Tells the complete story of the creation of The Last Supper mural: the adversities suffered by the artist during its execution; the experimental techniques he employed; the models for Christ and the Apostles that he used; and the numerous personalities involved -- everyone from the Leonardo's young assistants to Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan who commissioned the work.

Five hundred and thirty years ago, a young woman sat for her portrait, which was to be painted by a tall, Grecian-nosed artist known as Leonardo da Vinci. Her name was Cecilia Gallerani, and she was the teenage mistress of the Duke of Milan. With shining hair and alabaster skin, and a thin veil framing her delicate features, Gallerani held a white ermine--an emblem of pregnancy and childbirth--close to her breast. Their slender bodies appeared almost...

A biography of the Italian Renaissance artist and inventor who, at about age thirty, began writing his famous notebooks which contain the outpourings of his amazing mind.