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| {{Infobox artist | |||
| | bgcolour = #EEDD82 | |||
| | name = Leonardo da Vinci | |||
| | image = Leonardo_self.jpg | |||
| | caption = ], circa 1512 to 1515.<ref group="nb">This drawing in red chalk is widely (though not universally) accepted as an original ]. The main reason for hesitation in accepting it as a portrait of Leonardo is that the subject is apparently of a greater age than Leonardo ever achieved. But it is possible that he drew this picture of himself deliberately aged, specifically for Raphael's portrait of him in ].</ref> | |||
| ] | |||
| | birthname = Leonardo di Ser Piero | |||
| | birthdate = {{birth date|1452|4|15|mf=y}} | |||
| | location = ], ], in present-day ] | |||
| | deathdate = {{death date and age|1519|5|2|1452|4|15|mf=y}} | |||
| | deathplace = ], ] (in present-day ], ]) | |||
| | nationality = ] | |||
| | field = Many and diverse fields of ] and ] | |||
| | movement = ] | |||
| | works = '']'', '']'', '']'' | |||
| | signature = Da Vinci Signature.svg | |||
| }} | |||
| '''Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci''' ({{Audio|it-Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci.ogg|pronunciation}}) (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an ] ]: ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and ].<!-- NOTE The following paragraph is about HISTORIC OPINION. It is not POV. It does not contravene Wiki policy, even though it uses words like "archetype", "greatest" and "most". It states how Leonardo has been DESCRIBED and CONSIDERED for 500 years. It cites 8 references which make these statements. --> | |||
| Leonardo has often been described as the ] of the Renaissance man, a man whose unquenchable curiosity was equaled only by his powers of invention.<ref name=HG>{{Cite book | first = Helen | last = Gardner | title = Art through the Ages | year = 1970 | pages = 450–456 }}</ref> He is widely considered to be one of the ] ] of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.<ref name=genius>Vasari, Boltraffio, Castiglione, "Anonimo" Gaddiano, Berensen, Taine, Fuseli, Rio, Bortolon, etc. See specific quotations under heading "Leonardo, the legend".</ref> According to art historian ], the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, the man himself mysterious and remote".<ref name=HG/> Marco Rosci points out, however, that while there is much speculation about Leonardo, his vision of the world is essentially logical rather than mysterious, and that the empirical methods he employed were unusual for his time.<ref>{{Cite book | first = Marco | last = Rosci | title = Leonardo | year = 1977 | page = 8}}</ref> | |||
| Born the illegitimate son of a ], Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman, Caterina, at ] in the region of ], Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Florentine painter, ]. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service of ] in ]. He later worked in ], ] and ] and spent his last years in France, at the home awarded him by ]. | |||
| Leonardo was and is renowned<ref name=genius/> primarily as a painter. Two of his works, the '']'' and '']'', are the most famous, most reproduced and most parodied portrait and religious paintings of all time, respectively, their fame approached only by ]'s '']''.<ref name=HG/> Leonardo's drawing of the '']'' is also regarded as a ],<ref>Vitruvian Man is referred to as "iconic" at the following websites and many others:, , ; ; </ref> being reproduced on everything from the ] to text books to t-shirts. Perhaps fifteen of his paintings survive, the small number due to his constant, and frequently disastrous, experimentation with new techniques, and his chronic procrastination.<ref group="nb">There are 15 significant artworks which are ascribed, either in whole or in large part, to Leonardo by most art historians. This number is made up principally of paintings on panel but includes a mural, a large drawing on paper and two works which are in the early stages of preparation. There are a number of other works that have also been variously attributed to Leonardo.</ref> Nevertheless, these few works, together with his notebooks, which contain drawings, scientific diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting, compose a contribution to later generations of artists only rivalled by that of his contemporary, ]. | |||
| Leonardo is revered<ref name=genius/> for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualised a ], a ], concentrated ], a calculator,<ref> accessdate=2010-01-07</ref> the ] and outlined a rudimentary theory of ]. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or were even feasible during his lifetime,<ref group="nb">Modern scientific approaches to ] and ] were only in their infancy during the Renaissance.</ref> but some of his smaller inventions, such as an automated ] winder and a machine for testing the ] of wire, entered the world of manufacturing unheralded.<ref group="nb">A number of Leonardo's most practical inventions are displayed as working models at the Museum of Vinci.</ref> As a scientist, he greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of ], ], ], and ].<ref>See expanded in article ]</ref> | |||
| ==Life== | |||
| {{See also|Leonardo da Vinci's personal life}} | |||
| ===Childhood, 1452–1466=== | |||
| ].|alt=Photo of a building of rough stone with small windows, surrounded by olive trees.]] | |||
| ]|alt=Pen drawing of a landscape with mountains, a river in a deep valley, and a small castle.]] | |||
| Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452, "at the third hour of the night"{{#tag:ref|The third hour of the night was 10:30 pm, three hours after the saying of the ].<ref name=AV/>|group="nb"}} in the ] hill town of ], in the lower valley of the ] in the territory of ].<ref name=SerA>His birth is recorded in the diary of his paternal grandfather Ser Antonio, as cited by Angela Ottino della Chiesa in ''Leonardo da Vinci'', p.83</ref> He was the ] son of the wealthy Messer Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci, a Florentine ], and Caterina, a peasant.<ref name=AV>{{Cite book | first = Alessandro | last = Vezzosi | title = Leonardo da Vinci: Renaissance Man | year=1997}}</ref><ref name=Chiesa83>{{Cite book | first = Angela Ottino | last = della Chiesa | title = The Complete Paintings of Leonardo da Vinci | year=1967 | page = 83}}</ref><ref group="nb">It has been suggested that Caterina may have been a slave from the ] "or at least, from the Mediterranean". According to Alessandro Vezzosi, Head of the Leonardo Museum in Vinci, there is evidence that Piero owned a Middle Eastern slave called Caterina. That Leonardo had Middle Eastern blood is claimed to be supported by the reconstruction of a fingerprint as reported by Marta Falconi, Associated Press Writer, "" December 12, 2006", accessed 2010-01-06. The evidence as stated in the article is that 60% of people of Middle Eastern Origin share the pattern of whorls found on the reconstructed fingerprint. The article also states that the claim is refuted by Simon Cole, associate professor of criminology, law and society at the University of California at Irvine. "You can't predict one person's race from these kinds of incidences," he said, especially if looking at only one finger."</ref> Leonardo had no ] in the modern sense, "''da Vinci''" simply meaning "of ]": his full birth name was "Lionardo di ser Piero da Vinci", meaning "Leonardo, (son) of (Mes)ser Piero from Vinci".<ref name=SerA/> | |||
| Little is known about Leonardo's early life. He spent his first five years in the ] of ] in the home of his mother, then from 1457 lived in the household of his father, grandparents and uncle, Francesco, in the small town of Vinci. His father had married a sixteen-year-old girl named Albiera, who loved Leonardo but died young.<ref name= LB>{{Cite book | first = Liana | last = Bortolon | title = The Life and Times of Leonardo | publisher = Paul Hamlyn | publication-place=London | year = 1967}}</ref> Leonardo received an informal education in Latin, geometry and mathematics but did not show any particular signs of aptitude.{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}} | |||
| When Leonardo was sixteen his father married again, twenty-year-old Francesca Lanfredini. It was not until his third and fourth marriages that Ser Piero produced legitimate heirs.<ref>Rosci, p.20</ref> In later life, Leonardo only recorded two childhood incidents. One, which he regarded as an omen, was when a ] dropped from the sky and hovered over his cradle, its tail feathers brushing his face.<ref>Rosci, p.21</ref> The second occurred while exploring in the mountains. He discovered a cave and was both terrified that some great monster might lurk there, and driven by curiosity to find out what was inside.<ref name= LB /> | |||
| Leonardo's early life has been the subject of historical conjecture.<ref>{{cite book |last= Brigstoke | first=Hugh | title=The Oxford Companion the Western Art | year=2001}}</ref> ], the 16th-century biographer of Renaissance painters tells of how a local peasant made himself a round shield and requested that Ser Piero have it painted for him. Leonardo responded with a painting of monster spitting fire which was so terrifying that Ser Piero sold it to a Florentine art dealer, who sold it to the Duke of ]. Meanwhile, having made a profit, Ser Piero bought a shield decorated with a heart pierced by an arrow, which he gave to the peasant.<ref>{{cite book |last=Vasari | first=Giorgio | title=Lives of the Artists | year=1568 | publisher=Penguin Classics |pages = 258–9}}</ref> | |||
