Many of us have stared into the face of the Mona Lisa and wondered what she’s thinking. Art scholar Martin Kemp has stared at the very same painting and wondered the very same thing about the man who painted it. Leonardo da Vinci. What was he thinking?
Kemp’s new book takes us deep into the mind of one of the greatest geniuses of all times. He shows us a man so fascinated by how things work that he could capture the swirl of water’s current in the gentle curl of a woman’s hair.
Da Vinci’s unbounded curiosity resulted in more than 20,000 pages of inventions and discoveries that today shock us for their foresight. He created a bicycle, a flying machine, and a “car”, centuries before there were tools to build them. But the inspiration that fueled his genius, also made it impossible for him to realize all his ideas. This hour Martin Kemp considers nature, man and machine in Leonardo’s brain.
Guests:
Martin Kemp, author of “Leonardo.”