Martin Kemp

Život a práce světově proslulého génia Leonarda da Vinci Leonardo da Vinci nás ani po půl tisíciletí nepřestává přitahovat a inspirovat. Výjimečný vhled do života tohoto vpravdě renesančního muže poodhaluje „skutečný“ smysl skrytý v tak mistrovských dílech, jakými jsou Mona Lisa či Poslední večeře. Sleduje Leonardovu dráhu v celé její rozmanitosti, dává nám nahlédnout do jeho nenaplněných snů, vztahů s mocnými jeho doby a odkrývá jeho názory na Boha, člověka a přírodu. Martin Kemp přenáší Leonardův příběh až do současnosti, podrobuje rozboru dnešní „leonardovský průmysl“ a zamýšlí se nad otázkou, čím by Leonardo byl, kdyby byl naším současníkem.

The bestselling 30-Second... series takes a revolutionary approach to learning about those subjects you feel you should really understand. Each title selects a popular topic and dissects it into the 50 most significant ideas at its heart. Every idea, no matter how complex, is explained in 300 words and one picture, all digestible in 30 seconds. 30-Second Leonardo da Vinci uses this unique approach to grapple with the truly diverse thoughts of the ultimate Renaissance Man. Artist, anatomist, sculptor, inventor, architect, cartographer, mathematician, musician, botanist, geologist the word polymath does not quite do Leonardo justice. The painter of the Mona Lisa and conceptualizer of the helicopter seems like a Renaissance superhero. Here, the worlds leading Leonardo scholars present an instant and expert guide to the breadth and brilliance of his greatest innovations.

Living with Leonardo is a set of highly focused memoirs, a personal journey interwoven with historical research that encapsulates the author’s relationship with Leonardo da Vinci over more than half a century. We learn of his encounters with the vast population that surrounds Leonardo: great and lesser academics, collectors and curators, devious dealers and unctuous auctioneers, major scholars and authors and pseudohistorians and fantasists; but also how he has grappled with swelling legions of ‘Leonardo loonies’, walked on the eggshells of vested interests in academia and museums, and fended off fusillades of non-Leonardos, sometimes more than one a week. Kemp leads us through his thinking on the Last Supper and the Mona Lisa, retells his part in the identification of the stolen Buccleuch Madonna and explains his involvement with and his theories on the two major Leonardo discoveries of the last 100 years, one of which plummeted into controversy (La Bella Principessa), while the other underwent a rapid ascent into widespread acceptance (Salvator Mundi). We learn firsthand of the thorny questions that surround attribution, the scientific analyses that support the experts’ interpretations, and the continuing importance of connoisseurship. Throughout, from the most scholarly interpretations to the popularity of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, we are reminded of Leonardo’s rare genius and wonder at how an artist from 500 years ago continues to make such compelling posthumous demands on all those who engage with him. Table of Contents Preface and Acknowledgements Introduction: Art History in Action Prologue: a Sketch of Leonardo 1. The Last Supper and the First Steps 2. The “Original” Last Supper 3. Looking at Lisa 4. The Stolen Madonna 5. The Beautiful Princess 6. Ugly Arguments 7. The Saviour 8. Science and Seeing 9. Codices and Computers 10. Exhibitions 11. Codes and Conjectures

`Kemp is a natural storyteller... This book leads you on a journey through the life, work and legacy of one of history's most intriguing figures.' The Times In an engaging personal narrative interwoven with historical research, Martin Kemp discusses a life spent immersed in the world of Leonardo, and his encounters with great and lesser academics, collectors and curators, devious dealers and unctuous auctioneers, major scholars and authors, pseudo-historians and fantasists. He shares how he has grappled with swelling legions of `Leonardo loonies', walked on the eggshells of vested interests in academia and museums, and fended off fusillades of non-Leonardos, sometimes more than one a week. Examining the greatest masterpieces, from the Last Supper to Salvator Mundi, through the expert's eye, we learn first-hand of the thorny questions that surround attribution, the scientific analyses that support the experts' interpretations, and the continuing importance of connoisseurship. Throughout, from the most scholarly interpretations to the popularity of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, we are reminded of Leonardo's unique genius and wonder at how an artist from 500 years ago continues to make such compelling posthumous demands on all those who engage with him.

From the lazy, fiddling grasshopper to the sneaky Big Bad Wolf, children's stories and fables enchant us with their portrayals of animals who act like people. But the comparisons run both ways, as metaphors, stories, and images - as well as scientific theories - throughout history remind us that humans often act like animals, and that the line separating them is not as clear as we'd like to pretend. Here, Martin Kemp explores a stunning range of images and ideas to demonstrate just how deeply these underappreciated links between humans and other fauna are embedded in our culture. Tracing those interconnections among art, science, and literature, Kemp leads us on a dazzling tour of Western thought, from Aristotelian physiognomy and its influence on phrenology to the Great Chain of Being and Darwinian evolution. We learn about the racist anthropology underlying a familiar Degas sculpture, see paintings of a remarkably simian Judas, and watch Mowgli, the man-child from Kipling's "The Jungle Book", exhibit the behaviors of the beasts who raised him. Like a kaleidoscope, Kemp uses these stories to refract, reconfigure, and echo the essential truth that the way we think about animals inevitably inflects how we think about people, and vice versa. Loaded with vivid illustrations and drawing on sources from Hesiod to La Fontaine, Leonardo to P. T. Barnum, "The Human Animal in Western Art and Science" is a fascinating, eye-opening reminder of our deep affinities with our fellow members of the animal kingdom.

`Kemp is a natural storyteller... This book leads you on a journey through the life, work and legacy of one of history's most intriguing figures.' The Times In an engaging personal narrative interwoven with historical research, Martin Kemp discusses a life spent immersed in the world of Leonardo, and his encounters with great and lesser academics, collectors and curators, devious dealers and unctuous auctioneers, major scholars and authors, pseudo-historians and fantasists. He shares how he has grappled with swelling legions of `Leonardo loonies', walked on the eggshells of vested interests in academia and museums, and fended off fusillades of non-Leonardos, sometimes more than one a week. Examining the greatest masterpieces, from the Last Supper to Salvator Mundi, through the expert's eye, we learn first-hand of the thorny questions that surround attribution, the scientific analyses that support the experts' interpretations, and the continuing importance of connoisseurship. Throughout, from the most scholarly interpretations to the popularity of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, we are reminded of Leonardo's unique genius and wonder at how an artist from 500 years ago continues to make such compelling posthumous demands on all those who engage with him.