
			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 Milan 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.  