| ]'' (1472–1475)—], by Verrocchio and Leonardo|alt=Painting showing Jesus, naked except for a loin-cloth, standing in a shallow stream in a rocky landscape, while to the right, John the Baptist, identifiable by the cross that he carries, tips water over Jesus' head. Two angels kneel at the left. Above Jesus are the hands of God, and a dove descending.]] | |||
| ===Verrocchio's workshop, 1466–1476=== | |||
| In 1466, at the age of fourteen, Leonardo was ]d to the artist Andrea di Cione, known as ] whose workshop was "one of the finest in Florence".<ref>Rosci, p.13</ref> Other famous painters apprenticed or associated with the workshop include ], ], ], and ].<ref name= LB /><ref name=DA/> Leonardo would have been exposed to both theoretical training and a vast range of technical skills<ref>Rosci, p.27</ref> including drafting, chemistry, metallurgy, metal working, plaster casting, leather working, mechanics and carpentry as well as the artistic skills of drawing, painting, sculpting and modelling.<ref name=AM>{{Cite book | first = Andrew | last = Martindale | year = 1972 | title = The Rise of the Artist}}</ref><ref group="nb">The "diverse arts" and technicall skills of Medieval and Renaissance workshops are described in detail in the 12th century text ''On Divers Arts'' by ] and in the early 15th century text ''Il Libro Dell'arte O Trattato Della Pittui '' by ].</ref> | |||
| Much of the painted production of Verrocchio's workshop was done by his employees. According to Vasari, Leonardo collaborated with Verrocchio on his '']'', painting the young angel holding ]'s robe in a manner that was so far superior to his master's that Verrocchio put down his brush and never painted again.<ref>Vasari, p.258</ref> This is probably an exaggeration. On close examination, the painting reveals much that has been painted or touched up over the ] using the new technique of ], the landscape, the rocks that can be seen through the brown mountain stream and much of the figure of Jesus bearing witness to the hand of Leonardo.<ref>della Chiesa, p.88</ref> | |||
| Leonardo himself may have been the model for two works by Verrocchio, including the bronze statue of '']'' in the ], and the ] in '']''.<ref name=Chiesa83/> | |||
| By 1472, at the age of twenty, Leonardo qualified as a master in the ], the guild of artists and doctors of medicine,{{#tag:ref|That Leonardo joined the guild before this time is deduced from the record of payment made to the Compagnia di San Luca in the company's register, Libro Rosso A, 1472-1520, Accademia di Belle Arti.<ref name=Chiesa83/>|group="nb"}} but even after his father set him up in his own workshop, his attachment to Verrocchio was such that he continued to collaborate with him.<ref name= LB /> Leonardo's earliest known dated work is a drawing in pen and ink of the ] valley, drawn on August 5, 1473.<ref group="nb">This work is now in the collection of the ], Drawing No. 8P.</ref><ref name= DA /> | |||
| <br clear=all/> <!---Leave this break. It improves format on wide screens---> | |||
| ===Professional life, 1476–1513=== | |||
| ]'', (1481)—].|alt=An unfinished painting showing the Virgin Mary and Christ Child surrounded by many figures who are all crowding to look at the baby. Behind the figures is a distant landscape and a large ruined building. More people are coming, in the distance.]] | |||
| Florentine court records of 1476 show that Leonardo and three other young men were charged with ], and acquitted.<ref name=Chiesa83/><ref group="nb">Homosexual acts were illegal in Renaissance Florence.</ref> From that date until 1478 there is no record of his work or even of his whereabouts.<ref name="everything">{{Cite book |title=The Everything Da Vinci Book |first=Shana |last=Priwer |first2= Cynthia |last2=Phillips |year=2006 |pages=245}}</ref> In 1478 he left Verroccio's studio and was no longer resident at his father's house. One writer, the "Anonimo" Gaddiano claims that in 1480 he was living with the Medici and working in the garden of the Piazza San Marco in Florence.<ref name=Chiesa83/> In January 1478 he received his first independent commission, to paint an altarpiece in 1478 for the Chapel of St Bernard in the ]and '']'' in March 1481 for the Monks of San Donato a Scopeto.<ref name=Wasser1>{{Cite book | first = Jack | last = Wasserman | title = Leonardo da Vinci | year = 1975 | pages = 77–78}}</ref> Neither important commission was completed, the second being interrupted when Leonardo went to Milan. | |||
| In 1482 Leonardo, who according to Vasari was a most talented musician,<ref>{{cite book |last=Winternitz | first=Emanuel | title=Leonardo Da Vinci As a Musician | year=1982}}</ref> created a silver ] in the shape of a horse's head. ] sent Leonardo, bearing the lyre as a gift, to Milan, to secure peace with ], ].<ref>{{cite book |last= Rossi |first=Paolo |title=The Birth of Modern Science |year=2001 |page=33}}</ref> At this time Leonardo wrote an often-quoted letter to Ludovico, describing the many marvellous and diverse things that he could achieve in the field of engineering and informing the Lord that he could also paint.<ref name=DA/><ref>{{cite web | title =Leonardo's Letter to Ludovico Sforza | work = | publisher =Leonardo-History | date = | url =http://www.leonardo-history.com/life.htm?Section=S5 | accessdate =2010-01-05}}</ref> | |||
| Leonardo continued work in Milan between 1482 and 1499. He was commissioned to paint the '']'' for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, and '']'' for the monastery of ].<ref name=Kemp> | |||
| {{Cite book | first = Martin | last = Kemp | title = Leonardo | year = 2004 }}</ref> While living in Milan between 1493 and 1495 Leonardo listed a woman called Caterina among his dependents in his taxation documents. When she died in 1495, the list of funeral expenditures suggests that she was his mother.<ref>Codex II, 95 r, Victoria and Albert Museum, as cited by della Chiesa p. 85</ref> | |||
| He worked on many different projects for Ludovico, including the preparation of floats and pageants for special occasions, designs for a dome for ] and a model for a huge ] to ], Ludovico's predecessor. Seventy tons of ] were set aside for casting it. The monument remained unfinished for several years, which was not unusual for Leonardo. In 1492 the clay model of the horse was completed. It surpassed in size the only two large equestrian statues of the Renaissance, Donatello's statue of Gattemelata in ] and Verrocchio's ] in Venice, and became known as the "Gran Cavallo".<ref name=DA/><ref group="nb">Verrocchio's statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni was not cast until 1488, after his death, and after Leonardo had already begun work on the statue for Ludovico.</ref> | |||
| ]|alt=A page with two drawings of a war-horse, one from the side, and the other showing the chest and right leg.]] | |||
| Leonardo began making detailed plans for its casting,<ref name=DA/> however, Michelangelo rudely implied that Leonardo was unable to cast it.<ref name=LB/> In November 1494 Ludovico gave the bronze to be used for cannons to defend the city from invasion by ].<ref name=DA/> | |||
| At the start of the ] in 1499, the invading French troops used the life-size clay model for the "Gran Cavallo" for target practice. With Ludovico Sforza overthrown, Leonardo, with his assistant Salai<!-- Don't link this. There's no page --> and friend, the mathematician ], fled Milan for ],<ref name=Chiesa85>della Chiesa, p.85</ref> where he was employed as a military architect and engineer, devising methods to defend the city from naval attack.<ref name=LB/> | |||
| On his return to Florence in 1500, he and his household were guests of the Servite monks at the monastery of ] and were provided with a workshop where, according to Vasari, Leonardo created the cartoon of '']'', a work that won such admiration that "men and women, young and old" flocked to see it "as if they were attending a great festival".<ref>Vasari, p.256</ref>{{#tag:ref|In 2005, the studio was rediscovered during the restoration of part of a building occupied for 100 years by the Department of Military Geography.<ref>{{cite news|first=Richard |last=Owen |title=Found: the studio where Leonardo met Mona Lisa | publisher =] |date= 2005-01-12 |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article411195.ece | accessdate= 2010-01-05 | location=London}}</ref>|group="nb"}} In 1502 Leonardo entered the service of ], the son of ], acting as a military architect and engineer and travelling throughout Italy with his patron.<ref name=Chiesa85/> Leonardo created a ] of Cesare Borgia’s ], a town plan of ] in order to win his patronage. Maps were extremely rare at the time and it would have seemed like a new concept; upon seeing it, Cesare hired Leonardo as his chief ] and ]. Later in the year, Leonardo produced another map for his patron, one of ], Tuscany so as to give his patron a better overlay of the land and greater strategic position. Leonardo created this map in conjunction with his other project of constructing a ] from the ] to ] in order to allow a supply of ] to sustain the ] during all ]. | |||
