РефератыИностранный языкDaDa Vinci Essay Research Paper Leonardo Da

Da Vinci Essay Research Paper Leonardo Da

Da Vinci Essay, Research Paper


Leonardo Da Vinci


Leonardo Da Vinci Leonardo Da Vinci is one of the greatest and most


ingenious men that history has produced. His contributions in the areas of art,


science, and humanity are still among the most important that a single man has


put forth, definitely making his a life worth knowing. Da Vinci, born on April


15, 1452, is credited with being a master painter, sculptor, architect,


musician, engineer, and scientist. He was born an illegitimate child to


Catherina, a peasant girl. His father was Ser Piero da Vinci, a public notary


for the city of Florence, Italy. For the first four years of his life he lived with


his mother in the small village of Vinci, directly outside of the great center of


the Renaissance, Florence. Catherina was a poor woman, with possible


artistic talent, the genetic basis of Leonardo?s talents. Upon the realization of


Leonardo?s potential, his father took the boy to live with him and his wife in


Florence (Why did). This was the start of the boy?s education and his quest


for knowledge. Leonardo was recognized by many to be a “Renaissance


child” because of his many talents. As a boy, Leonardo was described as


being handsome, strong, and agile. He had keen powers of observation, an


imagination, and the ability to detach himself from the world around him. At


an early age Leonardo became interested in subjects such as botany,


geology, animals (specifically birds), the motion of water, and shadows


(About Leonardo). At the age of 17, in about 1469, Leonardo was


apprenticed as a garzone (studio boy) to Andrea del Verrocchio, the leading


Florentine painter and sculptor of his day. In Verrocchio?s workshop


Leonardo was introduced to many techniques, from the painting of


altarpieces and panel pictures to the creation of large sculptural projects in


marble and bronze. In 1472 he was accepted in the painter?s guild of


Florence, and worked there for about six years. While there, Leonardo often


painted portions of Verrocchio?s paintings for him, such as the background


and the kneeling angel on the left in the Baptism of Christ (Encarta).


Leonardo?s sections of the painting have soft shadings, with shadows


concealing the edges. These areas are distinguished easily against the sharply


defined figures and objects of Verrocchio, that reflect the style called Early


Renaissance. Leonardo?s more graceful approach marked the beginning of


the High Renaissance. However, this style did not become more popular in


Italy for another 25 year (Gilbert 46). Leonardo actually started the


popularization of this style. For this reason Leonardo could be called the


“Father of the High Renaissance.” Leonardo?s leading skills emerged through


his paintings and his techniques. Leonardo?s talents soon drew him away


from the Guild and in 1472 Leonardo finished his first complete painting,


Annunciation. In 1478 Leonardo reached the title of an Independent Master.


His first large painting, The Adoration of the Magi (begun in 1481), which


was left unfinished, was ordered in 1481 for the Monastery of San Donato a


Scopeto, Florence. Other works ascribed to his youth are the Benois


Madonna (1478), the portrait Ginevra de? Benci (1474), and the unfinished


Saint Jerome (1481). Leonardo expanded his skills to other branches of


interest and in 1481 Leonardo wrote an astonishing letter to the Duke of


Milan, Ludovico Sforza. In this letter he stated that he knew how to build


portable bridges; that he knew the techniques of constructing bombardments


and of making cannons; that he could build ships as well as armored vehicles,


catapults, and other war machines; and that he could execute sculpture in


marble, bronze, and clay. Thus, he entered the service of the Duke in 1482,


working on Ludovico?s castle, organizing festivals, and he became recognized


as an expert in military engineering and arms. Under the Duke, Leonardo


served many positions. He served as principal engineer in the Duke?s


numerous military enterprises and was active as an architect (Encarta). As a


military engineer Leonardo designed artillery and planned the diversion of


rivers. He also improved many inventions that were already in use such as the


rope ladder. Leonardo also drew pictures of an armored tank hundreds of


years ahead of its time. His concept failed because the tank was too heavy to


be mobile and the hand cranks he designed were not strong enough to


support such a vehicle. As a civil engineer, he designed revolving stages for


pageants. As a sculptor he planned a huge monument of the Duke?s father


mounted up on a leaping horse. The Horse, as it was known, was the


culmination of 16 years of work. Leonardo was fascinated by horses and


drew them constantly. In The Horse, Leonardo experimented with the horses’


forelegs and measurements. The severe plagues in 1484 and 1485 drew his


attention to town planning, and his drawings and plans for domed churches


reflect his concern with architectural problems (Bookshelf). In addition he


also assisted the Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli in the work Divina


