BIOGRAPHY: LEONARDO DA VINCI

BIRTH:	15 April 1452,
COUNTRY:	Italy
DEATH:	2 May 1519,
WORKS:	The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and many more…

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Leonardo da Vinci was a leading artist and intellectual of the Italian Renaissance who’s known for his enduring works “The Last Supper” and the “Mona Lisa.”

                                             Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452 to May 2, 1519) was a painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, military engineer and draftsman — the epitome of a “Renaissance man.”

With a curious mind and keen intellect, da Vinci studied the laws of science and nature, which greatly informed his work.

. Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous works include the “Vitruvian Man,” “The Last Supper” and the “Mona Lisa.”

Ludovico Sforza also tasked da Vinci with sculpting a 16-foot-tall bronze equestrian statue of his father and founder of the family dynasty, Francesco Sforza. With the help of apprentices and students in his workshop, da Vinci worked on the project on and off for more than a dozen years.

Leonardo da Vinci is well known for his pioneering use of two painting techniques:

Chiaroscuro: a stark contrast between darkness and light that gave a three-dimensionality to da Vinci’s figures.

Sfumato: a technique in which subtle gradations, rather than strict borders, infuse paintings with a softer, smoky aura.

A man ahead of his time, da Vinci appeared to prophesy the future with his sketches of machines resembling a bicycle and a helicopter. Perhaps his most well-known “invention” is a “flying machine,” which is based on the physiology of a bat.

Leonardo da Vinci was raised by his father and his stepmother. At the age of five, he moved to his father’s family estate in nearby Vinci, the Tuscan town from which the surname associated with Leonardo derives, and lived with his uncle and grandparents.

His artistic talents were evident from an early age.

He learned a wide breadth of technical skills including metalworking, leather arts, carpentry, drawing, painting and sculpting.

One remarkable indication that Leonardo was likely dyslexic is in his handwriting. Leonardo was constantly sketching out his ideas for inventions. Most of the time, he wrote his notes in reverse, mirror image:

Although unusual, this is a trait sometimes shared by other left-handed dyslexic adults. Most of the time, dyslexic writers are not even consciously aware that they are writing this way; it is simply an easier and more natural way for them to write.

However, when it came to his drawing and artwork, Leonardo’s work is detailed and precise.

Like many leaders of Renaissance humanism, da Vinci did not see a divide between science and art. He viewed the two as intertwined disciplines rather than separate ones. He believed studying science made him a better artist.

Leonardo da Vinci thought sight was humankind’s most important sense and eyes the most important organ, and he stressed the importance of saper vedere, or “knowing how to see.” He believed in the accumulation of direct knowledge and facts through observation.

“A good painter has two chief objects to paint — man and the intention of his soul,” da Vinci wrote. “The former is easy, the latter hard, for it must be expressed by gestures and the movement of the limbs.”

Leonardo da Vinci died of a probable stroke on May 2, 1519, at the age of 67. He continued work on his scientific studies until his death; his assistant, Melzi, became the principal heir and executor of his estate. The “Mona Lisa” was bequeathed to Salai.

For centuries after his death, thousands of pages from his private journals with notes, drawings, observations and scientific theories have surfaced and provided a fuller measure of a true “Renaissance man.”

 

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