LEONARDO DA VINCI

As opposed to the traditional chronological biography, this loosely organized treatise examines both what is and what is not known about the great master. Scott Brick's comfortable voice sounds genuinely interested as it guides us though the evidence from which we must surmise how the gifted thinker solved nature's riddles and created monumental art. The narration becomes noticeably tumescent when describing Da Vinci's dissections of penile blood supply. Unfortunately, Brick's tendency to vary his voice from loud to very soft sometimes results in the loss of important words. And Nuland's antiquated Freudian ideas about homosexuality should have died with the great Viennese shrink. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 01]