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himanshu_dhiman 's review for:
Leonardo Da Vinci
by Walter Isaacson
Had I not attended a Panel discussion organized with Walter Isaacson for the promotion of this book, I don't know if I would have ever read it. I'm not a painter, and I tried to stay away from Physics in school and college as much as I could, and it turns out these were prominent areas of interest for Leonardo among others. In spite of that, I was able to enjoy the narrative in the book even when Walter is trying to explain how Leonardo's curious mind worked out the foundations (and probably even advanced matters) of the disciplines of optics, anatomy, mechanics, hydraulics, etc. centuries before they were invented. Halfway through the book, once you've familiarised yourself with Leonardo, you wonder how he would feel about us trying to understand him with a curiosity which is comparable, if not equivalent (and definitely not more), to his inquisitiveness about all things nature has created.
Before reading this book, I knew him as the famous painter who painted the Last Supper and Mona Lisa, but once I realised the intricacies of the process that he underwent while he painted these and others, it helped me appreciate him so much more. Like Walter points out, Leonardo was a genius and not through some god gifted IQ, but by his proclivities and probably through his comfort with his procrastination. He raised questions and went through quite tedious and rigorous processes to answer them himself. The fact that he never wanted to relinquish any work of art he started and in this process, he left a few pieces unfinished makes his genious more believable and relatable. You might end up wishing that he had the discipline to finish and publish his treatises, but if he had let himself be engaged in that, he probably won't have discovered so much.
You also have to appreciate Walter's diligence with the research that he did for this book and how he stitches together Leonardo's life in a chronological yet otherwise categorical way. It must have been so hard for him to struggle through all the obscure references which would have been all over the timeline, sometimes containing exaggerated or even false claims, and then weave all these discrete evidences into an ingenious and coherent story such that the reader can almost apparate in that time and place where the author is playing with the characters. There's a strong desire now to actually see Florence and Milan, and Louvre as well. This book has also developed a better sense of Italian Renaissance in me, so it would be accurate to say that it's been both an edifying and an aesthetic read. Hoping to read another book by Walter!
Before reading this book, I knew him as the famous painter who painted the Last Supper and Mona Lisa, but once I realised the intricacies of the process that he underwent while he painted these and others, it helped me appreciate him so much more. Like Walter points out, Leonardo was a genius and not through some god gifted IQ, but by his proclivities and probably through his comfort with his procrastination. He raised questions and went through quite tedious and rigorous processes to answer them himself. The fact that he never wanted to relinquish any work of art he started and in this process, he left a few pieces unfinished makes his genious more believable and relatable. You might end up wishing that he had the discipline to finish and publish his treatises, but if he had let himself be engaged in that, he probably won't have discovered so much.
You also have to appreciate Walter's diligence with the research that he did for this book and how he stitches together Leonardo's life in a chronological yet otherwise categorical way. It must have been so hard for him to struggle through all the obscure references which would have been all over the timeline, sometimes containing exaggerated or even false claims, and then weave all these discrete evidences into an ingenious and coherent story such that the reader can almost apparate in that time and place where the author is playing with the characters. There's a strong desire now to actually see Florence and Milan, and Louvre as well. This book has also developed a better sense of Italian Renaissance in me, so it would be accurate to say that it's been both an edifying and an aesthetic read. Hoping to read another book by Walter!