| ] | |||
| He returned to Florence where he rejoined the Guild of St Luke on October 18, 1503, and spent two years designing and painting a great mural of '']'' for the Signoria,<ref name=Chiesa85/> with Michelangelo designing its companion piece, ''The Battle of Cascina''.{{#tag:ref|Both works are lost. While the entire composition of Michelangelo's painting is known from a copy by Aristotole da Sangallo, 1542.<ref> | |||
| {{cite book | first = Ludwig | last = Goldscheider | title = Michelangelo: paintings, sculptures, architecture | year = 1967 | publisher = Phaidon Press | isbn = 9780714813141}}</ref> Leonardo's painting is only known from preparatory sketches and several copies of the centre section, of which the best known, and probably least accurate is by ].<ref>della Chiesa, pp.106-107</ref>|group="nb"}} In Florence in 1504, he was part of a committee formed to relocate, against the artist's will, Michelangelo's statue of ].<ref>Gaetano Milanesi, ''Epistolario Buonarroti'', Florence (1875), as cited by della Chiesa.</ref> | |||
| In 1506 he returned to Milan. Many of Leonardo's most prominent pupils or followers in painting either knew or worked with him in Milan,<ref name=LB/> including ], ] and ].<ref group="nb">D'Oggione is known in part for his contemporary copies of the ''Last Supper''.</ref> However, he did not stay in Milan for long because his father had died in 1504, and in 1507 he was back in Florence trying to sort out problems with his brothers over his father's estate. By 1508 he was back in Milan, living in his own house in Porta Orientale in the parish of Santa Babila.<ref name=Chiesa86>della Chiesa, p.86</ref> | |||
| ===Old age, 1513-1519=== | |||
| ] | |||
| From September 1513 to 1516, Leonardo spent much of his time living in the Belvedere in the Vatican in Rome, where ] and ] were both active at the time.<ref name=Chiesa86/> In October 1515, ] recaptured Milan.<ref name=Wasser1/> On December 19, Leonardo was present at the meeting of Francis I and Pope Leo X, which took place in Bologna.<ref name=LB/><ref>Georges Goyau, ''François I]'', Transcribed by Gerald Rossi. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VI. Published 1909. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved on 2007-10-04</ref><ref>{{Cite web | first = Salvador | |||
| | last = Miranda | url = http://www.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios1527-ii.htm | title = The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church: Antoine du Prat | year = 1998-2007 | accessdate = 2007-10-04 | |||
| }}</ref> It was for Francis that Leonardo was commissioned to make a mechanical ] which could walk forward, then open its chest to reveal a cluster of lilies.<ref name="Vasari, p.265">Vasari, p.265</ref>{{#tag:ref|It is unknown for what occasion the mechanical lion was made but it is believed to have greeted the King at his entry into ] and perhaps was used for the peace talks between the French king and ] in ]. A conjectural recreated of the lion has been made and is on display in the Museum of ].<ref>{{cite web|title=Reconstruction of Leonardo's walking lion |url= http://www.ancientandautomata.com/ita/lavori/leone.htm |language=Italian| accessdate= 2010-01-05}}</ref>|group="nb"}} In 1516, he entered François' service, being given the use of the manor house ]<ref group = "nb">Clos Lucé, also called Cloux, is now a public museum.</ref> near the king's residence at the royal ]. It was here that he spent the last three years of his life, accompanied by his friend and apprentice, ], supported by a pension totalling 10,000 ].<ref name=Chiesa86/> | |||
| Leonardo died at ], on May 2, 1519. ] had become a close friend. Vasari records that the King held Leonardo's head in his arms as he died, although this story, beloved by the French and portrayed in romantic paintings by ], ] and other French artists, as well as by ], may be legend rather than fact.<ref group = "nb">On the day of Leonardo's death, a royal edict was issued by the King at ], a two-day journey from ]. This has been taken as evidence that King François cannot have been present at Leonardo's deathbed. However, White in ''Leonardo: The First Scientist'' points out that the edict was not signed by the king himself.</ref><ref>For such images, see ].</ref> Vasari also tells us that in his last days, Leonardo sent for a priest to make his confession and to receive the ].<ref>Vasari, p.270</ref> In accordance to his will, sixty beggars followed his casket. He was buried in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert in the ]. Melzi was the principal heir and executor, receiving as well as money, Leonardo's paintings, tools, library and personal effects. Leonardo also remembered his other long-time pupil and companion, Salai and his servant Battista di Vilussis, who each received half of Leonardo's ]s, his brothers who received land, and his serving woman who received a black cloak "of good stuff" with a fur edge.<ref>{{cite web| title =Leonardo's will| work =| publisher =Leonardo-history| date = | url =http://www.leonardo-history.com/life.htm?Section=S6| accessdate =2007-09-28}}</ref> | |||
| Some twenty years after Leonardo's death, Francis was reported by the goldsmith and sculptor ] as saying: "There had never been another man born in the world who knew as much as Leonardo, not so much about painting, sculpture and architecture, as that he was a very great philosopher."<ref>{{cite book| author = Mario Lucertini, Ana Millan Gasca, Fernando Nicolo | title = Technological Concepts and Mathematical Models in the Evolution of Modern Engineering Systems| url =http://books.google.com/?id=YISIUycS4HgC&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=leonardo+cellini+francois+philosopher| accessdate =2007-10-03 | isbn=9783764369408 | year=2004 | publisher=Birkhäuser}}</ref> | |||
| ==Relationships and influences== | |||
| ] | |||
| ===Florence — Leonardo's artistic and social background=== | |||
| Florence, at the time of Leonardo's youth was the centre of Christian ] thought and culture.<ref>Rosci, p. 13</ref> Leonardo commenced his ] with Verrocchio in 1466, the year that Verrocchio's master, the great sculptor ], died. The painter ] whose early experiments with perspective were to influence the development of landscape painting, was a very old man. The painters ] and ], sculptor ], and architect and writer ] were in their sixties. The successful artists of the next generation were Leonardo's teacher Verrocchio, ] and the portrait sculptor, ] whose lifelike busts give the most reliable likenesses of Lorenzo Medici's father Piero and uncle Giovanni.<ref name=Hartt> | |||
| {{Cite book | first = Frederich | last = Hartt | title = A History of Italian Renaissance Art | year = 1970 | pages = 127–333 }}</ref><ref name=Rosci1>Rosci, ''Leonardo'', chapter 1, ''the historical setting'', pp.9-20</ref><ref name=Bruck/><ref name=Rach/> | |||
| Leonardo's youth was spent in a Florence that was ornamented by the works of these artists and by Donatello's contemporaries, ] whose figurative ]es were imbued with realism and emotion and ] whose '']'', gleaming with ], displayed the art of combining complex figure compositions with detailed architectural backgrounds. Piero della Francesca had made a detailed study of perspective,<ref>Piero della Francesca, ''On Perspective for Painting (De Prospectiva Pingendi)''</ref> and was the first painter to make a scientific study of light. These studies and ] Treatise<ref>Leon Battista Alberti, ''De Pictura'', 1435. , </ref> were to have a profound effect on younger artists and in particular on Leonardo's own observations and artworks.<ref name=Hartt/><ref name=Bruck/><ref name=Rach/> | |||
| Massaccio's ] of the naked and distraught ] leaving the Garden of Eden created a powerfully expressive image of the human form, cast into three dimensions by the use of ] which was to be developed in the works of Leonardo in a way that was to be influential in the course of painting. The Humanist influence of Donatello's David can be seen in Leonardo's late paintings, particularly '']''.<ref name=Hartt/><ref name= Rosci1/> | |||
| ] | |||
| A prevalent tradition in Florence was the small altarpiece of the Virgin and Child. Many of these were created in ] or glazed ] by the workshops of Filippo Lippi, Verrocchio and the prolific ] family.<ref name=Hartt/> Leonardo's early Madonnas such as the '']'' and '']'' followed this tradition while showing idiosyncratic departures, particularly in the case of the Benois Madonna in which the Virgin is set at an oblique angle to the picture space with the Christ Child at the opposite angle. This compositional theme was to emerge in Leonardo's later paintings such as ''The ]''.<ref name=LB/> | |||
