The Da Vinci Code

Author : Dan Brown Edition : 1st Number of Pages : 496 Release Date : 2006-03-28 Publisher : Anchor List Price : $7.99 Amazon Price : $2.74 Used Price : $0.01

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Customer reviews

Solve the mysteries surrounding Da Vinci. by .. J. P. Kooshman ()
After all these years Dan Brown's bestseller still tops the list of most read and discussed and argued over novels...quite an accomplishment...but the Code is far more than that. It's a scientific inquirer that makes you want to research the book soon after opening its binding...yet it's more than that. The historical and artistic aspects of it will raise your awareness levels to heights that you'll be unable to resist discussing them with friends, families, and even strangers. Chalked full of puzzles that get the reader involved early and a pace that never slows down...combine to create a novel for the ages...I highly recommend reading it...if you haven't already. I would also recommend to readers of great historical novels..the book "Sirens by Tin Geo" Sirens: A Novel all the above applies for this title as well...except its roots are Greek Myth.

Boiling history in shaman's pot by .. Jari Aalto ()
Rewrite history and you have bestseller that sold million of copies worldwide. The masses can't be wrong? It depends. The book is fun, but far away from any masterpiece. If the reader knows history of Europe, the religious dogmas, the raise of Christianity, then there is no better book to gets good laughs while reading it.

Catholic church has denied the ultimate truth and sealed the greatest mystery behind Vatican's doors; the Mary's blood line and cover up of her relationship to Jesus. Gift wrapped in a religious sect chase for Holy Grail and its secrets. Dot by dot clues everywhere waiting to be solved, exotic locations to visit, romance at Paris, mystic Opus Dei religious sect and everybody is on chase or being chased. A sure formula to success.

The problem is that the historical elements are too incoherent and cause reader to keep getting dismayed by the "Uh" and "Oh's" of the mistreatrements and conclusions. Brown's historical bricks build the house to stand on rumors (represented as facts), imaginative connections (unreal facts) to seal the plot and falsehoods to pave the walkway. The thrill is not there because too much is covered in the book: all religious issues are subjected to pot of hodgepodge where Brown cooks and boils almost any ingredients teared from their real historical backgrounds. The less reader is familiar with the tenets the book knots together, the more he is undoubtedly exited by the conclusions and conspiracy theories drawn.

One (1) star. The idea is interesting, but the prose used in the book is blatant, reads like movie transcription (which it did), and uses wrong approach to appeal intellectual readers: smashing and cooking everything in a Holy Kettle dries out the story and depletes all vibration. On the bright side, if one is unfamiliar with the history of Europe and Christianity, you will get a ride of a lifetime for sure. For those readers: 3 to stars.

Recipe for success by .. James D. Best ()
Dan Brown took an established plot formula, injected a few tricks from action/adventure flicks, and then spiced the concoction with religious controversies that insured broad and shrill media attention. Brilliant. The Da Vinci Code sold 100 million copies to become one of the best selling novels of all time.

The borrowed plot formula comes from Robert Ludlum. A man and a woman come together by chance and get enmeshed in a deadly mystery which forces them to run for their lives. A chase occurs in exotic locations, mostly in Europe. With both good guys and bad guys in close pursuit, the thrown-together couple must solve a deep puzzle to save the free world and their own lives.

Action/adventure flicks jerk you into the story from the get-go and use sub-second cuts to give the impression of frenetic movement. The Da Vinci Code starts with a gruesome murder in an bizarre location and then the entire 400+ page plot takes place in a single day. Despite the brevity of the storyline, the book has over a hundred chapters--some as short as a half page.

The Da Vinci Code challenges core Christian beliefs and presents elements of the Catholic Church as a vast, centuries-old conspiracy intent on preserving power at any cost. This was a theme that was sure to generate expansive publicity and even admiration in some secular quarters.

Combine these three elements with a smooth writing style that never distracts the reader from the story and you have a blockbuster bestseller.

I liked the book. In fact, I read it twice. But then, I love action/adventure mysteries and ignored the cultural sniping. If you like a good story--and you're one of the sixteen people who haven't read The Da Vinci Code--then buy this book because it's a fun read.

The Shopkeeper
The Shut Mouth Society
Leadville.

