Having been told to 'take it easy' for 24 hours, I decided that I would sit down with a cup of tea and my book 'The Life and Works of Leonardo Da Vinci' which I received as a gift yesterday. I have put my new interest in the Arts on a back burner for a while because of my writing course which is taking a lot of my time, but which I am enjoying. Having studied this book for a while and recalling the time when I saw some of Da Vinci's works in the London galleries some years ago I have decided I like his drawings better than his paintings.
This self portrait I particularly like. I had a birthday card from my sister some years ago which was a print of this and I still have it. He looks wise and intelligent with a sense of humanity about him, but the book tells me he is not as old as he looks when he drew this in red chalk around 1512. He was certainly an extraordinary man, even a beginner like me can see that. Some of his works, such as his designs for an excavating machine drawn in 1503, are well before their time, but then he liked to describe himself as an engineer, which he was, and just made passing reference to his paintings.
I am only halfway through my book, and as I am 'confined to barracks' as it were, there will probably be more about Da Vinci written later ..... anyway it's still snowing, and I don't fancy taking the car out in this weather!
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