Leonardo da Vinci

The focus of this informative biography is da Vinci the anatomist, not Leonardo the painter or proto-technologist. Indeed, this biography truly comes alive only when Nuland, a surgeon and author, describes the advances Leonardo achieved in his study of the body. In my opinion, Nuland's touch isn't so sure in other areas of Leonardo's achievement and there are, in fact, patches that sound like a product of rushed and unedited dictation. Still, I'd rate this as a superior introduction to a scientist centuries ahead of his time. This fine book, by the way, definitely enriched my experience at the da Vinci exhibit that is now showing at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This is one of several volumes in the Penguin Lives Series, each of which written by a distinguished author in her or his own right. Each provides a concise but remarkably comprehensive biography of its subject in combination with a penetrating analysis of the significance of that subject's life and career. I think this is a brilliant concept for a series of such studies. My only complaint (albeit a quibble) is that even an abbreviated index is not provided. Those who wish to learn more about the given subject are directed to other sources. When preparing to review various volumes in this series, I have struggled with determining what would be of greatest interest and assistance to those who read my reviews. Finally I decided that a few brief excerpts and then some concluding comments of my own would be appropriate.On Leonardo's "place": "Leonardo was not to be found in that place [Casa di Leonardo]. In fact, he is not to be found in [italics] any place. He is not a creature of places or monuments or even of permanence. He flashed across his time and was gone, leaving a vast body of work almost none of which except the paintings could be fully appreciated until centuries after his death, and far away from the house in which he was almost certainly not born. Quoting the famous statement of Freud, 'He was like a man who awoke too early in the darkness, while others were all still asleep.'" (pages 3-4)On Leonardo's "humanism": "Though he has often been called the ultimate Renaissance man, there is much to be said for the argument that Leonardo was only in part a man of the Renaissance. While he epitomized the zest for life and nature that was the guiding theme of humanism, he did at the same time eschew the dependence on ancient sources and the worshipful repetition of its principles that equally characterized its scholarship." (page 7) On Leonardo's cosmology: "Leonardo was intrigued by motion, and the forces involved. The continuous flowings of energy in nature and in the life of man are a constant and even a central theme running through his manuscripts like the streamings of waters to which he often alluded. Moving water, in fact, is his symbol of these flowing energies; it is vital to his conception of the universe." (page 47)On Leonardo's research: "...there is no evidence at any time during his seven decades of life that he ever stopped long enough in his constant pursuit of knowledge to allow himself the leisure to organize what he had discovered....putting it into neat little piles of knowledge must have seemed a waste of time and talent. What is more, his studies were really undertaken for Leonardo alone, and not for any wider purpose of educating his contemporaries; it was with himself that his studies conversed." (page 89)As is also true of the other volumes in the "Penguin Lives" series, this one provides all of the essential historical and biographical information but its greatest strength lies in the extended commentary, in this insta

The biographies in the Penguin Lives series share a mission to take a well-known life whose extant facts are obscured and bring it "to life" through an inspired matching of subject and author. That, and Penguin aims for brevity and narrative flair. Sherwin Nuland's LEONARDO DA VINCI is the fourth volume in the series I've read, and while I did not find it ultimately as satisfying as Carol Shields' JANE AUSTIN or RWB Lewis's DANTE, it is pretty darn good.Nuland, a professor of clinical surgery at Yale University and the author of the award-winning HOW WE DIE, took on a formidable challenge in Leonardo da Vinci. The man lived a long life, particularly for his time, and he was all over the map. He was an engineer, an artist, a scientist. He did nothing in linear fashion. He often started a project and lost interest in it; the finished products for which he is known are just the tip of the iceberg. Though he once spoke of writing 121 books, Leonardo never sat down to create one coherent manuscript; instead, his legacy was thousands of pages of notes in no particular order, that a few adventuresome archivists since his death have shaped into various portfolios here and there. Given that and the mission of brevity, it is too much, I suppose, to expect the book to touch all the bases. Nuland chooses a few major battles, among them what enabled the genius (revisiting Freud's thesis of homosexuality), and the genius revealed through Leonardo's anatomical studies. Particularly in respect to the latter, Nuland is highly qualified to instruct in just how accurate the drawings are and how far-sighted were the conclusions for their time.I wish Nuland had offered up some other information: What was the environment of a dissecting laboratory in those days? Has anyone ever investigated the possibility that Leonardo may have been ADHD or entertained some other disorder that affected his organizational skills but which also enabled the compensatory visual and intellectual skills? How exactly did he die? If he was appreciated for his art work in his own time, and known for being well liked, how was his death received? Where is he buried? Stuff like that.

Sherwin Nuland writes about the world's greatest genius in the same way a surgeon would methodically approach an operation. Sherwin Nuland is Dr. Nuland, Clinical Professor of Surgery at Yale University, where he also teaches medical history. His writing is direct, scientific and unembellished and, when done, he has laid out the life and works of Leonardo before you.Nuland addresses the personal life of this grand master in the first thirty pages. Nuland discusses the strong indications that Leonardo was homosexual and dialogues with many of Leonardo's previous biographers, including Sigman Freud. Leonardo was an illegitimate child, whose education was only until the age of 15, never married or had even one tryst with the opposite sex. Throughout his life he was subservient to the wishes of the patrons upon whom he relied upon for income. Interesting is the blemished reputation Leonardo had as an artist who started scores of works only to leave behind him a myriad of unfinished paintings, sculptures and drawings. For Dr. Nuland Leonardo de Vinci's anatomical drawings were his crowing work. For thirteen hundred years before Leonardo the medical world had relied upon the medicine and anatomy of the second century Greek physician, Galen. The magnitude of the forward leap that Leonardo gave science was remarkable, and "remarkable" is an understatement. Leonardo de Vinci dared to think beyond the accepted medical orthodoxy of Galen. Nuland writes, "To question the magisterial Galen was to question the entire framework of medicine." Leonardo, dared to ask not `how' but `why'. Leonardo was an extraordinary genius whose range of interests was vast. His perceptions and talents were matchless for his day. He reformed and revolutionized almost everything he enthusiastically immersed himself in: painting, architecture, interior design, engineering mathematics, astronomy, military ordinances, flight, optics, geology, botany the diversion of rivers and the drainage of swamps, city planning and lastly, the functioning of the parts of the body - anatomy. This book is not a gripping read and Nuland's cannot, in 166 pages, do justice to the biography of such a person. What it can do is introduce you to this great man and give you a sampling of his life and his legacy. This Nuland does well. The book reads fast and the subject is fascinating. Recommended. Four Stars.

I have read all the Penguin Lives (except for Virginia Woolf; next on my list) and this one is the best of the series. It is such because it meets the perceived goals of these books.Most of the subjects are mystical; persons with whom we hold an inexplicable fascination. Well, Nuland does an excellent job in explaining this fascination, which he clearly holds. His love of Da Vinci's life and works is manifest. Even though I have never read any of his other books, Nuland leaves me with this impression that this was the project of a lifetime. Pengiun Lives are necessarily brief. The best ones leave the reader anxious to find out more. Nuland has succeeded with me on this count as well. (So did Edmund White's biography of Proust)It is a pleasure to recommend this book.