Even better read after seeing the movie! by .. orbops (Scottsdale, AZ USA)
I finally got to pick up The Da Vinci Code, after seeing the movie a couple of years ago. I think by seeing the movie first, and then reading the novel afterwards makes the book much richer. I was impressed that the movie followed the novel pretty closely, with only minor changes. What makes this book so impressive is that it really makes you think about the concepts in the novel. It is clearly marketed as fiction, yet the Catholic Church seemed to treat this novel as heresy.

As a novel it makes you really think about the possibilities in a plausible manner. Even the History Channel still replays the Da Vinci Code revealed special, which walks through the points made in a book. Isn't this the purpose of a really good book, to make the reader think about the story long after reading it?

Now I'm eagerly awaiting the next movie from Dan Brown, Angels and Demons - and then I'll read the novel after seeing the movie!

As a work of thriller fiction, it is very enjoyable by .. Jason Buberel (Sunnyvale, CA USA)
I knew better than to take this book at anything more than what it is: A work of fiction. With that approach, I found it very fun to read. The plot is interesting, the characters are well written and believable, and there is enough back-story to help suspend disbelief.

Leonardo's Notebooks

Author : Leonardo da Vinci Number of Pages : 352 Publisher : Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers List Price : $40.00 Amazon Price : $18.69 Used Price : $11.99

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Customer reviews

Fascinating, Accessible Look at Leonardo's Genius by .. Eagle Eye ()
Leonardo Da Vinci pursued a systematic approach to knowledge, in which understanding of the human body was central and other phenomena were analyzed in that light, or compared to the human body. He offers some fascinating insights about how an artist "sees" subject matter---about how to observe nature and people and try to capture them through the medium of art. I thought his views on geography were quite interesting, for example that a river with many bends in it is an older river.

Saw the book at the museum. Bought it from my phone. by .. Paul Tocatlian (San Jose, California)
This is not so much a review of the book itself, but more of my experience buying the book from my phone.

I visited the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit at The Tech Museum in San Jose California. On my way out, I stopped by the museum store and came across this book. After scanning through the book, I decided to buy it. But the price tag of $40 was too rich for me. So - for the first time - I decided to try Amazon from my phone. Sure enough, the book was selling for $26. So I proceeded to place the order. The process was straight forward and took less time than it would have taken to stand in line and pay for the book at the store! I'll be getting the book in a few days.

Amazon... two thumbs up on your mobile site. There's nothing like comparative shopping while in the store and buying right there and then at a better price.

Best Version of da Vinci's Notebooks in Print by .. Wildness (Colorado Plateau)
Though there are nice, complete versions of Leonardo da Vinci's Notebooks, this well designed, edited, and packaged book presents the most important and pertinent elements from his Notebooks in a single large format hardcover version that is the perfect presentation for the general audience.

This version of da Vinci's Notebooks presents the contents in sections that group like illustrations and text together: "Beauty, Reason and Art" contains such content as da Vinci on painting, the human figures, and art forms; "Observations and Order" covers anatomy, geography, landscape and the sciences; and "Practical Matters" delves into da Vinci's inventions and experiments, architectural studies and metalwork, as well as sculpture.

The illustrations from the original Notebooks are exceptionally well reproduced in this book and the size and presentation are generous and the main focus throughout the book.

Unless you need access to the entirety of the Notebooks for research purposes, Leonardo's Notebooks as edited by H. Anna Suh, would make the perfect addition to your art or scientific library. It would look darn nice displayed on your coffee table as well.

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A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

Leonardo Up Close & Personal by .. Cynthia Andreas (Boca Raton, FL USA)
As an Art History professor, I am very impressed with Leonardo's Notebooks. This oversized book contains Leonardo da Vinci's detailed sketches, many of which are new to me. In addition, this book provides commentary written by the artist himself on his theories, inventions, plans for artwork, and philosopohies. I've referred this text to fellow professors as a remarkable resource for philosophical beliefs presented by the original Renaissance Man.

Very good book. by .. Hans Hummel (Denmark)
The only thing keeping this book from top grade is that the author didn't help with a deduction of Leonardo's letters where it surely was needed - in the anatomical studies for example.
This makes it hard to understand the meaning of the drawings compared with the translated text, because Leonardo's letters(in the drawings) doesn't look like anything from the Roman alphabet. So when the meaning of the letters that appears in the drawings are mentioned in the text, you can't understand what letters goes with what in the drawings, because the text ONLY use the Roman alphabet(and NOT Leonardo's letters as seen in the drawings).

