Author: Jerzy K. Kulski
Publisher: Leonardo Da Vinci - Artist, Sc
ISBN: 9780648065333
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 442
Book Description
Leonardo da Vinci and the Pacioli Code by Jerzy K. Kulski was published in 2019 to mark the 500th anniversary of Leonardo's death at 67-years of age on May 2 in Amboise in France. This illustrated ( 160 images) and referenced book honours and celebrates Leonardo's life and accomplishments in art, science and his philosophy on dialectics, linear perspective, geometric variations, divine proportion, vision, perception and anamorphosis. It highlights and commemorates his friendship with the Franciscan friar and mathematician, Fra Luca Pacioli. The author focuses particularly on the subjects, objects, pictorial codes and hidden messages contained within the mysterious portrait entitled Fra Luca Pacioli and Student that is held at the National Museum of Capodimonte in Naples and officially attributed to the Venetian painter Jacopo de' Barbari. However, this official attribution is questionable because the painting shows all the typical signatures, mysteries, anagrams, geometric proportions, symbols and praxis of Leonardo da Vinci. It is a fantastical Renaissance masterpiece drawn and painted with science, wit, guile and artistry by an innovator communicating with puzzling rebuses and psychological imagery. Kulski describes and analyses the science, mathematics, geometry, symbolism, history and pictorial codification of the portraiture of the Franciscan friar Luca Pacioli, the condottiero and jouster Galeazzo Sanseverino, Leonardo's signature rhombicuboctahedron hanging in space from a red thread, an enigmatic black fly, together with a secretive anagram, IACO. B AR. VIGEN NIS. P.1495, that encodes the political intrigues in the Duchy of Milan during the time of Leonardo da Vinci. The exposition explores Leonardo's 5-year working relationship with Fra Luca Pacioli on Euclidian geometry, regular solids and the divine proportion, together with the support and intrigues of their powerful and rich sponsors, Galeazzo Sanseverino and his father-in-law Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, who inspired the portraiture. This book is dedicated to the Italian Renaissance art researcher Carla Glori who deciphered the mysterious code associated with the menacing black fly on the yellowed, encrypted cartouche and proved beyond reasonable doubt that the painting originated from the studio of Leonardo da Vinci when he still was entangled in various disputes with his other major art works, The Virgin of the Rocks, The Last Supper, Mona Lisa and the giant equestrian statue known as Colossus.The 21 chapters also contain 160 images and a bibliography of 250 cited books, journal references and Internet web pages.
Leonardo Da Vinci and the Pacioli Code
Author: Jerzy K. Kulski
Publisher: Leonardo Da Vinci - Artist, Sc
ISBN: 9780648065333
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 442
Book Description
Leonardo da Vinci and the Pacioli Code by Jerzy K. Kulski was published in 2019 to mark the 500th anniversary of Leonardo's death at 67-years of age on May 2 in Amboise in France. This illustrated ( 160 images) and referenced book honours and celebrates Leonardo's life and accomplishments in art, science and his philosophy on dialectics, linear perspective, geometric variations, divine proportion, vision, perception and anamorphosis. It highlights and commemorates his friendship with the Franciscan friar and mathematician, Fra Luca Pacioli. The author focuses particularly on the subjects, objects, pictorial codes and hidden messages contained within the mysterious portrait entitled Fra Luca Pacioli and Student that is held at the National Museum of Capodimonte in Naples and officially attributed to the Venetian painter Jacopo de' Barbari. However, this official attribution is questionable because the painting shows all the typical signatures, mysteries, anagrams, geometric proportions, symbols and praxis of Leonardo da Vinci. It is a fantastical Renaissance masterpiece drawn and painted with science, wit, guile and artistry by an innovator communicating with puzzling rebuses and psychological imagery. Kulski describes and analyses the science, mathematics, geometry, symbolism, history and pictorial codification of the portraiture of the Franciscan friar Luca Pacioli, the condottiero and jouster Galeazzo Sanseverino, Leonardo's signature rhombicuboctahedron hanging in space from a red thread, an enigmatic black fly, together with a secretive anagram, IACO. B AR. VIGEN NIS. P.1495, that encodes the political intrigues in the Duchy of Milan during the time of Leonardo da Vinci. The exposition explores Leonardo's 5-year working relationship with Fra Luca Pacioli on Euclidian geometry, regular solids and the divine proportion, together with the support and intrigues of their powerful and rich sponsors, Galeazzo Sanseverino and his father-in-law Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, who inspired the portraiture. This book is dedicated to the Italian Renaissance art researcher Carla Glori who deciphered the mysterious code associated with the menacing black fly on the yellowed, encrypted cartouche and proved beyond reasonable doubt that the painting originated from the studio of Leonardo da Vinci when he still was entangled in various disputes with his other major art works, The Virgin of the Rocks, The Last Supper, Mona Lisa and the giant equestrian statue known as Colossus.The 21 chapters also contain 160 images and a bibliography of 250 cited books, journal references and Internet web pages.
