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Book Review of Leonardo's Swans

Leonardo's Swans
Leonardo's Swans
Author: Karen Essex
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Hardcover
reviewed on + 3 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 8


This book was recommended to me by a friend in Italy where it's a runaway bestseller and has been lauded by critics and art historians. Through the story of the brilliant Este princesses whose place in history is all but forgotten, the author manages to bring Leonardo da Vinci and the Italian Renaissance into blazing technicolor. I was fascinated to learn the circumstances under which Leonardo created The Last Supper, The Virgin of the Rocks, The Mona Lisa, and The Lady with an Ermine, and other famous paintings conceived while he was in Milan. Also, it chronicles the rise and fall of some of the gigantic personalities that made the Renaissance what it was. No mysterious codes here, just fabulous, meticulously researched historical fiction that keeps you turning pages.