| Leonardo was a contemporary of ], ] and ], who were all slightly older than he was.<ref name=Rosci1/> He would have met them at the workshop of Verrocchio, with whom they had associations, and at the ] of the ].<ref name=LB/> Botticelli was a particular favourite of the Medici family and thus his success as a painter was assured. Ghirlandaio and Perugino were both prolific and ran large workshops. They competently delivered commissions to well-satisfied patrons who appreciated Ghirlandaio's ability to portray the wealthy citizens of Florence within large religious frescoes, and Perugino's ability to deliver a multitude of saints and angels of unfailing sweetness and innocence.<ref name=Hartt/> ] for a Florentine family]] These three were among those commissioned to paint the walls of the ], the work commencing with Perugino's employment in 1479. Leonardo was not part of this prestigious commission. His first significant commission, The '']'' for the Monks of Scopeto, was never completed.<ref name=LB/> | |||
| In 1476, during the time of Leonardo's association with Verrocchio's workshop, the ] by ] arrived in Florence, bringing ] from Northern Europe which were to profoundly effect Leonardo, Ghirlandaio, Perugino and others.<ref name=Rosci1/> In 1479, the Sicilian painter ], who worked exclusively in oils, traveled north on his way to ], where the leading painter, ] adopted the technique of ], quickly making it the preferred method in Venice. Leonardo was also later to visit Venice.<ref name=Rosci1/><ref name=Rach/> | |||
| Like the two contemporary architects, ] and ], Leonardo experimented with designs for centrally planned churches, a number of which appear in his journals, as both plans and views, although none was ever realised.<ref name=Rosci1/><ref>Hartt, pp.391-2</ref> | |||
| ] Leonardo's political contemporaries were ] (il Magnifico), who was three years older, and his popular younger brother Giuliano who was slain in the ] in 1478. ] who ruled ] between 1479–1499 and to whom Leonardo was sent as ambassador from the Medici court, was also of Leonardo's age.<ref name=Rosci1/> | |||
| With Alberti, Leonardo visited the home of the Medici and through them came to know the older Humanist philosophers of whom ], proponent of ], ], writer of commentaries on Classical writings, and ], teacher of Greek and translator of ] were foremost. Also associated with the Academy of the Medici was Leonardo's contemporary, the brilliant young poet and philosopher ].<ref name=Rosci1/><ref name=Rach/><ref>{{Cite book | first = Hugh Ross | last = Williamson | title = Lorenzo the Magnificent | year = 1974}}</ref> Leonardo later wrote in the margin of a journal "The Medici made me and the Medici destroyed me." While it was through the action of Lorenzo that Leonardo was to receive his important Milanese commissions, it is not known exactly what Leonardo meant by this cryptic comment.<ref name= LB /> | |||
| Although usually named together as the three giants of the ], Leonardo, ] and ] were not of the same generation. Leonardo was twenty-three when Michelangelo was born and thirty-one when Raphael was born.<ref name=Rosci1/> Raphael only lived until the age of 37 and died in 1520, the year after Leonardo, but Michelangelo went on creating for another 45 years.<ref name=Bruck>{{Cite book | |||
| | first = Gene A. | last = Brucker | title = Renaissance Florence | year = 1969 }}</ref><ref name=Rach> | |||
| {{Cite book | first = Ilan | last = Rachum | title = The Renaissance, an Illustrated Encyclopedia | year = 1979}}</ref> | |||
| ] (1500) ].]] | |||
| ===Personal life=== | |||
| {{Main|Leonardo da Vinci's personal life}} | |||
| Within Leonardo's lifetime, his extraordinary powers of invention, his "outstanding physical beauty", "infinite grace", "great strength and generosity", "regal spirit and tremendous breadth of mind" as described by Vasari,<ref>Vasari, p.253</ref> as well as all other aspects of his life, attracted the curiosity of others. One such aspect is his respect for life evidenced by his ] and his habit, described by Vasari, of purchasing caged birds and releasing them.<ref>Vasari, p.257</ref><ref>Eugene Muntz, ''Leonardo da Vinci Artist, Thinker, and Man of Science'' (1898), quoted at </ref> | |||
| Leonardo had many friends who are now renowned either in their fields or for their historical significance. They included the mathematician ],<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.metmuseum.org/special/Leonardo_Master_Draftsman/draftsman_left_essay.asp | |||
| | title = Leonardo, Left-Handed Draftsman and Writer | accessdate = 2009-10-18 | last = Bambach | first = Carmen | year = 2003 | location = New York | publisher = Metropolitan Museum of Art}}</ref> with whom he collaborated on a book in the 1490s, as well as ] and ].{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}} Leonardo appears to have had no close relationships with women except for his friendship with Isabella d'Este. He drew a portrait of her while on a journey which took him through ], and which appears to have been used to create a painted portrait now lost.<ref name=LB/> | |||
| Beyond friendship, Leonardo kept his private life secret. His sexuality has been the subject of satire, analysis, and speculation. This trend began in the mid-16th century and was revived in the 19th and 20th centuries, most notably by ].<ref>Sigmund Freud, ''Eine Kindheitserinnerung des Leonardo da Vinci'', (1910)</ref> | |||
| Leonardo's most intimate relationships were perhaps with his pupils Salai and Melzi, Melzi describing Leonardo's feelings for him as both loving and intensely passionate. It has been claimed since the 16th century that these relationships were of a sexual or erotic nature. Court records of 1476, when he was aged twenty-four, show that Leonardo and three other young men were charged with ], and acquitted.<ref name=Chiesa83/> Since that date much has been written about his presumed homosexuality and its role in his art, particularly in the androgyny and eroticism manifested in ''John the Baptist'' and ''Bacchus'' and more explicitly in a number of erotic drawings.<ref>Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden Friendships'' epigraph, p. 148 & N120 p.298</ref> <!-- The info contained here is beyond dispute. It HAS been claimed. Please look at the main article and carry on the argument there. --> | |||
| ]'' (c. 1514)—]]] | |||
| ===Assistants and pupils=== | |||
| Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno, nicknamed ''Salai'' or ''Il Salaino'' ("The Little Unclean One" i.e., the devil), entered Leonardo's household in 1490. After only a year, Leonardo made a list of his misdemeanours, calling him "a thief, a liar, stubborn, and a glutton", after he had made off with money and valuables on at least five occasions, and spent a fortune on clothes.<ref>Leonardo, Codex C. 15v, Institut of France. Trans. Richter</ref> Nevertheless, Leonardo treated him with great indulgence and he remained in Leonardo's household for the next thirty years.<ref>della Chiesa, p.84</ref> Salai executed a number of paintings under the name of Andrea Salai, but although Vasari claims that Leonardo "taught him a great deal about painting",<ref name="Vasari, p.265"/> his work is generally considered to be of less artistic merit than others among Leonardo's pupils, such as ] and ]. In 1515, he painted a nude version of the '']'', known as ''Monna Vanna''.<ref>{{cite web| last =Gross | first =Tom | title =Mona Lisa Goes Topless | work = | publisher =Paintingsdirect.com | date = | url =http://web.archive.org/web/20070403073656/www.paintingsdirect.com/content/artnews/032001/artnews1.html | accessdate = 2007-09-27 }}</ref> Salai owned the ''Mona Lisa'' at the time of his death in 1525, and in his will it was assessed at 505 lire, an exceptionally high valuation for a small panel portrait.<ref name=NR>{{cite web | last =Rossiter | first =Nick | title =Could this be the secret of her smile? | work = | publisher =Telegraph.co.UK | date = 2003-07-04 | url =http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2003/04/07/banr.xml | accessdate = 2007-10-03 | location=London}}</ref> | |||
| In 1506, Leonardo took on another pupil, Count ], the son of a ] aristocrat, who is considered to have been his favourite student. He travelled to France with Leonardo, and remained with him until the latter's death.<ref name=LB/> Upon Leonardo's death, Melzi inherited the artistic and scientific works, manuscripts, and collections of Leonardo, and faithfully administered the estate. | |||
| ==Painting== | |||
| ]'' (1475–1480)—Uffizi, is thought to be Leonardo's earliest complete work]] | |||
| {{See also|List of paintings by Leonardo da Vinci}} | |||
| Despite the recent awareness and admiration of Leonardo as a scientist and inventor, for the better part of four hundred years his enormous fame rested on his achievements as a painter and on a handful of works, either authenticated or attributed to him that have been regarded as among the supreme masterpieces ever created.<ref>By the 1490s Leonardo had already been described as a "Divine" painter. His fame is discussed by Daniel Arasse in ''Leonardo da Vinci'', pp.11-15</ref> | |||
| These paintings are famous for a variety of qualities which have been much imitated by students and discussed at great length by connoisseurs and critics. Among the qualities that make Leonardo's work unique are the innovative techniques that he used in laying on the paint, his detailed knowledge of anatomy, light, botany and geology, his interest in ] and the way in which humans register emotion in expression and gesture, his innovative use of the human form in figurative composition and his use of the subtle gradation of tone. All these qualities come together in his most famous painted works, the ''Mona Lisa'', the ''Last Supper'' and the ''Virgin of the Rocks''.<ref>These qualities of Leonardo's works are discussed by Frederick Hartt in ''A History of Italian Renaissance Art'', pp.387-411.</ref> | |||