Publisher: Leonardo Da Vinci - Artist, Sc
ISBN: 9780648065333
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 442
Book Description
Leonardo da Vinci and the Pacioli Code by Jerzy K. Kulski was published in 2019 to mark the 500th anniversary of Leonardo's death at 67-years of age on May 2 in Amboise in France. This illustrated ( 160 images) and referenced book honours and celebrates Leonardo's life and accomplishments in art, science and his philosophy on dialectics, linear perspective, geometric variations, divine proportion, vision, perception and anamorphosis. It highlights and commemorates his friendship with the Franciscan friar and mathematician, Fra Luca Pacioli. The author focuses particularly on the subjects, objects, pictorial codes and hidden messages contained within the mysterious portrait entitled Fra Luca Pacioli and Student that is held at the National Museum of Capodimonte in Naples and officially attributed to the Venetian painter Jacopo de' Barbari. However, this official attribution is questionable because the painting shows all the typical signatures, mysteries, anagrams, geometric proportions, symbols and praxis of Leonardo da Vinci. It is a fantastical Renaissance masterpiece drawn and painted with science, wit, guile and artistry by an innovator communicating with puzzling rebuses and psychological imagery. Kulski describes and analyses the science, mathematics, geometry, symbolism, history and pictorial codification of the portraiture of the Franciscan friar Luca Pacioli, the condottiero and jouster Galeazzo Sanseverino, Leonardo's signature rhombicuboctahedron hanging in space from a red thread, an enigmatic black fly, together with a secretive anagram, IACO. B AR. VIGEN NIS. P.1495, that encodes the political intrigues in the Duchy of Milan during the time of Leonardo da Vinci. The exposition explores Leonardo's 5-year working relationship with Fra Luca Pacioli on Euclidian geometry, regular solids and the divine proportion, together with the support and intrigues of their powerful and rich sponsors, Galeazzo Sanseverino and his father-in-law Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, who inspired the portraiture. This book is dedicated to the Italian Renaissance art researcher Carla Glori who deciphered the mysterious code associated with the menacing black fly on the yellowed, encrypted cartouche and proved beyond reasonable doubt that the painting originated from the studio of Leonardo da Vinci when he still was entangled in various disputes with his other major art works, The Virgin of the Rocks, The Last Supper, Mona Lisa and the giant equestrian statue known as Colossus.The 21 chapters also contain 160 images and a bibliography of 250 cited books, journal references and Internet web pages.
The Leonardos and the Forgotten Arab Polymath, Zoroastro
Author: Susan Audrey Grundy
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1036412768
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 228
Book Description
This book recovers the lives of four men masked behind one legend. Reinterpreting recently rediscovered documents shows a Tuscan artist Leonardo da Vinci was banished from Florence around 1477, when at the same moment another Leonardo arrived from the East, an Ottoman agent from Genoese Caffa in the Black Sea. This Leonardo was a military engineer, who began writing technical notes backward in a flourishing Italian script. In Florence, around 1500, he met the alchemist and polymath Zoroastro, who collaborated in producing the scientific Notebooks. However, by the mid-sixteenth century, all memory of Zoroastro had been erased, and the two Leonardos had been conflated into one identity. Crucially, an archived document, rediscovered around 2021, proved that the Tuscan painter Leonardo da Vinci died in 1499. This information leads to the recovery of the artist who really painted the Mona Lisa, Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio.
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1036412768
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 228
Book Description
This book recovers the lives of four men masked behind one legend. Reinterpreting recently rediscovered documents shows a Tuscan artist Leonardo da Vinci was banished from Florence around 1477, when at the same moment another Leonardo arrived from the East, an Ottoman agent from Genoese Caffa in the Black Sea. This Leonardo was a military engineer, who began writing technical notes backward in a flourishing Italian script. In Florence, around 1500, he met the alchemist and polymath Zoroastro, who collaborated in producing the scientific Notebooks. However, by the mid-sixteenth century, all memory of Zoroastro had been erased, and the two Leonardos had been conflated into one identity. Crucially, an archived document, rediscovered around 2021, proved that the Tuscan painter Leonardo da Vinci died in 1499. This information leads to the recovery of the artist who really painted the Mona Lisa, Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio.
