...Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (Italian pronunciation: [leoˈnardo da vˈvintʃi] About this sound pronunciation (help·info); April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519, Old Style) was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. His genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance Man, a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination".[1] He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.[2] According to art historian Helen Gardner, 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".[1] Marco Rosci states 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.[3] Born out of wedlock to a notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman, Caterina, in Vinci in the region of Florence, Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Florentine painter, Verrocchio. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan. He later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice, and he spent his last years...
Words: 494 - Pages: 2
...| Leonardo Da Vinci | Renaissance Man | | Jenny Bevier | 8/20/2010 | | Very few that have ever lived have been acknowledged as a genius. Leonardo Da Vinci was a renaissance man who was a true pioneer of his time. Though he is best known as an artist, he was far more than that. Leonardo was also an engineer, inventor, and scientist. He had one of the best scientific minds of his time. He carried out research in fields ranging from architecture and civil engineering to astronomy, anatomy, geography, geology, and paleontology. Leonardo was a renaissance man whose works of art and studies of mechanics and science paved the way for many artists, engineers, and doctors today. Da Vinci was born in 1452 in the small town of Anchiano, Italy. He was an illegitimate child of a Florentine Notary, Piero Da Vinci, and a peasant woman named Catrina (The World Wide Art Gallery, 2010, para. 2). Until the age of five Leonardo lived in the Hamlet of Anchiano with his mother. From 1457 on he lived with his father, grandparents, and uncle Fracesco in the small town of Vinci, Italy. Da Vinci never received a formal education. However, he was informally taught Latin, geometry, and mathematics by his stepmother Alberia, and her mother in law Monna Lucia. Also, he learned from scholarly textbooks that were owned by various family members. When Leonardo was fifteen, he was apprenticed to the artist Andrea Di Cione, known as Verrocchio. During this time is when Leonardo was...
Words: 1505 - Pages: 7
...Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452, "at the third hour of the night" in the Tuscan hill town of Vinci, in the lower valley of the Arno River in the territory of Florence. He was the illegitimate son of Messer Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci, a Florentine notary, and Caterina, a peasant who may have been a slave from the Middle East. Leonardo had no surname in the modern sense, "da Vinci" simply meaning "of Vinci": his full birth name was "Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci", meaning "Leonardo, son of (Mes) ser Piero from Vinci." Little is known about Leonardo's early life. He spent his first five years in the hamlet of Anchiano, and then 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. In later life, Leonardo only recorded two childhood incidents. One, which he regarded as an omen, was when a kite dropped from the sky and hovered over his cradle, its tail feathers brushing his face. 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. Leonard's early life has been the subject of historical conjecture. Vasari, the 16th century biographer of Renaissance painters tells of how a local peasant requested that Ser Piero ask his talented son to paint a picture on...
Words: 316 - Pages: 2
...Leonardo da Vinci The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the topic of Leonardo da Vinci and his work. Specifically it will discuss da Vinci's engineering and architectural designs, including his water, flying, and war apparatus, along with his architectural designs such as St. Paul's Cathedral. Many people think of da Vinci as a true "Renaissance Man," because his life personified the Renaissance ideals of the arts, education, and innovation. A true innovator, as well as an artist, inventor, engineer, and writer, da Vinci's interests led him to produce a vast assortment of innovations and ideas that educators and researchers are still studying and creating today. His inventions illustrate that he was an exceptional man with ideas far ahead of his time. He could imagine innovations that are the foundation for many modern technological advances, like the helicopter, the tank, and myriad others. Many people do not know that da Vinci was also a skilled architect who helped design and build many different buildings. He visualized an "ideal city" in his mind, based on ideas of design and urban planning that were unheard of at his time. He imagined a geometric city that was surrounded by a connected series of canals.The canals would act as a means of transportation as well serve as a sewage system, which was unknown in this time and He also saw wide roads to help with traffic congestion. They would be as wide as the buildings were tall, to ensure the residents...
Words: 1951 - Pages: 8
...Leonardo Da Vinci was born on April 14, 1452 in the town of Vinci near Florence Italy. He kept the name of his town for his last name. He lived during the fifteenth century, a period when the people of Europe were becoming interested in art. This period of time was known as the Renaissance period. Leonardo Da Vinci was very talented. He was a great artist, but he became famous because he was able to do so many other things. He was an architect, a musician, inventor, sculptor, scientist, and mathematician. His artistic talent revealed its self early in his life. When he was about 15 years old Leonardo's father took him to Florence Italy, to train as a painter and sculptor in the studio of Andrea del Verroccho. He studied with this master until the age of twenty five. At this point, he set up his own business and was famous for being a painter and a man of science. As a scientist, he observed everything he could in nature. Leonardo used what he learned from nature and science to make his paintings look real. He drew and took many notes of what he observed. His notes were written backwards, probably because he didn't want people to read about his discoveries and observations. In order to read Leonardo's notes, one has to hold them up to a mirror. In 1472 he entered a painters' guild. His earliest extensive works date back to this time. In 1482 Da Vinci worked for Duke Lodovico Sforza in Milan for 18 years. He fulfilled the position as court artist, but also worked as an engineer...
