The Young Leonardo: Art And Life In Fifteenth-Century Florence
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Reprint, 4/21/2014
EAN 9781107688223, ISBN10: 1107688221
Paperback, 216 pages, 25.3 x 17.7 x 0.9 cm
Language: English
Leonardo da Vinci is often presented as the 'transcendent genius', removed from or ahead of his time. This book, however, attempts to understand him in the context of Renaissance Florence. Larry J. Feinberg explores Leonardo's origins and the beginning of his career as an artist. While celebrating his many artistic achievements, the book illuminates his debt to other artists' works and his struggles to gain and retain patronage, as well as his career and personal difficulties. Feinberg examines the range of Leonardo's interests, including aerodynamics, anatomy, astronomy, botany, geology, hydraulics, optics, and warfare technology, to clarify how the artist's broad intellectual curiosity informed his art. Situating the artist within the political, social, cultural, and artistic context of mid- and late-fifteenth-century Florence, Feinberg shows how this environment influenced Leonardo's artistic output and laid the groundwork for the achievements of his mature works.
Introduction
1. Childhood
2. Florence and Cosimo the Elder
3. The cultural climate of Florence
4. First years in Florence and the Verrocchio workshop
5. First works in Florence and the artistic milieu
6. Early pursuits in engineering – hydraulics and the movement of water
7. The Bust of a Warrior and Leonardo's creative method
8. Early participation in the Medici court
9. Leonardo's personality and place in Florentine society
10. Important productions and collaborations in the Verroccio shop
11. Leonardo's colleagues in the workshop
12. Leonardo's Madonna of the Carnation and the exploration of optics
13. The Benois Madonna and continued meditations on the theme of sight
14. The Madonna of the Cat
15. Leonardo, the Medici, and public executions
16. Leonardo and Ginevra de'Benci
17. Leonardo as portraitist and master of the visual pun
18. The young sculptor
19. The Madonna Litta
20. The Adoration of the Magi and invention of the High Renaissance style
21. The Adoration and Leonardo's military interests
22. Leonardo and allegorical conceits for the Medici court
23. Early ideas for the Last Supper
24. Leonardo and the Saint Sebastian
25. Saint Jerome
26. First thoughts for the Virgin of the Rocks and the invention of the Mary Magdelene-courtesan genre
27. Milan
28. Leonardo and the Sforza court.