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Can you play Whole Lotta Love on it?
YouTube’s having a Da Vinci themed spotlight and I thought I would show off some videos that intrigued me.
Eating at Da Vinci’s
A restaurant in Williamsburg, Virginia
My apologies for this posting only a link instead of the real video, but Blip for some reason has cut off my distribution ability. I have tried embeds, but they do not work. So, I may turn this into a YouTube video and post it here.
ETA: Forgot I had a Vimeo account.
On the restaurant itself, my parents and myself went to this crowded restaurant that named itself after the Renaissance painter/inventor. The place did make one reference to the artist with a large print of one Leonardo’s sketches. On the food’s quality, they served some good lunch (I had ravioli) and coffee. I also did like the Venus statues outside (click on video), but I do not remember Leonardo ever doing sculpture.
My art history pilgrimages so far…
Also known as artworks I have seen in person:
I have gawked at the notebook pages and paintings of Leonardo da Vinci.
I have seen the portrait of George Washington.
I have seen Paolo Veronese’s Christ in the House of Levi.
I have walked underneath the murals of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. There, the three-dimensional illusion played with my eyes so much, it felt like the painted characters would fall on me at any moment.
I have walked around Michelangelo’s David.
I have seen the works of Titian.
I have seen Botticelli’s Birth of Venus.
I have bent down and looked at the pages from the Book of Kells at Trinity College.
I have seen Judith Slaying Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi.
I have seen a Caravaggio at the National Gallery of Ireland.
I have felt overwhelmed by immense sculpture of Alexander Calder.
I have marveled at the small canvas of the Raft of the Medusa.
I have seen and adored Cellini’s Perseus Slaying Medusa while I walked through Florence’s center of sculpture.
I have seen the sweet pastel color scheme of Claude Monet.
I have seen The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali. Quite small, yes?
I have followed the stories of William Hogarth. Stories that always end in horrible tragedy.
Am I finished with my pilgrimages? Not at all.
Artists as Writers: The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (Volume One)
Click here to buy the Kindle Edition
Click here to read it on Google Books
Click here to read about Jean Paul Richter, the man who translated da Vinci’s writings.
To begin, I read the Kindle edition of Volume One and when I hit halfway, the Kindle erased what I already read and my notes. In other words, I may have missed something in the process when I skipped ahead to where I think I originally left off.
Art History in the News: The da Vinci Method (The Economist)
“THE Mona Lisa’s lure is so strong that Louvre Museum officials find it wise to keep her safely stowed behind bulletproof glass. She is let out of her protective cage once a year, for a whiff of fresh air. And this is when many a researcher would love to get their hands on Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous muse, in order to find out more about how she was painted.”
via http://www.economist.com/node/16635928?story_id=16635928&fsrc=nlw|hig|07-22-2010|editors_highlights.
Something I found in the WTF section in the Amazon Kindle Store
Dracula. Da Vinci. Da Vinci writing about vampires. Or Vlad Dracul.
The book costs $1.oo and I have tried to download a free sample. So far, I have not received it. I have searched for it on Google, no dice.
Is this a trick? Should I just fork over a dollar and just read it?
UPDATE: It’s the Bram Stoker novel. I did own a paperback of Stoker’s Dracula years ago and it has disappeared. However, what joker decided to upload Bram Stoker’s Dracula and put da Vinci as its author?
Well, at least he knew how to fight them.
Old Art History Books: Leonardo da Vinci by Maurice Walter Brockwell
Click here to order the book on Kindle
Or you can just read it on Google Books.
I love old art history books, especially ones I can order for free via my Kindle. This biography on da Vinci by Brockwell was no different.
As of now, I am reading Flights of the Mind by Charles Nicholl
This book is a 2004 biography about the life of Leonardo da Vinci. So far, I am enjoying it. I find the author’s writing enjoyable and I love his deconstruction of various references of earlier interpretations of da Vinci’s life and works. Furthermore, he has a lot of good sources.
Until I come across a typo. A couple of pages later, I came across another typo. Oh dear. This book leaves me in a bind.
UPDATE: Honestly, me criticizing another person’s writing makes me feel hypocritical. I do not consider myself the best writer. I am always nervous about releasing a post in my blogs. Also, during my college years I have written papers with errors and have tried everything I could to make my writing better. In short, writing remains an uphill battle for me. Even now, I have come back to rewrite this post. Furthermore, I go back to earlier posts to correct some mistakes and elaborate on ideas. However, I am still going to review this book.
