“Leonardo Da Vinci – Worlds Biggest Influencers

"Leonardo da vinci was alone one of our worlds biggest influencers. His works and ideas helped shape us to what we are now as well as leave us still amazed at his work. He was a man of many talents. He was talented in many different skill areas. Leonardo da Vinci was a painter, sculptor, musician, writer, engineer, architect, botanist, anatomist, and an inventor. His work helped change society, as well as his art, including two paintings that remain among the world’s most famous and admired, the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.

An ideal Renaissance man strove to master almost every area of study and they excelled in many fields, which he did through his many forms of art and inventions.

A man who has broad intellectual interests and is accomplished in areas of both the arts and the sciences, is the definition of a Renaissance man. Leonardo was one of the greatest inventors and one of the most famous scientists of recorded history. His abilities were limited due to the technology at the time and time. He was driven by curiosity and his deep love for nature. Leonardo Da Vinci was also left handed, and at the time people who were left handed were considered the devil's work and normally forced to use their right hands, but Leonardo used his left hand. Leonardo was a genius, and his work still leaves people today amazed. Sometimes he would even write backwards and it would take a mirror to decipher his writing. All 120 of his notebooks were written backwards. Leonardo went farther than his teachings. He made a scientific study of light as well as shadows in nature. Leonardo was also a kind man. He would often go to the markets and buy the caged animals and would let them free.

Leonardo da vinci was born in Anchiano, Tuscany (now know as Italy). He lived from 1452 to 1519 near a town called Vinci. His parents were not married. His mother, Caterina was a peasant who married another man when he was very young and started a new family. His uncle had a special appreciation for nature that Da Vinci grew to share and this helped turn Da Vinci into the man he became known as. Da Vinci was not given a formal education. He was taught basic reading, writing and math. His father became very interested in his artist talent when Da Vinci was around 15. He became a apprentice to the famous painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio, of Florence. In 1472 he became a independent master, and in 1482 started his first commissioned work known as “The Adoration of the Magi”. He never managed to complete the work as he was relocated to Milan to work for the ruling Sforza clan. He served them as a engineer, painter, architect, designer of court festivals and a sculptor. The family asked him to carve a 16 foot tall equestrian statue and this took up to 12 years. It was later destroyed and used to make cannons for the war.

Da Vinci left Italy for good in 1516, when the French ruler Francis 1 offered him the title of “Premier Painter and Engineer and Architect to the King,” which allowed him to paint and draw at his own leisure. He lived in a country manor house, the Chateau of Cloux, near Amboise in France. He was accompanied by Melzi, whom he would later leave his estate to. It is believed that Da Vinci's final years were not very happy ones. Melzi would go on to marry and have a son, whos heirs upon his death would sell Da Vinci's estate. Da Vinci died at Cloux in 1519 at age 67. He was buried near the church of Saint Florentin. Due to the French Revolution the church was nearly obliterated and its remains were completely demolished in the early 1800’s, making it impossible to identify his grave.

Da Vinci made a lot of inventions that we still use today. He created something as simple yet as important as the scissors. Without these the tailors back them must have had a rough time. Altho there are some controversy as the Ancient Egyptians had created a form of scissors as well as the cross-bladed scissors from Ancient Rome it is believed that he contributed greatly as he made detailed sketches and contributed that to the design. Da Vinci also invented the parachute. He had imagined and sketched it out around the 15 century. The design consisted of linen cloth and made up of wooden poles (around 7 meters long). The invention would allow any man to “throw himself down from any great height without suffering any injury,” said Da Vinci (Mihai Andrei) Although he never tested the parachute it was later tested by daredevil Adrien Nichols in 2000, and according to him it was a “smooth ride.”

