Who was Leonardo Da Vinci ?

Answer 1

Here goes.........

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was a talented Italian Renaissance Roman Catholic[1] polymath: architect, anatomist, sculptor, engineer, inventor, geometer, scientist, mathematician, musician, and painter. He has been described as the archetype of the "Renaissance man", a man infinitely curious and equally inventive. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and a universal genius.

Leonardo is famous for his realistic paintings, such as the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, as well as for influential drawings such as the Vitruvian Man. He conceived of ideas vastly ahead of his own time, notably conceptually inventing the helicopter, a tank, the use of concentrated solar power, the calculator, a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics, the double hull, and many others. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or were feasible during his lifetime; modern scientific approaches to metallurgy and engineering were only in their infancy during the Renaissance. In addition, he greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy, astronomy, civil engineering, optics, and the study of water (hydrodynamics). Of his works, only a few paintings survive, together with his notebooks (scattered among various collections) containing drawings, scientific diagrams and notes.

Leonardo had no surname in the modern sense; "da Vinci" simply means "from Vinci". His full birth name was "Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci", meaning "Leonardo, son of (Mes)ser Piero from Vinci."

in short..... he is the homosexual artist that painted mona lisa......and other stuff that's famous too....... some say monalisa is leonardo's female version of himself.......

Answer 2

Leonardo was a space alien. He invented nothing, just tried to get backward Earth humans to advance a bit with some of his race's obsolete technology.

Answer 3

A famous artist.

Answer 4

An artist.

Answer 5

Painter who painted masterpieces like mona lisa, the last supper etc...

Answer 6

He starred in the original Titanic film...lol

Answer 7

He was a man.

Answer 8

dwqd3

Answer 9

I hope you are not serious.

Answer 10

Leonardo da Vinci

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(d vĭn´chē, Ital. lāōnär´dō dä vēn´chē) , 1452—1519, Italian painter, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer, and scientist, b. near Vinci, a hill village in Tuscany. The versatility and creative power of Leonardo mark him as a supreme example of Renaissance genius. He depicted in his drawings, with scientific precision and consummate artistry, subjects ranging from flying machines to caricatures; he also executed intricate anatomical studies of people, animals, and plants. The richness and originality of intellect expressed in his notebooks reveal one of the greatest minds of all time.

Early Life and Work: Vinci and Florence

Leonardo was the illegitimate son of a Florentine notary and a peasant woman. Presumably he passed his childhood with his father's family in Vinci, where he developed an enduring interest in nature. Early sources describe his beauty, charm of manner, and precocious display of artistic talent.

In 1466 Leonardo moved to Florence, where he entered the workshop of Verrocchio and came into contact with such artists as Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, and Lorenzo di Credi. Early in his apprenticeship he painted an angel, and perhaps portions of the landscape, in Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ (Uffizi). In 1472 he was registered in the painters' guild. The culmination of Leonardo's art during his first period in Florence is the magnificent unfinished Adoration of the Magi (Uffizi) commissioned in 1481 by the monks of San Donato a Scopeto. In this work is revealed the integration of dramatic movement and chiaroscuro that characterizes the master's mature style.

Middle Life and Mature Work: Milan and Florence

Leonardo went to Milan c.1482 and remained at the court of Ludovico Sforza for 16 years. In this time he composed the greater part of his Trattato della pittura and the extensive notebooks that demonstrate the marvelous versatility and penetration of his genius. As court artist he also organized elaborate festivals. Severe plagues in 1484 and 1485 drew his attention to problems of town planning, an interest which was revived during his last years in France. Many drawings of plans and elevations for domed churches reflect a concern with architectural problems that must have been stimulated by contact with Bramante during these years. He worked c.1488 on a model for the tambour and dome of the cathedral at Milan. In 1490 he was employed with Francesco di Giorgio as consulting engineer on the restoration of the cathedral at Pavia and later on the cathedral at Piacenza.

In 1483, Leonardo, with his pupil Ambrogio de Predis, was commissioned to execute the famous Madonna of the Rocks. Two versions of the painting exist–one in the Louvre (1483—c.1486), another in the National Gallery, London (1483—1508). Leonardo's fresco of the Last Supper (Milan) was begun c.1495 and completed by 1498. This work is now badly damaged. Leonardo's own experiments with the fresco medium account in part for its disintegration, which was already noticed by 1517. Deterioration and repeated restorations had obliterated details and individual figures. Nonetheless, the composition and general disposition of the figures reveal a power of invention and a sublimity of spiritual content that mark the painting among the world's masterpieces. In 1978 a major (and controversial) restoration was begun, and in 1994—95 protective air-filtration and climate-control equipment were installed. The restoration was completed in 1999, leaving the fresco brightened considerably with details clarified, but also revealing the extensive loss of the original painting.

While at Ludovico's court Leonardo also worked on an equestrian monument to the duke's father, Francesco Sforza. The work was never cast, and the model, admired by his contemporaries, perished during the French invasion of 1499. In 1511 he undertook a similar work with the commission of an equestrian monument for Gian Giacomo Trivulzio. This work was also never completed and known only through drawings related to the project. After the fall (1499) of Ludovico Sforza, Leonardo left Milan and, following brief sojourns in Mantua and Venice, returned to Florence in 1500.

