leonardo da vinci
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Leonardo da VinciTRANSCRIPT
Leonardo da VinciSelf-portrait by Leonardo da Vinci, chalk
drawing, 1512; in the Palazzo Reale, Turin, Italy.Alinari/Art
Resource, New YorkLeonardo da Vinci,( Italian: Leonardo from
Vinci)(born April 15, 1452,Anchiano, near Vinci, Republic of
Florence [Italy]died May 2, 1519,Cloux [now Clos-Luc],
France),Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and
engineer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure,
epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. His Last Supper (149598)
and Mona Lisa (c. 150306) are among the most widely popular and
influential paintings of the Renaissance. His notebooks reveal a
spirit of scientific inquiry and a mechanical inventiveness that
were centuries ahead of their time.The unique fame that Leonardo
enjoyed in his lifetime and that, filtered by historical criticism,
has remained undimmed to the present day rests largely on his
unlimited desire for knowledge, which guided all his thinking and
behaviour. An artist by disposition and endowment, he considered
his eyes to be his main avenue to knowledge; to Leonardo, sight was
mans highest sense because it alone conveyed the facts of
experience immediately, correctly, and with certainty. Hence, every
phenomenon perceived became an object of knowledge, and saper
vedere (knowing how to see) became the great theme of his studies.
He applied his creativity to every realm in which graphic
representation is used: he was a painter, sculptor, architect, and
engineer. But he went even beyond that. He used his superb
intellect, unusual powers of observation, and mastery of the art of
drawing to study nature itself, a line of inquiry that allowed his
dual pursuits of art and science to flourish.Life and worksEarly
period: FlorenceLeonardos parents were unmarried at the time of his
birth. His father, Ser Piero, was a Florentine notary and landlord,
and his mother, Caterina, was a young peasant woman who shortly
thereafter married an artisan. Leonardo grew up on his fathers
familys estate, where he was treated as a legitimate son and
received the usual elementary education of that day: reading,
writing, and arithmetic. Leonardo did not seriously study Latin,
the key language of traditional learning, until much later, when he
acquired a working knowledge of it on his own. He also did not
apply himself to higher mathematicsadvanced geometry and
arithmeticuntil he was 30 years old, when he began to study it with
diligent tenacity.Leonardos artistic inclinations must have
appeared early. When he was about 15, his father, who enjoyed a
high reputation in the Florence community, apprenticed him to
artist Andrea del Verrocchio. In Verrocchios renowned workshop
Leonardo received a multifaceted training that included painting
and sculpture as well as the technical-mechanical arts. He also
worked in the next-door workshop of artist Antonio Pollaiuolo. In
1472 Leonardo was accepted into the painters guild of Florence, but
he remained in his teachers workshop 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 sketchesfor example, pumps,
military weapons, mechanical apparatusthat offer evidence of
Leonardos interest in and knowledge of technical matters even at
the outset of his career.First Milanese period (148299)In 1482
Leonardo moved to Milan to work in the service of the citys dukea
surprising step when one realizes that the 30-year-old artist had
just received his first substantial commissions from his native
city of Florence: the unfinished panel painting The Adoration of
the Magi for the monastery of San Donato a Scopeto and an altar
painting for the St. Bernard Chapel in the Palazzo della Signoria,
which was never begun. That he gave up both projects seems to
indicate that he had deeper reasons for leaving Florence. It may
have been that the rather sophisticated spirit of Neoplatonism
prevailing in the Florence of the Medici went against the grain of
Leonardos experience-oriented mind and that the more strict,
academic atmosphere of Milan attracted him. Moreover, he was no
doubt enticed by Duke Ludovico Sforzas brilliant court and the
meaningful projects awaiting him there.Leonardo spent 17 years in
Milan, until Ludovicos fall from power in 1499. He was listed in
the register of the royal household as pictor et ingeniarius
ducalis (painter and engineer of the duke). Leonardos gracious but
reserved personality and elegant bearing were well-received in
court circles. Highly esteemed, he was constantly kept busy as a
painter and sculptor and as a designer of court festivals. 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 he would throughout his
life, Leonardo set boundless goals for himself; if one traces the
outlines of his work for this period, or for his life as a whole,
one is tempted to call it a grandiose unfinished symphony.As a
painter, Leonardo completed six works in the 17 years in Milan.
