Leonardo da Vinci: The Man Behind the Genius

Five centuries after his death, Leonardo da Vinci remains the most famous genius in history — and one of the most misunderstood. This biography sets aside the myth, the secret codes, and the coffee-mug clichés to recover the actual man: the illegitimate, largely self-taught son of a Florentine notary, who never attended a university, struggled with Latin, chased commissions from dukes and kings, and left almost everything he started unfinished.

Leonardo da Vinci: The Man Behind the Genius follows his life in strict order and in place — from the hill town of Vinci to the bustling workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, from the court of Ludovico Sforza in Milan to the rivalry with Michelangelo in Florence, and finally to a manor house in the Loire Valley, where he died in the service of a French king. Along the way it reads his roughly seven thousand surviving notebook pages not as oracles but as the working mind of a restless, curious, and frequently anxious human being.

This is a portrait that holds two truths in the same hand: that Leonardo possessed perhaps the most penetrating intelligence of his age, and that he was also one of its least dependable contractors — a painter who finished only about fifteen pictures, an engineer whose machines mostly stayed on paper, an anatomist who published nothing in his lifetime. By returning him to the workshops, wars, and politics of the Italian Renaissance, the book makes him not less impressive but far more human, and far easier to understand.

Written in clear, jargon-free prose for curious general readers — no background in art history required — this is an honest and vivid introduction to a life that has been admired for five hundred years and understood far less often.

What you will find in this book

•      A clear, chronological account of Leonardo's life, free of legend and conspiracy.

•      The real stories behind the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and the works he left unfinished.

•      His scientific studies of anatomy, water, flight, and light — and why they stayed hidden for centuries.

•      His career as a military and civil engineer in the service of dukes, popes, and kings.

•      A guided tour of the notebooks: the lists, the questions, the procrastination, and the brilliance.

•      The workshop and the people around him, from his master Verrocchio to his devoted pupil Francesco Melzi.

•      How a working artist became, long after his death, the universal symbol of human genius.

•      A detailed chronology of his life and a guide to the sources, for readers who want to go further.

Who this book is for

This book is written for readers of general culture who are curious about Leonardo da Vinci but are not specialists in art history or the Renaissance. It assumes no prior knowledge and explains every term it uses. It will appeal to anyone who has stood before one of his paintings, or seen one of his drawings, and wondered what kind of person was actually behind them.