Leonardo da Vinci

Abdullah Ibrahim Prep 2C

 Biography

INTRODUCTION:
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452–May 2, 1519) was an Italian polymath
whose genius spanned an astonishing array of disciplines, making him the ultimate
embodiment of the Renaissance humanist ideal. He excelled as a painter, draftsman,
sculptor, architect, engineer, scientist, theorist, botanist, musician, and writer.
His insatiable curiosity and brilliant intellect led him to relentlessly study the laws of
science and nature, which profoundly informed his art.

EARLY LIFE:
 Born in the town of Anchiano, near the Tuscan hill town of Vinci, (now Italy).
 Born on April 15, 1452
 Parents : he was The illegitimate son of Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci, a
Florentine notary and landlord, and Caterina, a peasant girl (who later married
an artisan).
 Family : Leonardo was brought up on the family estate in Anchiano by his
paternal grandfather. His father married a sixteen-year old girl, Albiera, with
whom Leonardo was close, but who died at an early age. Leonardo was the
oldest of twelve siblings but was never treated as the illegitimate son. Like his
siblings, Leonardo received a basic education in reading, writing and arithmetic,
but he did not show his great passion for learning until adult life

School & Beyond:

He received little formal schooling beyond basic reading,
writing, and math, but his artistic talent was evident early on. Da Vinci
received no formal education beyond basic reading,
writing and math, but his father appreciated his artistic
talent and apprenticed him at around age 15 to the noted
sculptor and painter Andrea del Verrocchio of Florence.
For about a decade, da Vinci refined his painting and
sculpting techniques and trained in mechanical arts.
Early Career

 in 1472 ,when he was 20 years old, the painters’ guild of Florence offered da
Vinci membership, but he remained with Verrocchio until he became an
independent master in 1478.
 Around 1482, he began to paint his first commissioned work, The Adoration
of the Magi, for Florence’s San Donato, a Scopeto monastery.
 However, da Vinci never completed that piece, because shortly thereafter he
relocated to Milan to work for the ruling Sforza clan, serving as an engineer,
painter, architect, designer of court festivals and, most notably, a sculptor.
 The family asked da Vinci to create a magnificent 16-foot-tall equestrian
statue, in bronze, to honor dynasty founder Francesco Sforza.
 Da Vinci worked on the project on and off for 12 years,
and in 1493 a clay model was ready to display.
Imminent war, however, meant repurposing
the bronze earmarked for the sculpture into
cannons, and the clay model was destroyed
in the conflict after the ruling Sforza duke
fell from power in 1499.

Major Patronage and Works

 In 1472:
Leonardo became a member of the Guild of St. Luke, a Florentine group of artists
and medical doctors. Although his father had set him up with a workshop of his
own, Leonardo - now regarded by many of his peers, according to Gombrich, "as a
strange and rather uncanny being" - continued to work with Verrocchio as an
assistant for a further four or five years.
Customary to the times, the output of Verrocchio's
workshop would have given rise to collaborative
efforts between master and apprentice.
The picture accredited to Verrocchio,
The Baptism of Christ (1475) is seen by art
historians, as evidence Leonardo's lighter
brush strokes when compared with Verrocchio's
  Milan (c. 1482–1499)
In 1482, Leonardo entered the service of the Duke
of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, where he spent 17 influential
years. Though hired initially as a musician and master
of festivities, his work quickly broadened to include
painting, architectural and military engineering, and
drawing.

 Lady with an Ermine (c. 1489–1491):

A striking portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, Sforza’s mistress.
This time was also marked by his meticulous studies and detailed recordings in his
famous notebooks, covering everything from human anatomy (often through
forbidden dissection of cadavers) to geometry, mechanics, and aeronautics.

 The Vitruvian Man (c. 1490):

A pen and ink drawing based on the work of ancient Roman architect Vitruvius,
illustrating the ideal human body proportions within a circle and a square,
symbolizing the intersection of art and science

 The Last Supper (1495–1498):

A monumental mural in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in
Milan, celebrated for its dramatic composition and emotional intensity. Although
relatively few of da Vinci’s paintings and sculptures survive in part because his
total output was quite small two of his extant works are among the world’s most
well-known and admired paintings.

 Florence and Rome (c. 1500–1516)

After Sforza’s fall, Leonardo traveled through Italy, briefly working for Cesare
Borgia as a military engineer. He returned to Florence around 1500 and
continued painting.

