Young Leonardo The Companion Book to the Film the Search for the Last Supper

Provocative and original, this fresh look at Leonardo da Vinci's formative years in Florence and Milan provides a radically different scenario of how he created his signature style that would transform Western art forever. Isbouts and Brown depict Leonardo's seminal years in Milan from an entirely new perspective: that of the Sforza court. They show that much of the Sforza patronage was directed on vast projects, such as the Milan Cathedral, favoring a close circle of local artists to which Leonardo never gained entry. As a result, his exceptional talent remained largely unrecognized right up to the Last Supper. The authors also explore a mysterious link between the Last Supper and the fresco of the Crucifixion on the opposite wall, a work that up to now has fully escaped public attention. Finally, they present a sensational theory: that a long-ignored, life-sized copy of the Last Supper, now in a remote convent in Belgium, were actually commissioned by the French King Louis XII and painted under Leonardo's direct supervision. Young Leonardo is a fascinating window into the artist's mind as he slowly develops the groundbreaking techniques that will produce the High Renaissance and change the course of European art.