The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci, the Forerunner

By Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky

How does a young artist learn from a mind that seems to belong to another age? Giovanni Beltraffio enters the orbit of Leonardo da Vinci as his pupil, confronting a master whose reach extends beyond painting into architecture, invention and the restless investigation of the world. His apprenticeship becomes the compelling centre of a historical novel concerned not only with artistic technique, but with the unsettling power of genius and the demands it places upon those who seek to understand it. Across Renaissance Milan and the wider Italian world, beauty and belief are caught in profound conflict. Giovanni's encounters with Leonardo's ideas and works sharpen his struggle to reconcile art with faith, while humanism and the recovery of classical Antiquity challenge the inherited authority of medieval asceticism. Religious anxiety, political turmoil and intellectual dispute are woven into the fabric of the narrative, making the age itself a force in the young artist's development rather than a decorative backdrop. Leonardo emerges through the pupil's perspective as teacher, artist, architect and inventor: an emblem of a new spirit whose curiosity resists established boundaries. Yet the novel remains attentive to the spiritual doubt accompanying that transformation, asking what becomes of older visions of human nature when beauty, reason and creative freedom claim fresh authority. Blending biographical fiction with a searching artist-apprenticeship narrative, it portrays the Renaissance as a contest of convictions as much as an awakening of art. This book was out of print for decades and is now republished by Alpha Editions. It has been restored for today's and future generations. This edition is not just a reprint - it's a collector's item and a cultural treasure.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9378417140
• ISBN13: 9789378417146
• Release Date: January 2027
• Publisher: Alpha Edition
• Length: 428 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"