Leonardo: A Restless Genius by Antonio Forcellino (review)

With this volume Antonio Forcellino completes a trilogy of biographies detailing the lives of the most notable artists of the Italian Renaissance—Michelangelo Buonarotti (Italian edition, Laterza, 2005; English translation, Polity, 2009), Raphael Sanzio (Laterza, 2006; Polity, 2012), and Leonardo da Vinci (Laterza, 2016; Polity, 2018). As an eminent restorer of art works from this period as well as an accomplished art historian, Forcellino devotes expert attention in these biographies not only to the stylistic and cultural features of his subjects’ creations but also to the technical and financial aspects of their productions in a way that casts many of their works in a new light.