(According to contemporary sources, Leonardo was commissioned to
create three more pictures, but these works have since disappeared
or were never done.) From about 1483 to 1486, he worked on the
altar painting The Virgin of the Rocks, a project that led to 10
years of litigation between the Confraternity of the Immaculate
Conception, which commissioned it, and Leonardo; for uncertain
purposes, this legal dispute led Leonardo to create another version
of the work in about 1508. During this first Milanese period he
also made one of his most famous works, the monumental wall
painting The Last Supper (149598) in the refectory of the monastery
of Santa Maria delle Grazie (for more analysis of this work, see
below The Last Supper). Also of note is the decorative ceiling
painting (1498) he made for the Sala delle Asse in the Milan
Castello Sforzesco.During this period Leonardo worked on a
grandiose sculptural project that seems to have been the real
reason he was invited to Milan: a monumental equestrian statue in
bronze to be erected in honour of Francesco Sforza, the founder of
the Sforza dynasty. Leonardo devoted 12 yearswith interruptionsto
this task. In 1493 the clay model of the horse was put on public
display on the occasion of the marriage of Emperor Maximilian to
Bianca Maria Sforza, and preparations were made to cast the
colossal figure, which was to be 16 feet (5 metres) high. But,
because of the imminent danger of war, the metal, ready to be
poured, was used to make cannons instead, causing the project to
come to a halt. Ludovicos fall in 1499 sealed the fate of this
abortive undertaking, which was perhaps the grandest concept of a
monument in the 15th century. The ensuing war left the clay model a
heap of ruins.As a master artist, Leonardo maintained an extensive
workshop in Milan, employing apprentices and students. Among
Leonardos pupils at this time were Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio,
Ambrogio de Predis, Bernardino de Conti, Francesco Napoletano,
Andrea Solari, Marco dOggiono, and Salai. The role of most of these
associates is unclear, leading to the question of Leonardos
so-called apocryphal works, on which the master collaborated with
his assistants. Scholars have been unable to agree in their
attributions of these works.Second Florentine period (150008)In
December 1499 or, at the latest, January 1500shortly after the
victorious entry of the French into MilanLeonardo left that city in
the company of mathematician Lucas Pacioli. After visiting Mantua
in February 1500, in March he proceeded to Venice, where the
Signoria (governing council) sought his advice on how to ward off a
threatened Turkish incursion in Friuli. Leonardo recommended that
they prepare to flood the menaced region. From 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
damages to the foundation and structure of the church of San
Francesco al Monte. A guest of the Servite order in the cloister of
Santissima Annunziata, Leonardo seems to have been concentrating
more on mathematical studies than painting, or so Isabella dEste,
who sought in vain to obtain a painting done by him, was informed
by Fra Pietro Nuvolaria, her representative in Florence.Perhaps
because of his omnivorous appetite for life, Leonardo left Florence
in the summer of 1502 to enter the service of Cesare Borgia as
senior military architect and general engineer. Borgia, the
notorious son of Pope Alexander VI, had, as commander in chief of
the papal army, sought with unexampled ruthlessness to gain control
of the Papal States of Romagna and the Marches. When he enlisted
the services of Leonardo, he was at the peak of his power and, at
age 27, was undoubtedly the most compelling and most feared person
of his time. Leonardo, twice his age, must have been fascinated by
his personality. For 10 months Leonardo traveled across the
condottieres 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. At
the court of Cesare Borgia, Leonardo also met Niccol Machiavelli,
who was temporarily stationed there as a political observer for the
city of Florence.In the spring of 1503 Leonardo returned to
Florence to make an expert survey of a project that attempted to
divert the Arno River behind Pisa so that the city, then under
siege by the Florentines, would be deprived of access to the sea.
The plan proved unworkable, but Leonardos activity led him to
consider a plan, first advanced in the 13th century, to build a
large canal that would bypass the unnavigable stretch of the Arno
and connect Florence by water with the sea. Leonardo developed his
ideas in a series of studies; using his own panoramic views of the
riverbank, which can be seen as landscape sketches of great
artistic charm, and using exact measurements of the terrain, he
produced a map in which the route of the canal (with its transit
through the mountain pass of Serravalle) was shown. The project,
considered time and again in subsequent centuries, was never
carried out, but centuries later the express highway from Florence
to the sea was built over the exact route Leonardo chose for his
canal.Also in 1503 Leonardo received a prized commission to paint a
mural for the council hall in Florences Palazzo Vecchio; a
historical scene of monumental proportions (at 23 56 feet [7 17
metres], it would have been twice as large as The Last Supper). For
three years he worked on this Battle of Anghiari; like its intended
complementary painting, Michelangelos Battle of Cascina, it
remained unfinished. During these same years Leonardo painted the
Mona Lisa (c. 150306). (For more analysis of the work, see below
The Mona Lisa and other works.)The second Florentine period was
also a time of intensive scientific study. Leonardo did dissections
in the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova and broadened his anatomical
work into a comprehensive study of the structure and function of
the human organism. He made systematic observations of the flight
of birds, about which he planned a treatise. Even his hydrological
studies, on the nature and movement of water, broadened into
research on the physical properties of water, especially the laws
of currents, which he compared with those pertaining to air. These
were also set down in his own collection of data, contained in the
so-called Codex Hammer (formerly known as the Leicester Codex, now
in the property of software entrepreneur Bill Gates in Seattle,
Washington, U.S.).Second Milanese period (150813)In May 1506
Charles dAmboise, the French governor in Milan, asked the Signoria
in Florence if Leonardo could travel to Milan. The Signoria let
Leonardo go, and the monumental Battle of Anghiari remained
unfinished. Unsuccessful technical experiments with paints seem to
have impelled Leonardo to stop working on the mural; one cannot
otherwise explain his abandonment of this great work. In the winter
of 150708 Leonardo went to Florence, where he helped the sculptor
Giovanni Francesco Rustici execute his bronze statues for the
Florence Baptistery, after which time he settled in Milan.Honoured
and admired by his generous patrons in Milan, Charles dAmboise and
King Louis XII, Leonardo enjoyed his duties, which were limited
largely to advice in architectural matters. Tangible evidence of
such work exists in plans for a palace-villa for Charles, and it is
believed that he made some sketches for an oratory for the church
of Santa Maria alla Fontana, which Charles funded. Leonardo also
looked into an old project revived by the French governor: the Adda
River that would link Milan with Lake Como by water.During this
second period in Milan, Leonardo created very little as a painter.
