[.ca] Leonardo Da Vinci: The Complete Paintings (ISBN 0810935813)

From Amazon.co.uk:
In this magnificent book, Pietro Marani, the director of the project to restore Leonardo's Last Supper, presents all the artist's known paintings. The history and significance of each are analysed at length: we read, for example, that "from a very early date", Mona Lisa was considered among Leonardo's most extraordinary accomplishments, one that made every other artist "tremble and lose heart". Context is provided by a wealth of related paintings and sketches. The presentation is extravagant: double-foldouts show frescoes in their entirety, and small areas are hugely expanded to give access to a world of sensuous detail. The intimacy of these extreme details--a tiny blue landscape glimpsed through a window, or the warm flesh of a baby's foot resting on its mother's arm--is unexpected and one of the book's many successes. Marani combines connoisseurship with the technological tools of art history, such as x-ray exploration of revisions in a painting's underdrawings. He has spent his life studying Leonardo's paintings at first hand, so closely that he can point to where the artist lightly blurred layers of paint with his fingertips to suggest the soft skin around the eyes of his portraits of women. A chapter is devoted to Marani's belief that Leonardo was profoundly influenced by ancient art works rather than being exclusively the "modern genius" described by Romantic critics. The research is fully footnoted, with appendices including checklists of paintings and lost paintings and a collection of all the known primary documents referring directly to Leonardo's life. From its enigmatic cover (the lips of the artist's exquisite portrait of Ginevra de' Benci) to its extensive bibliography, Leonardo da Vinci comes the closest this reviewer has seen to being the ultimate art book. --John Stevenson

beauty to impress on the marrow of your soul:
I bought this book pretty much as an impulse buy. I was very glad I did! I love Leonardo's paintings, I've had the pleasure of viewing some in the Louvre. I think it is such an amazing gift to be able to reproduce observation, providing insight into an individuals sense of consideration and emphasis. These last two are a requisite for style, along with skill in execution, which almost like text must convey clarity with the gradual perfecting in time, we have something most profound. I often find myself contemplating the pictures in this book, and being a scientist more than an artist, I was curious as to how it affected me so. Our sense of achievement is in part appreciated on the point that we can follow a path to the point of completion with the appreciation of the process rather than the end point attained. Now to understand and appreciate anothers achievement would require a sound and deep empathy of anothers 'travelled path', with Leonardo and others I just cannot empathise and understand how one can attain to something so majestic and magnificent I'm literally in awe, hence the belief that it is something beyond the sum of its parts (its make-up) - a gift. This book presents the wonderful works of this man and what is conveyed in the art. It is a little understanding of the personality and character of a unique time and individual. A great book!

What a beautiful book ! Worth every dollar. Don't miss it.:
I have no words to describe what I felt enjoying this book. Worth every single dollar it costs. You will never regret buying it and browsing it whenever you wish to. Every Da Vinci's painting is displayed and explained in full details and colors. Starting with Leonardo's apprenticeship in Verrocchio's shop until his first autonomous works, Pietro Marani's book is a must buy not only for all Da Vinci's fans worldwide but to all people who love true art. Don't waste your time with gossip books and stuff... read this book, and you won't be sorry. Never. I assure you. In Brazil, where I live, you don't find such a book easily. Thank God there's Amazon.com to bring me such a treasure as this masterpiece.

TOO BEAUTIFUL TO BELIEVE:
THIS IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL AND COMPLETE ART BOOK I HAVE EVER SEEN. I WAS AN ARCHITURE MAJOR FOR A WHILE IN COLLEGE, I TOOK MANY ART HISTORY COURSES; BUT, NONE OFFERED THE INFORMATION IN THIS BOOK. THERE ARE SEVERAL FOUR-PAGE FOLD OUTS THAT MAKE YOU FEEL AS THOUGH YOU ARE LOOKING AT THE REAL THING -- ORIGINAL ART. THIS MAGNIFICENT VOLUME ALSO CONTAINS ALL THE SKETCHES AND WORK SHEETS THAT LED UP TO THE FINAL PRODUCTION. I AM WRITING THIS FOR ANYONE IN DOUBT ABOUT BUYING THIS BOOK. BUY IT, YOU WON'T BELIEVE HOW BEAUTIFUL IT IS UNTIL YOU SEE IT. (AMAZON.COM DIDN'T PAY ME TO SAY THIS.) THANKS FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE MY THOUGHTS. I LOVE THIS BOOK!

Nearly perfect in every way:
I don't know how daVinci did it. His artwork is so fantastic and its all so well presented in this rather impressive tome. He was such an amazing man and this book beautifully shows every tiny facet of his array of experiences and talents.

Leonardo - my hero. This book - my bible.:
My dear fellow artists, You, like myself, have been blessed (cursed (?)) with an ability to draw and to dream, in the quest for beauty. This is it! As artists, nobody can outdo Leonardo. On Leonardo, this one is the best, the most complete. Read as many books on Leonardo as you wish, but make sure to own this one!