Leonardo da Vinci
Polymath
Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time. The Mona Lisa is the most famous of his works and the most famous portrait ever made. The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting of all time and his Vitruvian Man drawing is also regarded as a cultural icon. He is also known for his notebooks, in which he made drawings and notes on science and invention; these involve a variety of subjects including anatomy, cartography, painting, and palaeontology. Leonardo's collective works compose a contribution to later generations of artists rivalled only by that of his contemporary Michelangelo.
Properly named Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, Leonardo was born out of wedlock to a notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman, Caterina, in Vinci, in the region of Florence, Italy. Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Italian painter Andrea del Verrocchio. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan, and he later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice. He spent his last three years in France, where he died in 1519.
Although he had no formal academic training, many historians and scholars regard Leonardo as the prime exemplar of the "Renaissance Man" or "Universal Genius", an individual of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination." He is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived. According to art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent in recorded history, and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, while the man himself mysterious and remote." Scholars interpret his view of the world as being based on logic, though the empirical methods he used were unorthodox for his time.
Leonardo is revered for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualized flying machines, a type of armoured fighting vehicle, concentrated solar power, an adding machine, and the double hull. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or even feasible during his lifetime, as the modern scientific approaches to metallurgy and engineering were only in their infancy during the Renaissance. Some of his smaller inventions, however, entered the world of manufacturing unheralded, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire. He is also sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter, and tank. He made substantial discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, geology, optics, and hydrodynamics, but he did not publish his findings and they had little to no direct influence on subsequent science.
Artworks
Source : From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An Italian polymath of the High Renaissance, Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci worked as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. He gained notoriety for his notebooks, in which he made sketches and notes on a variety of topics, including anatomy, astronomy, botany, painting, and palaeontology, even though his fame initially stemmed from his accomplishments as a painter. The Renaissance humanist ideal was best exemplified by Leonardo, who is widely regarded as a genius. Michelangelo, his younger contemporary, made a greater contribution to art history with his younger works.
He was educated in Florence under the tutelage of the Italian painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio. He was born out of wedlock to a prosperous notary and a lower-class woman in, or near, Vinci. He started out in the city but later spent a lot of time working for Ludovico Sforza in Milan. Later, he resumed his work in Florence and Milan, as well as for a brief period in Rome, all the while gaining a sizable fan base of imitators and students. He spent his final three years in France at Francis I's invitation, where he passed away in 1519. Since his passing, his accomplishments, varied interests, personal life, and empirical thinking have never failed to arouse interest and admiration, making him a frequently used namesake and cultural topic.
One of the greatest painters in art history, Leonardo is frequently cited as the father of the High Renaissance. He produced some of the most important paintings in Western art despite having many lost works and less than 25 major works that can be directly attributed to him, including many unfinished ones. His most well-known piece and frequently regarded as the most well-known painting in the world is the Mona Lisa, his magnum opus. His drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also regarded as a cultural icon, and The Last Supper is the religious painting that has been copied the most often in history. Leonardo is credited with creating Salvator Mundi, which was sold at auction for US$450.3 million in 2017, breaking the previous record for the most expensive painting ever sold at a public auction.
He was revered for his technological ingenuity and invented the double hull, a type of armoured fighting vehicle, concentrated solar power, flying machines, and ratio machines that could be used in adding machines. Because modern scientific methods for metallurgy and engineering were still in their infancy during the Renaissance, relatively few of his designs were built or even practical during his lifetime. But some of his smaller creations—like an automated bobbin winder and a device for assessing the tensile strength of wire—entered the manufacturing world unnoticed. He made important discoveries in optics, tribology, hydrodynamics, geology, and civil engineering, but he never published his findings, so they had little to no immediate impact on subsequent science.
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