Again Leonardo gathered pupils around him. Of his older disciples,
Bernardino de Conti and Salai were again in his studio; new
students came, among them Cesare da Sesto, Giampetrino, Bernardino
Luini, and the young nobleman Francesco Melzi, Leonardos most
faithful friend and companion until the artists death.An important
commission came Leonardos way during this time. Gian Giacomo
Trivulzio had returned victoriously to Milan as marshal of the
French army and as a bitter foe of Ludovico Sforza. He commissioned
Leonardo to sculpt his tomb, which was to take the form of an
equestrian statue and be placed in the mortuary chapel donated by
Trivulzio to the church of San Nazaro Maggiore. 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
Leonardo faced as a sculptor.Leonardos scientific activity
flourished during this period. His studies in anatomy achieved a
new dimension in his collaboration with Marcantonio della Torre, a
famous anatomist from Pavia. Leonardo outlined a plan for an
overall work that would include not only exact, detailed
reproductions of the human body and its organs but would also
include comparative anatomy and the whole field of physiology. He
even planned to finish his anatomical manuscript in the winter of
151011. Beyond that, his manuscripts are replete with mathematical,
optical, mechanical, geological, and botanical studies. These
investigations became increasingly driven by a central idea: the
conviction that force and motion as basic mechanical functions
produce all outward forms in organic and inorganic nature and give
them their shape. Furthermore, he believed that these functioning
forces operate in accordance with orderly, harmonious laws.Last
years (151319)In 1513 political eventsthe temporary expulsion of
the French from Milancaused the now 60-year-old Leonardo to move
again. At the end of the year, he went to Rome, accompanied by his
pupils Melzi and Salai as well as by two studio assistants, hoping
to find employment there through his patron Giuliano de Medici,
brother of the new pope, Leo X. Giuliano gave him a suite of rooms
in his residence, the Belvedere, in the Vatican. He also gave
Leonardo a considerable monthly stipend, but no large commissions
followed. For three years Leonardo remained in Rome at a time of
great artistic activity: Donato Bramante was building St. Peters,
Raphael was painting the last rooms of the popes new apartments,
Michelangelo was struggling to complete the tomb of Pope Julius II,
and many younger artists, such as Timoteo Viti and Sodoma, were
also active. Drafts of embittered letters betray the disappointment
of the aging master, who kept a low profile while he worked in his
studio on mathematical studies and technical experiments or
surveyed ancient monuments as he strolled through the city.
Leonardo seems to have spent time with Bramante, but the latter
died in 1514, and there is no record of Leonardos relations with
any other artists in Rome. A magnificently executed map of the
Pontine Marshes suggests that Leonardo was at least a consultant
for a reclamation project that Giuliano de Medici ordered in 1514.
He also made sketches for a spacious residence to be built in
Florence for the Medici, who had returned to power there in 1512.
However, the structure was never built.Perhaps stifled by this
scene, at age 65 Leonardo accepted the invitation of the young King
Francis I to enter his service in France. At the end of 1516 he
left Italy forever, together with Melzi, his most devoted pupil.
Leonardo spent the last three years of his life in the small
residence of Cloux (later called Clos-Luc), near the kings summer
palace at Amboise on the Loire. He proudly bore the title Premier
peintre, architecte et mchanicien du Roi (First painter, architect,
and engineer to the King). Leonardo still made sketches for court
festivals, but the king treated him in every respect as an honoured
guest and allowed him freedom of action. Decades later, Francis I
talked with the sculptor Benvenuto Cellini about Leonardo in terms
of the utmost admiration and esteem. For the king, Leonardo drew up
plans for the palace and garden of Romorantin, which was destined
to be the widows residence of the Queen Mother. But the carefully
worked-out project, combining the best features of Italian-French
traditions in palace and landscape architecture, had to be halted
because the region was threatened with malaria.Leonardo did little
painting while in France, spending most of his time arranging and
editing his scientific studies, his treatise on painting, and a few
pages of his anatomy treatise. In the so-called Visions of the End
of the World, or Deluge, series (c. 151415), he depicted with
overpowering imagination the primal forces that rule nature, while
also perhaps betraying his growing pessimism.Leonardo died at Cloux
and was buried in the palace church of Saint-Florentin. The church
was devastated during the French Revolution and completely torn
down at the beginning of the 19th century; his grave can no longer
be located. Melzi was heir to Leonardos artistic and scientific
estate.Art and accomplishmentPainting and drawingLeonardos total
output in painting is really rather small; only 17 of the paintings
that have survived can be definitely attributed to him, and several
of them are unfinished. Two of his most important worksthe Battle
of Anghiari and the Leda, neither of them completedhave survived
only in copies. Yet these few creations have established the unique
fame of a man whom Giorgio Vasari, in his seminal Lives of the Most
Eminent Italian Architects, Painters and Sculptors (1550, 2nd ed.,
1568), described as the founder of the High Renaissance. Leonardos
works, unaffected by the vicissitudes of aesthetic doctrines in
subsequent centuries, have stood out in all subsequent periods and
all countries as consummate masterpieces of painting.The many
testimonials to Leonardo, ranging from Vasari to Peter Paul Rubens
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to Eugne Delacroix, praise in
particular the artists gift for expressionhis ability to move
beyond technique and narrative to convey an underlying sense of
emotion. The artists remarkable talent, especially his keenness of
observation and creative imagination, was already revealed in the
angel he contributed to Verrocchios Baptism of Christ (c. 147275):
Leonardo endowed the angel with natural movement, presented it with
a relaxed demeanour, and gave it an enigmatic glance that both
acknowledges its surroundings while remaining inwardly directed. In
Leonardos landscape segment in the same picture, he also found a
new expression for what he called nature experienced: he reproduced
the background forms in a hazy fashion as if through a veil of
mist.In the Benois Madonna (147578) Leonardo succeeded in giving a
traditional type of picture a new, unusually charming, and
expressive mood by showing the child Jesus reaching, in a sweet and
tender manner, for the flower in Marys hand. In his Portrait of
Ginevra de Benci (c. 1480) Leonardo opened new paths for portrait
painting with his singular linking of nearness and distance and his
brilliant rendering of light and texture. He presented the
emaciated body of his St. Jerome (unfinished; begun 1480) in a