In other words, to fully get the whole meaning of Leonardo's writings and drawings you do need a "Leonardo - Roman alphabet" dictionary.
This is a major set back, and the worst is that the author could have avoided this so easily.

Other than that the book is amazing.

Rescuing Da Vinci: Hitler and the Nazis Stole Europe's Great Art - America and Her Allies Recovered It

Author : Robert M. Edsel Number of Pages : 302 Publisher : Laurel Publishing, LLC List Price : $55.00 Amazon Price : $32.92 Used Price : $25.00

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The story of the Monuments Men, including their heroics and exploits in rescuing and safeguarding many of the world's greatest artworks for the benefit of mankind, has never before been fully revealed until now, with the publication of Rescuing Da Vinci, an exhaustively researched historical account written by Robert M. Edsel. Mr. Edsel can best be described as a successful athlete and business entrepreneur turned modern day "Indiana Jones." Mr. Edsel has dedicated the last five years of his life to painstaking and far-reaching research to unravel the secrets of the Monuments Men and, in so doing, to make the world aware of their unprecedented contributions, both during and after WWII, and to ensure that these unsung heroes receive appropriate recognition from the United States government, as well as the broad public.

The detailed documentation, inventories and photographs developed and catalogued by the Monuments Men during and following World War II, have made possible, and continue to make possible, the restitution of stolen artworks of to rightful owners and their descendents. Long after WWII, many Monuments Men went on to become renowned directors and curators of preeminent international cultural institutions, including the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Toledo Museum of Art and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, among many others, as well as professors at esteemed universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, New York University, Williams College and Columbia University. Others became founders, presidents, and members of associations such as the New York City Ballet, the American Museum Association, the American Association of Museum Directors, the Archaeological Institute of America, the Society of Architectural Historians, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as respected architects, archivists, artists and musicians.

"Mr. Edsel's book is captivating in several respects, from the graphic, garish reminders of the faces of the great plunderers, to the singular beauty of the art they sought to steal. And it is a high and overdue memorial to the "Monuments Men," who did the herculean job of tracking down and repatriating the great art." -- William F. Buckley Jr.

Customer reviews

Great Photographic History by .. John P. Rooney (Plymouth, MA USA-America's Hometown)
"Rescuing Da Vinci" by Robert M. Edsel.
Subtitled: Hitler And The Nazis Stole Europe's Great Art, America And Her Allies Recovered It". Laurel Publishing, LLV, Dallas, 2006.

After borrowing this book from the Plymouth Public Library, I was initially disappointed when I opened the book. It seemed that the book was all pictures and NO text! The book has some 300 pages and I would estimate that there are some 25 full pages of text, including the index and bibliography in the back of the book. Having said all this, it is my opinion, after having read the book that all those pictures were required to tell the complete story.

Page after page, photo after photo, I would find a painting or sculpture that I recalled from my art history classes, which was a long time ago. The book would show the 1940s picture on one page, with a person, perhaps in a period German uniform, "collecting" the item. And, then, on the facing page, often in full color, would be a present day view of the object. See, for example, pages 204 and 205, were Jan Vermeer's "The Artist's Studio, 1665-1666" is displayed on page 204 in black and white and in full color on page 205. This mixture of historical fact and present day view is carried out throughout the book.

The book begins with an explicit condemnation of the Nazi conquest. It is shown that the Nazi Germans prepared rather extensive documents identifying the art works of various nations and earmarking those works for transportation to the Third Reich. This is an amazing example of the arrogance of the Teutonic thoroughness of Hitler, Göring and the rest of the Nazi leadership. Speaking of Göring, it would seem that at the height of the war, his country "cabin, called "Carinhall", probably had more and better art than most museums in the western world. Page 45 records that Göring had a collection of approximately 1700 paintings. Sadly, there are too many pages in the book showing or identifying works of art that had been destroyed or had been lost. Page 285 shows, for example, Raphael's "Portrait Of A Young Man, 1516", which is still missing.

Still missing is the so-called "Amber Room" which was once located in the city of Königsberg in what was once Prussia. There are entire books, available on Amazon, dealing with the lost Amber Room. With the emphasis on the sins of the Third Reich, little notice is taken of the fact that the Soviets stole the entire city of Königsberg, which is now called Kaliningrad. In fact, Kaliningrad is a tiny piece of Russia, (the so-called Kaliningrad Oblast) stuck between Poland and Lithuania. In Kaliningrad, Russian is the official language and the postage stamps are Russian. Interesting.