Back in Florence Leonardo engaged in much theoretical work in mathematics and pursued his anatomical studies at the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova. In 1502 he entered the service of Cesare Borgia as a military engineer. His engagement took him to central Italy to study swamp reclamation projects in Piombino and to tour the cities of Romagna. At Urbino he met Niccolò Machiavelli, who later became a close friend.

By 1503 he was back in Florence, where he was commissioned to execute the fresco of the battle of Anghiari. This work, like its companion piece assigned to Michelangelo, was never completed, and the cartoons were subsequently destroyed. The work exerted enormous influence on later artists, however, and some impression of the original may be had from anonymous copies in the Uffizi and Casa Horne (Florence), from an engraving of 1558 of Lorenzo Zacchia, and from a drawing by Rubens (Louvre). From about this time dates the celebrated Mona Lisa (Louvre), the portrait of the wife of a Florentine merchant.

In 1506, Leonardo returned to Milan, engaged by Charles d'Amboise in the name of the French king, Louis XII. Here he again served as architect and engineer. Gifted with a gargantuan curiosity concerning the physical world, he continued his scientific investigations, concerning himself with problems of geology, botany, hydraulics, and mechanics. In 1510—11 his interest in anatomy quickened considerably. At the same time he was active as painter and sculptor, had many pupils, and profoundly influenced the Milanese painters. A painting generally ascribed to this period is the St. Anne, Mary, and the Child (Louvre), a work that exemplifies Leonardo's handling of sfumato–misty, subtle transitions in tone.

Late Life and Work: Rome and France

In 1513 Leonardo went to Rome, attracted by the patronage of the newly elected Medici pope, Leo X, and his brother Giuliano. Here he found the field dominated by Michelangelo and Raphael. The aging master was assigned to various architectural and engineering projects at the Vatican and received commissions for several paintings. It was perhaps in this period that he executed the enigmatic painting of the young St. John the Baptist (Louvre). Giuliano de' Medici left Rome in 1515 and died at Fiesole in the following year.

It is conjectured that Leonardo left with him, attached to his household, and that soon afterward he accepted an invitation of Francis I of France to settle at the castle of Cloux, near Amboise. Here the old master was left entirely free to pursue his own researches until his death. Although there is no certain record of his last years, he seems to have been active with festival decoration and to have been interested in a canal project. Notes and drawings ascribed to this late period show his continued interest in natural philosophy and experimental science.

Bibliography

In 1965 two previously lost notebooks were discovered in the National Library of Spain, Madrid. The first is a vast work concerning technological principles; the second is an intellectual diary spanning 14 years. The lost notebooks were published as The Madrid Codices (1974).

See also Leonardo da Vinci: Life and Work, Paintings and Drawings, ed. by L. Goldschneider (8th ed. 1967); The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, ed. by J. P. Richter (2 vol., 1970); The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, ed. by J. P. Richter (3d ed. 1970); I. B. Hart, The World of Leonardo da Vinci (1962, repr. 1970); P. R. Ritchie-Calder, Leonardo and the Age of the Eye (1970); C. Pedretti, Leonardo: A Study in Chronology and Style (1973); L. Reti, ed., The Unknown Leonardo (1974); K. Clark, Leonardo da Vinci (rev. ed. 1989); M. Kemp, ed., Leonardo on Painting: Anthology of Writings by Leonardo da Vinci (1989); A. R. Turner, Inventing Leonardo (1993); P. C. Marani, Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings (2001); C. C. Bambach, Leonardo da Vinci: Master Draftsman (2003); F. Zöllner, Leonardo da Vinci: 1452—1519, The Complete Paintings and Drawings (2003); M. Kemp, Leonardo (2004); C. Nicholl, Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the Mind (2004).
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was a talented Italian Renaissance Roman Catholic[1] polymath: architect, anatomist, sculptor, engineer, inventor, geometer, scientist, mathematician, musician, and painter. He has been described as the archetype of the "Renaissance man", a man infinitely curious and equally inventive. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and a universal genius.

Leonardo is famous for his realistic paintings, such as the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, as well as for influential drawings such as the Vitruvian Man. He conceived of ideas vastly ahead of his own time, notably conceptually inventing the helicopter, a tank, the use of concentrated solar power, the calculator, a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics, the double hull, and many others. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or were feasible during his lifetime; modern scientific approaches to metallurgy and engineering were only in their infancy during the Renaissance. In addition, he greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy, astronomy, civil engineering, optics, and the study of water (hydrodynamics). Of his works, only a few paintings survive, together with his notebooks (scattered among various collections) containing drawings, scientific diagrams and notes.

Leonardo had no surname in the modern sense; "da Vinci" simply means "from Vinci". His full birth name was "Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci", meaning "Leonardo, son of (Mes)ser Piero from Vinci."

Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Professional life
3 Art
3.1 Early works in Florence (1452–1482)
3.2 Milan (1482–1499)
3.3 Nomadic Period — Italy and France (1499–1516)
3.4 Selected works
4 Science and engineering
4.1 Anatomy
4.2 Inventions and engineering
4.3 His notebooks
5 Personal life
5.1 Vegetarianism
6 Johannite heresy
7 Representations in popular culture
8 Further reading
9 See also
10 References and notes
11 External links



[edit]
Early life

Plato (detail of The School of Athens by Raphael), believed to be based on Leonardo's likeness. The pointing finger was a noted feature of Leonardo.Leonardo was born in the village of Anchiano, a few miles from the small town of Vinci, in Tuscany, near Florence. He was the son of a wealthy Florentine notary and a peasant woman. In the mid-1460s the family settled in Florence, where Leonardo was given the best education that Florence, a major intellectual and artistic centre of Italy, could offer. He rapidly advanced socially and intellectually. He was handsome, persuasive in conversation, and a fine musician and improviser. About 1466 he 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 activities, from the painting of altarpieces and panel pictures to the creation of large sculptural projects in marble and bronze. In 1472 he was entered in the painter's guild of Florence, and in 1476 he was still considered Verrocchio's assistant. In Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ, in 1470, the kneeling angel at the left of the painting is by Leonardo. In 1478 Leonardo became an independent master at the age of 26. His first commission, to paint an altarpiece for the chapel of the Palazzo Vecchio, the Florentine town hall, was never started. His first large painting, The Adoration of the Magi, which he started in 1481 and was never completed, was ordered for the Monastery of San Donato a Scopeto, Florence.


The Baptism of Christ - One of Leonardo's first public works was to create an angel (lower-left) and part of the landscape in this 1472 Verrocchio paintingThe first known biography of Leonardo was published in 1550 by Giorgio Vasari who wrote Vite de' più eccelenti architettori, pittori e scultori italiani ("The lives of the most excellent Italian architects, painters and sculptors"), and later became an independent painter in Florence. Most of the information collected by Vasari was from first-hand accounts of Leonardo's contemporaries (Vasari was only a child when Leonardo died), and it remains the first reference in studying Leonardo's life.

According to Vasari:

[T]he greatest of all Andrea's pupils was Leonardo da Vinci, in whom, besides a beauty of person never sufficiently admired and a wonderful grace in all his actions, there was such a power of intellect that whatever he turned his mind to he made himself master of with ease.
[edit]
Professional life
The earliest known dated work of Leonardo's is a drawing done in pen and ink of the Arno valley, drawn on the 5th of August, 1473. It is assumed that he had his own workshop between 1476 and 1478, receiving two orders during this time.

From around 1482 to 1499, Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan [1], employed Leonardo and permitted him to operate his own workshop, complete with apprentices. It was here that seventy tons of bronze that had been set aside for


Leonardo da Vinci statue outside the Uffizi, FlorenceLeonardo's "Gran Cavallo" horse statue (see below) were cast into weapons for the Duke in an attempt to save Milan from the French under Charles VIII in 1495.

When the French returned under Louis XII in 1498, Milan fell without a fight, overthrowing Sforza [2]. Leonardo stayed in Milan for a time, until one morning when he found French archers using his life-size clay model of the "Gran Cavallo" for target practice. He left with Salai, his assistant and intimate, and his friend Luca Pacioli (the first man to describe double-entry bookkeeping) for Mantua, moving on after 2 months to Venice (where he was hired as a military engineer), then briefly returning to Florence at the end of April 1500.

In Florence he entered the services of Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI, acting as a military architect and engineer; with Cesare he travelled throughout Italy. In 1506 he returned to Milan, now in the hands of Maximilian Sforza after Swiss mercenaries had driven out the French.

From 1513 to 1516, he lived in Rome, where painters like Raphael and Michelangelo were active at the time, though he did not have much contact with these artists. However, he was probably of pivotal importance in the relocation of David (in Florence), one of Michelangelo's masterpieces, against the artist's will.


Leonardo da Vinci tomb in Saint Hubert Chapel(Amboise).In 1515, Francis I of France retook Milan, and Leonardo was commissioned to make a centrepiece (a mechanical lion) for the peace talks between the French king and Pope Leo X in Bologna, where he must have first met the King. In 1516, he entered Francis' service, being given the use of the manor house Clos Lucé (also called "Cloux"; now a museum open to the public) next to the king's residence at the royal Chateau Amboise, where he spent the last three years of his life. The King granted Leonardo and his entourage generous pensions: the surviving document lists 1,000 écus for the artist, 400 for Count Francesco Melzi, (his pupil and allegedly one of the great loves of his life, named as "apprentice"), and 100 for Salai ("servant"). In 1518 Salai left Leonardo and returned to Milan, where he eventually perished in a duel. Francis became a close friend. Some twenty years after Leonardo's death, Francis told the artist Benevenuto Cellini that he believed that "No man had ever lived who had learned as much about sculpture, painting, and architecture, but still more that he was a very great philosopher."


Clos Lucé, in France where Leonardo died in 1519.Leonardo died at Clos Lucé, France, on 2nd May, 1519 (Romantic legend said that he died in Francis's arms). According to his wish, 60 beggars followed his casket. He was buried in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert in the castle of Amboise. Although Melzi was his principal heir and executor, Salai was not forgotten; he received half of Leonardo's vineyards.

