Leonardo da Vinci and Anatomy: all the power and relevance of this great Renaissance mind.

This exhibition catalogue on Leonardo da Vinci the anatomist highlights the mystery of a thought that was both anchored in its time and, combined with a totally new practice (dissection), leading to a new understanding of the nature of life. Da Vinci was not content with a passive description of the human body; he sought to penetrate the secrets of its functioning by first studying the mechanics of humans (bones, muscles, tendons), then the logic of the senses, and finally all the bodily functions (digestion, respiration, blood circulation, reproduction), which made him to use qualitative reasoning.

Contrary to popular belief, Leonardo did not carry out his dissections in secret, but in complete agreement with the political and religious authorities, until his materialistic ideas came into conflict with the pontifical authorities, particularly with regard to embryology.

The originality of the book is to show how Leonardo’s work as an anatomist and his work as a painter are inseparable. The book thus links a work such as the Last Supper in Milan with the knowledge gathered in the medical field.

The book brings together originals or copies of Leonardo’s sheets with objects (anatomical waxes, facsimiles of dissecting instruments), books studied by the artist, interviews with specialists and animated 3D reconstructions.

About the Authors:

Dominique Le Nen is professor at the University of Nantes and orthopedic surgeon.

Pascal Brioist is professor at the University of Tours, historian specialized in Leonardo da Vinci, in la Renaissance and sciences and techniques of the modern era.

Leonardo da Vinci was the epitome of the Renaissance humanist ideal, a logical polymath of epic proportions who excelled and had interests not just in art but in invention, anatomy, architecture, engineering, literature, mathematics, music, science, astronomy and more. His oeuvre is astounding and he is rightly famed for his masterpieces of painting such as the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, and his astonishingly technical and graceful drawings. The phenomenon that was Leonardo would not of course have flourished to such an extent had it not been for the patronage and sponsorship of the Medici family, who commissioned a large proportion of the art and architecture of the era and fostered a fertile climate for creativity.

This sumptuous new book offers a broader view of this master artist in the context of this environment, alongside the work of other key artists who benefited from the Medicis, from Brunelleschi through Donatello to Michelangelo and Raphael.

A one-of-a-kind book of pop-ups based on the works of Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was a painter, architect, inventor and student of all things scientific. His natural genius crossed so many disciplines that he epitomized the term ‘Renaissance man’. Today he remains best known for his art, including two paintings that remain among the world’s most famous and admired, Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. This book features six meticulously crafted pop-ups of his most famous works: Self portrait; Annunciation; Ornithopter; Virgin & Child; Architecture – an overview of his drawings and designs; and Vitruvian Man.

Contents List:

1. Self portrait 2. Annunciation 3. Ornithopter 4. Virgin & Child 5. Architecture – an overview of his drawings and designs 6. Vitruvian Man

About the Author:

Courtney Watson McCarthy is a noted paper engineer and creator of several pop-up books for Thames & Hudson, including M. C. Escher Pop-Ups, Hokusai Pop-Ups and Dalí Pop-Ups.

The deftness of da Vinci. The drawings of Art History's master genius

One of the most accomplished human beings who ever lived, Leonardo da Vinci remains the quintessential Renaissance genius. Creator of the world’s most famous paintings, this scientist, artist, philosopher, inventor, builder, and mechanic epitomized the great flowering of human consciousness that marks his era.

As part of our Bibliotheca Universalis series, Leonardo da Vinci – The Graphic Work features top-quality reproductions of 663 of Leonardo’s drawings, more than half of which reside in the Royal Collection of Windsor Castle. From anatomical studies to architectural plans, from complex engineering designs to pudgy infant portraits, delve in and delight in the delicate finesse of one of the most talented minds, and hands, in history.

About the series:

Bibliotheca Universalis — Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe at an unbeatable, democratic price!

Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible, open-minded publishing. Bibliotheca Universalis brings together more than 100 of our all-time favourite titles in a neat new format so you can curate your own affordable library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia.

Bookworm’s delight — never bore, always excite!

