by my old prof of physics whom I adore! Like his lectures, the book is interesting, filled with lots of good tidbits, but jumps around some.
Interesting none the less,
Recommend reading it while next to the internet, so you can look up more about a lot of the things he is discussing there is a lack of pictoral images Despite the size of this book a smaller hardback just brushingpages and despite my earnest attempt to devote time to it as necessitated by reading it for a final project for math class, it seemed to take forever to get through it.
And I cheated,
I found this a frustrating narrative, I was enthralled by the personal and professional details regarding Leonardo but skimmed through pages of math far beyond my comprehension.
I don't pretend to be anywhere near competent in math but I've discovered in this class that, given time and a good teacher, I can understand concepts pretty well.
This book seems to market itself and is categorized in the library primarily as biographical, then art, then science.
This made me approach it feeling like, sure, there's going to be some math in here and I'm going to have to deal with that but sort of assumed to my fault that given the apparent mainstream targeting that it would be at least comprehensible.
About a quarter of the way through, despite reading examples multiples times in an attempt to understand them, I began to believe that even my mathematically and scientifically minded friends would have some difficulty following it.
This made it more difficult to understand the general concept of the golden ratio and at about page, I put the book down, went to Wikipedia, and understood the whole concept better just by reading the first paragraph on sitelinkthat page.
Also, it feels really cobbled together, For the second half, I skimmed through it, looking for the pertinent parts I needed for my project and details about Leonardo, which I always find fascinating.
I get the sense that the author is a great artist and a great scientist and probably even a very good writer but the book seemed like he worked on different parts of the whole concepts and historical aspects linked to both Leonardo and the golden ratio but then just kind of them threw them together instead of forming a more comprehensive narrative.
I found myself reading things towards the end about which I kept thinking, "Well, why didn't he explain that earlier"
I think dumbed down a bit for a more general audience and with a better editor for the general map of the book, this book would have found a wider audience.
If I had picked it up for the Leonardo aspect alone as pleasure reading and not for primarily a school project, I would have abandoned it far earlier.
As it was, I still couldn't bring myself to read the whole second half, I'm glad the book was written I love reading books that combine two of my pleasures art and science it just feels like it could have been better executed.
A very good book, It talked mainly about Da Vinci's life and the relation between science and art, not really focus on the painting Mona Lisa.
But it's just good, not at the level of excellence, Fabulous book! Fascinating read in to the life of da Vinci, he was a brilliant man in many areas.
This book is especially meaningful to me as my daughter bought it for me on her school trip to DC this summer she knows I love math and well, my name is Lisa.
Her reasons for buying it for me! This caught my eye in a museum gift shop, I really wanted to know how it linked math and science to art, I'm really glad that I bought this book because it opened my eyes several fascinating
correspondences between mathematical theory and artistic rendering.
This book really gave me a fresh new perspective on how I look at art and beauty,
Although the book discusses specific mathematical concepts and equations I did not feel overwhelmed with them coming from a nonmath perspective.
The book is well written and very accessible to a lay person, Define good very historical nd learned lots I did not know about Leonardo DaVinci, Appreciated it all te more having just returned from Italy, But the math is a bit much for me, Well written, I would recommend it if you are looking for an intellectual read, Although I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I can see where Mathematicians would find it slow and heavy in theory when perhaps their hope was for more application.
Art Historians, will enjoy the prose as the author romanticizes the life and works Da Vinci, It was enjoyable, but I fear it's admirers will be a small niche of math / science / history / art enthusiasts.
A rare albeit well rounded fan group, The style of writing is not to my liking, Bulent Atalay, obviously a polymath, is telling and teaching, Again, this is one of those books I made myself read, but not enjoyable reading, Las matemáticas y la Mona Lisa trata sobre los aspectos comunes entre arte y ciencia que se observan en casi todos los aspectos de la vida, y sobre el trabajo de Leonardo da Vinci.
Atalay busca la fusión entre arte y ciencia en pintura, arquitectura, escultura, música, matemáticas, física, biología, astronomía e ingeniería, y el acercamiento entre las culturas correspondientes a ambos campos.
Analiza en profundidad las matemáticas y la estética subyacente a las ciencias y al arte, dedicando una atención especial a la secuencia matemática conocida como serie Fibonacci y a la noción de la “proporción áurea” o “proporción divina” que nace de la misma y que constituyen la clave para entender la unidad entre arte y ciencia.
Definitely a great take on the life and work of Leonardo Da Vinci, especially with emphasized look upon the golden ratios and use of perspectives.
However, I believe that too much content was spent on looking back upon Da Vinci, Einstein, Newton, andthth century scientists in a historical context.
It would've been nice to see more explanation on how art and science further relate to each other.
Nonetheless, this was a great read and more insight and value is given on the genius, that is Leonardo Da Vinci.
P. S. I enjoyed the moments of humour as well as the references to magicians,
My general poor understanding and appreciation for mathematics accounts for the lower rating, However, that isnt to say there werent parts of this book that I really enjoyed and was fascinated by especially being an artist myself.
This book not only covered what we know about Leonardo Da Vinci and his research and works, but also discusses how his genius impacted many centuries of science, math and creativity to come.
Much of the math and science discussed was way over my head, and I didnt have enough motivation to really sit down and try to understand it.
Still, I found it so interesting how Da Vinci and other artists incorporated his knowledge of math into his paintings.
After reading this book, I can certainly say that my appreciation for the artist has significantly increased,
Sections of this book also discuss mathematics in nature, Most of it is written with the theory of evolution in mind which is fair, as this is the theory that Da Vinci and other scientists covered in this book commonly adhered to and sought to understand.
However, as a Christian who rejects the Big Bang theory, I was easily able to look past this and simply marvel at how much care God took while creating all of these little details in nature, many of which we tend to take for granted and many of which we probably havent even discovered yet.
Needless to say, this book also increased my appreciation for creation and most of all, the Creator,
Overall, this was an intriguing read despite getting lost and losing focus quite a few times throughout.
If youre a maths and science person, you will likely enjoy this book even more than I did!
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