The Hidden Leonardo

Inbunden bok. Rand McNally & Co., Chicago, I11. 1977. 191 sidor.

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The Hidden Leonardo presents a new direction in the study of this famous artist. Reproduced in gorgeous full color, each famous painting is shown in its entirety. Then, in following pages, fascinating details are reproduced in double-page color spreads uncovering little-known techniques of Leonardo's art. In dealing with his Adoration of magi, for instance, four stunning full-page plates accompany the reproduction of the painting itself, revealing the significant background detail so vital to the total impression of the work.
In the text, art scholar Marco Rosci follows the highlights of the artist's life and the development of his craft. After completing his apprenticeship with Verocchio, the thirty-year-old Leonardo left the Florence of Lorenzo de' Medici for the Milanese court of Ludovico il Moro, introducing himself in a famous letter as one of the "masters and inventors of instruments of war," including flying bridges, assault engines and ladders, mines and explosives, bombards and springande, naval guns, assault galleries, "covered carts" for assault and catapults. He went on to describe himself as architect, hydraulic engineer, sculptor and a good painter "by comparison with any other, whoever he may be."
Yet, as everyone knows, this list of professional qualifications does not exhaust the range of Leonardo's recorded activities. The experimental and practical character of Leonardo's genius, "Whatever he applied his mind to, however difficult, he could easily accomplish," make it difficult to define this crucially important byt anomalous figure. And there are other difficulties. Even within the comparatively limited field of his artistic activity, the cataloging of Leonardo's works has been hindered by the lack of reliable documentation. Many works were unfinished, some doubtfully attributed, and others lost, such as the fresco of the Battle of Anghiari in the Palazzo Vecchio at Florence or the bronze horse made for the Sforzas. Marco Rosci's catalog of major works at the end of this book is based on the most important recent findings.
This new study of Leonardo is valuable in that it traces the historical background pf this extremely complex man. Seen in the context of his generation---which, to remain the field of art, is that of Perugino and Botticelli----Leonardo is shown in all the richness of his intellectual life. He is presented as a "scientific" researcher, immersed in and exploring reality with a determination, a penetrating curiosity and an exemplary awareness of man's creative capacities.
The quotations from Leonardo's manuscript, the sketches of machines and anatomy, either "technical" or "artistic," the paintings (studied in many surprising details) are resolved into a coherent whole in Marco Rosci's essay.