Leonardo da Vinci

Aunque el Tratado de pintura de Leonardo da Vinci no fue impreso hasta el siglo XVIII, los fragmentarios manuscritos que para componerlo reunieron sus primeros escritores habían circulado profusamente por Europa y suscitado la admirada curiosidad de artistas y eruditos. El Tratado es obra de las empresas imposibles de Leonardo, un fracaso mas de los que, por muy dispares caminos, se cebaron en su empeño de refundir todas las formulaciones empiricas y todos los topicos conceptuosos del Renacimiento y ordenarlos en una sistema universal. Toda edicion del Tratado debe entenderselas con la dificultad de evocar esta vision y ese fracaso, seleccionando y combinando textos y dibujos, dificultad que no habia sido salvada con acierto en las publicaciones existentes en lengua castellana. La version que presentamos viene, pues, a cumplir una implazable exigencia de la bibliografia artistica española.

This selection offers a cross-section from the 6,000 surviving sheets that constitute Leonardo's notebooks, including his thoughts on landscape, optics, anatomy, architecture, sculpture, and painting. Fully updated, this new edition includes some 70 line drawings and a Preface by Leonardo expert Martin Kemp.

PROPHECIES

A singular fatality has ruled the destiny of nearly all the most famous of Leonardo da Vincis works. Two of the three most important were never completed, obstacles having arisen during his life-time, which obliged him to leave them unfinished; namely the Sforza Monument and the Wall-painting of the Battle of Anghiari, while the thirdthe picture of the Last Supper at Milanhas suffered irremediable injury from decay and the repeated restorations to which it was recklessly subjected during the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries. Nevertheless, no other picture of the Renaissance has become so wellknown and popular through copies of every description.Vasari says, and rightly, in his Life of Leonardo, "that he laboured much more by his word than in fact or by deed", and the biographer evidently had in his mind the numerous works in Manuscript which have been preserved to this day. To us, now, it seems almost inexplicable that these valuable and interesting original texts should have remained so long unpublished, and indeed forgotten. It is certain that during the XVIth and XVIIth centuries their exceptional value was highly appreciated. This is proved not merely by the prices which they commanded, but also by the exceptional interest which has been attached to the change of ownership of merely a few pages of Manuscript. PrefaceI. Prolegomena and General Introduction to the Book on PaintingII. Linear Perspective.III. Six books on Light and Shade.IV. Perspective of Disappearance.V. Theory of colours.VI. Perspective of Colour and Aerial Perspective.VII. On the Proportions and on the Movements of the Human Figure.VIII. Botany for Painters and Elements of Landscape Painting.IX. The Practice of Painting.X. Studies and Sketches for Pictures and Decorations.XI. The notes on Sculpture.XII. Architectural Designs.XIII. Theoretical writings on Architecture.XIV. Anatomy, Zoology and Physiology.XV. Astronomy.XVI. Physical Geography.XVII. Topographical Notes.XVIII.

"Questa raccolta di scritti a cura di Mario De Micheli ripropone, pensiero per pensiero, i testi di Leonardo sui grandi temi universali. La terra, il nostro corpo, le nostre passioni, il difficile teatro su cui la storia celebra i suoi riti con grandezza o ferocia: ecco ""la materia"" che Leonardo affido ai suoi manoscritti. Tra scienza e arti egli non fece differenza, giudicando entrambe strumenti di indagine da esercitare sul medesimo oggetto, l''uomo e la natura, appunto, anche se diverso considerava il carattere dei loro mezzi conoscitivi. Fu un grande intellettuale, la cui vicenda sopra ogni altra e stata una straordinaria avventura di opere e di ricerche accanite, compiute in molteplici campi e spesso in tenitori del tutto sconosciuti, dov''egli penetro acutamente per primo. Per questo lo riteniamo a buon diritto un contemporaneo: per il suo spirito critico e creativo. Di qui anche l''importanza insostituibile dei suoi manoscritti. Infatti le ragioni della sua mente, il segreto delle sue immagini, l''assillo del suo sapere, sono racchiusi proprio qui: in questi appunti, in queste note, in questi frammenti, su cui davvero, come dice De Micheli nella sua Introduzione, non e scesa la polvere. "

Esta seleciión trata de mostrarnos quién fue Leonardo a través de sus textos: un genio incomparable, renancentista en su mejor expresión. Al interés de estos textos se le une su amenidad, su humor, su ironia. La poderosa reflexion de Leonardo penetra a un tiempo en los secretos de la naturaleza y en el corazon del hombre, en su alma, en su mal y su bien (...).

Obras más detacadas del autor.

Leonardo da Vinci fue el arquetipo del hombre renacentista por su amplio campo de intereses. Arquitecto, pintor, escultor, ingeniero, poeta e inventor, pero también, anatomista, botánico, filósofo y urbanista, heredero de todas las aspiraciones artisticas del Quatrocento florentino.Leonardo vivio 67 años, dejando para la humanidad creaciones artisticas como la Gioconda, La ultima cena, el dibujo del hombre de Vitrubio que se ha tomado como norma para el retrato armonico del cuerpo humano, su famoso Autorretrato, prodigio de detalle y fuerza expresiva.Los Cuadernos de notas de Leonardo combinan detalladas observaciones con notas de experimentos. Incluso si en realidad no emprendia los experimentos, describia lo que podia probarse. Muchas de sus intuiciones fueron precursoras de la investigacion cientifica durante siglos.

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