Leonardo and The Last Supper - Couverture souple

Winner of the 2012 Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction
Amazon.ca - Best 100 Books of 2012
SHORTLISTED 2012 – Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction

“King’s investigation into Leonardo’s work is remarkable . . . . King is able to evoke and analyze how Leonardo went about his work and offers a brief, unforgettable, story.”
—Toronto Star

“The story of Leonardo’s creation of the work has now found an ideal chronicler in Ross King . . . . A book that offers an engaging and unusually intimate view of one of the great icons of western art.”
—The Guardian (UK)

“A gripping account . . .”
—The New York Times

“King has made something like a thriller without any of the obvious materials of a thriller—there’s hardly any conflict in the main plot—and an easy read out of difficult stuff without condescending or insulting. You may not think you need one more book about Leonardo, but you shouldn’t deny yourself the pleasure of reading this one.”
—The Scotsman

“King tells us everything that any non-specialist would ever want to know about The Last Supper and the events surrounding its creation. . . . This work, even in its dilapidated, faded current state, can still tempt some of its viewers to explain, as Ross King has done well, its peculiar magic.”
—The Globe and Mail

Leonardo da Vinci's transcendent painting The Last Supper defined the master artist. Until now, no one has told the full story behind its creation. Political events weighed on da Vinci and all of Italy during the time of the painting's conception and creation, as his patron, the Duke of Sforza, unleashed forces leading to a decades-long series of tragedies known as the Italian Wars. Sforza was overthrown by French forces in 1499, forcing da Vinci to flee Milan with the paint on The Last Supper barely dry. The Last Supper ensured Leonardo's universal renown as a visionary master of the arts.