/He Xiangning Art Museum translation series of masterpieces of art history/
The legendary life of the master artist Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
A stunning masterpiece of nature and man
A classic of da Vinci's art, science and thought
Hundreds of years after Leonardo's death, his legacy was inevitably scattered, many of which were lost. As the inheritors of these precious inheritances, we all have the responsibility to stitch together these scattered and disorderly fragments, and to perceive them as a whole as much as possible from a comprehensive perspective under the limitations of the vagaries of existing materials.
--Martin Kemp
Leonardo da Vinci – A Stunning Masterpiece of Nature and Man is a well-known monograph by Professor Martin Kemp, who combines the life and contemporary background of Leonardo da Vinci's life as an artist, scientist, engineer and philosopher.
At the same time, the various works and activities of leonardo da Vinci are carefully explained, and his most important artistic, scientific and engineering masterpieces are explained, which can be described as "seeing both trees and forests".
In particular, on the eve of the publication of this Chinese edition, the author still revised, supplemented and improved some chapters of the book at the age of 78, so that Chinese readers can enjoy the latest and most cutting-edge results of Da Vinci's research.
The Virgin and Child by the Spinning Wheel
(c. 1501–1507), private collection
Study of the Side Head of a Samurai (c. 1476), Silver Tip Pen, British Museum, London
The book's elegant and fluid writing, which combines academic value and popular significance, can benefit both art history professional researchers and ordinary readers.
The book is also accompanied by more than 200 precious manuscripts, designs and paintings from various periods of leonardo da Vinci's life.
Explore the wonderful world of the master of art
The Herald (c. 1473–1474), Florence, Uffizi
Ginefra de Bench (1476-1478), National Gallery, Washington, Elsa Mellon Bruce Foundation
Leonardo also spent a lot of effort in the art comparison debate, comparing painting with other art disciplines, and repeatedly advocating the superiority of painting over sculpture.
In the painting "Ginephra", we can hear the painter rehearsing his defense early on, although it is not yet conclusive. Like The Virgin, this is just a jerky original painting, from which the viewer can often experience a sense of anxiety and uneasiness lurking beneath the surface.
Leonardo later struggled to express the inner spirit of nature, and this anxiety pervaded the whole process.
It is clear that both the Annunciation of the Virgin and The Genevra were created in the early stages of the painter's career.
Leonardo's experience during the Florentine period was that art was seen as a certain rational pursuit, recognizing that art had its own specific principles and could be used in design practice.
Verrocchio, on the other hand, left him with a fascinating series of motifs and complex concepts of fluid motion in space.
Leonardo also incorporated his own unique feelings about the forces of nature, such as the rotation of the water, the growth of plants, the movement of the face, and the propagation of light, and so on; he also invented many novel techniques that changed the established style of Florentine art, so that it was full of new and flexible lights in both expression and form.
His engineering creations reflect his equal passion for energy, motion, and the geometry of space.
In the Florentine tradition, he was not perfect, but he was already a brilliant artist and a brilliant engineer.
The Worker's Effort to Move a Giant Cannon (c. 1488), Dipped in Pen and Ink, Windsor, Royal Library (12647)
Leonardo also invented many genius solutions to engineering problems— ranging in size, from construction to machinery, to military and civilian uses, to practical and whimsical.
During the Renaissance, there was really no mechanically related field that did not have Leonardo's footprints. At the time, Leonardo's drawings were particularly focused on Milan's most thriving industries, weapons manufacturing and textiles.
The difficulty in exploring his achievements in the context of history is not to identify the quality of their designs, which are clearly first-class in both concept and approach, but to identify the substantive output of these designs in practice in various fields of trade and professional manufacturing.
In his military engineering research, Leonardo has always wanted to pursue the perfect weapon, which is not only a technical challenge, but also involves the principles of physics at a deeper level.
The cannon design, which contains his beloved law of percussion motion (and acoustics), fascinates him in particular.
Contrary to this, he was extremely disgusted by what mankind had encountered in war.
He had some rather terrifying and dangerous designs of military machinery, such as structural drawings such as large bows and crossbows, which strongly implied the power of weapons over the subjugating power of humans, the creators of weapons, to the point that humans became weak and helpless servants of their creation.
This feeling is further enhanced by a very famous sketch of a cannon foundry, in which the meticulously drawn details of the mechanical elements do not dampen the momentum of the chaotic and complex scenes: the unknown craftsmen not only invented the lethal guns, but also improved them with a crazy enthusiasm. Undoubtedly, the passion contained in this drawing is exactly similar to his prophecy, especially the puzzle of casting cannons in a deep pit:
"With a loud noise, it rises from the ground, shaking people nearby to the point of fainting, and it can kill countless people between the whiskers and destroy towns and castles."
Man's savage ability to destroy himself and nature is also a recurring theme in Leonardo's literary works.
Four Sequences of Anatomy of the Arms, Shoulders, and Chest Surfaces (circa 1510–1511), dipped in water pens, ink, and pastels, Windsor, Royal Library
"If the structure of the human body is already a miraculous creation for you, then remember that it is inferior in any way to the soul; the structure of the soul is so special that it can only be said that it is really a miracle."
In terms of anatomy, a new precision emerged in his depiction: sketching to record the morphology seen at a particular stage of dissection, with simplicity and high self-confidence, no longer artificially constructed according to predetermined functional concepts.
Faced with the spatial complexity of anatomical forms, he found that the "architectural" three- or four-view mapping system was no longer able to cope with the details he wanted to illustrate.
The tricky asymmetry in the foot forced him to add his mapping work to six views, while the morphological complexity of the arms, shoulders, and upper chest muscles could only rely on a cinematic sequence of eight views.
"If you want to understand all the parts of an anatomic human body, you have to traverse different directions through your own or that person's perspective... Flip it around and examine the root causes of all the parts. ”
By Martin Kemp
Martin John Kemp (1942– ) is a renowned art historian and curator, Fellow of the British Academy, and Professor Emeritus of the Department of Art History at the University of Oxford. He is one of leonardo da Vinci's leading authorities on research, has written extensively, has hosted and curated numerous related exhibitions, and played a key role in identifying the author of the 2011 newly discovered and restored oil painting Salvator Mundi. His research topics also include visualization in the arts and sciences, particularly in the fields of anatomy, natural sciences and optics.
Translator Profile
Liu Guozhu, Ph.D. in Art History, associate professor of the Department of Design Art, Zhejiang University. The research achievements involve: computer technology and art design interdisciplinary topics, digitalization, generative algorithms, simulation, interaction, virtual reality, etc.; interface design, web design applications; art history and art theory. At the same time, he also has expertise in education and teaching.