Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci, a great observer of reality, was an astonishingly great innovator and creator of ideas, that became fully realized only much later in the 20th century. He was an outstanding draftsman and painter, scientist, inventor, philosopher, musician, writer and arranger—a multifaceted genius who perfectly embodied the Renaissance.

Leonardo da Vinci’s short biography
Leonardo da Vinci was born in Anchiano on April 15, 1452. He studied painting by apprenticing in one of the local studios, and therefore he could first work at the court of Ludvico Sforza himself, to become a member of the painters’ guild when he was twenty. He worked in both Florence and Milan. In 1513 he went to Rome, then he moved to France, in the court of Francis I. However, while in Florence, he created such works as “Adoration of the Magi”, “The Virgin and Child with St. Anne “,” St. Jerome and the Annunciation, “Battle of Anghiari”, and “Mona Lisa”. This “Florentine period”, in creativity is celebrated. However, it was the Milan period that was the longest for Leonardo da Vinci, producing works such as the famous “Lady with an Ermine”, “Madonna in a Rock Cave”. There were paintings and murals, like the works: “The Last Supper”, “Bacchus”, “St. John the Baptist “or” Leda with the Swan “. The term Renaissance man signified Leonardo, because he created in so many fields of endeavor: in mechanics, optics, mathematics, botany and also anatomy. He gave us treatises in areas such as architecture, anatomy, optics and mechanics. Leonardo was concerned with moth the practical and the Ephemeral. He was a great anatomist and dissected and skillfully drew many of the organs of the human body hitherto undescribed. Da Vinci was a great builder, he built a lever press, a rolling mill, a wheel lathe, grinders, a parachute, a submarine and a helicopter and various cranes. He died at the age of 67 in Cloux Castle near Amboise.

Extended Biography of Leonardo da Vinci
In search of a patron
He was the illegitimate son of a notary and a peasant daughter. He was born in the village of Anchiano, near Vinci, near Florence. He apprenticed in a painting studio. At the age of twenty, he joined the painters’ guild, and three years earlier he began working independently at the court of Ludvico Sforza Duke of Milan. He temporarily worked in Milan and Florence to go to Rome in 1513, where he was taken care of Giovanni de Medici, Pope Leo X. He already had a great reputation at the time, so it was natural for the French King Francis I to offer patronage to him.
Painterly creativity in two periods
In a break with the contemporary Florentine tradition of outlining the painted image, Leonardo perfected the technique known as sfumato, which translated literally from Italian means “vanished or evaporated.” Creating imperceptible transitions between light and shade, and sometimes between colors, this color blending allowing tones and colors to shade gradually into one another, producing softened outlines or hazy forms. The proportions of his works are extraordinary and show detailed mathematical calculations of size and perspective. His period of creativity, known as the Florentine period, brought such works as “Adoration of the Magi”, “St. Jerome and the Annunciation”, “The Virgin and Child with St. Anne” and “The Battle of Anghiari”, or even his most famous work the ” Mona Lisa “, where we find an extraordinary and simply unbelievable study of the perspective from more than 500 years ago. The longest period of his work was the Milan period, hence such works as “Lady with an Ermine”, “Madonna in a Rock Cave” and a wall painting “The Last Supper”. But not only, because it is also “St. John the Baptist, “Bacchus” and “Leda with a Swan”.

Scientific creativity
Leonardo was as with all his painting skills, a scientific genius of his time. He approached everything he did as a technician. The uncanny effects he achieved in painting were the result, as in so much Renaissance art, of mathematical precision, careful study, and firsthand observation. This is evidenced by the documented results of his research and the discoveries he made in the various Codexes that document his genius including the Codex Atlanticus and the Codex Arundel. In Milan, he undertook systematic studies in the field of mechanics, optics, mathematics, botany, anatomy and also the stages of sleep. At that time, he led the work on treatises in the field of architecture, anatomy, optics and mechanics. On the other hand, the Florentine period is his involvement in cosmology and working on numerous inventions, such as a helicopter, a parachute, a combat vehicle, a submarine, a textile machine, pumps, valves, grinders, a wheel lathe, a rolling mill and a lever press. These were projects that, however, did not pass from paper theory to practical reality, despite the fact that the trials on the flying machine were in the design phase, as were the construction of cranes. As a result, he was probably centuries ahead of his time. Works on the theory of these mechanical solutions were published only after his death, thanks to a compilation of 19 books, by his friend Francesco Melzi. We can look at Leonardo da Vinci as an artist, scientist, and explorer. Certainly, Leonardo da Vinci was the ultimate genius. He worked as he did throughout his life until his last moments. He died at the age of 67 in Cloux Castle near Amboise.

Interesting facts about Leonardo da Vinci
He professed the principle of following science even if it violated dogma.
He called music the little sister of painting.
He believed that the soul left the body more reluctantly than it might seem.
He believed that the key to success was the right balance between self-confidence and self-doubt.
He professed the hermetic tripartite division of the human being into body, soul and spirit.
He experimented with homosexual love.
He held the paintbrush in his left hand and spread the paint with his right fingers.
To verify the painting effect, he used a mirror to be able to look at the work from a distance in an inverted perspective.
In the matter of perception itself, he even took into account the humidity of the air, which emphasized the dynamic nature of light and its “becoming”.
He was convinced that the emotional layer determines the state of mind.
Only a microscopic examination of his works proved the meticulousness of execution in his works.
He was an optimist about the essence of human nature, believing he had unlimited evolutionary capacity.
He designed a helicopter-like flying machine.
He used a painting technique called sfumato, which, having mastered it to perfection, could convey a wonderful perspective, which we can see in his painting “Mona Lisa”.
Leonardo da Vinci had a friend named Francesco Melzi, to whom we owe the publication of all nineteen books drawn up by an outstanding artist.
The lever press, rolling mill and wheel lathe, as well as various cranes, were those inventions which soon after the artist’s death found their economic application.

Leonardo da Vinci quotes

“Life well used is long.”

“You do wrong if you praise, worse if you rebuke something you do not know well.”

“Let us leave a good name and lasting memory behind us among mortals, lest our lives pass in vain.”

“I know how to build bridges that are very light and strong, easily portable, and other stronger ones that resist fire and attack. I can also build covered cars that are safe and impregnable. Under their cover, infantry can advance without encountering any resistance. (…) I could make an equestrian statue in bronze and paint all kinds of pictures. ”

“It is a bad student who does not surpass his master.”

“Bad company sucks the good ones.”

“The earth is not at the center of the sun wheel or in the center of the world.”