Leonardo da Vinci -

Leonardo da Vinci. One of the exponents of the Renaissance , sculptor, architect, engineer and scientist. He stood out for his deep passion for knowledge and research, clear principles that highlighted his work. He became a clear innovator in the field of painting, leading to the evolution of Italian art for more than a century after his death. On the other hand, he also excelled in the field of science , his investigations in the areas of anatomy, optics and hydraulics, anticipated many advances of modern science.

Biographical synthesis

He was born on 15 of April of 1452 in Anchiano , a village near the town of Vinci in the valley of the Arno, within the territories of Florence , Italy . Although for others he was born in Vinci, hence his surname, before the naming conventions currently in force in Europe were adoptedTherefore, his father’s name Ser Piero and the town of birth were added to his Christian name, then Leonardo di Ser Piero da Vinci. However, Leonardo used to sign his works as Leonardo or Io, Leonardo, I Leonardo, that is, without using his father’s name, which leads us to think that he was an illegitimate son. He was the natural son of a peasant woman, Caterina (who married a local artisan shortly after), and of Ser Piero, a wealthy Florentine notary.

Stage of his childhood

Italy was then a mosaic of city-states like Florence , small republics like Venice, and fiefdoms under the rule of princes or the pope. The Roman Empire of East fell in 1453 to the Turks and barely survived still very low, the Holy Roman Empire ; It was a violent time in which, however, the splendor of the courts had no limits.

His father was married four times and had eleven children, with whom Leonardo ended up having lawsuits for the paternal inheritance with his last two marriages, so Leonardo was raised as an only child.

the beginning

His enormous curiosity was manifested early, drawing mythological animals of his own invention, inspired by a deep observation of the natural environment in which he grew up. Giorgio Vasari , his first biographer, recounts how Leonardo’s genius, while still a child, created a shield of Medusa with dragons that terrified his father when he came upon him by surprise.

Little is known of its early years, which have been the subject of historical conjecture by Vasari and others. Leonardo would later only speak of two incidents from his childhood. One of them, which he regarded as a prophecy, was that a falcon came down from the sky and flew over his cradle, its tail feathers brushing his face. Since he was a child he showed aptitude for the plastic arts, mainly drawing, as well as geometry, mechanics and music. He had a great capacity for observation which was worth not only to his artistic work but also to other subjects that he studied such as Physics (mainly mechanics), music or Naturalism (now biology), a great realism and an outstanding naturalness.

Already aware of the talent of his son, his father authorized him, when Leonardo was fourteen years old, to enter as an apprentice in Andrea del Verrocchio’s workshop , where, throughout the six years that the painters’ guild prescribed as instruction Before being recognized as a free artist, he learned painting, sculpture, techniques and mechanics of artistic creation. The first work of his that is known for certain was the construction of the copper sphere designed by Brunelleschi to crown the Church of Santa Maria dei Fiori . Next to Verrocchio’s workshop, there was also that of Antonio Pollaiuollo , where Leonardo made his first studies in Anatomy and, perhaps, also began in the knowledge of Latin and Greek.

Leonardo da Vinci was one of the most fascinating figures of the Renaissance . In addition to one of the creators who has led to a greater number of myths about his person. Considered the paradigm of the Renaissance Homo universalis , he ventured into fields as varied as Aerodynamics , Hydraulics , Anatomy , Botany , painting and Architecture, among others. His legacy has been as impressive as the magnitude of his myth. His fruitful scientific investigations were, to a great extent, forgotten and undervalued by his contemporaries, while in his work as a painter they saw in him a teacher and a sage, who manages to elaborate and capture the ideal of beauty that presides over the artistic activity of the High Renaissance .

In the company of the Florentine painters of Saint Jesus, Leonardo appears mentioned for the first time in the year 1462 .

Leonardo set up his own studio as a freelance writer in Florence . The October to January of 1478 he received his first public commission, an altarpiece for the chapel of San Bernardo in the Palazzo della Signoria; He received 25 florins in advance, but did not start the work, entrusted in 1483 to Domenico Ghirlandaio and then to Filippino Lippi , who finished it in 1485 .