[edit]
Art
Leonardo pioneered new painting techniques in many of his pieces. One of them, a colour shading technique called "Chiaroscuro", used a series of glazes custom-made by Leonardo. Chiaroscuro is a technique of bold contrast between light and dark. Another effect perfected and popularized by Leonardo is called sfumato, which creates an atmospheric haze or smoky effect.

[edit]
Early works in Florence (1452–1482)

One of his first paintings done in Florence, the Benois Madonna (1478)Leonardo was an apprentice to the artist Verrocchio in Florence when he was about 15. In 1476 Leonardo worked with Verrocchio to paint The Baptism of Christ for the friars of Vallombrosa. He painted the angel at the front and the landscape, and the difference between the two artists' work can be seen, with Leonardo's finer blending and brushwork. Giorgio Vasari told the story that when Verrocchio saw Leonardo's work he was so amazed that he resolved never to touch a brush again.

Leonardo's first solo painting was the Madonna and Child completed in 1478; at the same time, he also painted a picture of a little boy eating sherbet. From 1480 to 1481, he created a small Annunciation painting, now in the Louvre. In 1481 he also painted an unfinished work of St. Jerome. Between 1481 and 1482 he started painting The Adoration of the Magi. He made extensive, ambitious plans and many drawings for the painting, but it was never finished, as Leonardo's services had been accepted by the Duke of Milan.


The Last Supper (1498), painted in Milan[edit]
Milan (1482–1499)
Leonardo spent 17 years in Milan in the service of Duke Ludovico (between 1482 and 1499). He did many paintings, sculptures, and drawings during these many years. He also designed court festivals, and drew many of his engineering sketches. He was given free reign to work on any project he chose, though he left many projects unfinished, completing only about six paintings during this time. These include Virgin of the Rocks in 1494 and The Last Supper (Ultima Cena or Cenacolo, in Milan) in 1498. In 1499 he painted Madonna and Child with St. Anne. He worked on many of his notebooks between 1490 and 1495, including the Codex Trivulzianus.

He often planned grandiose paintings with many drawings and sketches, only to leave them unfinished. One of his projects involved making plans and models for a monumental seven-metre-high (24 ft) horse statue in bronze called "Gran Cavallo". Because of war with France, the project was never finished. (In 1999 a pair of full-scale statues based on his plans were cast, one erected in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the other in Milan [3].) The bronze intended for use in the building of the statue was used to make cannon, and victorious French soldiers used the clay model of the statue for target practice. The Hunt Museum in Limerick, Ireland has a small bronze horse thought to be the work of an apprentice from Leonardo's original design.

When the French invaded Milan in 1499, Ludovico Sforza lost control, forcing Leonardo to search for a new patron.

[edit]
Nomadic Period — Italy and France (1499–1516)

Virgin of the Rocks (second version)Between 1499 and 1516 Leonardo worked for a number of people, travelling around Italy doing several commissions, before moving to France in 1516. This has been described as a 'Nomadic Period'. [4] He stayed in:

Mantua (1500)
Venice (1501)
Florence (1501–06) known sometimes as his Second Florentine Period.
Travelled between Florence and Milan staying in both places for short periods before settling in Milan.
Milan (1506–13) (known sometimes as his Second Milanese Period, under the patronage of Charles d'Amboise until 1511)
Rome (1514)
Florence (1514)
Pavia, Bologna, Milan (1515)
France (1516–19) (patronage of King Francis I)
In 1500 he went to Mantua where he sketched a portrait of the Marchesa Isabella d'Este. He left for Venice in 1501, and soon after returned to Florence.


Mona Lisa (1503–1507)After returning to Florence, he was commissioned for a large mural commemorating The Battle of Anghiari, a great military triumph in the history of Florence, by the Grand Council Chamber in the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of government of the Florentine Republic (Zollner p. 164); his rival, Michelangelo, was to sketch on the opposite wall The Battle of Cascina. After producing a fantastic variety of studies in preparation for the work, he left the city, with the mural unfinished due to problems with getting paid by his employer and more importantly by his choice of technique, which instead of the fresco technique he experimented again (as in the Last Supper) with oil binders hoping to extend the time to manipulate the paint (Zollner pp. 172–178). The incomplete painting was destroyed in a war in the middle of the sixteenth century. Rubens and other artists have produced their own studies based on Leonardo's original sketches.

Most evidence suggests that he began work on the Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda, now at the Louvre in Paris) in 1503 and continued to work on it until 1506, working sporadically on it well after that (Sasson p. 22). It is likely to be Lisa de Gherardini del Giocondo, wife of a silk merchant, Francesco del Giocondo. Commissioned by her husband to commemorate the birth of their second son as well as moving to a new home (Zollner p. 240). He most likely kept it with him at all times, and did not travel without it. Much is attributed to the importance of this painting, primarily why it is the most famous painting in the world. In short, it was famous at the time of its contemporaries for many different reasons than it is now. Leonardo da Vinci's use of sfumato (the smoky effect he has on his work) transcended convention of the time, as did the sitter's angle, contrapposto, and the bird's-eye view of the background. For the most part it has become famous for all of the above and for the insurmountable amount of media attention it has received. In other words, it has become famous for being famous.

