Leonardo Da Vinci – Outline

“Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) is known worldwide as one of the greatest masters of the High Renaissance period, hugely influential as an artist and sculptor in the history of European art. Widely considered as one of the greatest polymaths in human history, Leonardo was an inventor, artist, musician, architect, engineer, anatomist, botanist, geologist, historian, and cartographer.

Yet his true genius was not as a scientist or an artist, but as a combination of the two: an artist-engineer. “”The artist-engineer is a known figure in Renaissance Italy,”” says Prof Martin Kemp, a world-leading expert on Leonardo from the University of Oxford.

His painting was scientific, based on a deep understanding of the human body and the physics of light and shade. His science was expressed through art, and his drawings and diagrams show what he meant, and how he understood the world to work. Leonardo made “”more drawings than any artist of the period”” and “”more words in manuscripts than anyone from the period in any field.””

Da Vinci was born in 1452 near Vinci, in what is now the Italian region of Tuscany. Da Vinci’s parents never married each other. The young Leonardo lived with his mother until he was 5 years old and later moved into the home of his father, who had married another woman. According to most of the sources, his father was a notary and landlord named Ser Piero. His mother, Caterina, is commonly believed to have been a local peasant. However, some experts believe that Caterina was actually a slave owned by Ser Piero. Leonardo’s father married four times during his lifetime and in all, Leonardo had 17 siblings and half-siblings.

Unlike other well-known Renaissance artists, da Vinci never received any kind of formal education. He did, however, receive instruction at home in subjects such as reading, writing, and mathematics. Leonardo while learning painting from his teacher, Andrea del Verrocchio, was asked to draw a painting of an angel. His drawing was so good that his teacher decided to never paint again and in 1478 da Vinci became an independent master.

Leonardo while learning painting from his teacher, Andrea del Verrocchio, was asked to draw a painting of an angel. His drawing was so good that his teacher decided to never paint again.

Leonardo created some of the world’s most beautiful works of art. Da Vinci’s most famous paintings, “”The Mona Lisa,”” “”The Last Supper”” and “”Virgin On The Rocks,”” are classics that have inspired millions of people, while his drawings such as “”Vitruvian Man””—showcasing the proportions of the human body—have become instantly recognizable. He regarded artists as divine apprentices, writing “We, by our arts, may be called the grandsons of God.”

Leonardo, in fact, was not so much an artist as a scientist, engineer, and inventor. There are about 500 of his scientific works in various fields of science and only 12 paintings. It is difficult to say what he did not invent: from the prototype of rocket launchers, tanks, submarines, parachutes, telescopes to contact lenses, lifebuoy, and scissors. He invented an inflatable tube for use in water and also designed the first bicycle ever, almost 300 years before it appeared on the road. The basis of the modern projector uses the principle of light scattering, proposed by Leonardo. In short, everything without which we can’t imagine our life today.

However, a genius – he is a genius in everything. According to some researchers, not all the developments of Leonardo da Vinci, even today, are understandable to scientists. He thought ahead of time, which is evidenced by the notes in many of his journals that talk about modern inventions, including a helicopter, calculator, solar power and the beginnings of the theory of plate tectonics.

Leonardo was slow to finish his work. He left a lot of unfinished paintings, writings, and inventions that have never evolved during his time. Some of his inventions were built using his designs, but many failed to materialize. Experts suspect that Leonardo did not bring his projects to life on purpose so that the rulers did not use them for military purposes.

One of Leonardo’s biographers describes him as a person of “”outstanding physical beauty who displayed infinite grace in everything he did.”” His peers described him as a “”well proportioned, graceful, and good-looking man”” who “”wore a rose-pink tunic”” and had “”beautiful curling hair, carefully styled, which came down to the middle of his chest.”” In his own days, he was known as an exceptionally attractive person.

Soon after King Francis I of France captured Milan in 1516, Leonardo entered his service, spending the last years of his life in a house near the royal residence. When death came to Leonardo on May 2, 1519, at the age of 67, it is said that the king, who loved to listen to Leonardo talk so much that he was hardly ever away from him, held his head as he breathed his last. In spite of his famous works in many fields, Leonardo on his deathbed said, “I have offended God and mankind. My work did not reach the quality it should have.” Years later, reflecting on his friendship with him, King Francis said, “”No man possessed such a knowledge of painting, sculpture or architecture as Leonardo, but the same goes for philosophy. He was a great philosopher.””

On May 2, 2019, the world honors the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death. Five centuries after his death, Leonardo da Vinci is more famous than ever. Upwards of six million people a year crowd into the Louvre to look at his “”Mona Lisa””, his “”Last Supper”” remains the most reproduced religious work of all time and in 2017 the “”Salvator Mundi””, the last of his paintings to be in private hands, broke auction records to sell for $450 million.”

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