Leonardo’s anatomy studies were a big part of his work, as he created the first textbook of human anatomy. He received formal anatomy training under his apprenticeship with Andrea del Verrocchio. Da Vinci grew to love topographic anatomy, which is the study of anatomy based on regions or divisions of the body (such as muscles, nerves, arteries, ect.) One of his best known studies is the Vitruvian man. The Vitruvian man is a nude male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart simultaneously inscribed in a circle. The measurements

were correct for a average man at the time. He then started dissecting corpse such as a 100 year man that he has previously known. This helped him greatly advance his skills and advances in science. He eventually abandoned anatomy studies and most of his sketches have been lost.

Da Vinci was also a valued engineer. Due to his big imagination it was hard to remain practical at the time so some of his inventions were not divisible. In 2002 one of his visions was resurrected and some engineers built a small bridge based off of his ideas. Leonardo was fascinated with the phenomenon of flight and this lead him to studying birds, including his c. 1505 Cidex on the Flight of Birds. Most of his ideas were brilliant, some unpractical and many had to wait hundreds of years before they could be applied.

One of Leonardo Da Vinci biggest accomplishments was the Mona Lisa (or Gioconda). This painting is seen to have both male and female features, while some see it closer to the virgin Mary. This painting was painted between 1503 and 1506. There are many theories behind the Mona Lisa. In the past she was thought to be Mona Lisa Gherardini, a courtesan but current scholarship indicates she was Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of a Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo. Today you can find this painting in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.

Leonardo Da Vinci also was well known for his painting “The Last Supper.” It was painted around 1495 to 1498 during his time in Mulan. This painting was created for the refectory of the city's monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie. The painting stands about 15 to 29 and is Da Vinci's only surviving fresco. In this painting it depicts the Passover dinner, where Jesus would address the apostle saying “One of you shall betray me.” The expressions that each Apostle has as well as Jesus has inspired generations of painters.

Leonardo had a big desire for knowledge, which guided his thinking and behavior. He considered his eye to be his main avenue to knowledge, and to him sight was mans highest sense for it conveyed the facts or experience quickly and accurately. The words saper vedere, meaning “knowing how to see” (Heydenreich) became one of his greatest themes for his studies. He applied his creativity to every realm in which graphic representation was used.

When he worked in Milan he was a court artist. Throughout his life he also had taken up many other roles. He was a civil engineer and architect (designing mechanical structures such as bridges and aqueducts). He also was a military planner and weapons designer (designing tanks, catapults, machine guns and naval weapons). Leonardo hated the war as he called it “Beastly madness”, but since the Renaissance, Italy was constantly at war and he couldn't avoid it. He designed many weapons such as sessile, multi barreled machine guns, grenades, mortars and even a modern style tank. He also had created a underwater breathing device buy did not reveal it as he believed it would be likely used for evil in the war. Da Vinci also had a lot of well known Scientific accomplishments. He proposed that earth rotates around the sun, proposing that the moon's light is reflecting sunlight. This helped support his shell theory as to why sea shells would be found miles inland.

In conclusion Leonardo da Vinci is the most important example of a Renaissance man. He lived in the 1400’s and 1500’s, in a time known as the Renaissance. A Renaissance man is not just someone who lived in the Renaissance. Such a person has a wide range of interests and accomplishments across many different fields of study. Leonardo did not allow himself to be boxed into one area of study. He was a painter, sculptor, musician, writer, engineer, architect, botanist, anatomist, and an inventor. His work helped change society, as well as his art, including two paintings that remain among the world’s most famous and admired, the Mona Lisa and

The Last Supper. An ideal Renaissance man strove to master almost every area of study and they excelled in many fields, which he did through his many forms of art and inventions. Leonardo's work helped exolve and strengthen humanity. Due to his skills and love for science/nature he created so many things that help us now in our everyday life. Even though most of his studies were ahead of his time they helped inspire scientists and artist today. His work and studies left people amazed and puzzled for hundreds of years, as well as inspired so many artist and engineers. Without Leonardo da Vinci we might not have evolved as fast as we have and society could have changed greatly."

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