Math and the Mona Lisa
Author: Bulent Atalay
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
ISBN: 1588343537
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 297
Book Description
Leonardo da Vinci was one of history's true geniuses, equally brilliant as an artist, scientist, and mathematician. Readers of The Da Vinci Code were given a glimpse of the mysterious connections between math, science, and Leonardo's art. Math and the Mona Lisa picks up where The Da Vinci Code left off, illuminating Leonardo's life and work to uncover connections that, until now, have been known only to scholars. Bülent Atalay, a distinguished scientist and artist, examines the science and mathematics that underlie Leonardo's work, paying special attention to the proportions, patterns, shapes, and symmetries that scientists and mathematicians have also identified in nature. Following Leonardo's own unique model, Atalay searches for the internal dynamics of art and science, revealing to us the deep unity of the two cultures. He provides a broad overview of the development of science from the dawn of civilization to today's quantum mechanics. From this base of information, Atalay offers a fascinating view into Leonardo's restless intellect and modus operandi, allowing us to see the source of his ideas and to appreciate his art from a new perspective.
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
ISBN: 1588343537
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 297
Book Description
Leonardo da Vinci was one of history's true geniuses, equally brilliant as an artist, scientist, and mathematician. Readers of The Da Vinci Code were given a glimpse of the mysterious connections between math, science, and Leonardo's art. Math and the Mona Lisa picks up where The Da Vinci Code left off, illuminating Leonardo's life and work to uncover connections that, until now, have been known only to scholars. Bülent Atalay, a distinguished scientist and artist, examines the science and mathematics that underlie Leonardo's work, paying special attention to the proportions, patterns, shapes, and symmetries that scientists and mathematicians have also identified in nature. Following Leonardo's own unique model, Atalay searches for the internal dynamics of art and science, revealing to us the deep unity of the two cultures. He provides a broad overview of the development of science from the dawn of civilization to today's quantum mechanics. From this base of information, Atalay offers a fascinating view into Leonardo's restless intellect and modus operandi, allowing us to see the source of his ideas and to appreciate his art from a new perspective.
The Divine Proportions of Luca Pacioli
Author: W.A.W. Parker
Publisher: Barbera Foundation
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 214
Book Description
Luca Pacioli stood beside the great Leonardo da Vinci and gazed at The Last Supper. He saw immediately that something was terribly wrong. An orphan from a small town in Italy, Pacioli came of age during the Renaissance seemingly destined for a life of struggle and obscurity. But Pacioli had the good fortune of meeting mentors who recognized his uncanny ability with numbers and introduced him to renowned artists and philosophers, royalty, and popes. At a time when many still used Roman numerals and colleges didn’t even teach mathematics, Pacioli was determined to share his passion and make it accessible and understandable. Apprentice to an artist, but a terrible artist himself, he became a master at calculating mathematical perspective in paintings. Tasked with teaching mathematics with no textbook, he wrote his own—followed by books on double-entry bookkeeping, chess, and the divine proportion. In this way, Luca Pacioli, “the father of accounting,” still has something to teach us—not just about mathematics—but about how we account for setbacks in our lives and how we determine what our legacy will be.
Publisher: Barbera Foundation
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 214
Book Description
Luca Pacioli stood beside the great Leonardo da Vinci and gazed at The Last Supper. He saw immediately that something was terribly wrong. An orphan from a small town in Italy, Pacioli came of age during the Renaissance seemingly destined for a life of struggle and obscurity. But Pacioli had the good fortune of meeting mentors who recognized his uncanny ability with numbers and introduced him to renowned artists and philosophers, royalty, and popes. At a time when many still used Roman numerals and colleges didn’t even teach mathematics, Pacioli was determined to share his passion and make it accessible and understandable. Apprentice to an artist, but a terrible artist himself, he became a master at calculating mathematical perspective in paintings. Tasked with teaching mathematics with no textbook, he wrote his own—followed by books on double-entry bookkeeping, chess, and the divine proportion. In this way, Luca Pacioli, “the father of accounting,” still has something to teach us—not just about mathematics—but about how we account for setbacks in our lives and how we determine what our legacy will be.
Fibonacci’s Liber Abaci
Author: Laurence Sigler
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461300797
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 736
Book Description
First published in 1202, Fibonacci’s Liber Abaci was one of the most important books on mathematics in the Middle Ages, introducing Arabic numerals and methods throughout Europe. This is the first translation into a modern European language, of interest not only to historians of science but also to all mathematicians and mathematics teachers interested in the origins of their methods.
