With biographies of Steve Jobs, Einstein, and now Leonardo, Walter Isaacson has become America’s foremost biographer of intellectuals. In this work, which tracks the prodigious creative output of a genius, Isaacson tries to piece together a narrative from a series of artistic, scientific, and engineering feats and, of course, from Leonardo’s own diaries. That is a difficult chore to achieve about a man from over 500 years ago. It’s even more difficult to think that we have very little sense of the personal affectations of this genius.
Unlike with recent bios Jobs and Einstein, Isaacson approaches Leonardo as a light appearing in an extraordinarily dark age. The lack of good sources certainly hamper this work. I found myself unable to read large swaths of this book at one sitting because of the lack of narrative. Certainly, scholarly discussion exists, and Isaacson makes good use of it. Nonetheless, the challenge of chronicling a life so far back limits this work’s human interest.
Since Leonardo’s polymath ways showed most brightly in painting, this book contains many pages with color replications of Leonardo’s art. It reads like a 600-page work of art history, with the occasional rabbit trail into whatever curiosity fancied Leonardo’s mind. I don’t know a lot about art history, so I found this introduction helpful and accessible. Isaacson expressively engages the reader with wonder – as it should be with a genius.
Isaacson concludes this work with some observations about what Leonardo’s genius can teach us moderns. “Seek knowledge for its own sake.” “Respect facts.” “Create for yourself, not just for patrons.” This advice provides a nice book-end to the sheer power involved in engaging Leonardo’s mind. Some in our day deny that human nature exists at all. I’m not sure Leonardo teaches us about particular human nature. But he does teach us about genius nature. Those who wish to extend themselves more into developing great work should heed Isaacson’s investigations.
Leonardo da Vinci
by Walter Isaacson
Copyright (c) 2017
ISBN13 9781501139154
Page Count: 599
Genre: Biography, Intellectual History
www.amazon.com