One of the main reasons "why it is the most famous painting in the world" is the mastery with which Leonardo painted the portrait of a woman's face depicting many simultaneous and unfathomable emotions, leading up to the ever unanswerable question "is she or isn't she smiling?"

It is also of interest that the Mona Lisa was one of only three paintings that he took with him to his final residence at Clos Lucé; part of its original fame appears to be that it may have been his favourite work. It certainly had a rather large monetary valuation in the will of his protogé Salai.

He painted St Anne in 1509. Between 1506 and 1512, he lived in Milan and under the patronage of the French Governor Charles d'Amboise, he painted several other paintings. These included The Leda and the Swan, known now only through copies as the original work did not survive. He painted a second version of The Virgin of the Rocks (1506–1508). While under the patronage of Pope Leo X, he painted St. John the Baptist (1513–1516).

During his time in France, Leonardo made studies of the Virgin Mary for The Virgin and Child with St. Anne, and many drawings and other studies.

[edit]
Selected works
The Baptism of Christ (1472–1475) – Uffizi, Florence, Italy (from Verrocchio's workshop; angel on the left-hand side is generally agreed to be the earliest surviving painted work by Leonardo)
Annunciation (1475–1480) – Uffizi, Florence, Italy
Ginevra de' Benci (c. 1475) – National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., United States
The Benois Madonna (1478–1480) – Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
The Virgin with Flowers (1478–1481) – Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany
Adoration of the Magi (1481) – Uffizi, Florence, Italy
The Madonna of the Rocks (1483–86) – Louvre, Paris, France
Lady with an Ermine (1488–90) – Czartoryski Museum, Krakow, Poland
Portrait of a Musician (c. 1490) – Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan, Italy
Madonna Litta (1490–91) – Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
La belle Ferronière (1495–1498) – Louvre, Paris, France — attribution to Leonardo is disputed
Last Supper (1498) – Convent of Sta. Maria delle Grazie, Milan, Italy
The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist (c. 1499–1500) – National Gallery, London, UK
Madonna of the Yarnwinder 1501 (original now lost)
Mona Lisa or La Gioconda (1503-1505/1507) – Louvre, Paris, France
The Madonna of the Rocks or The Virgin of the Rocks (1508) – National Gallery, London, UK
Leda and the Swan (1508) - (Only copies survive — best-known example in Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy)
The Virgin and Child with St. Anne (c. 1510) – Louvre, Paris, France
St. John the Baptist (c. 1514) – Louvre, Paris, France
Bacchus (or St. John in the Wilderness) (1515) – Louvre, Paris, France
The Sacrelige of Mary(c.1523) -Louvre, Paris, France
[edit]
Science and engineering

The rhombicuboctahedron, by Leonardo, as it appeared in the Luca Pacioli's Divina Proportione, 1509.Renaissance humanism saw no mutually exclusive polarities between the sciences and the arts, and Leonardo's studies in science and engineering are as impressive and innovative as his artistic work, recorded in notebooks comprising some 13,000 pages of notes and drawings, which fuse art and science. These notes were made and maintained through Leonardo's travels through Europe, during which he made continual observations of the world around him. He was left-handed and used mirror writing throughout his life. This is explainable by the fact that it is easier to pull a quill pen than to push it; by using mirror-writing, the left-handed writer is able to pull the pen from right to left and also avoid smudging what has just been written. He wrote in his diaries (journals) using mirror writing.

His approach to science was an observational one: he tried to understand a phenomenon by describing and depicting it in utmost detail, and did not emphasize experiments or theoretical explanation. Since he lacked formal education in Latin and mathematics, contemporary scholars mostly ignored Leonardo the scientist, although he did teach himself Latin. It has also been said that he was planning a series of treatises to be published on a variety of subjects though none were ever done.


The Vitruvian Man, Leonardo's study of the proportions of the human body.[edit]
Anatomy
Leonardo started to discover the anatomy of the human body at the time he was apprenticed to Andrea del Verrocchio, as his teacher insisted that all his pupils learn anatomy. As he became successful as an artist, he was given permission to dissect human corpses at the hospital Santa Maria Nuova in Florence. Later he dissected in Milan at the hospital Maggiore and in Rome at the hospital Santo Spirito (the first mainland Italian hospital). From 1510 to 1511 he collaborated with the doctor Marcantonio della Torre (1481 to 1511). In 30 years, Leonardo dissected 30 male and female corpses of different ages. Together with Marcantonio, he prepared to publish a theoretical work on anatomy and made more than 200 drawings. However, his book was published only in 1680 (161 years after his death) under the heading Treatise on painting. Leonardo also dissected cows, birds, monkeys, bears, and frogs, comparing their anatomical structure with that of humans.