sobering light, imbuing it with a realism that stemmed from his
keen knowledge of anatomy; Leonardos mastery of gesture and facial
expression gave his Jerome an unrivalled expression of transfigured
sorrow.Linear perspective study for The Adoration of the Magi,
silverpoint, Alinari/Art Resource, New YorkThe interplay of
masterful technique and affective gesturephysical and spiritual
motion, in Leonardos wordsis also the chief concern of his first
large creation containing many figures, The Adoration of the Magi
(begun 1481). Never finished, the painting nonetheless affords rich
insight into the masters subtle methods. The various aspects of the
scene are built up from the base with very delicate, paper-thin
layers of paint in sfumato (the smooth transition from light to
shadow) relief. The main treatment of the Virgin and Child group
and the secondary treatment of the surrounding groups are clearly
set apart with a masterful sense of compositionthe pyramid of the
Virgin Mary and Magi is demarcated from the arc of the adoring
followers. Yet thematically they are closely interconnected: the
bearing and expression of the figuresmost striking in the group of
praying shepherdsdepict many levels of profound amazement.The
Virgin of the Rocks, oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci,
Giraudon/Art Resource, New YorkThe Virgin of the Rocks in its first
version (148386) is the work that reveals Leonardos painting at its
purest. It depicts the apocryphal legend of the meeting in the
wilderness between the young John the Baptist and Jesus returning
home from Egypt. The secret of the pictures effect lies in
Leonardos use of every means at his disposal to emphasize the
visionary nature of the scene: the soft colour tones (through
sfumato), the dim light of the cave from which the figures emerge
bathed in light, their quiet attitude, the meaningful gesture with
which the angel (the only figure facing the viewer) points to John
as the intercessor between the Son of God and humanityall this
combines, in a patterned and formal way, to create a moving and
highly expressive work of art.The Last SupperThe Last Supper,
fresco by Leonardo da Vinci, 149598; in Santa SuperStockLeonardos
Last Supper (149598) is among the most famous paintings in the
world. In its monumental simplicity, the composition of the scene
is masterful; the power of its effect comes from the striking
contrast in the attitudes of the 12 disciples as counterposed to
Christ. Leonardo portrayed a moment of high tension when,
surrounded by the Apostles as they share Passover, Jesus says, One
of you will betray me. All the Apostlesas human beings who do not
understand what is about to occurare agitated, whereas Christ
alone, conscious of his divine mission, sits in lonely,
transfigured serenity. Only one other being shares the secret
knowledge: Judas, who is both part of and yet excluded from the
movement of his companions. In this isolation he becomes the second
lonely figurethe guilty oneof the company.In the profound
conception of his theme, in the perfect yet seemingly simple
arrangement of the individuals, in the temperaments of the Apostles
highlighted by gesture, facial expressions, and poses, in the drama
and at the same time the sublimity of the treatment, Leonardo
attained a height of expression that has remained a model of its
kind. Countless painters in succeeding generations, among them
great masters such as Rubens and Rembrandt, marveled at Leonardos
composition and were influenced by it and by the paintings
narrative quality. The work also inspired some of Goethes finest
pages of descriptive prose. It has become widely known through
countless reproductions and prints, the most important being that
produced by Raffaello Morghen in 1800. Thus, The Last Supper has
become part of humanitys common heritage and remains today one of
the worlds outstanding paintings.Technical deficiencies in the
execution of the work have not lessened its fame. Leonardo was
uncertain about the technique he should use. He bypassed
traditional fresco painting, which, because it is executed on fresh
plaster, demands quick and uninterrupted painting, in favour of
another technique he had developed: tempera on a base, which he
mixed himself, on the stone wall. This procedure proved
unsuccessful, inasmuch as the base soon began to loosen from the
wall. Damage appeared by the beginning of the 16th century, and
deterioration soon set in. By the middle of the century, the work
was called a ruin. Later, inadequate attempts at restoration only
aggravated the situation, and not until the most-modern restoration
techniques were applied after World War II was the process of decay
halted. A major restoration campaign begun in 1980 and completed in
1999 restored the work to brilliance but also revealed that very
little of the original paint remains.Art and science: the
notebooksIn the years between 1490 and 1495, the great program of
Leonardo the writer (author of treatises) began. During this
period, his interest in two fieldsthe artistic and the
scientificdeveloped 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. He scorned speculative book
knowledge, favouring instead the irrefutable facts gained from
experiencefrom saper vedere.From this approach came Leonardos
far-reaching concept of a science of painting. Leon Battista
Alberti and Piero della Francesca had already offered proof of the
mathematical basis of painting in their analysis of the laws of
perspective and proportion, thereby buttressing his claim of
painting being a science. But Leonardos claims went much further:
he believed that the painter, doubly endowed with subtle powers of
perception and the complete ability to pictorialize them, was the
person best qualified to achieve true knowledge, as he could
closely observe and then carefully reproduce the world around him.
Hence, Leonardo conceived the staggering plan of observing all
objects in the visible world, recognizing their form and structure,
and pictorially describing them exactly as they are.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.Leonardos notebooks add up to thousands
of closely written pages abundantly illustrated with sketchesthe
most voluminous literary legacy any painter has ever left behind.
Of more than 40 codices mentionedsometimes inaccuratelyin
contemporary sources, 21 have survived; these in turn sometimes
contain notebooks originally separate but now bound so that 32 in
all have been preserved. To these should be added several large
bundles of documents: an omnibus volume in the Biblioteca
Ambrosiana in Milan, called Codex Atlanticus because of its size,
was collected by the sculptor Pompeo Leoni at the end of the 16th
century; after a roundabout journey, its companion volume fell into
the possession of the English crown in the 17th century and was
placed in the Royal Library in Windsor Castle. Finally, the Arundel
Manuscript in the British Museum in London contains a number of
Leonardos fascicles on various themes.One special feature that
makes Leonardos notes and sketches unusual is his use of mirror
writing. Leonardo was left-handed, so mirror writing came easily
and naturally to himalthough it is uncertain why he chose to do so.