To commemorate the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death, world-renowned da Vinci expert Martin Kemp explores 100 of the master’s milestones in art, science, engineering, architecture, anatomy, and more.

Leonardo da Vinci was born in the small Tuscan town of Vinci in April 1452. Over the centuries, he has become one of the most famous people in the history of visual culture. Spring 2019 marks the 500th anniversary of his death in May 1519, with exhibitions and events planned across Europe and the United States. This lavishly illustrated volume by Martin Kemp — one of the world’s leading authorities on da Vinci — offers a fresh way of looking at the master’s work. Kemp focuses on 100 key, broadly chronological milestones that cover an extraordinary range of topic across Leonardo’s many fields of discipline: painting, where he brought new levels of formal and emotional grandeur to his works, including The Last Supper and Portrait of Lisa del Giocondo (the “Mona Lisa”); anatomical studies, which are extraordinary for their sense of form and function (Studies of the Optics of the Human Eye and Ventricles of the Brain); engineering marvels, noted for their range and extraordinary visual quality (Gearing for a Clockwork Mechanism and Wheels without Axles and Designs for a Flying Machine); and his progressive engagement with a range of sciences — anatomy, optics, dynamics, statics, geology, and mathematics.

About the Author:

Martin Kemp, Emeritus Research Professor in the History of Art at Oxford University, is one of the world’s leading experts on Leonardo da Vinci. His books include the acclaimed biography Leonardoda Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature (Oxford University Press) and Mona Lisa: The People and the Painting (OUP, cowritten with Giuseppe Pallanti). His most recent work is Living with Leonardo: Fifty Years of Sanity and Insanity in the Art World and Beyond (Thames & Hudson), and he has written for Nature for more than 10 years. He’s curated a series of exhibitions on Leonardo and other themes, including the London shows Spectacular Bodies at the Hayward Gallery; Leonardo da Vinci: Experience, Experiment, Design at the Victoria and Albert Museum; and Seduced: Sex and Art from Antiquity to Now at the Barbican. He was also guest curator for Circa 1492 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 1992. Kemp is currently working on a new edition of Leonardo’s Codex Leicester, his most important scientific manuscript, purchased by Bill Gates in 1994. Kemp lives in Oxford, UK. 

Leonardo da Vinci was the original Renaissance Man, an artist, mathematician, inventor and writer amongst his many talents. His skilful observations of the mechanics of the body informed both his work, and the generations that followed. But his drawings are elegant too, with the gentle features of his female subjects in particular graced with unrivalled care and eloquence. Da Vinci's illustrations lie at the heart of our heritage and this new book offers a breadth and scale that will satisfy both the casual and informed reader.

Da Vinci in Detail. The life and work of the ultimate Renaissance artist

One of the most accomplished human beings who ever lived, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) remains a quintessential Renaissance genius. The perfect companion to the Leonardo Graphic Work edition, this book is a compact catalogue raisonné of all of the artist’s masterful paintings.

Drawn from our best-selling XXL edition, the book traces the artist’s life and work across 10 chapters, presenting all known paintings and drawing on his letters, contracts, diary entries, and writings to explore the man behind such groundbreaking artworks. From Virgin of the Rocks to Virgin and Child with St. Anne to the ever-beguiling Mona Lisa, you’ll find some of the finest treasures of the Louvre, Prado, and National Gallery, London here, as well as Leonardo works lost to time, but no less startling in their precision and poise.

About the series:

Bibliotheca Universalis — Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe at an unbeatable, democratic price!

Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible, open-minded publishing. Bibliotheca Universalis brings together more than 100 of our all-time favourite titles in a neat new format so you can curate your own affordable library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia.

Bookworm’s delight — never bore, always excite!

Da Vinci in Detail. The life and work of the ultimate Renaissance artist

For the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci, this updated edition of our XL title provides the most comprehensive survey of the life and work of the master painter, sculptor, architect, and inventor. The catalogue raisonné of paintings covers both surviving and lost works, while full-bleed details allow us to inspect even the subtlest brushstrokes that came to revolutionize art history.

