Selling Leonardo

The infamous Salvator Mundi painting sold in 2017 for $450.3 million, garnering worldwide attention. News stories had everyone thinking that this painting was made by the legendary Renaissance artist, Leonardo da Vinci. However, something major was left out of those headlines. Many da Vinci experts did not believe that he created the work. Several years after the notorious sale, an unknown American artist was presented with the opportunity of a lifetime. Every year, thousands of artists from around the world apply to be an official Copyist at the Louvre Museum in Paris. While only a few are selected, this artist was somehow chosen for the program. As he prepared for his art to be shown in the Louvre, he came across the many people involved with the Salvator Mundi, exposing a dark mystery across continents. Selling Leonardo is an adventurous true story that lifts the curtain of the secretive, high-stakes art world.

South African art historian Susan Grundy offers a trove of unusual and arcanely brilliant alternative ideas about the mysterious Renaissance polymath painter, found in what she calls Leonardo anti-theory. In a narrative full of twists and turns, arguments and counterarguments, readers will be transfixed from beginning to end. Significantly, the author uses anti-theory to demonstrate the paintings and the Notebooks usually attributed to one “Leonardo da Vinci,” were alternatively produced by a number of artists and scientists. Ultimately, Grundy shows all Leonardo anti-theory is (a little bit or a lot) right; while all mainstream rhetoric is (mostly a lot) wrong. The author introduces the neglected masters, and even a possible mistress, in the workshops of Milan, Florence, and Rome.

This new series explores the lives of the men and women who had a profound influence on the shaping of the world--particularly the ways in which the sciences, arts, and letters are perceived by the modern observer, Ideally suited for school reports, these books are fully documented, with sidebars that provide background information about each subject. This series meets world history curriculum standards.

Leonardo is the greatest, most multi-faceted and most mysterious of all Renaissance artists, but extraordinarily, considering his enormous reputation, this is the first full-length biography in English for several decades. Prize-winning author Charles Nicholl has immersed himself for five years in all the manuscripts, paintings and artefacts to produce an 'intimate portrait' of Leonardo. He uses these contemporary materials - his notebooks and sketchbooks, eye witnesses and early biographies, etc - as a way into the mental tone and physical texture of his life and has made myriad small discoveries about him and his work and his circle of associates. Among much else, the book identifies what Nicholl argues is an unknown portrait of the artist hanging in a church near Lodi in northern Italy. It also contains new material on his eccentric assistant Tomasso Masini, on his homosexual affairs in Florence, and on his curious relationship with a female model and/or prostitute from Cremona. A masterpiece of modern biography.

This is the first book dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci’s commission for The Virgin of the Rocks. Leonardo completed fewer than twenty paintings in his lifetime, yet he returned twice to this same mysterious subject over the course of a twenty-five year period. Identical in terms of iconography, stylistically these paintings are worlds apart. The first, of c.1482-4, was Leonardo’s magnum opus, catapulting the young artist from obscurity to fame. When, in 1508, he finished the second painting, he was nearing the end of his artistic career and had become an international celebrity. Why did he revisit The Virgin of the Rocks? What was the meaning behind the cavernous subterranean landscape? What lies behind the colder monumentality of the second version? This book opens up Leonardo’s world, setting the scene in Republican Florence and the humanist court of the Milanese warlord Ludovico Sforza, to answer these questions. Through lyrical yet scholarly analyses of Leonardo’s paintings, notebooks and technical experimentation, it unveils the secret realms of human dissection and Neo-Platonic philosophy that inspired the creation of the two masterpieces. In doing so, the book reveals that The Virgin of the Rocks holds the key to the greatest philosophical, scientific and personal transformations of Leonardo’s life. Images and links to figures are available at www.virginoftherocks.com.