And, of course, on a more mundane, but very telling level, there are the 5000+ bells that were stolen and the Dutch trolley cars being prepared for reparation to the Netherlands.

A bit of generally unknown history by .. Vernon L. Hendrix (Sylva, NC United States)
I have always been a museum addict. If the Metropolitan Museum of Art would let me place a cot somewhere, I would probably take up housekeeping. So, it was extremely rewarding to read this story of how so much of the stolen art from WW2 was found, protected, recovered and finally returned to rightful owners. These "Monuments Men" should all have received medals. The world owes much to them for making so many artistic marvels again available.

The illustrations are quite good. Many are available in other sources but so many, at least for me, were viewed here for the first time. The attempts to protect many objects - e.g., St. Marks in Venice - were also interesting. When I visited there a few years ago I was very appreciative.

Mr. Edsel is to be commended.

Rescuing Da Vinci by .. Henry J. Macdonald (Saratoga Springs, NY)
Excellent book with many historical pictures and historical comments of the war's effect on the art of many countries.

Wonderful Gift, Wonderful Book! by .. KDMask (Rochester, Planet Fab, NY)
I was really surprised by this book. I thought it was going to contain more text but it's really all about the art and the people who rescued it. The result is a very impressive, easily readable 'coffee table' style book that's beautiful and informative. Teachers should grab this up for the classroom and it also would make a great gift for anyone interested in WWII and it's aftermath. I can't say enough about the photos and the story they tell. Bravo!

A wonderful book by .. Larry Chambers ()
This book shows and tells another side of war. It is the story told in picture of Hitler and his Nazi thugs pillaging Europe and stealing priceless art objects, painting, statures, books, even ancient scrolls then hiding them in caves and bunkers in Germany. What I loved about this book were the photos of US Army units rescuing those stolen art treasures then returned them to the towns, churches and cities. The author has done an exemplary job of finding photos and stories which has made this an important work. Photos I've never seen and story I have never heard about. I think this book needs to be in every high school library in the country. Students need to be shown how our American Army worked to recover all this lost art. His book made me proud to have serviced in the US army.

Thank you for writing this book

Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions You Can Build Yourself (Build It Yourself series)

Author : Maxine Anderson Number of Pages : 128 Publisher : Nomad Press List Price : $14.95 Amazon Price : $8.90 Used Price : $8.71

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Customer reviews

Great Book! by .. Andrea D. Lopez (San Antonio, TX United States)
I purchased this book after I saw the "Leonardo di Vinci" exhibit at my local museum. This particular exhibt showcased his inventions, not his artwork. There were many full size replicas of machines that he thought of that were actually built for this exhibit. I was intrigued by the bridge that could be built with just a few stick and got stronger the more weight you put on it. After putting the dowel sized replica together at the exhibit, I had to have one for myself to build. That's the primary reason I purchased this book. Now that I have it in my hands, I've been going over the different activities I can do with my baby siblings, and I'm so excited I have this book in hand. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in "how things work" and science in general.

Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions You Can Build Yourself (Build It Yourself series) by .. Joseph A. Degraff (San Antonio, TX)
I purchased this book as a cross curricular lesson. Although I teach science there is history, strategies, art, and exposure to building simple machines. I am using the book to make shoe box activities for me students and update myself on the wonders of Leonardo.

Hands on History by .. Cracked Harp ()
We are homeschoolers using this book in part of a unit on Inventors. My eight year old is able to read and enjoy the history behind the different inventions. I thought it would just be a "how to" book, but we are both really enjoying the well written historical information in this book. It really makes Leonardo and the world he lived in come alive. I like to just browse through the book and look at all of Leonardo's sketches as well.

The pictures and instructions are fairly easy to follow. The inventions do use common items, but we don't always have the right "common" items at the right times. We have modified most of the directions to use what we actually have in our house. Today we wanted to make the camera obscura, but we just threw out our last empty Pringles can... guess we'll be eating lots of chips in the next week :)

Amazing facts by .. R. Bhakta ()
Wonderful book for kids who love to learn. Great info and facts even for adults. Highly recommend.