Unmatched in his ingenuity, technical prowess, and curiosity, Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) epitomizes the humanistic ideal of the Renaissance man: a peerless master of painting, sculpture, cartography, anatomy, architecture — and more. Simultaneously captivating art historians, collectors, and the millions who flock yearly to admire his works, Leonardo’s appeal is as diffuse as were his preoccupations. His images permeate nearly every facet of Western culture — The Vitruvian Man is engraved into millions of Euro coins, The Last Supper is considered the single most reproduced religious painting in history, and the Mona Lisa has entranced countless artists and observers for centuries.

On the occasion of the 500th anniversary of his death, this updated edition of our XL title is an unrivalled survey of Leonardo’s life and work, including a catalogue raisonné encompassing both his surviving and lost paintings. Through stunning full-bleed details, we experience every measured brushstroke, each a testament to Leonardo’s masterful ability.

An expansive catalogue of nearly 700 of Leonardo’s drawings further illuminates the breadth of his pursuits. From diagrams of intricately engineered machines to portraits of plump infants, they stand reflective of his boundless and visionary technical imagination, balanced with a subtle and perceptive hand, capable of rendering quotidian moments with moving emotional timbre.

Also included is a new foreword by Frank Zöllner, expanded exclusively for this special edition, which dissects the latest scientific developments on Leonardo’s work and the story behind the haunting Salvator Mundi, which recently fetched a record-breaking $ 450 million at auction.

About the Authors:

Frank Zöllner wrote his doctoral thesis on motifs originating from Antiquity in the history of art and architecture of the Medieval and Renaissance periods (1987). He is also the author of a postdoctoral treatise on motion and expression in the art of Leonardo da Vinci, published in 2010. He has published numerous works on Renaissance art and art theory, and on 20th-century art. Since 1996 he has been Professor of Medieval and Modern Art at the University of Leipzig. For TASCHEN he has authored the XL monographs on Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

Johannes Nathan studied art history at New York University and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1995 with a dissertation on the working methods of Leonardo da Vinci. He is the author of numerous art publications, director of Nathan Fine Art (Berlin and Zürich) and teaches art history at the Technische Universität, Berlin.

Leonardo da Vinci is the archetypal universal man, a multi-talented genius who left an indelible mark on all the realms of art and knowledge he ventured into – painting, drawing and architecture, natural science, anatomy, mathematics, engineering and astronomy. His genius as a painter was reinforced by an analytical understanding of not only the human body but also nature and the physical laws of light. On the five-hundredth anniversary of Leonardo’s death in 1519, this book celebrates the artist by highlighting thirty masterpieces, including the Annunciation, the Baptism of Christ, the Lady with an Ermine, the Mona Lisa, the Virgin of the Rocks and the Last Supper, as well as a selection of his finest drawings. 

Accompanied by clear, concise commentary and arranged according to theme, enlargements of significant details from these works guide the reader in discovering this greatest exponent of Renaissance humanism.

About the Author:

Italian art historian Stefano Zuffi specializes in the period from the Renaissance to the Baroque. He has over sixty publications to his credit, notably on Dürer, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Titian and Caravaggio.

Внимание к творчеству Леонардо спустя 500 лет после его смерти продолжает жить в культуре каждого уголка мира. Его гений, нашедший выход в искусстве, науке и технике, привлекает все больший интерес. Его эстетический вкус, глубочайшие познания открываются во все новых гранях, вызывая неизменное восхищение и благоговение.

Книга воздает должное творениям Мастера, выходя за пределы обычной монографии и рассказывая о созданных Леонардо шедеврах, как картинах, так и картографических чертежах, ботанических и анатомических набросках, военных и гражданских инженерных изобретениях и многих других работах в разных сферах, в которых Леонардо предвосхитил будущее. На страницах этого издания также представлены менее прославленные творения, широко обсуждаемые и малоизвестные, работы, в отношении которых предположение об авторстве Леонардо было сделано лишь недавно и которые являются предметом жарких споров среди ученых и экспертов в наследии Леонардо.