Read this book and the world's most famous image will never look the same again. For the world's greatest cultural icon still has secrets to reveal - not the silly secrets that the 'Leonardo loonies' continue to advance, but previously unknown facts about the lives of Leonardo, his father, Lisa Gherardini, the subject of the portrait, and her husband Francesco del Giocondo. From this factual beginning we see how the painting metamorphosed into a 'universal picture' that became the prime vehicle for Leonardo's prodigious knowledge of the human and natural worlds. We learn about the new money of the ambitious merchant who married into the old gentry of Lisa's family. We discover Lisa's life as a wife and mother, her association with sexual scandals, and her later life in a convent. We meet, for the first time, previously undiscovered members of Leonardo's immediate family and discover new information about his early life. The tiny hill town of Vinci is placed before us, with its widespread poverty. We find out about the career and possessions of his father, a notable lawyer in Florence. The meaning of the portrait that resulted from these human circumstances is vividly illuminated though Renaissance love poetry and verses specifically dedicated to Leonardo. We come to understand how Leonardo's sciences of optics, psychology, anatomy and geology are embraced in his poetic science of art. Recent scientific examinations of the painting disclose how it evolved to assume its present appearance in Leonardo's experimental hands. Above all, we cut through the suppositions and the myths to show that the portrait is a product of real people in a real place at a real time. This is the book that brings back a sense of reality into the creation of the portrait of Lisa del Giocondo. And the actual Mona Lisa, it turns out, is even more astonishing and transcendent than the Mona Lisa of legend.

The nation’s #1 real estate broker and charismatic costar of Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing New York shares his secrets on how to be successful. In the ten years since moving from Sweden to New York City, with no experience in real estate and no contacts, Fredrik Eklund has transformed himself into the best seller in the most competitive real estate market on the planet. In The Sell, Eklund leverages his years of experience to create the go-to manual for self-promotion and sales. At the core of the book are chapters tied to Eklund’s 10-step program for “selling anything to everyone,” and he shares his secrets on everything from personal authenticity and looking your very best to crafting the perfect sales pitch, negotiating with savvy, and closing deals promptly and efficiently . . . lest they slip away. Whether you’re just starting a job as a sales rep at Verizon, navigating your career as an executive or entrepreneur, or hitting your stride closing big transactions as a banker at Goldman Sachs, The Sell will show you how to improve your game and radically increase the money you’re bringing home. The Sell is a vital resource for anyone who wants to have an impact in his or her personal and professional life, with a razor-sharp focus on selling: selling yourself—or your brand—no matter your background.

The deluxe edition of The Sell includes 8 exclusive videos of author Fredrik Eklund sharing personal stories and giving further advice to readers on how to become their most successful selves. Listen to Fredrik describe the art of negotiating, explain the value of finding a business partner, and share his best fashion advice. You can even watch him demonstrate his infamous high kick! The nation’s #1 real estate broker and star of Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing New York shares his secrets for superstar success and getting what you want out of life—no matter who you are or what you do. Ten years ago, Fredrik Eklund moved to New York City from his native Sweden with nothing but a pair of worn-out sneakers and a dream: to make it big in the city that never sleeps. Since then, he’s become the top seller in the most competitive real estate market on the planet, brokering multimillion-dollar deals for celebrities, selling out properties all over the city, and charming audiences around the world as one of the stars of the hit Bravo series Million Dollar Listing New York. Now, for the first time, Fredrik shares his secrets so that anyone can find success doing what they love. According to Fredrik, even if you don’t consider yourself a salesperson, you’ve been in sales your whole life because every day you are selling your most important asset: yourself. Whenever you influence, persuade or convince someone to give you something in exchange for what you’ve got—whether it’s a luxury home, a great idea at work, or your profile on Match.com—you are selling. And if you know how to sell the right way, you can live your dream. That is what The Sell is all about. Blending personal stories, hilarious anecdotes, and the expertise he’s gained from his meteoric rise, Fredrik has written the modern guide on becoming successful, a book that tells you how to recognize and cultivate your true talents and make the ultimate sell. From the importance of being your most authentic self to looking like a million bucks even if you don’t have a million bucks (yet!), he shows how intangible factors like personality and charm can get you noticed and make you shine. He also shares his tips and tricks for preparing, persuading, and negotiating so that in any of life’s dealings, you’ll come out a winner. Whether you work on Wall Street or at Wal-Mart, aim to become the top seller at your company or want to impress a first date, The Sell will help you have more personal and professional success, lead a rich and fulfilling life, and have fun along the way.