I Leonardo

1st American edition. 128 pages with a lot colored illustrations by Ralph Steadman. I Leonardo is a joy to behold and to read - a contemporary masterpiece. Ralph Steadman - inspired illustrator of the visions of Hunter Thompson and creator of the wonderfully inventive Sigmund Freud - has an obsession called Leonardo da Vinci. Steadman traveled to Italy to stand in places where Leonardo stood, trying to imagine what it was like to occupy that mind which would never stop yearning to fly and invented everything from the vocabulary of academic drawing to the submarine. Steadman started to paint Leonardo's inventions, then the scenes of their invention. Soon the inventor himself showed his face and began to demonstrate. Zoroastro popped in to try on some wings; Michelangelo, full of himself, strutted across the ceiling; Savonarola tried to burn the place down, Machiavelli shrugged as if to say 'What did you expect?' and Mona Lisa smiled. Leonardo began to tell his own story, inventing things, of course, as he went along: outrageous things, wonderful things. The tableaux were flooded by the whole boisterous, miraculous vision of it all, but with a deluge of apocalyptic nightmares as well: with disappointment and self-doubt alongside exuberant achievement. Whatever it is that happened, however it happened when Ralph Steadman pursued his obsession with Leonardo da Vinci, the result is one of the most inspired and magnificent flights of imagination it is possible to find in book form. It is raucous, anarchic, exquisite and moving. To say where da Vinci leaves off and Steadman begins is to beg the question. -> Ralph Steadman (born 15 May 1936 in Wallasey in the English county of Cheshire) is a British author, illustrator, cartoonist and caricaturist. Steadman is known for his ironic, politically and socially charged caricatures and cartoons, as well as for his illustrations in a number of illustrated books, including Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island, and Animal Farm. In addition to writing and illustrating his own books, Steadman has collaborated with numerous writers, including Hunter S. Thompson, Ted Hughes, and Brian Patten. He was named Illustrator of the Year by the American Institute of Graphic Arts in 1979. In 1989, he wrote the libretto for an eco-oratorio called Plague and the Moonflower, which was performed in five cathedrals in the UK and a few years later made into a film by BBC2 (1994). The University of Kent awarded him an honorary doctorate.…