Words: 3302 - Pages: 14
...LEORNADO DA VINCI AND HIS ART [pic] His early childhood Leonardo da Vinci is usually regarded as an artistic genius who possessed great ability in art and understanding of the human physical features and natural sciences as depicted in his art. Leonardo da Vinci was also an accomplished musician and scientist. No other artist of his generation had such exceptional ability and left behind such a wealth of graphic work. He was somehow controversial and as a young man he was accused of being a homosexual (Frank Zöllner 2002 p.7). However even though most of his works were of exceptional quality he had a tendency of not finishing his works and sometimes fled due to social problems. Leonardo da Vinci was born in 15th April 1452 in the village of Tuscan in Florence (Leonardo 2002 p 3). He was the son of ser piero da Vinci, a young lawyer and Caterina. He was of noble origin form his mother’s side (Leonardo 2002 p 4). His mother bestowed upon him not only the beauty of his person but also very many other gifts that placed him high above ordinary people. It is said that he was somehow a genius and usually solved with ease whatever he put his mind to (Leonardo 2002 p 4). When he was still young he enrolled in the study of very many different things but he usually abandoned them once he had jut began to know them. One of the courses he studied was arithmetic and after a few months he had understood it so much that he used to come up with problems and difficulties which...
Words: 2383 - Pages: 10
...the integration of science and art in order to construct buildings and sculptures. One of the greatest artists, scientists and researchers at that time was Leonardo Da Vinci, who was convinced that "a man - is the model of the world". He was the first artist to open a human body and create images of its organs. Artists of the Renaissance were more open to experimenting with new drawing techniques and themes than their Medieval counterparts. One of his most remarkable scientific works is a diagram of a human body in a circle and a square. The drawing was part of Leonardo’s personal notes and was unknown to exist until three hundred years after his death. The diagram was never officially titled, but because of its nature it received names such as: “Vitruvius man”, “Proportional study of a man” and “Man of proportions”. Leonardo’s drawing of Vitruvian man is beyond anything that was done preciously by any other scientist or artist not only because he placed a figure in two of the most admired shapes at that time, but also because of the accuracy of his measurements and proportions. Who was the Vitruvian man and what did he represent? The diagram was based on measurements given by an ancient roman architect, Marcus Vitruvius, who believed in connection between the proportions of the human body and architecture. Leonardo Da...
Words: 889 - Pages: 4
...Leonardo Da Vinci lived during the Renaissance in the 14th century. He was known as a painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, and scientist. His influences in the society and his inventions have become so significant that even in today’s world; we are still wondering about him and using the same technologies he had foreseen more than 500 years ago. A self-taught genius, who lived life through experiences, and experiences are the focal points of his entire life. With the help of two simple tools, a notebook and a pen, Leonardo was able to carry out the evolution of nature, art, technology, and humanism in details through sketches and writings. Ultimately, his notebook has changed humankind from the way we think, see, and judge to the awareness of our freedom forever. Leonardo Da Vinci was born on Saturday, April 15, 1452 at 10:30 P.M. in a small town of Vinci. Because Leonardo’s mother and father were never married, he was disqualified from membership in the Guild of Notaries. Thus, Leonardo was ineligible in the footsteps of his father, an accountant. was artist of the Renaissance (the period of Western European history stretching from the early 14th century to the mid to late 16th century),. His deep love for nature, knowledge, research and experience, was the central reason of both his artistic and scientific accomplishments. " Though I have no power to quote from authors as they do I shall rely on a bigger and more worthy thing-on experience."{The Notebooks of Leonardo Da...
Words: 1921 - Pages: 8
...Leonardo Da Vinci was born on April 14, 1452 in the town of Vinci near Florence Italy. He kept the name of his town for his last name. He lived during the fifteenth century, a period when the people of Europe were becoming interested in art. This period of time was known as the Renaissance period. Leonardo Da Vinci was very talented. He was a great artist, but he became famous because he was able to do so many other things. He was an architect, a musician, inventor, sculptor, scientist, and mathematician. His artistic talent revealed itself early in his life. When he turned 15 years old, Leonardo's father took him to Florence Italy, to train as a painter and sculptor in the studio of Andrea del Verroccho. He studied with this master until the...