The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci

Author : Jean Paul Richter Number of Pages : 602 Release Date : 2008-10-13 Publisher : CreateSpace List Price : $17.95 Amazon Price : $17.95

Product Description

Customer reviews

Do you want to read or look at the art of Da Vinci? by .. mike (Petaluma)
I'm not much of a reader and it's not blatantly spelled out in this book's description BUT if you're looking for a book with DaVinci's art DO NOT LOOK HERE!

The Biggest Disappointment by .. Lady Dragoness (Deep South, USA)
With pictures all over the CD I was led to believe that at least minimal effort would have gone into including at least some of the illustrations from Leonardo Da Vinci's notebooks. Not one illustration is included on the CD let alone the complete works. :( While having the footnotes is potentially useful for scholars, having the illustrations would have been far better.

The product description needs to be re-written to include the fact that this is a text only presentation and thus not as complete as the title leads one to believe. In fact, the title should be properly revised as well because it is deceptive.

The first Renaissance man by .. Michael A Neulander (VA)
Nothing of Leonardo DAVinci's sketchbooks were published until the 20th century. These are some of the most important documents of the Renaissance, and they did not become known until the 20th century. There are still people who do not know how important this work was. His anatomical studies were a watershed moment, because they introduced visual diagrams as the standard for communicating knowledge of the body and self. This was no more and no less than the conviction that the true knowledge of the shape of any body could only be arrived at by seeing it from different aspects. The truth of the body, the truth of the human being can only be discovered by looking at the body from multiple aspects, like; level, motion, perspective, transformation and growth. He opened up the body, it had always been closed, now its open. Now, what goes on inside the body is going to give us the essence of what it means to be human. It is the internal struggle, the self with the self, within .you. When you look at his sketchbooks, you see just one place where the whole world opens up.

Leonardo DAVinci-- Leonardo DAVinci invented the modern self. He invented the modern self precisely in this way, through the perspective of disappearance. What he tells reality and us about the self is that it only exists by that which is perceived by the eye. Reality is a product of nature; reality is that which we perceive by the eye. Reality is only that by which we can see. Moreover, in his notebooks he gives us another foundational belief about the human subject and its form. That the sound rules are the issue of sound experience and observation. Experience and observation can only be our best teacher. Of course, this is also, what Voltaire is telling us to by the way. The challenge comes when we realize that we are both to the subject observing and the object that is observed. In our search for self, we experience a kind of division between our constitutions as objects and our constitution as subjects. However, when we look at the human form, when we look at the self we find that the body is in harmony with nature, and that it is in harmony within nature. How does DA Vinci make these kinds of claims? Alternatively, how does he ground these kinds of claims with the function of the eye or the power of the eye? Well, one of the ways he does it is thru the camera obscura. Earliest record of use of camera obscura is in DA Vinci's writings. The camera obscura gave birth to the science of optics, the science of seeing. It is with DA Vinci, that the science of seeing became the foundation of self-representation, a representation called the self, thus the representation of the human form. Now DA Vinci embodied his own concept of the painter, as philosophers. He saw painters principally as natural philosophers. To him, nature was all important, absolute, the image of the eternal. In one very significant passage of his notebooks, he defines the relationship of art to nature and its process of evolution. "The painter will produce pictures of small merit, if he takes for his standard the pictures of others. If he will study from natural objects, he will bear good fruit, as was seen in the painters after the Romans always imitating each other until their art constantly declined from age to age. Therefore, this was paramount for him in some ways what he was doing, and thinking was very radical and revolutionary and in other ways, it was very traditional. He appears to be quite a traditionalist, he studied ancient sources, Greeks, medieval sources, he studied anatomy, and these traditions get him to compare the microcosm of the body and the macrocosm of the world. These analogies extend to everything that he attempted to trace, to record and to know about the human form. Comparisons between the arteries in the body and the underground rivers of the earth. The flow of blood to the head in relation to the circulation of water to the summits of mountains. How does blood get to your head? If you want to understand that then understand how water flows up to mountains. Blood when it bursts in the veins of your nose and water rushing out of a vein in the earth. Almost everything that occurs in the human body can be found in the natural world. His interest in these analogies becomes very evident in the notebooks and sketchbooks. Scholars argue that these microcosm and macrocosm analogies are more than outright comparisons that belong to a pre scientific age, they lead him to compare the study of the body and Ptolemy's study of the earth. Consequently to use Ptolemy's method in the geography as the starting point for his own systematic study of anatomy. Therefore, anatomy and geography here become one in DA Vinci's mind. The forms of the earth and those of the human body have a parallel. "Thus in 15 entire figures you will have set before you the microcosm on the same plan as was before me adapted by Ptolemy in his cosmology, and so I shall afterwards divide them into limbs as he divided the whole world into processes. Then, I will speak of the function of each part in every direction putting before your eyes a description of the whole form and substance of man as regards his movements from place to place by means of these different parts. Thus if it please our great author I may demonstrate the nature of men and their customs in a way I describe this figure." Therefore, within the human form and within the kind of intricate details of human anatomy he discovered a way of describing and recording, not only the geographical construction of the natural world, but of Divinity itself. And when you look more closely at the system he devised to study the body, the more carefully you look at his drawings of the human form the more clearly you begin to recognize how strikingly stunningly original it is.

