Serge Bramly

This is a comprehensive portrait of the life of Leonardo. The author displays a passion for his subject that invigorates the presentation while never descending into hagiography. From the workshop of Verocchio to his own working quarters in Florence, Milan, and beyond we are presented with the details of a life of curiosity and wonder that all too infrequently leads to completed masterpieces.
I appreciated the thoroughness of the biography while also enjoying its objectivity and the wealth of show more references and notes that provide the ballast needed to come to some understanding of the life of a Renaissance man. If you can read one book about Leonardo da Vinci this should be the one you read. show less

Those already familiar with the Mona Lisa will surely be disappointed with this book – at 79 pages (London : Thames and Hudson, 1996) it is extremely brief, and most of those pages are devoid of text. What text there is has been set in rather large print and attempts only a cursory examination of the subject. As I said, this is not a book for the expert. However, for someone who knows nothing about this world-famous painting and only very little about the painter – someone like this show more reviewer for example – this is a nice little primer. The close-up photography of sections of the painting are breathtaking, and the author's isolation in turn of various depictions of smiles, eyes, and hands, throughout da Vinci's work is interesting. So a good book, so long as you approach it in a state of complete ignorance. show less

I only read this because my son picked it out for me and I didn't have the heart not to. It took me well over a month to finish and I felt every day of it. I'm no stranger to epic-length biographies, but this one was more plodding than most. It didn't help that the editors made the bizarre decision to not reproduce in color all of Da Vinci's major paintings, despite there being in-depth analysis of each one. Some, such as the Virgin and Child with St. Anne, were excluded all together. Very show more strange. But, in the end, I learned a lot about Da Vinci and I'm better for it. Thanks, son. show less

This is a fantastic book for anyone who wants to learn about Leonardo. Specifically, if you aren't a historian but just want to learn. It is written in a manner that is interesting and understandable to those of us who don't spend our time in the dark libraries of the world researching for a living.