Leonardo Da Vinci commonly referred to as the “Renaissance Man” influenced not only a large part of later artist's techniques but also created a reference guide to proportions of anatomy, as well as shaping future inventions in mechanics and military equipment. His list of famous pieces includes The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, Virgin on the Rocks, among others, all of which spark lots of debate on factual accuracy in the scientific and historical world.
Born on April 15, 1452, in the small town of Anchiano in Tuscany near Vinci, (from which he gets his last name), Leonardo had 17 half-siblings, his parents being Ser Piero and Caterina. The former being a notary attorney and the latter being a peasant, his parents were not married and had him as their only child. At age 14, Leonardo’s father sent him to Andrea Del Verrocchio to be his apprentice. For 9 years, he helped him around the studio by mixing paints and preparing surfaces. Andrea was a recognized sculptor for the Medici family, the rulers of Italy at the time. During the apprenticeship, Leonardo also met with famous painters such as Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Pietro Perugino, and Lorenzo Di Credi.
During the span of his life, Leonardo kept dozens of secret notebooks full of sketches of yet-to-be-invented military equipment, submarines, parachutes, bicycles, human flying machines, airplanes, and many more. He wrote with his left hand with backward text, so others looking over his shoulder could not easily copy his work and claim for their own. Being one of the most famous polymaths and drawing, painting, and sculpting, he was also well-versed in subjects such as botany, literature, architecture, mechanics, science, music, geology, engineering, and astronomy, anatomy, and mathematics among many others.
At 30 he received his first commission, Adoration of the Magi, which was never begun due to his relocation to Milan from Florence. He also received a few commissions for sculptings, a famous one being a 16-foot tall bronze statue which he had worked on for 12 years to produce a clay model, soon to be cast in bronze. Due to fears of war, the bronze was instead used to make cannons, and the clay statue was eventually destroyed due to political tensions in 1499.
Later, in the estimated (yet highly debated upon) date of 1506, he began possibly his most famous work, The Mona Lisa, originally commissioned by Francesco Del Giocondo.
Previously it was thought that the identity of the woman was Mona Lisa Gherardini, however recent observations suggest Lisa Del Giocondo, the commissioners’ wife.
Throughout his life, Leonardo Da Vinci created techniques to further elevate his work, most notably sfumato, or the blending of edges of objects which are not in direct lighting. This created a realistic effect which can be seen in the later works of Michelangelo and Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio). It was, unfortunately, also the downfall of his famous piece The Last Supper.
He had used oil paints, which were better for the technique, than water-soluble paints which were more far more durable, making the painting flake off within a few decades. The art piece was revolutionary in many ways, one of which was the positioning of Christ in the center of the artwork, something that was not done before. The current artwork is mainly a reproduction of the failed piece. Other techniques include chiaroscuro (strong contrast between light and shadow), naturalism, linear perspective, and emotional expressionism.
Leonardo Da Vinci helped shape the Renaissance of a painting by inspiring other artists to create realistic and proportionally (as well as anatomically) correct paintings, as well as influencing future inventions we can see today. A great theme around his work and curiosity was “sapere vedere”, or “knowing how to see”, which lead his mind to see beyond what was known in the 15th century. Earning the title of “Renaissance Man”, he died from a stroke on May 2, 1519, in France after being king Francis I personal architect, artist, and mechanic.
Sources:
“Leonardo Da Vinci, His Life and Artworks.” Leonardo Da Vinci: Paintings, Drawings, Quotes, Facts, & Bio, www.leonardodavinci.net/
History.com Editors. “Leonardo Da Vinci.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2 Dec. 2009, www.history.com/topics/renaissance/leonardo-da-vinci
Heydenreich, Ludwig Heinrich. “Leonardo Da Vinci.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/biography/Leonardo-da-Vinci
“Leonardo Da Vinci Paintings, Bio, Ideas.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist/da-vinci-leonardo/
“How Did Leonardo Da Vinci Influence the Renaissance?” DailyHistory.org, 10 Feb. 2021, https://dailyhistory.org/How_did_Leonardo_Da_Vinci_influence_the_Renaissance%3F#
Comments