This coffee table-sized book presents in full glossy color the entirety of Leonardo DaVinci's life, work and thinking, while providing parallel social and historical context of Renaissance Italy. True to National Geographic's reputation, the imagery is the real highlight of this bio and not only contains numerous images from Leonardo's surviving notebooks, but his artwork, designs, as well as modern images from relevant locations in Italy.

Author Atalay presents tightly written analyses of some of Leonardo's most important works. He brings to bear the latest technical analyses of Leonardo's extant paintings and drawings which help resolve artistic and historical mysteries - some of which have circulated for hundreds of years. Specifically, we're provided high tech evidence surrounding Leonardo's "Ginerva", where the FBI provided resources to confirm the existence of DaVinci's fingerprints on the dried 500-year old paint. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. was also able to identify inconsistencies in the two-sided painting which led to the discovery that about 1/3 of the painting was actually missing. Experts were able to digitally blend the missing piece with drawings found among Leonardo's sketchbooks to confirm the missing art. Atalay also present a terrific study of Leonardo's "Virgin of the Rocks", providing a nice comparison between his original version and a second version likely painted by students at his school.

My only wish would be for deeper analyses (textually and visually) in some cases, but understandably, the goal of this book isn't to provide a treatise on each individual Leonardo masterpiece. Naturally the book also details the history behind and artistic critique of his most famous paintings - "The Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper".

Leonardo's interests and expertise are vast and make for an ever changing study of his disciplines.

While the book is written for adults, the images and analytical sidebars would make for great teaching tools for parents or teachers wanting to introduce DaVinci and the Renaissance.

I highly recommend this bright and illuminating book on one of the most fascinating lives ever lived. ( )

Wonderfully Illustrated

This is a great book by classicists Bulent Atalay and Keith Wamsley on one of the great geniuses of all time in Leonardo Da Vinci. This book isn't really argument-driven, nor is it a straight biography, it is more like an extended literary review of other scholars work with several great paintings, and illustrated sources to showcase Da Vinci's significant contributions to what we know call the "Renaissance".

What is great is that Atalay and Wamsley do not restrict their analysis strictly to Da Vinci's art, but take a good look into his contributions to human anatomy, science, urban planning, philosophy, and political thought. The best part of the book were the inclusion of several sketches from Da Vinci's sketchbook at the end of each chapter. Definitely worth purchasing in my opinion. ( )