Это путешествие в страну чудес - разум Леонардо - станет самой прочувствованной и достойной данью Мастеру и его неповторимым творениям, которые и по сей день живут в умах и сердцах почитателей его гения и созданной им красоты.

Книга напечатана в Италии.

About the Authors:

Martin Kemp is Emeritus Research Professor of History of Art at Trinity College, Oxford University and a member of the British Academy. He has published several books and won the Mitchell Prize for Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man. He has also previously curated several exhibitions dedicated to the work of Leonardo, such as Ca 1492 at the National Gallery in Washington, and Leonardo da Vinci: Experience, Experiment, Design at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2006.

Fabio Scaletti is a Caravaggio specialist and scholar of Renaissance art, alongside having published several philosophical essays and stories. He dedicated himself to aesthetics for fifteen years, with particular focus on Caravaggio whose work was greatly influenced by Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

Stroke of Genius. The complete painted oeuvre of Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci stands to this day as one of the most accomplished human beings ever to have lived. Sourced from our best-selling XXL-sized edition, this spectacular resource gathers full-bleed details of all the artist’s paintings, including Salvator Mundi, recently the most expensive painting ever bought at auction.

Inventor, painter, sculptor, scientist, architect, and engineer Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was nothing short of a quintessential Renaissance genius. No other artist of his generation has left behind such an extensive, authentic, and innovative oeuvre — yet Leonardo remains the most enigmatic of them all.

From the beguiling Last Supper to the showstopping Mona Lisa, discover the complete painted oeuvre of one of history’s most insatiable creative masters. This collection draws from our extensive best-selling XXL edition, one of the most complete explorations of Leonardo to date, to trace his life and work across 10 chapters. All known paintings are featured, gathering some of the finest treasures of the Louvre, Prado, and National Gallery, as well as works lost to time, but no less startling in their precision and poise.

This definitive volume is complete with crisp details, accessible essays situating Leonardo’s approach within its socio-cultural context and pictorial traditions of the time, the latest scientific insights, as well as an updated foreword that illuminates one of the most sensational art historical discoveries of our time: the record-breaking Salvator Mundi.

About the Author:

Frank Zöllner wrote his doctoral thesis on motifs originating from Antiquity in the history of art and architecture of the Medieval and Renaissance periods (1987). He is also the author of a postdoctoral treatise on motion and expression in the art of Leonardo da Vinci, published in 2010. He has published numerous works on Renaissance art and art theory, and on 20th-century art. Since 1996 he has been Professor of Medieval and Modern Art at the University of Leipzig. For TASCHEN he has authored the XL monographs on Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

Da Vinci in detail. Leonardo's life and work - the definitive edition

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) possessed one of the greatest minds of all time; his importance and influence are inestimable. This two-volume, midsize format comprehensive survey is the most complete book ever made on the subject of this Italian painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, scientist and all-around genius. With huge, full-bleed details of Leonardo’s masterworks, this highly original publication allows the reader to inspect the subtlest facets of his brushstrokes.

 - Part I explores Leonardo’s life and work in ten chapters. All of his paintings are interpreted in depth, with The Annunciation and The Last Supper featured on large double-spreads.
 - Part II comprises a catalogue raisonné of Leonardo’s paintings, which covers all of his surviving and lost painted works and includes texts describing their states of preservation.
 - Part III contains an extensive catalogue of his drawings (numbering in the thousands, they cannot all be reproduced in one book); 663 are presented, arranged by category (architecture, technical, anatomical, figures, proportion, cartography, etc).

Da Vinci in detail. Leonardo's life and work — all pictures, all drawings!

One of the most fully achieved human beings who has ever lived, Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) is recognized the world over as a figure of infinite curiosity, feverish imagination and sublime artistic ability.

This updated edition of our XL title provides the most comprehensive survey of the life and work of this master painter, sculptor, architect, scientist, and inventor. Its catalogue raisonné of Leonardo’s paintings covers both his surviving and his lost painted works. With full-bleed details of many paintings, the reader is able to inspect the subtlest facets of brushworks that came to revolutionize Art History.