Words: 817 - Pages: 4
...Leonardo da Vinci, also called the Universal Man is known for being a great painter, sculptor, scientist and engineer. One of his most known works is the "Mona Lisa", which gained a lot of popularity. Leonardo Da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in Vinci, Italy. He grew up in a Farmhouse which happened to be right outside of a village in present-day Italy called Anchiano. While growing up, Leonardo Da Vinci did not have any education beyond the topics of basic reading, writing and mathematics. At the age 14, Da Vinci had an evident talent for art, so his father got him an apprenticeship with an artist named Andrea del Verrochio where he taught him and his other apprentices leather arts, carpentry, drawing, painting and sculpting. Around the age of 20, da Vinci got certified as a master artist in Florence’s Guild of Saint Luke and he established his own workshop where he taught his apprentices. Da Vinci still collaborated with his teacher, Andrea del Verrochio, with completing paintings. People believe that Verrochio finished one of Da Vinci’s paintings called “Baptism of Christ” with the help of his student. It is also said that Verrochio was so humbled by his student’s talent, that he never picked up a paintbrush ever again. In 1482, Leonardo da Vinci left Florence to become a court artist for the Duke of...
Words: 693 - Pages: 3
...Leonardo da Vinci was one of the most influential persons in human history. Born in 1452, he demonstrated excellence in multiple disciplines. For that reason, he was often called the Renaissance man. He was painter, inventor, military engineer, architect, sculptor and this list goes on. Blessed with brilliant mind and unbelievable skills, he went on discovering major branches of science and nature. His works have influenced countless researchers and scientists all over the world and in many ways shaped a big part of human civilization today. In today’s world, he is most notable for his famous paintings Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Mostly self-educated, his personal notes were full of innovations, theories and observations about numerous...
Words: 1197 - Pages: 5
...Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, in the Republic of Florence, which is known nowadays as Italy. He was a sculptor, engineer, mathematician, writer, architect, and much more. However, he is best renowned as a painter. Some of his notable art works are: the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Thanks to his famous art pieces, he can best be described as the archetype of the “Renaissance Man”. His curiosity was able to match his power of inventions. As an engineer, he formed the concepts of a helicopter, tank, calculator, and solar powered machines, even though all of these were ahead of his time. His wisdom was marked as an essential piece in the wake of the Italian Renaissance. The word Renaissance in Italian means “rebirth” and that...
Words: 695 - Pages: 3
...Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were both very gifted and represented some of the greatest pieces of art in their time. Both artists were architects, sculptors, and amazing painters of equal talent who used sketches. Both Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo have left many pieces for use to compare their abilities, skills, and creative process. They both have sketches that show their separate approaches to their personal styles of art. Michelangelo began his artistic career at only twelve years old, he claimed to be self-taught but was really apprenticed by Domenico Ghirlandaio and the influence is seen in much of his work. Michelangelo used drawing or sketches to create his works of art. His attention to detail is so incredibly precise, the folds of each robe, the veins in the hands, even the shapes uses within the sketches. One particular thing I notice important to Michelangelo are the emotions he brings out in the people he draws, it gives us a feeling of what emotions are meant to come across. Leonardo da Vinci has also executed each piece with amazing skill. For example the nude study of a young man, the arms and legs are put in perfect proportions. It seems with Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches the faces are almost emotionless and we focus on the body form more. Although his work is accurate and brilliant I do not find the same captivating emotions found in the work of Michelangelo. Although when we look at his drawings we see his though process. He used great perspective...
Words: 293 - Pages: 2
...virtuosity. Although he always considered himself a Florentine, Michelangelo lived most of his life in Rome, where he died in 1564, at age 88.” Michelangelo – Biography | Beauty of Concrete. (n.d.). “Born on April 15, 1452, in Vinci, Italy, Leonardo da Vinci was the epitome of a “Renaissance man.” Possessor of a curious mind and keen intellect, da Vinci studied the laws of science and nature, which greatly informed his work as a painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, military engineer and draftsman. Leonardo died on May 2, 1519 in Cloux, France.” Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of ... (n.d.) Leonardo and Michelangelo left us artworks, some of which were destroyed or lost and other unfinished, but all equally beautiful and ahead of their time. These great men were not just artists, but innovators as well. Leonardo Da Vinci came up with the idea of building a helicopter and Michelangelo designed buildings while writing poems for his beloved. Even though they disliked each other, they were very much alike. They both were unpopular among the people until their last years of life because their behavior was considered to be strange. However, they have been praised ever since and their work is still admired. References: Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of ... (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/hd/leon/hd_leon.htm Michelangelo – Biography | Beauty Of Concrete. (n.d.). Retrieved from...
Words: 307 - Pages: 2
...A short time ago, a specialist in the area of engineering wanted to see if the designs created by Leonardo da Vinci were unique inventions created by him and which has given him much reputation as a genius, not only in the area of painting, but also as inventor. Leonardo da Vinci was a great mechanic and an expert in architecture, which caught the attention of experts in the area of engineering decided to build two of the many designs created by Leonardo da Vinci using plans drawn by the artist. Designs created by these experts in engineering were the flying machine and l-shaped crossbow catapult. The expert’s engineers began to build the first flying machine according to the original plans created by Leonardo da Vinci. Them to ensure that...
Words: 340 - Pages: 2
