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Leonardo Da Vinci
- Narrated by: Alfred Molina
- Length: 17 hrs and 1 min
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Leonardo Da Vinci
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Summary
Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo's astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson weaves a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo's genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy.
He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and technology. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. His ability to stand at the crossroads of the humanities and the sciences, made iconic by his drawing of Vitruvian Man, made him history's most creative genius.
His creativity, like that of other great innovators, came from having wide-ranging passions. He peeled flesh off the faces of cadavers, drew the muscles that move the lips, and then painted history's most memorable smile. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper. Isaacson also describes how Leonardo's lifelong enthusiasm for staging theatrical productions informed his paintings and inventions.
Leonardo's delight at combining diverse passions remains the ultimate recipe for creativity. So, too, does his ease at being a bit of a misfit: illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical. His life should remind us of the importance of instilling, both in ourselves and our children, not just received knowledge but a willingness to question it - to be imaginative and, like talented misfits and rebels in any era, to think different.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Kindle Customer
- 10-02-18
Engaging and engrossing journey with a great guide
An engaging and engrossing journey into the life and times of the maestro, eschewing the dry and mundane documentary style to make this man, his humanity and his awareness seem alive to us.
I loved the description of Leonardo and Salai's vibrant pink and purple wardrobe. they must certainly have been noticed on the streets of Milan. So different to the sepia tinted ancient as he is normally presented to us.
I knew Alf Molina would be an entertaining narrator and an enjoyable companion for the journey, that and the essential pdf downloaded to my phone and PC has made this into an audio-visual journey that sets the gold standard for Audible. Beautifully considered and presented, I look forward to more imaginatively produced tours like this.
Please try to get Mr Molina to do more quality productions and allow him to use whatever accents he cares to try on!
Bravo!
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17 people found this helpful
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- Matthew Goddard
- 06-04-18
Another excellent biography from Isaacson
The Da Vinci books is a wonderful listen and Alfred Molina is a brilliant narrator.
At first I thought the production would suffer from not having ready access to the paintings (I usually listen to audiobooks when driving or walking the dogs) being referenced but Isaacson paints such a rich picture with his words that the descriptions still resonated with me when I later went back to view the PDF.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 18-01-19
Enjoyable intro to the polymath
Interesting listen even when you can't see the illustrations directly. I did have to speed up the narrator slightly. The normal pace was too slow for me. A bit repetitive at times but I now appreciate Leonardo a bit more.
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- jimmyp
- 17-09-19
Decent overview of a genius
Pretty decent overview of the art, passions and personal life of the great man. Slightly over-reaching in places but that is to be expected for a man who lived over 500 years ago. Overall, very enjoyable and I feel that I've come away with a good overview of the man and his work.
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- DSirus
- 04-05-21
Perfect book for creative people
Unique perspective on Leonardo’ da Vinci’s life and achievements. It really encourages creative people to not feel guilty on how their brains operate. In a way it’s reassuring to that one of the greatest geniuses of all time, had attention deficit, procrastinates, didn’t finish up works.... it makes him incredibly human!
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- Gammon Buster
- 02-08-20
Brilliant!
Loved it! One of the best books I've read this year and probably the best book on Leonardo I've come across.
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- Paul Gilzean
- 06-08-20
Genius
absolutely enthralling, well written, well read, geld me from beginning to end. loved it
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- MR D Shukla
- 24-08-23
Great book for DaVinci fans
I'm a big fan of Isaacson Steve Jobs biography so decided to read this one also however I less was interested in DaVinci as I discovered and probably would have gone for something smaller. With all of that being said the book the biography and the narration were all excellent
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- Neil
- 22-11-17
What more do you want from a biography?
I knew very little about Da Vinci, now I know quite a lot and I found listening to this book a thoroughly enjoyable experience. What more do you want from a biography?
The accompanying PDF is a must.
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1 person found this helpful
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- John-Paul M.
- 12-08-20
A must read biography
Leonardo Da Vinci's biography closely follows the biographies of Benjamin Franklin, Steve Jobs, Michael Johnson, and Elon Musk as essential reading for anyone interested in history, politics, and performance. Highly recommended reading. Biographies of this ilk should be compulsory reading in schools.
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