While somewhat unusual, his script can be read clearly and without
difficulty with the help of a mirroras his contemporaries
testifiedand should not be looked on as a secret handwriting. But
the fact that Leonardo used mirror writing throughout the
notebooks, even in his copies drawn up with painstaking
calligraphy, forces one to conclude that, although he constantly
addressed an imaginary reader in his writings, he never felt the
need to achieve easy communication by using conventional
handwriting. His writings must be interpreted as preliminary stages
of works destined for eventual publication that Leonardo never got
around to completing. In a sentence in the margin of one of his
late anatomy sketches, he implores his followers to see that his
works are printed.Another unusual feature in Leonardos writings is
the relationship between word and picture in the notebooks.
Leonardo strove passionately for a language that was clear yet
expressive. The vividness and wealth of his vocabulary were the
result of intense independent study and represented a significant
contribution to the evolution of scientific prose in the Italian
vernacular. Despite his articulateness, Leonardo gave absolute
precedence to the illustration over the written word in his
teaching method. Hence, in his notebooks, the drawing does not
illustrate the text; rather, the text serves to explain the
picture. In formulating his own principle of graphic
representationswhich he called dimostrazione
(demonstrations)Leonardos work was a precursor of modern scientific
illustration.The Mona Lisa and other worksVirgin and Child with St.
Anne, oil on wood panel by Leonardo da Vinci, c. 150216. In
Photograph, courtesy of GiraudonArt Resource, New YorkIn the
Florence years between 1500 and 1506, Leonardo began three great
works that confirmed and heightened his fame: Virgin and Child with
St. Anne (c. 150216), Mona Lisa (c. 150306), and Battle of Anghiari
(unfinished; begun 1503). Even before it was completed, the Virgin
and Child with St. 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.Mona Lisa, oil on wood panel by
Leonardo da Vinci, c. Scala/Art Resource, New YorkThe Mona Lisa set
the standard for all future portraits. The painting presents a
woman revealed in the 21st century to have been Lisa del Giocondo,
the wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondohence,
the alternative title to the work, La Gioconda. The picture
presents a half-body portrait of the subject, with a distant
landscape visible as a backdrop. Although utilizing a seemingly
simple formula for portraiture, the expressive synthesis that
Leonardo achieved between sitter and landscape has placed this work
in the canon of the most-popular and most-analyzed paintings of all
time. The sensuous curves of the womans hair and clothing, created
through sfumato, are echoed in the undulating valleys and rivers
behind her. The sense of overall harmony achieved in the
paintingespecially apparent in the sitters faint smilereflects
Leonardos idea of the cosmic link connecting humanity and nature,
making this painting an enduring record of Leonardos vision and
genius. The young Raphael sketched the work in progress, and it
served as a model for his Portrait of Maddalena Doni (c.
1506).Leonardos art of expression reached another high point in the
unfinished Battle of Anghiari. The preliminary drawingsmany of
which have been preservedreveal Leonardos lofty conception of the
science of painting; he put to artistic use the laws of equilibrium
that he had probed in his studies of mechanics. The centre of
gravity in the work lies in the group of flags fought for by all
the horsemen. For a moment the intense and expanding movement of
the swirl of riders seems frozen. Leonardos studies in anatomy and
physiology influenced his representation of human and animal
bodies, particularly when they are in a state of excitement. He
studied and described extensively the baring of teeth and puffing
of lips as signs of animal and human anger. On the painted canvas,
rider and horse, their features distorted, are remarkably similar
in expression.The highly imaginative trappings of the painting take
the event out of the sphere of the historical and put it into a
timeless realm. The cartoon and the copies showing the main scene
of the battle were for a long time influential to other artists; to
quote the sculptor Benvenuto Cellini, the works became the school
of the world. Its composition has influenced many painters: from
Rubens in the 17th century, who made the most impressive copy of
the scene from Leonardos now-lost cartoon, to Delacroix in the 19th
century.Later painting and drawingAfter 1507in Milan, Rome, and
FranceLeonardo did very little painting. During his years in Milan
he returned to the Leda themewhich had been occupying him for a
decadeand probably finished a standing version of Leda about 1513
(the work survives only through copies). This painting became a
model of the figura serpentinata (sinuous figure)that is, a figure
built up from several intertwining views. It influenced classical
artists such as Raphael, who drew it, but it had an equally strong
effect on Mannerists such as Jacopo da Pontormo. The drawings he
preparedrevealing examples of his late stylehave a curious,
enigmatic sensuality. Perhaps in Rome he began the painting St.
John the Baptist, which he completed in France. Leonardo radically
used light and shade to achieve sculptural volume and atmosphere;
John emerges from darkness into light and seems to emanate light
and goodness. Moreover, in painting the saints enigmatic smile, he
presented Christs forerunner as the herald of a mystic oracle.
Leonardos was an art of expression that seemed to strive
consciously to bring out the hidden ambiguity of the theme.
Consummate drawings from this period, such as the Pointing Lady (c.
1516), also are testaments to his undiminished genius.The last
manifestation of Leonardos art of expression was in his series of
pictorial sketches Visions of the End of the World (c. 151415).
There Leonardos power of imaginationborn of reason and
fantasyattained 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. He depicted the framework of the
world as splitting asunder, but even in its destruction there
occursas the monstrously beautiful forms of the unleashed elements
showthe self-same laws of order, harmony, and proportion that
presided at the worlds creation. These rules govern the life and
death of every created thing in nature. Without any precedent,
these visions are the last and most original expressions of
Leonardos artan art in which his perception based on saper vedere
seems to have come to fruition.SculptureLeonardo worked as a
sculptor from his youth on, as shown in his own statements and
those of other sources. A small group of generals heads in marble
and plaster, works of Verrocchios followers, are sometimes linked
with Leonardo, because a lovely drawing attributed to him that is
on the same theme suggests such a connection. But the inferior
quality of this group of sculpture rules out an attribution to the
master. No trace has remained of the heads of women and children
that, according to Vasari, Leonardo modeled in clay in his
youth.The two great sculptural projects to which Leonardo devoted
himself wholeheartedly were not realized; neither the huge, bronze
equestrian statue for Francesco Sforza, on which he worked from
about 1489 to 1494, nor the monument for Marshal Trivulzio, on
which he was busy in the years 150611, were brought to completion.