| ]]] | |||
| ===Early works=== | |||
| Leonardo's early works begin with the '']'' painted in conjunction with Verrocchio. Two other paintings appear to date from his time at the workshop, both of which are ]s. One is small, {{nowrap|{{convert|59|cm}}}} long and {{nowrap|{{convert|14|cm}}}} high. It is a "predella" to go at the base of a larger composition, in this case a painting by ] from which it has become separated. The other is a much larger work, {{nowrap|{{convert|217|cm}}}} long.<ref>della Chiesa, pp. 88, 90</ref> In both these Annunciations, Leonardo has used a formal arrangement, such as in Fra Angelico's two well known pictures of the same subject, of the ] sitting or kneeling to the right of the picture, approached from the left by an angel in profile, with rich flowing garment, raised wings and bearing a lily. Although previously attributed to Ghirlandaio, the larger work is now almost universally attributed to Leonardo.<ref name=Berti>{{Cite book | first = Luciano | last = Berti | title = The Uffizi | year = 1971 | pages = 59–62}}</ref> | |||
| In the smaller picture Mary averts her eyes and folds her hands in a gesture that symbolised submission to God's will. In the larger picture, however, Mary is not in the least submissive. The beautiful girl, interrupted in her reading by this unexpected messenger, puts a finger in her bible to mark the place and raises her hand in a formal gesture of greeting or surprise.<ref name=Hartt/> This calm young woman appears to accept her role as the ] not with resignation but with confidence. In this painting the young Leonardo presents the ] face of the Virgin Mary, recognising humanity's role in God's incarnation.{{#tag:ref|Michael Baxandall lists 5 "laudable conditions" or reactions of Mary to the presence and announcement of the angel. These are: Disquiet, Reflection, Inquiry, Submission and Merit. In this painting Mary's attitude does not comply with any of the accepted traditions.<ref> | |||
| {{Cite book | first = Michael | last = Baxandall | title = Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy | year = 1974 | pages = 49–56 }}</ref>|group="nb"}} | |||
| ===Paintings of the 1480s=== | |||
| ]'', ], possibly 1505–1508, demonstrates Leonardo's interest in nature.]] | |||
| In the 1480s Leonardo received two very important commissions, and commenced another work which was also of ground-breaking importance in terms of composition. Unfortunately two of the three were never finished and the third took so long that it was subject to lengthy negotiations over completion and payment. One of these paintings is that of '']''. Bortolon associates this picture with a difficult period of Leonardo's life, and the signs of melancholy in his diary: "I thought I was learning to live; I was only learning to die."<ref name=LB/> | |||
| Although the painting is barely begun the composition can be seen and it is very unusual.{{#tag:ref|The painting, which in the 18th century belonged to ], was later cut up. The two main sections were found in a junk shop and cobbler's shop and were reunited.<ref name=Wasser2>Wasserman, pp.104-6</ref> It is probable that outer parts of the composition are missing.|group="nb"}} ], as a ], occupies the middle of the picture, set on a slight diagonal and viewed somewhat from above. His kneeling form takes on a trapezoid shape, with one arm stretched to the outer edge of the painting and his gaze looking in the opposite direction. J. Wasserman points out the link between this painting and Leonardo's anatomical studies.<ref name = Wasser2/> Across the foreground sprawls his symbol, a great lion whose body and tail make a double spiral across the base of the picture space. The other remarkable feature is the sketchy landscape of craggy rocks against which the figure is silhouetted. | |||
| The daring display of figure composition, the landscape elements and personal drama also appear in the great unfinished masterpiece, the '']'', a commission from the Monks of San Donato a Scopeto. It is a very complex composition about {{nowrap|250 square centimetres}}. Leonardo did numerous drawings and preparatory studies, including a detailed one in linear perspective of the ruined ] which makes part of the backdrop to the scene. But in 1482 Leonardo went off to Milan at the behest of ] in order to win favour with ] and the painting was abandoned.<ref name=Chiesa83/><ref name=Berti/> | |||
| The third important work of this period is the '']'' which was commissioned in Milan for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception. The painting, to be done with the assistance of the de Predis brothers, was to fill a large complex altarpiece, already constructed.<ref>Wasserman, p.108</ref> Leonardo chose to paint an apocryphal moment of the infancy of Christ when the Infant ], in protection of an angel, met the Holy Family on the road to Egypt. In this scene, as painted by Leonardo, John recognizes and worships Jesus as the Christ. The painting demonstrates an eerie beauty as the graceful figures kneel in adoration around the infant Christ in a wild landscape of tumbling rock and whirling water.<ref>{{cite web | title =The Mysterious Virgin | work = | publisher =] | url =http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/collection/features/potm/2006/may/feature1.htm | accessdate = 2007-09-27 }}</ref> | |||
| While the painting is quite large, about {{nowrap|200 × 120 centimetres}}, it is not nearly as complex as the painting ordered by the monks of St Donato, having only four figures rather than about fifty and a rocky landscape rather than architectural details. The painting was eventually finished; in fact, two versions of the painting were finished, one which remained at the chapel of the Confraternity and the other which Leonardo carried away to France. But the Brothers did not get their painting, or the de Predis their payment, until the next century.<ref name=DA>{{Cite book | first = Daniel | last = Arasse | title = Leonardo da Vinci | year = 1998 }}</ref><ref name="Chiesa85"/> | |||
| ]'' (1498)—], ], Italy]] | |||
| ===Paintings of the 1490s=== | |||
| Leonardo's most famous painting of the 1490s is '']'', also painted in Milan. The painting represents the last meal shared by Jesus with his disciples before his capture and death. It shows specifically the moment when Jesus has said "one of you will betray me". Leonardo tells the story of the consternation that this statement caused to the twelve followers of Jesus.<ref name=DA/> | |||
| The novelist ] observed Leonardo at work and wrote that some days he would paint from dawn till dusk without stopping to eat, and then not paint for three or four days at a time.<ref>Wasserman, p.124</ref> This, according to Vasari, was beyond the comprehension of the prior, who hounded him until Leonardo asked Ludovico to intervene. Vasari describes how Leonardo, troubled over his ability to adequately depict the faces of Christ and the traitor Judas, told the Duke that he might be obliged to use the prior as his model.<ref>Vasari, p.263</ref> | |||
| When finished, the painting was acclaimed as a masterpiece of design and characterisation,<ref>Vasari, p.262</ref> but it deteriorated rapidly, so that within a hundred years it was described by one viewer as "completely ruined".<ref>della Chiesa, p.97</ref> Leonardo, instead of using the reliable technique of fresco, had used tempera over a ground that was mainly gesso, resulting in a surface which was subject to mold and to flaking.<ref>della Chiesa, p.98</ref> Despite this, the painting has remained one of the most reproduced works of art, countless copies being made in every medium from carpets to cameos. | |||
| ===Paintings of the 1500s=== | |||
| ]'' or ''La Gioconda'' (1503–1505/1507)—], Paris, France]] | |||
| Among the works created by Leonardo in the 1500s is the small portrait known as the '']'' or "la Gioconda", the laughing one. In the present era it is arguably the most famous painting in the world. Its fame rests, in particular, on the elusive smile on the woman's face, its mysterious quality brought about perhaps by the fact that the artist has subtly shadowed the corners of the mouth and eyes so that the exact nature of the smile cannot be determined. The shadowy quality for which the work is renowned came to be called "]" or Leonardo's smoke. Vasari, who is generally thought to have known the painting only by repute, said that "the smile was so pleasing that it seemed divine rather than human; and those who saw it were amazed to find that it was as alive as the original".<ref>Vasari, p.267</ref>{{#tag:ref|Whether or not Vasari had seen the Mona Lisa is the subject of debate. The opinion that he had ''not'' seen the painting is based mainly on the fact that he describes the Mona Lisa as having eyebrows. Daniel Arasse in ''Leonardo da Vinci'' discusses the possibility that Leonardo may have painted the figure with eyebrows which were subsequently removed. (They were not fashionable in the mid 16th century.)<ref name=DA/> The analysis of high resolution scans made by Pascal Cotte has revealed that the Mona Lisa had eyebrows and eyelashes which have been subsequently removed.<ref>{{cite news| publisher=] |title= The Mona Lisa had brows and lashes | date = October 22, 2007 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7056041.stm | accessdate=2008-02-22}}</ref>|group="nb"}} | |||
