Leonardo Da Vinci :: Visual Arts Paintings Art

Leonardo Da Vinci Leonardo Da Vinci is a world renowned Italian painter, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer, and scientist. His curiosity for the things around him and the research was the fundamental point of his artistic and scientific accomplishments. His creations in painting influenced Italian art centuries after his death and his scientific studies (anatomy, optics and hydraulics) have helped made many developments of modern science. His famous paintings for example the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper are known world wide. People crave to own his paintings, or even just to have a look at them; Leonardo had influenced everyone up to this present day. Even Bill Gates used $30 million US for Leonardo’s painting ‘Codex Leicester’! Who is this remarkable man? And what did he do that taught the world to look at art and science in a new perspective? Leonardo told us that he was born on April 15th 1952 in the city of Vinci in Italy and was the son of a notary and a peasant girl. His parents had a lot of kids, but not with each other and having him ending up with 17 half sisters and brothers. He said that living in Vinci was the place where he developed his creativity and interest in nature. He was also exposed to the ancient Vinci painting tradition at that time. In 1466, he moved to Florence where he was apprenticed in the famous workshop of ‘Andrea Del Verrochio’. While working there, he painted an angel in Verrochio’s ‘Baptist of Christ’. His painting was so much better than his master that Verrochio never painted again. In 1482, Leonardo wrote a letter to the Duke of Milan telling him that he could build portable bridges that would enable dry routes for people to travel. At this time, he carried notebooks and started to keep all his ideas, opinions on everything including domestic, personal, scientific and philosophical along with explanatory sketches. These notebooks were full of advice for science and art not only for the people in the Renaissance but also useful painters now. The Duke gave lots of jobs to him that included designing weapons, buildings and machinery. He produced lots of ideas for nature, flying machines, geometry and mechanical things. His eager to start new things made it hard for him to complete the things that he had started making him only completing 6 of 17 works that he had done. He started to find himself interested in painting, architecture, the elements of mechanics and human anatomy from 1490 to 1495. He spent this time studying science or locking himself up in his room