Watermarks: Leonardo da Vinci and the Mastery of Nature

Author:   Leslie A. Geddes
Publisher:   Princeton University Press
ISBN:  

9780691192697


Pages:   256
Publication Date:   25 August 2020
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
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Watermarks: Leonardo da Vinci and the Mastery of Nature


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Overview

Foreign Affairs' 'Best Books of 2020' Leonardo's enduring fascination with water-from its artistic representation to aquatic inventions and hydraulic engineering. Formless, mutable, transparent: the element of water posed major challenges for the visual artists of the Renaissance. To the engineers of the era, water represented a force that could be harnessed for human industry but was equally possessed of formidable destructive power. For Leonardo da Vinci, water was an enduring fascination, appearing in myriad forms throughout his work. In Watermarks, Leslie Geddes explores the extraordinary range of Leonardo's interest in water and shows how artworks by him and his peers contributed to hydraulic engineering and the construction of large river and canal systems. From drawings for mobile bridges and underwater breathing apparatuses to plans for water management schemes, Leonardo evinced a deep interest in the technical aspects of water. His visual studies of the ways in which landscape is shaped by water demonstrated both his artistic mastery and probing scientific mind. Analyzing Leonardo's notebooks, plans, maps, and paintings, Geddes argues that, for Leonardo and fellow artists, drawing was a form of visual thinking and problem solving essential to understanding and controlling water and other parts of the natural world. She also examines the material importance in this work of water-based media, namely ink, watercolor, and oil paint. A compelling account of Renaissance art and engineering, Watermarks shows, above all else, how Leonardo applied his pictorial genius to water in order to render the natural world in all its richness and constant change.

Full Product Details

Author:   Leslie A. Geddes
Publisher:   Princeton University Press
Imprint:   Princeton University Press
ISBN:  

9780691192697


ISBN 10:   0691192693
Pages:   256
Publication Date:   25 August 2020
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General/trade ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately.

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A Choice Outstanding Academic Title in Fine Arts One cannot help admiring how, through her own fertile processes of thought and analogy, Geddes mirrors the astonishing liveliness of Leonardo's creative imagination. ---Francis Ames-Lewis, Burlington Magazine Compelling. . . . an exciting addition to the new field of the environmental humanities. * Choice *


Author Information

Leslie A. Geddes is assistant professor of art history at Tulane University.

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