A further catalogue of Leonardo's drawings arranges nearly 700 of his drawings by category (architecture, technical, proportion, cartography, etc) and showcases his fabulous observational finesse, from anatomical studies to architectural plans, from complex engineering designs to pudgy infant portraits. It includes a fresh chapter exploring the artist's mesmerizing manuscripts.

The accompanying account of Leonardo's life and work includes a special in-depth exploration of his masterworks The Annunciation and The Last Supper.

The non-specialist. From key points in anatomy to plans for vehicles, planes, helicopters and submarines

One of the most fully achieved human beings who has ever lived, Leonardo remains the quintessential Renaissance genius. Creator of the world’s most famous painting, scientist, philosopher, builder, he is credited with defining the accomplishments of the great flowering in human consciousness. And yet, so wide-ranging and prolific were his interests that he brought hardly any major undertaking to a final end.

If Leonardo seems so modern, it is perhaps because of his non-speciality, his magpie mind and curiosity, and his thousands of notes and sketches. In these pages he would anticipate some of the great discoveries and inventions that would follow him, from key points in anatomy - such as the principles behind blood circulation - through to plans for armoured military vehicles, planes, helicopters and submarines.

As well as all that, Leonardo also managed to advance numerous artistic techniques, and implicated a complex psychology into his paintings of the "Last Supper" and the enigmatic "La Gioconda", or "Mona Lisa". Famous horseman, rival to Michelangelo, military engineer to the Borgias, he died in 1519, in a chateau given him by the King of France, Francis I. Not bad for the illegitimate son of Florentine notary.

About the Series:

Each book in TASCHEN’s Basic Art Series  features:

- a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance
- a concise biography
- approximately 100 colour illustrations with explanatory captions

About he Author:

Frank Zöllner wrote his doctoral thesis on motifs originating from Antiquity in the history of art and architecture of the Medieval and Renaissance periods (1987). He is also the author of a post-doctoral treatise on motion and expression in the art of Leonardo da Vinci, published in 2010. He has published numerous works on Renaissance art and art theory, and on 20th-century art. Since 1996 he has been Professor of Medieval and Modern Art at the University of Leipzig. For TASCHEN he has authored the XL monographs on Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

Пятьсот лет назад Леонардо да Винчи (1452–1519) не только произвел переворот в искусстве, но и предвосхитил открытия грядущих эпох в самых разных областях науки. Данное издание отражает широту и разнообразие интересов художника и предлагает новую оценку достижений этого гения Ренессанса. Основываясь на письмах, контрактах, поэтических произведениях и дневниковых записях того времени, авторы книги рассматривают творения Леонардо, и в первую очередь его живопись, в совершенно новом свете.

Том 1. Леонардо да Винчи. Полное собрание живописи
Том 2. Леонардо да Винчи. Полное собрание графики

В подробной биографии да Винчи, сопровождаемой каталогом из 34 картин, обсуждаются все основные аспекты сохранившихся и утраченных живописных работ мастера. Это первый каталог, в котором на основании новейших исследований приводятся сведения о состоянии, техниках, процессе написания, биографии, атрибуции и предпосылок создания картин Леонардо. В раздел, посвященный графике да Винчи, вошли не только его рисунки, но также и менее известные листы из записных книжек и научных манускриптов. Каталог графики, включающий 633 рисунка, воспроизведенных в цвете, является наиболее полным собранием такого рода на настоящий момент. Он разделен на 16 глав, посвященных отдельным сферам интересов живописца, благодаря чему Леонардо последовательно предстает в роли анатома, ботаника, военного и гражданского инженера, архитектора, планировщика городской застройки, гидролога, картографа и изобретателя. Многочисленные страницы с увеличенными фрагментами иллюстраций создают впечатление, что в руках у читателя те самые восхитительные оригиналы, на самом деле хранящиеся в величайших собраниях мира и доступные лишь для ограниченного круга специалистов.

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Посмотреть издание книги Леонардо да Винчи. Полное собрание живописи и графики в твердом переплете.