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461300797
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 736
Book Description
First published in 1202, Fibonacci’s Liber Abaci was one of the most important books on mathematics in the Middle Ages, introducing Arabic numerals and methods throughout Europe. This is the first translation into a modern European language, of interest not only to historians of science but also to all mathematicians and mathematics teachers interested in the origins of their methods.
The Industrial Revolution - Lost in Antiquity - Found in the Renaissance
Author: Cort MacLean Johns Ph.D. - HSG
Publisher: Cort MacLean Johns Ph.D.- HSG
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 473
Book Description
Historians of Technology have failed to include the larger contribution and influence of Ctesibius’ compressor-driven Hydraulis with its pneumatic pumps, keyboard, and organ pipes in the path of critical preparatory events leading up to the ‘Latent’ Industrial Revolution. One should also realize that Ctesibius had all the parts and sub-assemblies on hand to invent the first Steam Hydraulis or Calliope, as illustrated on the front book cover of this work. From the 'Fertile Crescent' of the Persian Empire to the Hellenistic Library of Alexandria, Vitruvius writing brought the Hydraulis to the Abbey of St. Gall in 1414 during the Renaissance. Its path then took it through Italy, Germany, and the Paris of Louis XIV along the Arch of Industrial Reawakening. This was the Hydraulis 2-millennium path from Antiquity to its return reigniting the 'Latent' Industrial Revolution.
Publisher: Cort MacLean Johns Ph.D.- HSG
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 473
Book Description
Historians of Technology have failed to include the larger contribution and influence of Ctesibius’ compressor-driven Hydraulis with its pneumatic pumps, keyboard, and organ pipes in the path of critical preparatory events leading up to the ‘Latent’ Industrial Revolution. One should also realize that Ctesibius had all the parts and sub-assemblies on hand to invent the first Steam Hydraulis or Calliope, as illustrated on the front book cover of this work. From the 'Fertile Crescent' of the Persian Empire to the Hellenistic Library of Alexandria, Vitruvius writing brought the Hydraulis to the Abbey of St. Gall in 1414 during the Renaissance. Its path then took it through Italy, Germany, and the Paris of Louis XIV along the Arch of Industrial Reawakening. This was the Hydraulis 2-millennium path from Antiquity to its return reigniting the 'Latent' Industrial Revolution.
Leonardo da Vinci
Author: Walter Isaacson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501139177
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 624
Book Description
The #1 New York Times bestseller from Walter Isaacson brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography that is “a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it…Most important, it is a powerful story of an exhilarating mind and life” (The New Yorker). Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson “deftly reveals an intimate Leonardo” (San Francisco Chronicle) in 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. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper. 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. In the “luminous” (Daily Beast) Leonardo da Vinci, Isaacson describes how 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 to be imaginative and, like talented rebels in any era, to think different. Here, da Vinci “comes to life in all his remarkable brilliance and oddity in Walter Isaacson’s ambitious new biography…a vigorous, insightful portrait” (The Washington Post).
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501139177
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 624
Book Description
The #1 New York Times bestseller from Walter Isaacson brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography that is “a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it…Most important, it is a powerful story of an exhilarating mind and life” (The New Yorker). Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson “deftly reveals an intimate Leonardo” (San Francisco Chronicle) in 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. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper. 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. In the “luminous” (Daily Beast) Leonardo da Vinci, Isaacson describes how 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 to be imaginative and, like talented rebels in any era, to think different. Here, da Vinci “comes to life in all his remarkable brilliance and oddity in Walter Isaacson’s ambitious new biography…a vigorous, insightful portrait” (The Washington Post).
