Book VII. A Commentary.

Vol.II:The Twelfth Century to the Renaissance. Cambridge, Univ.Press 1952, cm.15,5x22, pp.XX-558, 133 figg. 11 cartine e alcune tavv. gen legatura ed.titoli in oro al dorso.

Foreword by Carlo Pedretti. English edition. Firenze, C.B. Cartei e Bianchi 2010, cm.16x18, pp.154, num.figg.a col.nt. brossura cop.fig.a col. Giorgio Vasari, Leonardo's first biographer, said that the artist used to sketch "many designs for architecture". In fact, in the so-called "letter of employment" written to Ludovico il Moro in 1482, Leonardo presented himself as a military engineer, able to satisfy the demands of the Duke of Milan in peace and in war, declaring that he "can give perfect satisfaction and to the equal of any other in architecture and the composition of buildings public and private". And then he speaks of his ability in hydraulic engineering for conducting water "from one level to another". Leonardo studied in depth several ancient texts but also the treatises of his own time: in particular the treatise of military and civil architecture by the Sienese engineer and architect Francesco di Giorgio Martini, a text that contains projects for fortifications with bastions, able to offer resistance to the artillery fire. This could explain Leonardo's fascination with fortifications, his involvement in the project to realize the tiburio for the Milan cathedral. He made a great many architectural projects for gardens and elegant buildings, testing out innovative solutions, such as the internal stairs. This allows us to better understand his excellent competence in architecture and why he attempted to plan the "ideal city", conceived as being organized on two different levels, one for pedestrians and the other suitable for vehicle transportation. He also projected also religious buildings, studying different solutions for the centralized plan based on complex systems of architectural symmetries.

New York and London, G.P. Putnam's Sons s.d. (anni '50), cm.11,5x17,5, pp.(12),182,(2), legatura in pelle ed., firma dell'A. in oro al piatto ant., titoli e fregi in oro al dorso, taglio sup. in oro. Coll. The Works of Oscar Wilde - Ravenna Edition.

London, Macdonald 1970, cm.14x22, pp.XIV,146, legatura editoriale cartonata. The famous sit-in at the Hornsey College of Art in May 1968 was merely the most dramatic expression of a deep-rooted crisis in art education - and in art itself. While the essential ingredients of good art - sensitivity, vitality, integrity and a readiness to communicate - remain the same, these qualities are almost entirely lacking; instead, today's pseudo-art suggests futility, a narcissistic looking inward, a chilling and impersonal coldness. The gap between artist and public widens every year; the critic does little to bridge this gap. Art has become a clever commercial speculation, part of a fantasy world conjured up primarily by the news media. An incessant, nervous demand for novel and 'exciting' work and for young talent to invest in has turned the artist into a consumer product.If art is in a sorry state, so is art education. Each year, hundreds of fine-art students are sacrificed to the myth of Art with a capital their sense of purpose distorted, their talents tragically unexplored, their hopes cruelly dashed. They may seem coolly professional, confident, up-to-date; but this is merely because they are encouraged to restrict themselves to one or two currently fashionable idioms - which, of course, must never be too hard to imitate. Left largely to their own devices, art students study the latest trends as reported in the glossy magazines, and hopefully turn out their mimicries. Unique in being trained for a largely non-existent profession - how many artists live by their art alone? - they mostly drift, disenchanted, into teaching, where they transmit their own fine-art bias and so help to perpetuate the fine-art fantasy.Such, in outline, is the case which Sjoerd Hannema puts forward. He has developed and substantiated his arguments with great cogency, and a spirited refusal to bow down before fashionable gods. With an impressive historical grasp he traces the present malaise back to its roots in the Renaissance.Includes black & white illustrations.