Studies of Embryos by Leonardo da Vinci (circa 1510)Leonardo drew many images of the human skeleton, and was the first to describe the double S form of the backbone. He also studied the inclination of pelvis and sacrum and stressed that sacrum was not uniform, but composed of five fused vertebrae. He was also able to represent exceptionally well the human skull and cross-sections of the brain (transversal, sagittal, and frontal). He drew many images of the lungs, mesentery, urinary tract, sex organs, and even coitus. He was one of the first who drew the fetus in the intrauterine position (he wished to learn about "the miracle of pregnancy"). He often drew muscles and tendons of the cervical muscles and of the shoulder. He was a master of topographic anatomy. He not only studied human anatomy, he studied the anatomy of many other animals, as well. Leonardo could simultaneously draw with one hand and write with the other.

It is important to note that he was not only interested in structure but also in function, so he became a physiologist in addition to being an anatomist. He actively searched for models among those who had significant physical deformities, for the purpose of developing caricature drawings.

His study of human anatomy led also to the design of the first known robot in recorded history. The design, which has come to be called Leonardo's robot, was probably made around the year 1495 but was rediscovered only in the 1950s. It is not known if an attempt was made to build the device. He correctly worked out how heart valves eddy the flow of blood yet he was unaware of circulation as he believed that blood was pumped to the muscles where it was consumed. A diagram drawing Leonardo did of a heart inspired a British heart surgeon to pioneer a new way to repair damaged hearts in 2005. [5]


An armoured tank designed by Leonardo at the Château d'Amboise[edit]
Inventions and engineering
Fascinated by the phenomenon of flight, Leonardo produced detailed studies of the flight of birds, and plans for several flying machines, including a helicopter powered by four men (which would not have worked since the body of the craft would have rotated) and a light hang glider which could have flown. [2] On January 3, 1496 he unsuccessfully tested a flying machine he had constructed.


The interior of Leonardo da Vinci's armoured tankIn 1502, Leonardo da Vinci produced a drawing of a single span 720-foot (240 m) bridge as part of a civil engineering project for Sultan Beyazid II of Constantinople. The bridge was intended to span an inlet at the mouth of the Bosphorus known as the Golden Horn. Beyazid did not pursue the project, because he believed that such a construction was impossible. Leonardo's vision was resurrected in 2001 when a smaller bridge based on his design was constructed in Norway. In May 2006, the Turkish government decided to construct Leonardo's bridge. It is expected to be finished by October 2006.

In 1490, he made a sketch that conceptualized a stepless continuously variable transmission (CVT). [6] Modern variations of Leonardo's transmission concept are being used in some automobiles produced today. [7] Continuously variable transmissions have been available in tractors, snowmobiles, and motorscooters for many years.

Owing to his employment as a military engineer, his notebooks also contain several designs for military machines: machine guns, an armoured tank powered by humans or horses, cluster bombs, a working parachute, a diving suit made out of pig's leather and a hose connecting to air, etc. even though he later held war to be the worst of human activities. Other inventions include a submarine, a cog-wheeled device that has been interpreted as the first mechanical calculator, and one of the first programmable robots that has been misinterpreted as a car powered by a spring mechanism. In his years in the Vatican, he planned an industrial use of solar power, by employing concave mirrors to heat water. While most of Leonardo's inventions were not built during his lifetime, models of many of them have been constructed with the support of IBM and are on display at the Leonardo da Vinci Museum at the Château du Clos Lucé in Amboise[8].

[edit]
His notebooks
Leonardo kept notebooks throughout his life, in which he wrote daily, often in a private "backwards" or mirror-image handwriting. While the popular belief that he did this to keep some amount of secrecy may have some truth, the more plausible reason is that he did this naturally due to his left-handedness. He wrote about his sketches, inventions, architecture, elements of mechanics, painting ideas, human anatomy, grocery lists and even people that owed him money. These notebooks—originally loose papers of different types and sizes, distributed by friends after his death—have found their way into major collections such as the Louvre, the Biblioteca Nacional de España, the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, and the Victoria and Albert Museum and British Library in London. The British Library has put a selection from its notebook (BL Arundel MS 263) on the web in the Turning the Pages section. [9] The Codex Leicester is the only major scientific work of Leonardo's in private hands. It is owned by Bill Gates, and is displayed once a year in different cities around the world.

Why Leonardo did not publish or otherwise distribute the contents of his notebooks remains a mystery to those who believe that Leonardo wanted to make his observations public knowledge. Technological historian Lewis Mumford suggests that Leonardo kept notebooks as a private journal, intentionally censoring his work from those who might irresponsibly use it (the tank, for instance). They remained obscure until the 19th century, and were not directly of value to the development of science and technology. In January 2005, researchers discovered the hidden laboratory used by Leonardo da Vinci for studies of flight and other pioneering scientific work in previously sealed rooms at a monastery next to the Basilica of the Santissima Annunziata, in the heart of Florence.[10]

[edit]
Personal life

St. John the BaptistLeonardo kept his private life particularly secret. He claimed to have a distaste of physical relations: his comment that "the act of procreation and anything that has any relation to it is so disgusting that human beings would soon die out if there were no pretty faces and sensuous dispositions", was later interpreted by Sigmund Freud, in an analysis of the artist, as indicative of his "frigidity".[3]

In 1476, while still living with Verrocchio, he was accused anonymously of sodomy with a 17 year-old model, Jacopo Saltarelli, a youth already known to the authorities for his sexual escapades with men. After two months of investigation he was acquitted, ostensibly because no witnesses stepped forward though others claim it was due to his father's respected position. [4] For some time afterwards, Leonardo and the others were kept under observation by Florence's Officers of the Night - a Renaissance organization charged with suppressing the practice of sodomy, as shown by surviving legal records of the Podestà and the Officers of the Night.