 Mona Lisa (c. 1503–1519):

When Milan was invaded by the French in 1499 and
the Sforza family fled, da Vinci escaped as well, possibly
first to Venice and then to Florence. There, he painted
a series of portraits that included “La Gioconda,”
a 21-by-31-inch work that’s best known today as
“Mona Lisa.” Painted between approximately 1503 and 1506,
the woman depicted—especially because of her mysterious slight
smile has been the subject of speculation for centuries
 Around 1506:
da Vinci returned to Milan, along with a group of his students and disciples,
including young aristocrat Francesco Melzi, who would be Leonardo’s closest
companion until the artist’s death. Ironically, the victor over the Duke
Ludovico Sforza, Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, commissioned da Vinci to sculpt his
grand equestrian-statue tomb. It, too, was never completed (this time
because Trivulzio scaled back his plan). Da Vinci spent seven years in Milan,
followed by three more in Rome after Milan once again became inhospitable
because of political strife.

 From 1513 to 1516:

he worked in Rome, continuing his studies in science, though with some
restrictions on his anatomical work.

 Final Years in France

In 1516, Leonardo left Italy for good, accepting an invitation from King
Francis I of France, his last and most generous patron. Francis I named him
“Premier Painter and Engineer and Architect to the King,” providing him with
the manor house of Clos-Lucé near the royal chateau at Amboise. Here, he
spent his remaining years drawing, organizing his scientific studies, and
advising the King.

 Da Vinci’s death
Da Vinci left Italy for good in 1516, when French ruler
Francis I generously offered him the title
of “Premier Painter and Engineer and Architect to
the King,” which afforded him the opportunity to paint and
draw at his leisure while living in a country manor house,
the Château of Cloux, near Amboise in France.
Although accompanied by Melzi, to whom he would leave his estate, the bitter
tone in drafts of some of his correspondence from this period indicate that da
Vinci’s final years may not have been very happy ones.

Da Vinci died at Cloux (now Clos-Lucé) in 1519 at age 67.

He was buried nearby in the palace church of Saint-Florentin. The French
Revolution nearly obliterated the church, and its remains were completely
demolished in the early 1800s, making it impossible to identify da Vinci’s exact
gravesite.
Leonardo’s Inventions:
Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks are a testament to his engineering genius,
containing detailed sketches and analyses of hundreds of inventions. While
most were never built during his lifetime due to technological limitations, they
laid the conceptual groundwork for many machines we use today.
His inventions broadly fall into categories related to military engineering,
flight, civil engineering, and mechanics.

 Visions of Flight
Leonardo’s obsession with flight produced some of his most famous conceptual
designs, many of which were informed by his meticulous study of birds and bats.

 The Ornithopter (Flapping-Wing Machine):

This was his most famous aerial machine.
Designed to mimic the anatomy and operation
of bird wings, it featured a large wingspan
(sometimes over 33 feet) powered by a prone or standing human operator using
a system of cranks, ropes, and pulleys. Though beautiful in design, it was
impossible for a human to generate enough muscle power to achieve sustained
flight with the materials available.

 The Aerial Screw (Helicopter Precursor):

Often cited as the earliest design for a helicopter,
the aerial screw consisted of a spinning linen sail
stretched over a spiral frame. Leonardo theorized
that the screw would compress the air and create lift.
His notes suggested a crew of men would run on a platform
to turn the central mast, though it lacked a means of propulsion and counter-
rotation necessary for actual flight.
 The Parachute:
He designed a pyramidal parachute with a sealed linen
canopy stretched over a wooden frame. His note stated
that with a tent of linen “the side of which is 12 yards
wide and 12 yards deep, you will be able to throw
yourself down from any great height without suffering
any injury.” Modern-day tests have proven this design
to be functional.

 War Machines (Military Engineering)

Working for Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, Leonardo applied his mind to
designing more efficient and terrifying weapons of war.

 Armored Fighting Vehicle (Tank Precursor):

His design for a domed, turtle-shaped armored vehicle
was intended to be protected by metal plates and move
using a complex system of gears driven by hand-cranks
from inside. It was equipped with a ring of cannons and
had a sophisticated internal mechanism, making it a clear
precursor to the modern military tank.

 Triple-Barrel Cannon (Machine Gun Precursor):

Frustrated by the long reloading time of contemporary
cannons, Leonardo designed a multi-barreled cannon
mounted on a revolving platform. This allowed one
barrel set to fire while others were cooling and being
reloaded, effectively increasing the rate of fire and
anticipating the function of a machine gun.
 Giant Crossbow:
A monumental siege weapon designed to intimidate the enemy. Though it
was likely too impractical and large to be effective, its sheer scale
demonstrated a psychological approach to warfare.

 Robotic Knight (Automaton):

Based on his extensive anatomical studies,
he designed a mechanical suit of armor that
could sit up, wave its arms, and move its head
via a series of cables and pulleys. This is
considered the world’s first humanoid robot.

