LEONARDO:NATURE IN THE MIRROR Format: Paperback

This monograph is the first title in a new series titled Opera Maestra, specifically focused on the work and itinerary of the artists who made history, from an unprecedented perspective. The series begins with Leonardo da Vinci, captured by the expert Marco Versiero.

At the core the analysis is the specific soul, among the thousands of Leonardo's, that Marco Versiero wants to underline: his mirror-soul; namely, Leonardo's eye between Human and Nature. In other words, the eye that allowed the artist to mediate between his favourite dimensions (the human and the natural one), and allowed them to communicate with each other without cancelling themselves, but rather managing to reflect one in the other's light, like in front of a mirror.

An essential biographical note introduces the reader to Marco Versiero's pages, enriched with 61 detailed pictures. The pictures, proposing not only a selection of Leonardo's paintings but also of his drawings, enhanced with comprehensive captions, tell the itinerary of the genius from the years of his apprenticeship in Verrocchio's workshop till the days of his maturity.

Marco Versiero is a research doctor in political philosophy and in modern Italian literature; he obtained the national scientific qualification as associate professor and has taught History of political doctrines at the University of Naples 'L Orientale'. Under the direction of Professor Pietro C. Marani, he edited the catalogues of two of the twenty-four exhibitions on Leonardo's Codex Atlanticus at the Ambrosiana Library in Milan: Politics and Allegories (2010) and The Floods and Prophecies (2012). He contributed to the catalogue of the exhibition Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519: the drawing of the world, curated by Pietro C. Marani and Maria T. Fiorio (Milan, Palazzo Reale, 2015). He is an ordinary member of the Vinciana Collection Authority in Milan and a member of the Leonardo da Vinci Society in London; he is also the author of: The Gift of Freedom and the Ambition of Tyrants. The art of politics in the thought of Leonardo da Vinci (Naples, Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies, 2012) and Leonardo in "chiaroscuro", between Savonarola and Machiavelli, c. 1494-1504 (Mantua, Il Rio Art, 2015). His writing is passionate, visual, and engaging.