| Other characteristics found in this work are the unadorned dress, in which the eyes and hands have no competition from other details, the dramatic landscape background in which the world seems to be in a state of flux, the subdued colouring and the extremely smooth nature of the painterly technique, employing ], but laid on much like ] and blended on the surface so that the brushstrokes are indistinguishable.{{#tag:ref|Jack Wasserman writes of "the inimitable treatment of the surfaces" of this painting.<ref>Wasserman, p.144</ref>|group="nb"}} Vasari expressed the opinion that the manner of painting would make even "the most confident master ... despair and lose heart."<ref>Vasari, p.266</ref> The perfect state of preservation and the fact that there is no sign of repair or overpainting is extremely rare in a panel painting of this date.<ref>della Chiesa, p.103</ref> | |||
| In the '']'' (see below {{ref label|StAnne|StAnne|Virgin and Child with St Anne, return}}) the composition again picks up the theme of figures in a landscape which Wasserman describes as "breathtakingly beautiful"<ref>Wasserman, p.150</ref> and harks back to the St Jerome picture with the figure set at an oblique angle. What makes this painting unusual is that there are two obliquely set figures superimposed. Mary is seated on the knee of her mother, St Anne. She leans forward to restrain the Christ Child as he plays roughly with a lamb, the sign of his own impending sacrifice.<ref name=DA/> This painting, which was copied many times, was to influence ], ], and ],<ref>della Chiesa, p.109</ref> and through them ] and ]. The trends in composition were adopted in particular by the Venetian painters ] and ]. | |||
| ]'' (c. 1499–1500)—]]] | |||
| ===Drawings=== | |||
| <!-- {{main|Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci}} --> | |||
| Leonardo was not a prolific painter, but he was a most prolific draftsman, keeping journals full of small sketches and detailed drawings recording all manner of things that took his attention. As well as the journals there exist many studies for paintings, some of which can be identified as preparatory to particular works such as ''The Adoration of the Magi'', ''The Virgin of the Rocks'' and ''The Last Supper''.<ref name=Popham/> | |||
| His earliest dated drawing is a ''Landscape of the Arno Valley'', 1473, which shows the river, the mountains, Montelupo Castle and the farmlands beyond it in great detail.<ref name=LB/><ref name=Popham>{{Cite book | first = A.E. | last = Popham | title = The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci | |||
| | year = 1946 }}</ref> | |||
| Among his famous drawings are the '']'', a study of the proportions of the human body, the ''Head of an Angel'', for '']'' in the Louvre, a botanical study of ''Star of Bethlehem'' and a large drawing (160×100 cm) in black chalk on coloured paper of the '']'' in the National Gallery, London.<ref name=Popham/> This drawing employs the subtle '']'' technique of shading, in the manner of the ''Mona Lisa''. It is thought that Leonardo never made a painting from it, the closest similarity being to '']'' in the Louvre.<ref>della Chiesa, p.102</ref> | |||
| Other drawings of interest include numerous studies generally referred to as "caricatures" because, although exaggerated, they appear to be based upon observation of live models. Vasari relates that if Leonardo saw a person with an interesting face he would follow them around all day observing them.<ref>Vasari, p.261</ref> There are numerous studies of beautiful young men, often associated with Salai, with the rare and much admired facial feature, the so-called "Grecian profile".<ref group = "nb">The "Grecian profile" has a continuous straight line from forehead to nose-tip, the bridge of the nose being exceptionally high. It is a feature of many ] statues.</ref> These faces are often contrasted with that of a warrior.<ref name=Popham/> Salai is often depicted in fancy-dress costume. Leonardo is known to have designed sets for pageants with which these may be associated. Other, often meticulous, drawings show studies of drapery. A marked development in Leonardo's ability to draw drapery occurred in his early works. Another often-reproduced drawing is a macabre sketch that was done by Leonardo in Florence in 1479 showing the body of Bernardo Baroncelli, hanged in connection with the murder of Giuliano, brother of Lorenzo de'Medici, in the ].<ref name=Popham/> With dispassionate integrity Leonardo has registered in neat ] the colours of the robes that Baroncelli was wearing when he died. | |||
| <br clear=all/> | |||
| ==Leonardo as observer, scientist and inventor== | |||
| ]'' (c. 1485) ]]] | |||
| {{Main|Science and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci}} | |||
| ===Journals=== | |||
| ] saw no mutually exclusive polarities between the sciences and the arts, and Leonardo's studies in science and engineering are as impressive and innovative as his artistic work, recorded in notebooks comprising some 13,000 pages of notes and drawings, which fuse art and ] (the forerunner of modern science). These notes were made and maintained daily throughout Leonardo's life and travels, as he made continual observations of the world around him.<ref name=DA/> | |||
| The journals are mostly written in mirror-image cursive. The reason may have been more a practical expediency than for reasons of secrecy as is often suggested. Since Leonardo wrote with his left hand, it is probable that it was easier for him to write from right to left.<ref group = "nb">Left-handed writers using a split nib or quill pen experience difficulty pushing the pen from left to right across the page.</ref>]]] | |||
| His notes and drawings display an enormous range of interests and preoccupations, some as mundane as lists of groceries and people who owed him money and some as intriguing as designs for wings and shoes for walking on water. There are compositions for paintings, studies of details and drapery, studies of faces and emotions, of animals, babies, dissections, plant studies, rock formations, whirl pools, war machines, helicopters and architecture.<ref name=DA/> | |||
| These notebooks—originally loose papers of different types and sizes, distributed by friends after his death—have found their way into major collections such as the Royal Library at ], ], the ], the ], the ] in ] which holds the twelve-volume ], and ] in ] which has put a selection from its notebook ''BL Arundel MS 263'' online.<ref>{{cite web | title =Sketches by Leonardo | work =Turning the Pages | publisher =] | url =http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/ttpbooks.html | accessdate =2007-09-27 }}</ref> The '']'' is the only major scientific work of Leonardo's in private hands. It is owned by ], and is displayed once a year in different cities around the world. | |||
| Leonardo's journals appear to have been intended for publication because many of the sheets have a form and order that would facilitate this. In many cases a single topic, for example, the heart or the human foetus, is covered in detail in both words and pictures, on a single sheet.<ref>Windsor Castle, Royal Library, sheets RL 19073v-19074v and RL 19102 respectively.</ref><ref group = "nb">This method of organisation minimises of loss of data in the case of pages being mixed up or destroyed.</ref> Why they were not published within Leonardo's lifetime is unknown.<ref name=DA/> | |||
| ===Scientific studies=== | |||
| ] as published in ] ''De Divina Proportione'']] | |||
| <!---Don't interfere with this sizing. It is exactly the right size to fit the NAME of the object, but small, because there is little detail that needs a larger size---> | |||
| Leonardo's approach to science was an observational one: he tried to understand a phenomenon by describing and depicting it in utmost detail, and did not emphasize experiments or ] explanation. Since he lacked formal education in ] and ], contemporary scholars mostly ignored Leonardo the scientist, although he did teach himself Latin. In the 1490s he studied mathematics under ] and prepared a series of drawings of regular solids in a skeletal form to be engraved as plates for Pacioli's book ''De Divina Proportione'', published in 1509.<ref name=DA/> | |||
| It appears that from the content of his journals he was planning a series of treatises to be published on a variety of subjects. A coherent treatise on ] was said to have been observed during a visit by Cardinal ]'s secretary in 1517.<ref> | |||
| {{Cite book | |||
| | last = O'Malley | |||
| | last2 = Saunders | |||
| | title = Leonardo on the Human Body | |||
| | year = 1982 | |||
| | publisher = Dover Publications | |||
| | publication-place = New York | |||
