The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci

How did Leonardo da Vinci become the embodiment of creative genius? How did he live, love, and suffer?

With an attention to detail and an inspiration worthy of the greatest, Russian novelist Dmitri Merejkovski (1866-1941) draws us into the private life of a man for whom talent, perceived as a gift from God, is a true calling, which he embraces with his whole soul, refusing the temptations of money and vanity.

It is from this extreme, painful fidelity that masterpieces emerge, offering a glimpse into a world where grace reigns. The artistic genius thus becomes a guide, an intermediary between the Creator and us.

In this expansive and profound novelistic evocation, the Renaissance appears as the quintessence of all eras, the condensation of all passions, the endless reflection of the human universe.

Freud admired this work, where he discovered Vinci's famous childhood memory—a vulture descending on his cradle—which inspired one of his most celebrated essays.

A prodigiously vivid portrait of the great artist, this Novel of Leonardo da Vinci is also a masterpiece of 20th-century Russian literature.