The Genius Of Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

A Italian Polymath

______________

Leonardo da Vinci was one of the most influential figures in history, not only for his contributions to art but also for his innovative ideas and inventions in various fields such as physics, engineering, and anatomy.

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, in the town of Vinci, Italy. He was the illegitimate son of Ser Piero da Vinci, a wealthy lawyer and a peasant woman named Caterina. As a result of his parentage, Leonardo was not able to receive formal education and was primarily self-taught. Despite this, he became a renowned artist, inventor, and polymath.

At the age of 14, Leonardo began his apprenticeship with Andrea del Verrocchio, a Florentine artist and master of several disciplines. During his training, Leonardo learned various techniques such as painting, sculpture, and metallurgy. Additionally, he gained knowledge in geometry, mechanical engineering, and anatomy, which he used to create some of the most iconic works of art in history.

Florentine and Milanese Periods

In 1472, Leonardo was accepted into the painter's guild of Florence, but he remained in his teacher's workshop (who was Antonio Pollaiuolo) for five more years, after which time he worked independently in Florence until 1481. There are a great many superb extant pen and pencil drawings from this period, including many technical sketches that offer evidence of Leonardo's interest in and knowledge of technical matters even at the outset of his career.

LAST SUPPER (painting)    

In 1482, Leonardo moved to Milan and became a court artist for Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan. Leonardo spent 17 years in Milan, until Ludovico's power fall in 1499. Leonardo kept busy as a painter and sculptor and as a designer of Duke's court festivals. He was famous and well-received in court circles. He was also frequently consulted as a technical adviser in the fields of architecture, fortifications and military matters, and he served as a hydraulic and mechanical engineer. As a painter, Leonardo completed six works in the 17 years in Milan. During this first Milanese period, he also made one of his most famous works, the monumental wall painting Last Supper (1495-98) is a mural that depicts Jesus last meal with his disciples, which he painted on the wall of Santa Maria delle Grazie.

In december 1499 or, at the latest January 1500, after the victorious entry of the French into Milan, leonardo left that city in the company of mathematician Lucas Pacioli. After visiting Mantau and Venice, he returned to Florence where, after a long absence, he was received with acclaim and honoured as a renowned native son. In that same year he was appointed an architectural expert on a committee investigating of the church of San Francesco al Monte. During that time Leonardo seem to have been concentrating more on mathematical studies than painting. 

Perhaps because of his omnivorous appetite for life, Leonardo left Florence in the summer of 1502 to enter the service of Cesare Borgio as " senior military architect and general engineer". Borgio, the son of Pope Alexander VI, as a commander in the chief of the papal army, sought with unexampled ruthlessness to gain control of the Papal States of Roman and the Marches. For 10 months Leonardo traveled across the condottiere's territories and surveyed them. In the course of his activity, he sketched some of the city plans and topographical maps, creating early examples of aspects of modern cartography.

In 1503 when Leonardo returned to Florence for a expert survey, he received a prized commission to paint mural for the council hall in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio. for three years he worked on this Battle of Anghiari; like its intended complementary painting, Michelangelo's Battle of Cascina, it remained unfinished. During this same years Leonardo painted The Mona Lisa.

The second Florentine period was also a time of intensive scientific study. He did dissections in Santa Maria Nuova hospital and broaded his anatomical work into a comprehensive study of the structure and function of the human organism. He got the idea of flying machine by a systematic observation of the flights of bird, which he planned a treatise. 

During this second period in Milan, Leonardo created very little as a painter. Again leonardo gathered pupils around him. Gian Giacomo Trivulzio had returned victoriously to Milan as marshal of the French army and asa bitter for of Ludovico Sforza. He commissioned Leonardo to sculpt his tomb. After years of preparatory work on the monument, for which a number of significant sketches have survived, the marshal himself gave up the plan in favour of a more modest one. This was the second aborted project faced by Leonardo as a sculptor.

Art and Science 

In the years between 1490 and 1495, the great program of Leonardo the writer (author of treatises) began. During this period, his interest in two fields—the artistic and the scientific—developed and shaped his future work, building toward a kind of creative dualism that sparked his inventiveness in both fields. 

He gradually gave shape to four main themes that were to occupy him for the rest of his life: a treatise on painting, a treatise on architecture, a book on the elements of mechanics, and a broadly outlined work on human anatomy. His geophysical, botanical, hydrological, and aerological researches also began in this period and constitute parts of the “visible cosmology” that loomed before him as a distant goal. 

It was during his first years in Milan that Leonardo began the earliest of his notebooks. He would first make quick sketches of his observations on loose sheets or on tiny paper pads he kept in his belt; then he would arrange them according to theme and enter them in order in the notebook. Surviving in notebooks from throughout his career are a first collection of material for a painting treatise, a model book of sketches for sacred and profane architecture, a treatise on elementary theory of mechanics, and the first sections of a treatise on the human body.

Leonardo’s notebooks add up to thousands of closely written pages abundantly illustrated with sketches—the most voluminous literary legacy any painter has ever left behind. Of more than 40 codices mentioned—sometimes inaccurately—in contemporary sources, 21 have survived; One special feature that makes Leonardo’s notes and sketches unusual is his use of mirror writing.

Leonardo created revolutionary ideas such as flying machines, war machines, and underwater breathing apparatus. He also designed hydraulic machines, a robot, and a calculator. His inventions were often ahead of their time, and some of them are still used today. For example, his design for a flying machine was the first concept that resembled a modern-day helicopter. Similarly, his idea for a tank was centuries ahead of the technology available at the time.

Leonardo was also a pioneer in the field of anatomy, performing dissections on human cadavers to better understand the human body's inner workings.

Legacy

In the Florence years between 1500 and 1506, Leonardo began three great works that confirmed and heightened his fame: The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, Mona Lisa, and Battle of Anghiari. Even before it was completed, The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne won the critical acclaim of the Florentines; the monumental three-dimensional quality of the group and the calculated effects of dynamism and tension in the composition made it a model that inspired Classicists and Mannerists in equal measure.

The last manifestation of Leonardo’s art of expression was in his series of pictorial sketches Visions of the End of the World (c. 1517–18). There Leonardo’s power of imagination—born of reason and fantasy—attained its highest level. Leonardo suggested that the immaterial forces in the cosmos, invisible in themselves, appear in the material things they set in motion. What he had observed in the swirling of water and eddying of air, in the shape of a mountain boulder and in the growth of plants, now assumed gigantic shape in cloud formations and rainstorms. 

Despite his impressive body of work, Leonardo struggled with discipline and finishing projects, often abandoning them halfway. He was known for taking on too many projects at once, making it difficult to complete them all in time. However, his works that have been completed have left a lasting impact on art, science, and technology.

Leonardo da Vinci passed away on May 2, 1519, in Amboise, France in his studio in palace of French King Francis I. He died at the age of 67, leaving an unfinished painting of Saint Jerome. He was buried in the Saint-Hubert chapel of the Chateau d'amboise.

In conclusion, Leonardo da Vinci was a true genius who left an indelible mark on the world. He was an artist, inventor, engineer, and scientist who was ahead of his time. His artistic masterpieces such as "The Last Supper" and "Mona Lisa" continue to capture the hearts and imaginations of people worldwide. His inventions and ideas still inspire scientists and innovators today. Leonardo's legacy is one of innovation, creativity, and a relentless curiosity that continues to inspire generations.

Hope you have got some new information through my blog, if you have any quary or suggestions feel free to contact us on Gmail ID:devasyatiwari2884@gmail.com and you can drop a comment also.