Proportione (1509). While in Milan Leonardo kept up his own work and


studies with the possible help of apprentices and pupils, for whom he


probably wrote the various texts later compiled as Treatise on Painting


(1651). The most important painting of those created in the early Milan age


was The Virgin of the Rocks. Leonardo worked on this piece for an


extended period of time, seemingly unwilling to finish what he had begun


(Encarta). It is his earliest major painting that survives in complete form. From


1495 to 1497 Leonardo labored on his masterpiece, The Last Supper, a


mural in the refectory of the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.


While painting The Last Supper, Leonardo rejected the fresco technique


normally used for wall paintings. An artist that uses this fresco method must


work quickly. Leonardo wanted to work slowly, revising his work, and use


shadows-which would have been impossible in using fresco painting. He


invented a new technique that involved coating the wall with a compound that


he had created. This compound, which was supposed to protect the paint


and hold it in place did not work, and soon after its completion the paint


began to flake away. For this reason The Last Supper still exists, but in poor


condition (Gilbert 46). Leonardo had at many times merged his inventive and


creative capabilities to enhance life and improve his works. Although his


experiments with plastering and painting failed, they showed his dissatisfaction


with an accepted means and his creativity and courage to experiment with a


new and untried idea. Experimentation with traditional techniques is evident in


his drawings as well. During Leonardo?s 18 year stay in Milan he also


produced other paintings and drawings, but most have been lost. He created


stage designs for theater, architectural drawings, and models for the dome of


Mila

n Cathedral. Leonardo also began to produce scientific drawings,


especially of the human body. He studied anatomy by dissecting human


corpses and the bodies of animals. Leonardo?s drawings did not only clarify


the appearance of bones, tendons, and other body parts but their function in


addition. These drawings are considered to be the first accurate


representations of human anatomy. Leonardo is also credited with the first


use of the cross section, a popular technique for diagramming the human


body. Leonardo wrote, “The painter who has acquired a knowledge of the


nature of the sinews, muscles, and tendons will know exactly in the movement


of any limb how many and which of the sinews are the cause of it, and which


muscle by its swelling is the cause of this sinew?s contracting” (Wallace 131).


In December, 1499, the Sforza family was driven out of Milan by French


forces and Leonardo was forced to leave Milan and his unfinished statue of


Ludovico Sforza?s father, which was destroyed by French archers that used


it for target practice. Leonardo then returned to Florence in 1500


(Bookshelf). When Leonardo returned to Florence the citizens welcomed him


with open arms because of the fame he acquired while in Milan. The work he


did there strongly influenced other artists such as Sandro Botticelli and Piero


di Cosimo. The work he was to produce would influence other masters such


as Michelangelo and Raphael. In 1502 Leonardo entered the service of


Cesare Borgia, Duke of Romagna and son and Chief General of Pope


Alexander VI. For this post he supervised work on the fortress of the papal


territories in central Italy. In 1503 he was a member of a commission of


artists to decide on the proper location for the David by Michelangelo


(Encarta). Towards the end of the year Leonardo began to design a


decoration for the Great Hall of the Palazzo Vecchio. Leonardo chose the


Battle of Anghiari as the subject of the mural, a victory for Florence in a war


against Pisa. He made many drawings and sketches of a cavalry battle, with


tense soldiers, leaping horses and clouds of dust. In painting The Battle of


Anghiari Leonardo again rejected fresco and tried an experimental technique


called encaustic. Once again the experiment was unsuccessful. Leonardo


went on a trip and left the painting unfinished. When he returned he found that


the paint had run and he never finished the painting. The paintings general


appearance is known from Leonardo?s sketches and other artists’ copies of it


(Creighton 45). During the period of time that Leonardo spent painting the


Palazzo Vecchio he also painted several other works, including the most


famous portrait ever, the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa, also known as La