Many sketches of the work exist, but the most impressive were found
in 1965 when two of Leonardos notebooksthe so-called Madrid
Codiceswere discovered in the National Library of Madrid. These
notebooks reveal the sublimity but also the almost unreal boldness
of his conception. Text and drawings both show Leonardos wide
experience in the technique of bronze casting, but at the same time
they reveal the almost utopian nature of the project. He wanted to
cast the horse in a single piece, but the gigantic dimensions of
the steed presented insurmountable technical problems. Indeed,
Leonardo remained uncertain of the problems solution to the very
end.The drawings for these two monuments reveal the greatness of
Leonardos vision of sculpture. Exact studies of the anatomy,
movement, and proportions of a live horse preceded the sketches for
the monuments; Leonardo even seems to have thought of writing a
treatise on the horse. He pondered the merits of two positions for
the horsegalloping or trottingand in both commissions decided in
favour of the latter. These sketches, superior in the suppressed
tension of horse and rider to the achievements of Donatellos statue
of Gattamelata and Verrocchios statue of Colleoni, are among the
most beautiful and significant examples of Leonardos art.
Unquestionablyas ideasthey exerted a very strong influence on the
development of equestrian statues in the 16th century.A small
bronze statue of a galloping horseman in Budapest is so close to
Leonardos style that, if not from his own hand, it must have been
done under his immediate influence (perhaps by Giovanni Francesco
Rustici). Rustici, according to Vasari, was Leonardos zealous
student and enjoyed his masters help in sculpting his large group
in bronze, St. John the Baptist Teaching, over the north door of
the Baptistery in Florence. There are, indeed, discernible traces
of Leonardos influence in Johns stance, with the unusual gesture of
his upward pointing hand, and in the figure of the bald-headed
Levite. While there are few extant examples to study of Leonardos
sculptural work, the elements of motion and volume he explored in
the medium no doubt influenced his drawing and painting, and vice
versa.ArchitectureApplying for service in a letter to Ludovico
Sforza, Leonardo described himself as an experienced architect,
military engineer, and hydraulic engineer; indeed, he was concerned
with architectural matters all his life. But his effectiveness was
essentially limited to the role of an adviser. Only oncein the
competition for the cupola of the Milan cathedral (148790)did he
actually consider personal participation, but he gave up this idea
when the model he had submitted was returned to him. In other
instances, his claim to being a practicing architect was based on
sketches for representative secular buildings: for the palace of a
Milanese nobleman (about 1490), for the villa of the French
governor in Milan (150708), and for the Medici residence in
Florence (1515). Finally, there was his big project for the palace
and garden of Romorantin in France (151719). Especially in this
last project, Leonardos pencil sketches clearly reveal his mastery
of technical as well as artistic architectural problems; the view
in perspective gives an idea of the magnificence of the site.But
what really characterizes and immortalized Leonardos architectural
studies is their comprehensiveness; they range far afield and
embrace every type of building problem of his time and even involve
urban planning. Furthermore, there frequently appears evidence of
Leonardos impulse to teach: he wanted to collect his writings on
this theme in a theory of architecture. This treatise on
architecturethe initial lines of which are in Codex B in the
Institut de France in Paris, a model book of the types of sacred
and profane buildingswas to deal with the entire field of
architecture as well as with the theories of forms and construction
and was to include such items as urbanism, sacred and profane
buildings, and a compendium of important individual elements (for
example, domes, steps, portals, and windows).In the fullness and
richness of their ideas, Leonardos architectural studies offer an
unusually wide-ranging insight into the architectural achievements
of his epoch. Like a seismograph, his observations sensitively
register all themes and problems. For almost 20 years he was
associated with Bramante at the court of Milan and again met him in
Rome in 151314; he was closely associated with other distinguished
architects, such as Francesco di Giorgio, Giuliano da Sangallo,
Giovanni Antonio Amadeo, and Luca Fancelli. Thus, he was brought in
closest touch with all of the most-significant building
undertakings of the time. Since Leonardos architectural drawings
extend over his whole life, they span precisely that
developmentally crucial periodfrom the 1480s to the second decade
of the 16th centuryin which the principles of the High Renaissance
style were formulated and came to maturity. That this genetic
process can be followed in the ideas of one of the greatest men of
the period lends Leonardos studies their distinctive artistic value
and their outstanding historical significance.ScienceScience of
paintingLeonardos advocacy of a science of painting is best
displayed in his notebook writings under the general heading On
Painting. The notebooks provide evidence that, among many projects
he planned, he intended to write a treatise discussing painting.
After inheriting Leonardos vast manuscript legacy in 1519, it is
believed that, sometime before 1542, Melzi extracted passages from
them and organized them into the Trattato della pittura (Treatise
on Painting) that is attributed to Leonardo. Only about a quarter
of the sources for Melzis manuscriptknown as the Codex Urbinas, in
the Vatican Libraryhave been identified and located in the extant
notebooks, and it is impossible to assess how closely Melzis
presentation of the material reflected Leonardos specific
intentions.Abridged copies of Melzis manuscript appeared in Italy
during the late 16th century, and in 1651 the first printed
editions were published in French and Italian in Paris by Raffaelo
du Fresne, with illustrations after drawings by Nicolas Poussin.
The first complete edition of Melzis text did not appear until
1817, published in Rome. The two standard modern editions are those
of Emil Ludwig (1882; in 3 vol. with German translation) and A.
