Leonardo Da Vinci :: essays research papers

1452-1519, Italian painter, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer, andscientist, probably the supreme example of Renaissance genius. Born in Vinci,Tuscany, he was the illegitimate son of a Florentine notary and a peasant girl.His precocious graphicsistic talent brought him to Verrocchios workshop in 1466,where he met Botticelli and Ghirlandaio. The cul mination of his art in thisfirst period in Florence is seen in the magnificent, unfinished Adoration of theMagi (Uffizi), with its characteristic dramatic movement and chiaroscuro. Inc.1482 da Vinci went to the court of Ludovico Sforza in Milan and on that point composedmost of his Trattato della pittura and the notebooks that demonstrate his versatile genius. The severe plagues in 1484 and 1485 drew his attention to townplanning, and his drawings and plans for domed churches reflect his concern witharchitectural problems. In 1483, Leonardo and his pupil Ambrogio de Predis werecommissioned to execute the famous Madonna of the Rocks (two versions1483-c.1486, Louvre 1483-1508, National Gall., London). The now badly damagedLast Supper (c.1495-1498 Milan) was executed during the period when he wasexperimenting with the paint medium, and this partly accounts for its damage.Despite this, a sublime spiritual content and power of invention mark it as oneof the worlds masterpieces. Leonardos model for an equestrian monument toFrancesco Sforza was neer cast, and in 1500 he returned to Florence, where hedid much theoretical work in mathematics andpursued his anatomical studies in the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova. As amilitary engineer for Cesare Borgia he studied swamp reclamation and met NiccolMachiavelli. In c.1503 he executed the celebrated Mona Lisa (Louvre). Then, asarchitect and engineer in Milan to the cut king Louis Xii, he continued hisscientific investigations into geology, botany, hydraulics, and mechanics. In1510-11 he painted St. Anne, Mary, and the Child (Louvre), a work thatexemplifies his handling of sfumato-misty, subtle transitions in tone.