Leonardo's alleged love of boys was a topic of discussion even in the sixteenth century. In "Il Libro dei Sogni" (The Book of Dreams), a fictional dialogue on l'amore masculino (male love) written by the contemporary art critic and theorist Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Leonardo appears as one of the protagonists and declares, "Know that male love is exclusively the product of virtue which, joining men together with the diverse affections of friendship, makes it so that from a tender age they would enter into the manly one as more stalwart friends." In the dialogue, the interlocutor inquires of Leonardo about his relations with his assistant, il Salaino, "Did you play the game from behind which the Florentines love so much?" Leonardo answers, "And how many times! Keep in mind that he was a beautiful young man, especially at about fifteen."[5]


Leonardo's servant and assistant, Caprotti il Salaino by an anonymous artist (1495)Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno[6], nicknamed Salai or il Salaino ("The Little Unclean One" i.e., the devil), was described by Vasari as "a graceful and beautiful youth with fine curly hair, in which Leonardo greatly delighted." Il Salaino entered Leonardo's household in 1490 at the age of 10. The relationship was not an easy one. A year later Leonardo made a list of the boy’s misdemeanours, calling him "a thief, a liar, stubborn, and a glutton." The "Little Devil" had made off with money and valuables on at least five occasions, and spent a fortune on apparel, among which were twenty-four pairs of shoes. Nevertheless, il Salaino remained his companion, servant, and assistant for the next thirty years, and Leonardo’s notebooks during their early years contain pictures of a handsome, curly-haired adolescent.

Il Salaino's name also appears (crossed out) on the back of an erotic drawing (ca. 1513) by the artist, The Incarnate Angel, at one time in the collection of Queen Victoria. It is seen as a humorous and revealing take on his major work, St. John the Baptist, (based on Salaino's appearance) also a work and a theme imbued with homoerotic overtones by a number of art critics such as Martin Kemp and James Saslow [7] Another erotic work, found on the verso of a foglio in the Atlantic Codex, depicts il Salaino's behind, towards which march several penises on two legs.[8] Some of Leonardo's other works on erotic topics, his drawings of heterosexual human sexual intercourse, were destroyed by a priest who found them after his death [citation needed].

In 1506, Leonardo met Count Francesco Melzi, the 15 year old son of a Lombard aristocrat. Melzi himself, in a letter, described Leonardo's feelings towards him as a sviscerato et ardentissimo amore ("a deeply passionate and most burning love").[9] Salai eventually accepted Melzi's continued presence and the three undertook journeys throughout Italy. Melzi became Leonardo's pupil and life companion, and is considered to have been his favourite student.

Though Salai was always introduced as Leonardo's "pupil", the artistic merit of his work has been a matter of debate. He is credited with a nude portrait of Lisa del Gioconda, known as Monna Vanna, painted in 1515 under the name of Andrea Salai.[11] The other portrait of Lisa del Gioconda, the Mona Lisa was bequeathed to Salai by Leonardo, a valuable piece even then, as it is valued in Salai's own will at £200,000.

Both of these relationships follow the pattern of eroticized apprenticeships which were frequent in the Florence of Leonardo's day, relationships which were often loving and frequently sexual. (See Historical pederastic couples.) Besides them, Leonardo had many other friends who are figures now renowned in their fields, or for their influence on history. These included Cesare Borgia, in whose service he spent the years of 1502 and 1503. During that time he also met Niccolò Machiavelli, with whom later he was to develop a close friendship. Also among his friends are counted Franchinus Gaffurius and Isabella d'Este, whose portrait he drew while on a journey which took him through Mantua.[10]

[edit]
Vegetarianism
It is apparent from the works of Leonardo and his early biographers that he was a man of high integrity and very sensitive to moral issues. His respect for life led him to being a vegetarian for at least part of his life [11]. The term "vegan" would fit him well, as he even entertained the notion that taking milk from cows amounts to stealing. Under the heading, "Of the beasts from whom cheese is made," he answers, "the milk will be taken from the tiny children." [12]. Vasari reports a story that as a young man in Florence he often bought caged birds just to release them from captivity. He was also a respected judge on matters of beauty and elegance, particularly in the creation of pageants.

It is possible that Leonardo da Vinci embraced vegetarianism at a young age, and unverified claims have been made that he remained so for the entire duration of his life. [[13]] [citation needed]

[edit]
Johannite heresy
It has been the subject of much speculation whether da Vinci was an orthodox Christian or whether he was a heretic. Many conspiracy theorists believe that he was "infected" with the Johannite heresy, that is he regarded not Jesus Christ but John the Baptist as the real Christ. This subject has also been the source for many best-selling books in recent times.