Philip McMahon (1956; in 2 vol., a facsimile of the Codex Urbinas
with English translation).Despite the uncertainties surrounding
Melzis presentation of Leonardos ideas, the passages in Leonardos
extant notebooks identified with the heading On Painting offer an
indication of the treatise Leonardo had in mind. As was customary
in treatises of the time, Leonardo planned to combine theoretical
exposition with practical information, in this case offering
practical career advice to other artists. But his primary concern
in the treatise was to argue that painting is a science, raising
its status as a discipline from the mechanical arts to the liberal
arts. By defining painting as the sole imitator of all the manifest
works of nature, Leonardo gave essential significance to the
authority of the eye, believing firmly in the importance of saper
vedere. This was the informing idea behind his defense of painting
as a science.In his notebooks Leonardo pursues this defense through
the form of the paragone (comparison), a disputation that advances
the supremacy of painting over the other arts. He roots his case in
the function of the senses, asserting that the eye deludes itself
less than any of the other senses, and thereby suggests that the
direct observation inherent in creating a painting has a truthful,
scientific quality. After asserting that the useful results of
science are communicable, he states that painting is similarly
clear: unlike poetry, he argues, painting presents its results as a
matter for the visual faculty, giving immediate satisfaction to
human beings in no other way than the things produced by nature
herself. Leonardo also distinguishes between painting and
sculpture, claiming that the manual labour involved in sculpting
detracts from its intellectual aspects, and that the illusionistic
challenge of painting (working in two rather than three dimensions)
requires that the painter possess a better grasp of mathematical
and optical principles than the sculptor.In defining painting as a
science, Leonardo also emphasizes its mathematical basis. In the
notebooks he explains that the 10 optical functions of the eye
(darkness, light, body and colour, shape and location, distance and
closeness, motion and rest) are all essential components of
painting. He addresses these functions through detailed discourses
on perspective that include explanations of perspectival systems
based on geometry, proportion, and the modulation of light and
shade. He differentiates between types of perspective, including
the conventional form based on a single vanishing point, the use of
multiple vanishing points, and aerial perspective. In addition to
these orthodox systems, he exploresvia words and geometric and
analytic drawingsthe concepts of wide-angle vision, lateral
recession, and atmospheric perspective, through which the blurring
of clarity and progressive lightening of tone is used to create the
illusion of deep spatial recession. He further offers practical
adviceagain through words and sketchesabout how to paint optical
effects such as light, shadow, distance, atmosphere, smoke, and
water, as well as how to portray aspects of human anatomy, such as
human proportion and facial expressions.Anatomical studies and
drawingsHuman fetus, pen-and-ink studies by Leonardo da Vinci, c.
1510.SuperStockLeonardos fascination with anatomical studies
reveals a prevailing artistic interest of the time. In his own
treatise Della pittura (1435; On Painting), theorist Leon Battista
Alberti urged painters to construct the human figure as it exists
in nature, supported by the skeleton and musculature, and only then
clothed in skin. Although the date of Leonardos initial involvement
with anatomical study is not known, it is sound to speculate that
his anatomical interest was sparked during his apprenticeship in
Verrocchios workshop, either in response to his masters interest or
to that of Verrocchios neighbor Pollaiuolo, who was renowned for
his fascination with the workings of the human body. It cannot be
determined exactly when Leonardo began to perform dissections, but
it might have been several years after he first moved to Milan, at
the time a centre of medical investigation. His study of anatomy,
originally pursued for his training as an artist, had grown by the
1490s into an independent area of research. As his sharp eye
uncovered the structure of the human body, Leonardo became
fascinated by the figura istrumentale dell omo (mans instrumental
figure), and he sought to comprehend its physical working as a
creation of nature. Over the following two decades, he did
practical work in anatomy on the dissection table in Milan, then at
hospitals in Florence and Rome, and in Pavia, where he collaborated
with the physician-anatomist Marcantonio della Torre. By his own
count Leonardo dissected 30 corpses in his lifetime.Study of a nude
man, sepia drawing by Leonardo da Vinci; in the Biblioteca
Ambrosiana, Milan.Courtesy of Biblioteca Ambrosiana, MilanLeonardos
early anatomical studies dealt chiefly with the skeleton and
muscles; yet even at the outset, Leonardo combined anatomical with
physiological research. From observing the static structure of the
body, Leonardo proceeded to study the role of individual parts of
the body in mechanical activity. This led him finally to the study
of the internal organs; among them he probed most deeply into the
brain, heart, and lungs as the motors of the senses and of life.
His findings from these studies were recorded in the famous
anatomical drawings, which are among the most significant
achievements of Renaissance science. The drawings are based on a
connection between natural and abstract representation; he
represented parts of the body in transparent layers that afford an
insight into the organ by using sections in perspective,
reproducing muscles as strings, indicating hidden parts by dotted
lines, and devising a hatching system. The genuine value of these
dimostrazione lay in their ability to synthesize a multiplicity of
individual experiences at the dissecting table and make the data
immediately and accurately visible; as Leonardo proudly emphasized,
these drawings were superior to descriptive words. The wealth of
Leonardos anatomical studies that have survived forged the basic
principles of modern scientific illustration. It is worth noting,
however, that during his lifetime, Leonardos medical investigations
remained private. He did not consider himself a professional in the
field of anatomy, and he neither taught nor published his
findings.Vitruvian Man, a figure study by Leonardo da Vinci (c.
