Leonardo da Vinci

The Renaissance Man

How to Look at Art• Subject – What the art is about• Technique – The way the art was created• Historic Style – Artistic characteristics specific to an

era• Symbolism – Using images to convey abstract

meaning• Context – Events (historical or personal) that

impacted the art• Personal Interpretation – What do you feel? What do

you see?

Artistic Terminology

• Proportion – Harmonious relation of parts to each other or to

the whole• Perspective

– Approximate representation, on a flat surface, of an image as it is perceived by the eye

Giotto

Linear PerspectiveConvergence Lines (also called orthagonals) – are lines that converge at the vanishing point.

Vanishing Point – is the point to which all lines which are parallel to the viewer recede.

Horizon line – is always at eye level regardless of where you're looking.

This is the Annunciation, a painting Leonardo completed in 1472 when he was 21 years old.

See if you can find the horizon line, orthogonal lines, and vanishing point.

Can you find any orthagonals?

The horizon line?

The vanishing point?

Vanishing Point

Orthagonal Lines

Horizon Line

Da Vinci

The Last Supper

Perspective in “The Last Supper”

The Last Supper

Leonardo the Scientist

Studied many disciplines• Anatomy• Zoology• Botany• Geology

Leonardo the Inventor

• Studied optics, aerodynamics and hydrodynamics

• Promoted himself more as a military engineer than an artist