| }}</ref> Aspects of his work on the studies of anatomy, light and the landscape were assembled for publication by his pupil Francesco Melzi and eventually published as '']'' in France and Italy in 1651, and Germany in 1724,<ref>della Chiesa, p.117</ref> with engravings based upon drawings by the Classical painter ].{{Citation needed|date=January 2010}} According to Arasse, the treatise, which in France went into sixty two editions in fifty years, caused Leonardo to be seen as "the precursor of French academic thought on art".<ref name=DA/> | |||
| A recent and exhaustive analysis of Leonardo as Scientist by Frtijof Capra<ref>Capra, Fritjof. The Science of Leonardo; Inside the Mind of the Genius of the Renaissance. (New York, Doubleday, 2007)</ref> argues that Leonardo was a fundamentally different kind of scientist from Galileo, Newton and other scientists who followed him. Leonardo's experimentation followed clear scientific method approaches, and his theorising and hypothesising integrated the arts and particularly painting; these, and Leonardo's unique integrated, holistic views of science make him a forerunner of modern systems theory and complexity schools of thought. | |||
| ] | |||
| ===Anatomy=== | |||
| Leonardo's formal training in the ] of the ] began with his apprenticeship to ], his teacher insisting that all his pupils learn anatomy. As an artist, he quickly became master of ''topographic anatomy'', drawing many studies of ]s, ]s and other visible anatomical features. | |||
| As a successful artist, he was given permission to ] human corpses at the ] in ] and later at hospitals in Milan and ]. From 1510 to 1511 he collaborated in his studies with the doctor ] and together they prepared a theoretical work on anatomy for which Leonardo made more than 200 drawings. It was published only in 1680 (161 years after his death) under the heading ''Treatise on painting''.<ref name=DA/><ref name=Popham/> | |||
| Leonardo drew many studies of the ] and its parts, as well as muscles and sinews, the heart and ], the ], and other internal organs. He made one of the first scientific drawings of a ] ''in utero''.<ref name=Popham/> As an artist, Leonardo closely observed and recorded the effects of age and of human emotion on the physiology, studying in particular the effects of rage. He also drew many figures who had significant facial deformities or signs of illness.<ref name=DA/><ref name=Popham/> | |||
| Leonardo also studied and drew the anatomy of many other animals as well, dissecting cows, birds, monkeys, bears, and frogs, and comparing in his drawings their anatomical structure with that of humans. He also made a number of studies of horses. | |||
| ===Engineering and inventions=== | |||
| ] | |||
| During his lifetime Leonardo was valued as an engineer. In a letter to ] he claimed to be able to create all sorts of machines both for the protection of a city and for siege. When he fled to Venice in 1499 he found employment as an engineer and devised a system of moveable barricades to protect the city from attack. He also had a scheme for diverting the flow of the Arno River, a project on which ] also worked.<ref>{{cite book | author = ] | title = Machiavelli, Leonardo and the Science of Power | year = 1996 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | author = ] | title = Fortune is a River: Leonardo Da Vinci and Niccolo Machiavelli's Magnificent Dream to Change the Course of Florentine History | year = 1998 }}</ref> Leonardo's journals include a vast number of inventions, both practical and impractical. They include ], hydraulic pumps, reversible crank mechanisms, finned mortar shells, and a ].<ref name=LB/><ref name=DA/> | |||
| In 1502, Leonardo produced a drawing of a single span {{convert|720|ft|m|adj=on}} bridge as part of a ] project for Ottoman ] ] of ]. The bridge was intended to span an inlet at the mouth of the ] known as the ]. Beyazid did not pursue the project, because he believed that such a construction was impossible. Leonardo's vision was resurrected in 2001 when a ] based on his design was constructed in Norway.<ref></ref> On May 17, 2006, the Turkish government decided to construct Leonardo's bridge to span the ].<ref>{{cite news | last =Levy | first =Daniel S. | title =Dream of the Master | publisher ='']'' magazine | date = October 4, 1999 | url =http://www.vebjorn-sand.com/dreamsofthemaster.html | accessdate =2007-09-27 }}</ref> | |||
| For much of his life, Leonardo was fascinated by the phenomenon of ], producing many studies of the flight of birds, including his c. 1505 ], as well as plans for several flying machines, including a ] and a light ].<ref name=DA/> Most were impractical, like his aerial screw helicopter design that could not provide lift. However, the hang glider has been successfully constructed and demonstrated.<ref>The U.S. ] (PBS), aired in October 2005, a television programme called "Leonardo's Dream Machines", about the building and successful flight of a glider based on Leonardo's design.</ref> | |||
| ==Leonardo the legend== | |||
| {{Main|Cultural depictions of Leonardo da Vinci}} | |||
| ] receiving the last breath of Leonardo da Vinci, by ], 1818.]] | |||
| Within Leonardo's own lifetime his fame was such that the King of France carried him away like a trophy, and was claimed to have supported him in his old age and held him in his arms as he died.<ref>see reference to this in section "Old age".</ref> The interest in Leonardo has never slackened. The crowds still queue to see his most famous artworks, ]s bear his most famous drawing and writers, like Vasari, continue to marvel at his genius and speculate about his private life and, particularly, about what one so intelligent actually believed in.<ref name=DA/> | |||
| ], in the enlarged edition of '']'', 1568,<ref>Vasari, p.255</ref> introduced his chapter on Leonardo da Vinci with the following words:{{quote|In the normal course of events many men and women are born with remarkable talents; but occasionally, in a way that transcends nature, a single person is marvellously endowed by Heaven with beauty, grace and talent in such abundance that he leaves other men far behind, all his actions seem inspired and indeed everything he does clearly comes from God rather than from human skill. Everyone acknowledged that this was true of Leonardo da Vinci, an artist of outstanding physical beauty, who displayed infinite grace in everything that he did and who cultivated his genius so brilliantly that all problems he studied he solved with ease.|]}} | |||
| ], Florence|alt=Statue of Leonardo da Vinci by Luigi Pampaloni, Uffizi]] | |||
| The continued admiration that Leonardo commanded from painters, critics and historians is reflected in many other written tributes. ], author of ''Il Cortegiano'' ("The Courtier"), wrote in 1528: "... Another of the greatest painters in this world looks down on this art in which he is unequalled ..."<ref> | |||
| {{Cite journal | |||
| | author-link = Baldassare Castiglione | |||
| | first = Baldassare | |||
| | last = Castiglione | |||
| | title = Il Cortegiano | |||
| | year = 1528 | |||
| }}</ref> while the biographer known as "Anonimo Gaddiano" wrote, c. 1540: "His genius was so rare and universal that it can be said that nature worked a miracle on his behalf ...".<ref>"Anonimo Gaddiani", elaborating on ''Libro di Antonio Billi'', 1537–1542</ref> | |||
| The 19th century brought a particular admiration for Leonardo's genius, causing ] to write in 1801: "Such was the dawn of modern art, when Leonardo da Vinci broke forth with a splendour that distanced former excellence: made up of all the elements that constitute the essence of genius ..."<ref> | |||
| {{Cite journal | |||
| | first = Henry | |||
| | last = Fuseli | |||
| | title = Lectures | |||
| | volume = II | |||
| | year = 1801 | |||
| }}</ref> This is echoed by A. E. Rio who wrote in 1861: "He towered above all other artists through the strength and the nobility of his talents."<ref> | |||
| {{Cite journal | |||
| | first = A.E. | |||
| | last = Rio | |||
| | title = L'art chrétien | |||
| | year = 1861 | |||
| }}</ref> | |||
| By the 19th century, the scope of Leonardo's notebooks was known, as well as his paintings. ] wrote in 1866: "There may not be in the world an example of another genius so universal, so incapable of fulfilment, so full of yearning for the infinite, so naturally refined, so far ahead of his own century and the following centuries."<ref> | |||
| {{Cite journal | |||
| | first = Hippolyte | |||
| | last = Taine | |||
| | title = Voyage en Italie | |||
| | year = 1866 | |||
| }}</ref> | |||
| The famous art historian ] wrote in 1896: "Leonardo is the one artist of whom it may be said with perfect literalness: Nothing that he touched but turned into a thing of eternal beauty. Whether it be the cross section of a skull, the structure of a weed, or a study of muscles, he, with his feeling for line and for light and shade, forever transmuted it into life-communicating values."<ref> | |||
| {{Cite journal | |||
| | first = Bernard | |||
| | last = Berenson | |||
| | author-link = Bernard Berenson | |||
| | title = The Italian Painters of the Renaissance | |||
| | year = 1896 | |||
| }}</ref> | |||
| The interest in Leonardo's genius has continued unabated; experts study and translate his writings, analyse his paintings using scientific techniques, argue over attributions and search for works which have been recorded but never found.<ref> | |||
