Leonardo by Leonardo: Leonardo Da Vinci

A landmark publication on Leonardo da Vinci, the immortal Renaissance artist universally considered one of the greatest painters of all time.

Leonardo by Leonardo, by Martin J. Kemp, one of the world's leading authorities on Leonardo da Vinci, presents an astonishing gallery of the master's 27 existing paintings, as well as the preparatory drawings that formed the basis of his masterpieces. Martin J. Kemp's narrative is accompanied by extensive written reflections by Leonardo, and is further highlighted by perspectives from his contemporaries.

The legacy of Leonardo da Vinci is a perennial fascination. Not only did he paint what is considered by many to be the world's most famous painting, the Mona Lisa, but he radically changed every genre of painting - religious and secular portraiture, devotional tableaux, and drawing. Leonardo is the genius that towers over the history of Western art. The large scale and unparalleled quality of reproduction in this volume allows "the strange, living presence of his paintings" to exercise their full power and magnetism on the viewer.

With a lifetime of scholarship and insight, Martin J. Kemp takes us inside the world of each masterwork: the artist's relationship to his patrons; how and why the works were commissioned; their iconography and symbology; the experimental painting techniques he applied; stories of how the paintings survived and changed owners across the centuries; restoration and condition; and finally, the unsolved puzzles that remain to this day.

The utmost care and state-of-the-art digital capture technology has been applied to the new photography of the artworks presented in this collection. No expense has been spared to reproduce the artworks with the highest fidelity to color, tone, and surface. The quality of imaging, ultra-fine resolution printing, archival paper, and binding has produced a book like no other. The result is a power and intimacy between artist and viewer that takes us inside the artist's mind, eye and spirit.

Author: Martin J. Kemp
Publisher: Callaway Arts & Entertainment
Published: 06/07/2019
Pages: 192
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 4.40lbs
Size: 13.80h x 11.00w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9780935112825

About the Author
Kemp, Martin J.: - Martin Kemp, one of the world's leading experts on Leonardo da Vinci, was trained in Natural Sciences and Art History at Cambridge University and the Courtauld Institute, London. His 25 books include The Science of Art: Optical Themes in Western Art from Brunelleschi to Seurat (Yale), and The Human Animal in Western Art and Science (Chicago). He has published and broadcast extensively on Leonardo da Vinci, including the prize-winning Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man and Leonardo (both Oxford). His Christ to Coke: How Image Becomes Icon (Oxford) looks at 11 types of icons across a wide range of public imagery. He has written regularly for Nature, his essays for which have been published as Visualizations and developed in Seen and Unseen (both Oxford). His most recent books are Art in History (Profile Books) and Mona Lisa with Giuseppe Pallanti (Oxford). Living with Leonardo (Thames and Hudson) was published in March 2018. Kemp has been a Trustee of the National Galleries of Scotland, The Victoria and Albert Museum, and The British Museum. He has curated and co-curated a series of exhibitions on Leonardo and other themes, including Circa 1492 at the National Gallery in Washington, Spectacular Bodies at the Hayward Gallery in London, Leonardo da Vinci: Experience, Experiment, Design at the Victoria and Albert Museum and Seduced: Sex and Art from Antiquity to Now, at the Barbican Art Gallery in London.