genius. So even though we may never be able to match his talents, we can learn from him and try to be more like him.

Why not buy the book and, in your mind’s eye, join me in a cozy read nestled next to a warming hearth, the hubbub of the holiday fading away.