[edit]
Representations in popular culture
Main article: Leonardo da Vinci in popular culture
With the genius and legacy of Leonardo da Vinci having captivated authors and scholars generations after his death, many examples of "da Vinci fiction" can be found in culture and literature. As of 2006, the most prominent example is Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code (2003), which is concerned with Leonardo's role as a supposed member of a secret society called the Priory of Sion.

[edit]
Further reading
Jean Paul Richter (1970). The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci. Dover. ISBN 0-486-22572-0 and ISBN 0-486-22573-9 (paperback). 2 volumes. A reprint of the original 1883 edition.
Frank Zollner & Johannes Nathan (2003). Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings and Drawings. Taschen. ISBN 3-8228-1734-1 (hardback).
Fred Bérence (1965). Léonard de Vinci, L'homme et son oeuvre. Somogy. Dépot légal 4° trimestre 1965.
Charles Nicholl (2005). Leonardo da Vinci, The Flights of the mind. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-029681-6.
Simona Cremante (2005). Leonardo da Vinci: Artist, Scientist, Inventor. Giunti. ISBN 88-09-03891-6 (hardback).
John N. Lupia, "The Secret Revealed: How to Look at Italian Renaissance Painting," Medieval and Renaissance Times, Vol. 1, no. 2 (Summer, 1994): 6-17. (ISSN 1075–2110)
Sherwin B. Nuland, "Leonardo Da Vinci." 176 P. Phoenix Press. 2001. ISBN 0-7538-1269-X
Michael H. Hart (1992). The 100. Carol Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8065-1350-0 (paperback).
[edit]
See also
Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport near Rome
Leonardo da Vinci Art Institute, Cairo
Luca Pacioli
List of painters
List of famous left-handed people
List of Italian painters
List of famous Italians
Polymath
[edit]
References and notes
^ Adherents.com article on Leonardo Da Vinci's religious beliefs.
^ The U.S. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), aired in October 2005, a television programme called "Leonardo's Dream Machines", about the building and successful flight of a glider based on Leonardo's design
^ Sigmund Freud, Gesammelte Werke, bd VIII, 1909–1913
^ Saslow, Ganymede in the Renaissance: Homosexuality in Art and Society, 1986, p.197
^ E quante volte! Considera che egli era uno bellissimo giovane, e massime ne' 15 anni. Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo, "Il Libro dei Sogni;" (1563) in Scritti sulle arti; Centro DI, Firenze, 1974; vol 2, dialogue 5
^ Oreno website (Italian)
^ Saslow, ibid., passim)
^ Augusto Marinoni, in "Io Leonardo", Mondadori, Milano 1974, pp.288,310
^ Crompton, p.269
^ Michael Rocke, Forbidden Friendships epigraph, p. 148 & N120 p.298
^ http://www.ivu.org/history/davinci/hurwitz.html Page accessed 17 September 2006
History of Aerodynamics, John David Anderson, page 19. ISBN 521669553
Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists
Birth of Modern Science, Paolo Rossi, page 33. ISBN 631227113
Emperor Charles V, Impresario of War, James D Tracy, page 41. ISBN 0-521-81431-6
Algebra in Ancient and Modern Times, V S Varadarajan, page 58. ISBN 0-8218-0989-X
ArtNews article about current studies into Leonardo's life and works
[edit]
External links
Wikisource has original works written by or about:
Leonardo da VinciWikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Leonardo da VinciWikimedia Commons has media related to:
Leonardo da VinciManifest "Salviamo Leonardo" [14]
Review of the 2003 drawings exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York [15]
Leonardo da Vinci "Life and Works" in the "A World History of Art"
Works by Leonardo da Vinci at Project Gutenberg
Leonardo da Vinci by Maurice Walter Brockwell, available freely at Project Gutenberg
Complete text of the Richter translation of the Leonardo da Vinci Notebooks with images of all plates
Vasari: Life of Leonardo: in Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. The classic vita.
Leonardo's Paintings and Drawings in flash format
Leonardo's Testament
Leonardo da Vinci on the web page of the Italian National Museum of Science and Technology Leonardo da Vinci
Some digitized notebook pages with explanations from the British Library (Macromedia Shockwave format, works best for broadband users)
BBC Leonardo homepage
Web Gallery of Art
Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci : The Codex Leicester
Leonardo's Letter to Ludovico Sforza
Catholic Encyclopedia entry for Leonardo da Vinci
Da Vinci Decoded, Guardian article
Guide to London Exhibition of Leonardo Drawings
Dowload site for audio guide (mp3, 17 mins) to London Exhibition of Leonardo Drawings
Persondata
NAME Leonardo Da Vinci
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Italian artist and polymath
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1452
PLACE OF BIRTH Anchiano by Vinci
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 1519
PLACE OF DEATH Clos Lucé, France,


Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci"
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements | Articles with invalid ISBNs | Leonardo da Vinci | Italian painters | Italian anatomists | Italian civil engineers | Dynamicists | Mathematics and culture | Military engineers | Renaissance architects | Renaissance artists | Renaissance painters | Italian polymaths | Italian autodidacts | Italian vegetarians | Tuscan painters | History of anatomy | Artists | 1452 births | 1519 deaths

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