Gioconda, (after the presumed name of the model?s husband) became


famous because of the unique expression on Lisa del Gioconda?s face. She


appears to have just started to or finished smiling. This painting was one of


Leonardo?s favorites and he carried it with him on all of his subsequent


travels (Clark 133). In 1506, Leonardo returned to Milan to finished up


some of his projects that he had to abandon during his hasty departure. He


stayed there until 1516 when he moved to Cloux, France, where he stayed


with his pupil Melzi. While in Milan he was named Court Painter to King


Louis XII of France, who was then residing in Milan. For the next six years


he traveled from Milan to Florence repeatedly to look after his inheritance. In


1514 he traveled to Rome under the patronage of Pope Leo X. During this


time Leonardo?s energy was focused mainly on his scientific experiments. He


then moved to France to serve King Francis I. It is here in Chateau de Cloux


that he died on May 2,1519 (Wallace 127). Leonardo constantly reworked


his drawings, studies and mechanical theories. His observations of the motion


of water are amazingly accurate. In Leonardo?s Studies of Water Formation,


the flow patterns observed are swirling around , then below as it forms a


pool. Using modern slow motion cameras’ scientists now study the same


effects that Leonardo wrote about and observed with his naked eye


(Encarta). Another study of water and wind is his Apocalyptic Visions. This


is a collected study of hurricanes and storms. In these highly detailed


drawings the pen lines so carefully marked explode into action similar to the


storms themselves. Leonardo?s mathematical drawings are also highly skilled.


In a math formula Leonardo proved the theory of perpetual motion false but it


still intrigued him. Among his vast notes were small ideas for a perpetual


motion machine. His ideas for completing this task involved an unbalanced


wheel that would revolve forever, conserving its energy. However these


machines were never constructed. Another mathematical drawing was the


Polyhedron. This three dimensional figure represented proportions to him “not


only in numbers and measurements but also in sounds, weights, positions and


in whatsoever power there may be” (Wallace 59). The notebooks of


Leonardo contain sketches and plans for inventions that came into existence


almost five-hundred years after the Renaissance. Leonardo practiced a


technique of writing backwards. It has been postulated that he did this, being


left-handed, so that he wouldn?t smear the ink by his left hand running across


newly-written words. Moreover, the individual words are spelled backwards.


In order to read the Notebooks one must hold the pages up to a mirror and it


is believed by some that Leonardo did this to keep his writing and theories


secret. In any event, contained in the Notebooks are plans and drawings for


what we recognize today as the first working propeller, a submarine, a


helicopter, a tank, parachutes, the cannon, perpetual motion machines, and


the rope ladder. There are perfectly executed drawings of the human body,


from the proportions of the full figure to dissections in the most minute detail.


It was observed, however, that Leonardo?s interest in the human body and


his ability to invent mechanical things were actually not as paramount to him


as was his fascination and awe of the natural world (Clark 133). Leonardo


lived to be 67 years old. He is not known to have ever married or had


children. In fact, it was said of him that he only saw women as “reproductive


mechanisms” (Clark 134). If there is one quality that characterizes the life of


Leonardo da Vinci it would be his curiosity for life and the world around him.


Curiosity is the force that motivated him to observe, dissect and document


every particle of matter that warranted his attention. From babies in the


womb to seashells on the beach, nothing escaped his relentless intellect. The


mind of Leonardo transcends the period of the Renaissance and every epoch


thereafter. It is universally acknowledged that his imagination, his powers of


reason, and his sheer energy surpass that of any person in history. The study


of Leonardo is limited only by the inadequacy of the student.

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