Earlier authors had relied exclusively on verbal descriptions of the human body. The human body had been a verbal entity but he emphasis visual description and some of the illustrations he has to bring visual dimensions to the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle the descriptions put forward by these men he presents in visual terms in these kind of body scapes. In the course of 20 years, roughly from 1489 to the end of his life, he dissected about 19 corpses and became very much obsessed with dissection. He drew these parts of bodies in minute detail every part of the human anatomy, he would draw each piece separately, together and at different angles. He laid out bodies in his drawings to mime classical poses in painting. He is referencing the history of art with the poses and the visual representation of the human subject. It is presented to us that deeply challenge these values of human nature, of life and death of living form and the cadaver it really raises some profound questions. The problem is in order to get to those questions, in order to explore some of the deeper philosophical implications of his work you have to get past the gross factor and the moral and ethical questions that his work raises. He is an artist that works very consciously with the sense of the ethical lines that he is crossing; he is not an artist that wants to make you comfortable. He sees that blood gets in the way of his observations, so he advises that you make a model of the body part and then you draw it. Model making and scientific art go hand in hand for him. You have to reconstruct reality before you can represent it. Therefore, before you can draw what is real you have to make it yourself. One of the most striking features of the notebooks is the manner in which he presents his work to us. There are no criticisms of the shortcomings that he has discovered in earlier authors, he does not boast about his own accomplishments, his writing style is pedagogical, and he is writing a teaching manual with descriptions and advice. Therefore, if you want to draw a lung, here is how you should do it. What he is trying to do is to convey to a larger audience this method of presentation and by representing human form, he relies on diagrams, and his reliance apparently causes some serious problems for the printing presses of the day. It also caused real issues for publishers because of the graphic nature of the work.

This was very important for medicine. He shows us we can separate human emotions and passions from the human body in understanding human form, and what it means to be human. There is a purely clinical dimension and this other dimension of feelings and emotions, and they do not have to come together at all, this is radical.

Thus again, this inside outside, you see it everywhere in his work. Why are we fascinated with the painting of the Mona Lisa? Because of the question we always ask, what is going on inside? The study of the Mona Lisa, it seems to me has always been organized around precisely the question that drove DA Vinci in his research. All his sketches in this obsessive and fanatical devotion to drawing every part of the body in relationship to every other part of the body at multiple levels and multiple perspectives and in motion, outside inside. There is the outside, what is going on inside, isn't that why we are obsessed with this? This painting just demands that we try to find out what is going on underneath. The truth is underneath, behind her smile, something she is keeping from us. Yet she is revealing just enough of it to make us have to find out what is going on inside of her. It is that relationship once again between the inside and the outside.

I read this book for a graduate class in the Humanities. Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, philosophy, art, and science.

The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci by .. S. Payne (Colorado, USA)
I do not see anywhere that this a pdf file with no pictures. There are pictures all over the cd. This is a rip-off.

Volume 1 is ok. Volume is NO (if you are an artist)! by .. A. Dummai (CA USA)
I was hoping that after getting these books, I would learn some secret in art making from the great one, but I found them book very disappointing. Tons of texts and very few explanation.

However, the first volume is worth buying because it's about his drawing and painting theory. Beware they are very advance and i found them very confusing.

The second volume has nothing to do with art but rather pure science (Astronamy, sun, etc).