Leonardo Da Vinci (D.M. Field) Museo Regency House Publishing

LEONARDO DA VINCI The life and work of Leonardo, the archetypical 'Renaissance Man' for whom no branch of knowledge was allowed to remain a closed book, has proved endlessly fascinating to later generations. At one time he was known only as a painter, although many of his works were unknown and a number of inferior works by other hands were wrongly attributed to him. The full, amazing extent of his genius emerged only in quite recent times with the rediscovery of his notebooks and drawings. For a time, even Leonardo the painter seemed to be submerged by the weight of his new reputation as a scientist. Some readjustment has taken place since then. As a scientist and engineer, Leonardo's achievements, though staggering enough, have proved to be a shade less novel than once we thought, while at the same time a succession of brilliant art historians, beginning with Bernhard Berenson and Kenneth Clark, have made us far more knowledgeable about his art. Though Leonardo would have jibbed at such a judgment, he was and is, first and foremost, a great painter, a man whose output was tiny compared with other geniuses of his time (a Michelangelo, a Raphael, a Titian) yet includes possibly the two most famous paintings in history, the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper. D. M. Field read history at Cambridge University, England, taught English at a boys' school in New York, and later worked for several years for an international publisher of art books before becoming a full-time writer in London. He is the author of many popular books on aspects of social history and the arts, including a children's history of the Renaissance, Great Masterpieces of World Art, The Nude in Art, etc. BG-AA/Photography ISBN 1-85361-524-2 9781853 615245