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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>"The traditional view of Leonardo da Vinci's career is that he enjoyed a promising start in Florence and then moved to Milan to become the celebrated court artist of Duke Ludovico Sforza. Young Leonardo proves all of this wrong. It reveals how the struggling painter was repeatedly snubbed by the prevailing trends of Florentine style before escaping to Milan empty-handed. But Milan offered little more; Sforza's patronage was lukewarm, to say the least, and all the major commissions went to artists whose names are now forgotten. How did the amateur become one of the all-time greatest masters? Slowly, meticulously, disastrously. Focusing on an often neglected period in Leonardo's life, here is a fascinating window into the artist's mind as he develops the techniques that will transform Western art forever. Because before there could be a Last Supper, a Mona Lisa, a St. Anne, there had to be a young Leonardo"--<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><p><b>For the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci's death comes an immersive journey through five centuries of history to define the Leonardo mystique and uncover how the elusive Renaissance artist became a global pop icon.</b><br /><br />Virtually everyone would agree that Leonardo da Vinci was the most important artist of the High Renaissance. It was Leonardo who singlehandedly created the defining features of Western art: a realism based on subtle shading; depth using atmospheric effects; and dramatic contrasts between light and dark.<br /><br />But how did Leonardo, a painter of very few works who died in obscurity in France, become the internationally renowned icon he is today, with the <i>Mona Lisa</i> and the <i>Last Supper</i> the most visited artworks in the world, attracting nearly a billion visitors each year, and <i>Salvator Mundi</i> selling as the most expensive artwork of all time, for nearly half a billion dollars?<br /><br />This extraordinary volume, lavishly illustrated with 130 color images, is the first book to unravel these mysteries by diving deep into the art, literature, science, and politics of Europe from the Renaissance through today. It gives illuminating context to both Leonardo and his accomplishments; explores why Leonardo's fame vastly overshadowed that of his contemporaries and disciples; and ultimately reveals why despite finishing very few works, his celebrity has survived, even thrived, through five centuries of history.</p><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><p><b>Jean-Pierre Isbouts</b> is an art historian and a doctoral professor at Fielding Graduate University. He is the author of nine books, including <i>The Biblical World</i>, <i>In the Footsteps of Jesus</i>, and <i>The Story of Christianity</i>, which have sold nearly 1.3 million copies, and together with Christopher Heath Brown, the coauthor of two prior books on Leonardo da Vinci, <i>The Mona Lisa Myth</i> and <i>Young Leonardo</i>. Dr. Isbouts has been on numerous radio and TV shows and is the host of the TV series <i>In Search of Masterpieces</i>. He has directed several programs for Disney, ABC, Hallmark, and the History Channel, working with actors such as Leonard Nimoy, Charlton Heston, Dick van Dyke, and Morgan Freeman, and produced recordings with orchestras around the world. His accomplishments in the art world include being credited with the discovery that a copy of Leonardo's <i>Last Supper </i>in a convent in Belgium was actually painted by Leonardo and his workshop. Dr. Isbouts lives in Santa Monica, CA.</p><p><b>Christopher Heath Brown</b> is a practicing oral and maxillofacial surgeon who has presented and published to both national and international audiences, as well as an art collector and the director of Brown Discoveries, a research institute focused on Renaissance, Surrealist, and Contemporary art. Together with Dr. Isbouts, Dr. Brown produced <i>The Search for the Last Supper</i> and <i>The Search for the Mona Lisa</i> for Public Television. Dr. Brown lives in Cornelius, NC.</p>

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