 Diving Suit and Scuba Gear:

He drew designs for a diving suit made of leather, complete with a mask
with glass goggles, and an air tube connected to the surface by a buoy—a
rudimentary form of scuba gear. He also designed a bell-shaped diving
apparatus.

 Revolving Bridge:
A light, easily transportable, and deployable
bridge, perfect for military campaigns where
quick river crossings were essential. Leonardo’s
true genius lay not just in inventing things, but in his
holistic methodology: he always started with scientific
observation and then translated his findings into detailed,
functional mechanical drawings, even if the technology
of the day couldn’t bring them to life.
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci:
A World of Ideas , Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks are a sprawling, disorganized, yet
invaluable collection of writings, drawings, and observations that reveal the full
scope of his genius. Instead of organizing his thoughts into formal treatises, he
compiled his ideas into thousands of pages of personal notes, which he carried with
him throughout his life.

 Immense Volume:
Originally estimated to contain over 13,000 pages, only about 7,200 pages survive
today, scattered across various museums and private collections globally.

 The Mirror Script:

A famous feature is Leonardo’s unusual
handwriting. He wrote primarily in
“mirror writing”—from right to left,
with the letters reversed—which makes
them difficult to read but was likely a
personal habit or a way to prevent smudging (since he was left-handed).

 Disorganization and Diversity:

The notebooks are not categorized by subject.
A single page might contain anatomical sketches,
geometric calculations, shopping lists, and
architectural plans, reflecting the spontaneous
and interconnected nature of his thoughts.

A vast encyclopedia of Leonardo’s interests, blending art, science, and engineering:

 Human Anatomy:
Contains incredibly detailed and accurate
drawings of the human skeleton, muscles,
organs, and vascular system, often based on
his clandestine dissections of human bodies.
He sought to understand the “mechanics”
of the body. His meticulous anatomical
drawings, created from dissections, were revolutionary.
They contained insights into the four chambers of the
 heart, fetal development, and the human skeletal and muscular system that were
not reliably reproduced in print until the work of Andreas Vesalius decades later.
Some of his drawings are still revered for their diagnostic clarity.

 Anatomical Realism:
His scientific study of the human body allowed him to depict the human form
with a level of accuracy and naturalism that had been unattainable before,
influencing contemporaries like Raphael and Michelangelo.

 Artistic Theory:
His thoughts on perspective, light and shadow (chiaroscuro), and his signature
blurring technique (sfumato) are recorded here, forming the basis of his treatise
on painting.

 Sfumato:
A technique of allowing tones and colors to
shade gradually into one another, producing
soft, subtle transitions without abrupt lines
or borders. It gives the Mona Lisa’s smile
its enigmatic quality and creates an
unprecedented sense of three-dimensionality.
  Botany and Geology:
He studied the way water and wind affected landforms
and documented the structure and growth patterns
of plants, recognizing their ability to organize matter.

 Optics and Hydraulics:

Detailed studies on the eye, vision, reflection, and refraction.
He also explored water flow, friction, canals, and locks,
aiming to control water for power and transportation.

The Scientific Method:

Leonardo championed empirical observation and documentation as the primary
tools for inquiry. He didn’t rely on ancient texts alone; he dissected, measured,
and recorded what he saw, setting a precedent for modern science that prioritized
experience over tradition.

 Engineering Blueprints:
His notebooks function as the first blueprints for modern
machines. His concepts for the helicopter, tank, parachute,
and movable bridges laid the theoretical ground work for
entire fields of engineering, showcasing an astonishing
mastery of mechanics and hydrodynamics.

 The Functional City

Leonardo da Vinci’s architectural ideas were highly influential,
though few of his designs were ever constructed.
His work moved beyond mere aesthetics, aiming for
an integration of function, hygiene, and harmonious proportion
a vision that profoundly reflects his engineering and scientific mind.
 The Ideal City: A Response to Plague
The most celebrated of Leonardo’s architectural concepts is his design for
an “Ideal City,” primarily conceived after the plague ravaged Milan in the
late 15th century. His primary goal was to prevent disease through better
sanitation, communication, and traffic control.

Summary of Leonardo da Vinci

Only a select number of figures in the pantheon of art history can match the level of
fame accorded Leonardo da Vinci. The very personification of the "Renaissance man",
Leonardo searched for new knowledge within the burgeoning fields of the
humanities and the sciences. One of the so-called "holy trinity"
(with Michelangelo and Raphael) of the Italian High Renaissance, Leonardo remains
best known today as the painter of some of the world's greatest masterpieces, and
for a series of notebooks and drawings that confirm his reputation as the most
accomplished polymath of his time.