Chess The History of a Game
Author: Richard Eales
Publisher:
ISBN: 9784871871266
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
Not since Murray's Classic Work of 1913 has there been so seriously researched history chess which is also readable. Since then what was still largely seen as the preserve of a few upper-class eccentrics has become an international sport, played by millions and watched by even more on TV. Richard Eales long overdue study traces the game from its origin in the East, through its medieval status and symbolism, to the new process of the Renaissance. The social changes of the eighteenth century brought popularity to the game which has developed into a sedentary sport - both amateur and professional - of the 1980s . In tracing the social history of chess, the author also highlights the most striking facets of the game: The varied design of of the chess pieces. The technical details od the play, the great players of the past such as Philidor, Morphy Capablanca, Alekhine, Fischer and the extraordinary popularity of chess in the Soviet Union A Cambridge trained chess historian, Mr. Eales is a lecturer in the University of Kent. He is also a chess player of distinction (British Junior Chess Champion 1960) and an accomplished author (Alekhine's Defense 1973). Combining first class research with an eye for the apt quotation and illustration, Richard Eales has produced - for chess players and historians alike - a lasting contribution to the literature on the oldest and greatest of all games. The jacket illustration of a fourteenth century ivory mirror is reproduced by permission of the trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9784871871266
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
Not since Murray's Classic Work of 1913 has there been so seriously researched history chess which is also readable. Since then what was still largely seen as the preserve of a few upper-class eccentrics has become an international sport, played by millions and watched by even more on TV. Richard Eales long overdue study traces the game from its origin in the East, through its medieval status and symbolism, to the new process of the Renaissance. The social changes of the eighteenth century brought popularity to the game which has developed into a sedentary sport - both amateur and professional - of the 1980s . In tracing the social history of chess, the author also highlights the most striking facets of the game: The varied design of of the chess pieces. The technical details od the play, the great players of the past such as Philidor, Morphy Capablanca, Alekhine, Fischer and the extraordinary popularity of chess in the Soviet Union A Cambridge trained chess historian, Mr. Eales is a lecturer in the University of Kent. He is also a chess player of distinction (British Junior Chess Champion 1960) and an accomplished author (Alekhine's Defense 1973). Combining first class research with an eye for the apt quotation and illustration, Richard Eales has produced - for chess players and historians alike - a lasting contribution to the literature on the oldest and greatest of all games. The jacket illustration of a fourteenth century ivory mirror is reproduced by permission of the trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci: The Forerunner
Author: Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
ISBN: 1465591974
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 759
Book Description
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
ISBN: 1465591974
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 759
Book Description
Leonardo and the Last Supper
Author: Ross King
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0747599475
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
Milan, 1496 and forty-four-year-old Leonardo da Vinci has a reputation for taking on commissions and failing to complete them. He is in a state of professional uncertainty and financial difficulty. For eighteen months he has been painting murals in both the Sforza Castle in Milan and the refectory of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie. The latter project will become the Last Supper, a complex mural that took a full three years to complete on a surface fifteen feet high by twenty feet wide. Not only had he never attempted a painting of such size, but he had no experience whatsoever in painting in the physically demanding medium of fresco.For more than five centuries the Last Supper has been an artistic, religious and cultural icon. The art historian Kenneth Clark has called it 'the keystone of European art', and for a century after its creation it was regarded as nothing less than a miraculous image. Even today, according to Clark, we regard the painting as 'more a work of nature than a work of man'. And yet there is a very human story behind this artistic 'miracle', which was created against the backdrop of momentous events both in Milan and in the life of Leonardo himself.In Leonardo and the Last Supper, Ross King tells the complete story of this creation of this mural: the adversities suffered by the artist during its execution; the experimental techniques he employed; the models for Christ and the Apostles that he used; and the numerous personalities involved - everyone from the Leonardo's young assistants to Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan who commissioned the work. Ross King's new book is both a record of Leonardo da Vinci's last five years in Milan and a 'biography' of one of the most famous works of art ever painted.
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0747599475
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
Milan, 1496 and forty-four-year-old Leonardo da Vinci has a reputation for taking on commissions and failing to complete them. He is in a state of professional uncertainty and financial difficulty. For eighteen months he has been painting murals in both the Sforza Castle in Milan and the refectory of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie. The latter project will become the Last Supper, a complex mural that took a full three years to complete on a surface fifteen feet high by twenty feet wide. Not only had he never attempted a painting of such size, but he had no experience whatsoever in painting in the physically demanding medium of fresco.For more than five centuries the Last Supper has been an artistic, religious and cultural icon. The art historian Kenneth Clark has called it 'the keystone of European art', and for a century after its creation it was regarded as nothing less than a miraculous image. Even today, according to Clark, we regard the painting as 'more a work of nature than a work of man'. And yet there is a very human story behind this artistic 'miracle', which was created against the backdrop of momentous events both in Milan and in the life of Leonardo himself.In Leonardo and the Last Supper, Ross King tells the complete story of this creation of this mural: the adversities suffered by the artist during its execution; the experimental techniques he employed; the models for Christ and the Apostles that he used; and the numerous personalities involved - everyone from the Leonardo's young assistants to Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan who commissioned the work. Ross King's new book is both a record of Leonardo da Vinci's last five years in Milan and a 'biography' of one of the most famous works of art ever painted.