Leonardo and the Last Supper
By: Ross King / Narrated By: Mark Meadows
Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
Intrigue, scandals, excesses, plus painting techniques: This is endlessly entertaining!
Ross King really, really captured an era in time quite well, a time with the usual run-of-the-mill sexual escapades, war and strife, art and love (and snits thrown by artists!). Leonardo and the Last Supper is not only about Leonardo, The Last Supper, it’s about the moments in time as captured by a very witty writer. Mark Meadows narrates this audiobook flawlessly so that we the listeners find ourselves chuckling and chortling and laughing aloud.
Well, perhaps a lot of it shouldn’t be funny. The Inquisition, invaders from France putting entire towns and cities to the sword, intrigue within Ludovico, the Duke of Milan’s family that winds up in death, love affairs, and more death.
It’s just that it iiiiiiiiiiiis! I blame it on the writing; I blame it on Mark Meadows. He perfectly captures time, place, and above all, the outsized characters of the personalities of the day.
My mom probably knows all this already, as she’s an artist extraordinaire, but to me it was mostly all new. I’m used to thinking of Leonardo as a genius, a man-before-his-time. I didn’t know, however, that he raaaaaarely finished a project, that he threw fits at the drop of a hat, feeling easily slighted. So yes, I could see him furiously working away on The Last Supper, not stopping for food or drink. But no, I never saw him the day after that, spending the entire time staring at what he’d done for HOURS or bringing all and sundry to view his work, to ooh and ahh, to ask: No, really—what do YOU think? Am I not grand?
The book is rich in history, art techniques of the time, religious attitudes. Plus we also get a look at what Leonardo spent his money on, the rose-colored tights he adored, the boys and young men who were obsessions to him (especially one wily and shameless kid who’ll swipe something as soon as look at it, leaving Leonardo to bail him outta many a scrape).
You’ll hear about his longing to be an architect—never to be achieved, about his longing to be a grand engineer of weapons of almighty Doomsday—also was thwarted on that front. You’ll hear of his overwhelming desire to cast a bronze statue of a horse and of the many fits he throws cuz he “keeps getting interrupted by requests to do costumes for parties, parties, more parties!” The man was a genius; the man was a git.
This is a HIGHLY engaging audiobook, especially with Meadows doing the narration honors. Even tho’ it kinda drags at the end, when we get to the oh so many attempts to save the painting as it quickly succumbed to time, it’s entertaining even then.
See, Leonardo?!? THAT’S what happens when you throw the techniques of the day out the window and go your own way!
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