1509).Creatas/ThinkstockAlthough he kept his anatomical studies to
himself, Leonardo did publish some of his observations on human
proportion. Working with the mathematician Luca Pacioli, Leonardo
considered the proportional theories of Vitruvius, the
1st-century-bce Roman architect, as presented in his treatise De
architectura (On Architecture). Imposing the principles of geometry
on the configuration of the human body, Leonardo demonstrated that
the ideal proportion of the human figure corresponds with the forms
of the circle and the square. In his illustration of this theory,
the so-called Vitruvian Man, Leonardo demonstrated that when a man
places his feet firmly on the ground and stretches out his arms, he
can be contained within the four lines of a square, but when in a
spread-eagle position, he can be inscribed in a circle.Leonardo
envisaged the great picture chart of the human body he had produced
through his anatomical drawings and Vitruvian Man as a cosmografia
del minor mondo (cosmography of the microcosm). He believed the
workings of the human body to be an analogy, in microcosm, for the
workings of the universe. Leonardo wrote: Man has been called by
the ancients a lesser world, and indeed the name is well applied;
because, as man is composed of earth, water, air, and firethis body
of the earth is similar. He compared the human skeleton to rocks
(supports of the earth) and the expansion of the lungs in breathing
to the ebb and flow of the oceans.Mechanics and cosmologyAccording
to Leonardos observations, the study of mechanics, with which he
became quite familiar as an architect and engineer, also reflected
the workings of nature. Throughout his life Leonardo was an
inventive builder; he thoroughly understood the principles of
mechanics of his time and contributed in many ways to advancing
them. The two Madrid notebooks deal extensively with his theory of
mechanics; the first was written in the 1490s, and the second was
written between 1503 and 1505. Their importance lay less in their
description of specific machines or work tools than in their use of
demonstration models to explain the basic mechanical principles and
functions employed in building machinery. As in his anatomical
drawings, Leonardo developed definite principles of graphic
representationstylization, patterns, and diagramsthat offer a
precise demonstration of the object in question.Leonardo was also
quite active as a military engineer, beginning with his stay in
Milan. But no definitive examples of his work can be adduced. The
Madrid notebooks revealed that, in 1504, probably sent by the
Florentine governing council, he stood at the side of the lord of
Piombino when the citys fortifications system was repaired and
suggested a detailed plan for overhauling it. His studies for
large-scale canal projects in the Arno region and in Lombardy show
that he was also an expert in hydraulic engineering.Screw-cutting
machine by Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1500; in the Bibliothque de
lInstitut de Courtesy of the Bibliothque de lInstitut de France,
Paris; photograph, The Science Museum, LondonLeonardo was
especially intrigued by problems of friction and resistance, and
with each of the mechanical elements he presentedsuch as screw
threads, gears, hydraulic jacks, swiveling devices, and
transmission gearsdrawings took precedence over the written word.
Throughout his career he also was intrigued by the mechanical
potential of motion. This led him to design a machine with a
differential transmission, a moving fortress that resembles a
modern tank, and a flying machine. His helical airscrew (c. 1487)
almost seems a prototype for the modern helicopter, but, like the
other vehicles Leonardo designed, it presented a singular problem:
it lacked an adequate source of power to provide propulsion and
lift.Leonardo da Vincis plans for an ornithopter, a flying machine
kept aloft by the beating of its SuperStockWherever Leonardo probed
the phenomena of nature, he recognized the existence of primal
mechanical forces that govern the shape and function of the
universe. This is seen in his studies of the flight of birds, in
which his youthful idea of the feasibility of a flying apparatus
took shape and which led to exhaustive research into the element of
air; in his studies of water, the vetturale della natura (conveyor
of nature), in which he was as much concerned with the physical
properties of water as with its laws of motion and currents; in his
research on the laws of growth of plants and trees, as well as the
geologic structure of earth and hill formations; and, finally, in
his observation of air currents, which evoked the image of the
flame of a candle or the picture of a wisp of cloud and smoke. In
his drawings based on the numerous experiments he undertook,
Leonardo found a stylized form of representation that was uniquely
his own, especially in his studies of whirlpools. He managed to
break down a phenomenon into its component partsthe traces of water
or eddies of the whirlpoolyet at the same time preserve the total
picture, creating both an analytic and a synthetic vision.Leonardo
as artist-scientistAs the 15th century expired, Scholastic
doctrines were in decline, and humanistic scholarship was on the
rise. Leonardo, however, was part of an intellectual circle that
developed a third, specifically modern, form of cognition. In his
view, the artistas transmitter of the true and accurate data of
experience acquired by visual observationplayed a significant part.
In an era that often compared the process of divine creation to the
activity of an artist, Leonardo reversed the analogy, using art as
his own means to approximate the mysteries of creation, asserting
that, through the science of painting, the mind of the painter is
transformed into a copy of the divine mind, since it operates
freely in creating many kinds of animals, plants, fruits,
landscapes, countrysides, ruins, and awe-inspiring places. With
this sense of the artists high calling, Leonardo approached the
vast realm of nature to probe its secrets. His utopian idea of
transmitting in encyclopaedic form the knowledge thus won was still
bound up with medieval Scholastic conceptions; however, the results
of his research were among the first great achievements of the
forthcoming ages thinking, because they were based to an
unprecedented degree on the principle of experience.Finally,
although he made strenuous efforts to become erudite in languages,
natural science, mathematics, philosophy, and history, as a mere
listing of the wide-ranging contents of his library demonstrates,
Leonardo remained an empiricist of visual observation. It is
precisely through this observationand his own geniusthat he
developed a unique theory of knowledge in which art and science
form a synthesis. In the face of his overall achievements,
therefore, the question of how much he finished or did not finish
becomes pointless. The crux of the matter is his intellectual
forceself-contained and inherent in every one of his creationsa
force that continues to spark scholarly interest today. In fact,
debate has spilled over into the personal realm of his lifeover his
sexuality, religious beliefs, and even possible vegetarianism, for
examplewhich only confirms and reflects what has long been obvious:
whether the subject is his life, his ideas, or his artistic legacy,
Leonardos influence shows little sign of abating.Ludwig Heinrich
HeydenreichEd."Leonardo da Vinci".Encyclopdia Britannica.
Encyclopdia Britannica Online.
Encyclopdia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 07 Sep. 2015
.