| {{Cite web | |||
| | url = http://web.archive.org/web/20060505165842/http://www.artnewsonline.com/currentarticle.cfm?art_id=1240 | |||
| | title = ArtNews article about current studies into Leonardo's life and works | |||
| | author = Melinda Henneberger | |||
| | publisher = Art News Online | |||
| | accessdate = 2010-01-10 | |||
| }}</ref> Liana Bortolon, writing in 1967, said: "Because of the multiplicity of interests that spurred him to pursue every field of knowledge ... Leonardo can be considered, quite rightly, to have been the universal genius par excellence, and with all the disquieting overtones inherent in that term. Man is as uncomfortable today, faced with a genius, as he was in the 16th century. Five centuries have passed, yet we still view Leonardo with awe."<ref name= LB/> | |||
| <br clear=all/> | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| {{Misplaced Pages-Books}} | |||
| ===About Leonardo=== | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| ===Related subjects=== | |||
| * ] | |||
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| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| ==Footnotes== | |||
| {{reflist|2|group="nb"}} | |||
| ==References== | |||
| {{reflist|colwidth=30em}} | |||
| ==Bibliography== | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Daniel Arasse| title = Leonardo da Vinci | publisher = Konecky & Konecky | year = 1997 | isbn = 1 56852 1987}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Michael Baxandall | title = Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy | year = 1974 | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 0 19 881329 5}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Fred Bérence | title = Léonard de Vinci, L'homme et son oeuvre | publisher = Somogy | year = 1965 | id = Dépot légal 4° trimestre 1965}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Luciano Berti | title = The Uffizi | year = 1971 | publisher = Scala}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Liana Bortolon| title = The Life and Times of Leonardo | publisher = Paul Hamlyn, London | year = 1967 | id = }} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Hugh Brigstoke| title = The Oxford Companion the Western Art | publisher = USA: Oxford University Press | year = 2001 | isbn = 0198662033}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Gene A. Brucker| title = Renaissance Florence | publisher = Wiley and Sons| year = 1969 | isbn = 0 471 11370 0}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Cennino Cennini | title = Il Libro Dell'arte O Trattato Della Pittui | publisher = BiblioBazaar | location = USA | year = 2009 |isbn = 9781103390328}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Angela Ottino della Chiesa| title = The Complete Paintings of Leonardo da Vinci | publisher = Penguin Classics of World Art series | year = 1967 | isbn = 0-14-00-8649-8}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Simona Cremante | title = Leonardo da Vinci: Artist, Scientist, Inventor | publisher = Giunti | year = 2005 | isbn = 88-09-03891-6 (hardback)}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Frederich Hartt| title = A History of Italian Renaissance Art | publisher = Thames and Hudson | year = 1970 | isbn = 0500231362}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Michael H. Hart | title = ] | publisher = Carol Publishing Group | year = 1992 | isbn = 0-8065-1350-0 (paperback)}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Martin Kemp| title = Leonardo | publisher = Oxford University Press| year = 2004 | isbn = 0192806440}} | |||
| * {{cite book| author = Mario Lucertini, Ana Millan Gasca, Fernando Nicolo | title = Technological Concepts and Mathematical Models in the Evolution of Modern Engineering Systems| work = | publisher = Birkhauser| year = 2004| isbn = 376436940X }} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = John N. Lupia| title = The Secret Revealed: How to Look at Italian Renaissance Painting | publisher = Medieval and Renaissance Times, Vol. 1, no. 2 (Summer, 1994): 6–17 | id = ISSN 1075-2110 }} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Andrew Martindale| title = The Rise of the Artist | publisher = Thames and Hudson | year = 1972 | isbn = 0-5000-56006}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = ] | title = Machiavelli, Leonardo and the Science of Power | publisher = University of Notre Dame Press | year = 1996 | isbn = 0-268-01433-7}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = ] | title = Fortune is a River: Leonardo Da Vinci and Niccolo Machiavelli's Magnificent Dream to Change the Course of Florentine History | publisher = Simon & Schuster | year = 1998 | isbn = 0-452-28090-7}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Charles D. O'Malley and J. B. de C. M. Sounders | title = Leonardo on the Human Body: The Anatomical, Physiological, and Embryological Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. With Translations, Emendations and a Biographical Introduction | publisher = Henry Schuman, New York | year = 1952 | id = }} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Charles Nicholl | title = Leonardo da Vinci, The Flights of the Mind | publisher = Penguin | year = 2005 | isbn = 0-14-029681-6}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Sherwin B. Nuland| title = Leonardo Da Vinci | publisher = Phoenix Press | year = 2001 | isbn = 0-7538-1269}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author =A.E. Popham | title = The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci | publisher = Jonathan Cape | year = 1946 | isbn = 0 224 60462 7}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author =Shana Priwer & Cynthia Phillips | title = The Everything Da Vinci Book: Explore the Life and Times of the Ultimate Renaissance Man | publisher = Adams Media | year = 2006 | isbn = 1598691015}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Ilan Rachum| title = The Renaissance, an Illustrated Encyclopedia'' | publisher = Octopus | year = 1979 | isbn = 0-7064-0857-8}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = ] | title = The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci | publisher = Dover | year = 1970 | isbn = 0-486-22572-0 and ISBN 0-486-22573-9 (paperback)}} 2 volumes. A reprint of . | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Marco Rosci| title = Leonardo | publisher = Bay Books Pty Ltd| year = 1977 | isbn = 0858351765}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Paolo Rossi| title = The Birth of Modern Science | publisher = Blackwell Publishing| year = 2001 | isbn = 0631227113}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Bruno Santi | title = Leonardo da Vinci | publisher = Scala / Riverside | year = 1990}} | |||
| * {{cite book |author = Theophilus | title = On Divers Arts | publisher = University of Chicago Press | location=USA |year = 1963 | isbn = 9780226794822}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Jack Wasserman | title = Leonardo da Vinci | publisher = Abrams | year = 1975 | isbn = 0-8109-0262-1}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = ]| title = Lives of the Artists'' | publisher = Penguin Classics, trans. George Bull 1965| year = 1568 | isbn = 0-14-044-164-6}} | |||
| * {{Cite book | first = Hugh Ross | last = Williamson | title = Lorenzo the Magnificent | year = 1974 | publisher = Michael Joseph | isbn = 07181 12040}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Emanuel Winternitz | title=Leonardo Da Vinci As a Musician | year=1982 | publisher=Yale University Press | location=USA | isbn=9780300026313}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Alessandro Vezzosi | title = Leonardo da Vinci: Renaissance Man | publisher = Thames & Hudson Ltd, London | year = 1997 (English translation) | isbn = 0-500-30081-X}} | |||
| * {{cite book | author = Frank Zollner | title = Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings and Drawings | publisher = Taschen | year = 2003 | isbn = 3-8228-1734-1 (hardback)}} . | |||
| ==External links== | |||
| {{sisterlinks|s=Author:Leonardo da Vinci}} | |||
| * {{ws|"]" in the 1913 ''Catholic Encyclopedia''}} | |||
| * | |||
| * {{gutenberg author | id=Leonardo_da_Vinci | name=Leonardo da Vinci}} | |||
| * {{gutenberg | no=7785 | name=Leonardo da Vinci'' by Maurice Walter Brockwell'}} | |||
| * | |||
| * : in ''Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects''. | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * Article from '']'' | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * {{findagrave|3673}} | |||
| {{Leonardo da Vinci}} | |||
| {{Normdaten|PND=118640445|LCCN=n/79/34525|VIAF=24604287}} | |||
| {{good article}} | |||
| {{Persondata | |||
| | NAME=Leonardo da Vinci | |||
| | ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (full name) | |||
| | SHORT DESCRIPTION=] ] and ] | |||
| | DATE OF BIRTH={{birth date|1452|4|15|mf=y}} | |||
| | PLACE OF BIRTH=] by ] | |||
| | DATE OF DEATH={{death date|1519|5|2|mf=y}} | |||
| | PLACE OF DEATH=], ] | |||
| }} | |||
| {{DEFAULTSORT:Leonardo Da Vinci}} | |||
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Revision as of 14:34, 17 July 2010
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