As a genius multiform artist, architect, musician, doctor, engineer, designer and inventor – he managed to merge science and the arts in his extensive work. Da Vinci’s manuscripts, jealously preserved in the French Clos-Lucé museum in Amboise, the town where he died at the age of 67, are very revealing of his capacity. I could add that many of his ingenuities, both to explore the pictorial techniques like those of hydraulics, anatomy, sculpture or mechanics, they took more than two centuries to be understood. Inventor of the spanner, author of the famous Mona Lisa painting, father of the anemometer, or dreamer of speed change, just to mention a tiny part of how much he contributed to society at the time.

Youth and technical discoveries

He was a handsome and vigorous young man who had inherited the physical strength of his father’s line; it is very probable that it was the model for the head of Saint Michael in the painting of Verrocchio Tobías and the angel , with fine and beautiful features. For the rest, his great creative imagination and the early mastery of his brush did not take long to surpass those of his teacher: in the Baptism of Christ , for example, where a dynamic and inspired angel painted by Leonardo contrasts with the abruptness of the Baptist made by Verrocchio .

The young disciple used there for the first time a new technique recently arrived from the Netherlands : oil painting, which allowed a greater softness in the line and a deeper penetration into the canvas. In addition to the extraordinary drawings and virtuous participation in other works by his master, his great works from this period are a Saint Jerome and the large panel The Adoration of the Magi (both unfinished), notable for the innovative dynamism bestowed by the mastery in the contrasts of features, in the geometric composition of the scene and in the extraordinary handling of the chiaroscuro technique .

Florence was then one of the richest cities in Europe ; its factories for manufacturing silk and brocades from the East and wool from the West, and its numerous weaving factories made it the great commercial center of the Italian peninsula; there the Medicis had established a court whose splendor owed no little to the artists it had. But when the young Leonardo realized that he was getting nothing but praise from Lorenzo the Magnificent for his virtues as a good courtier, at the age of thirty he decided to seek a more prosperous horizon.

First Milanese period

In 1482 he appeared before the powerful Ludovico Sforza , the strong man of Milan at the time, at whose court he would remain for seventeen years as “pictor et ingenierius ducalis.” Although his main occupation was that of a military engineer, his projects (almost all unrealized) included Hydraulics , Mechanics (with innovative lever systems to multiply human strength), architecture, as well as painting and sculpture. It was his period of full development; following the mathematical bases established by León Bautista Alberti and Piero della Francesca, Leonardo began his notes for the formulation of a science of painting, while practicing and making lutes.

Stimulated by the dramatic plague that ravaged Milan and whose cause Leonardo saw in the overcrowding and dirtiness of the city, he designed spacious villas, made plans for river channels and ingenious defense systems against enemy artillery. Having been commissioned by Ludovico to create a monumental equestrian statue in honor of Francesco, the founder of the Sforza dynasty, Leonardo worked for sixteen years on the project of the “great horse”, which would only materialize in a model, which was recently destroyed later during a battle.

In medicine

It was Leonardo da Vinci, in 1508 , the first to observe that putting the head in a glass container with water changed vision. Over the years different researchers perfected this ancient theory to what we know today as contact lenses.

The figure of Leonardo da Vinci was crucial in the development of Western culture, being recognized as the father of the High Renaissance. His anatomical studies collected in the “Anatomical Manuscript A” ( 1510 – 1511 ) focus on osteology and myology, and attempts to understand human functioning are reflected in his plates. In addition to the scientific contribution, the plates resulting from Leonardo’s studies contain some of the most brilliant anatomical drawings ever created.

At the end of 1513 , Leonardo carried out his anatomical investigations at the Hospital of the Holy Spirit in Rome , but he was forced to give up his studies when in 1515 , he was accused of sacrilegious practices and Pope Leo X prohibited him from entering the Hospital, thus truncating his anatomical career.

Leonardo projected, although he never wrote, a treatise on Anatomy (“Il libro dell´Anatomia”). Although sketches and parts of it exist, most of his anatomical work has been lost. Da Vinci was a genius in every field he cultivated, and although he was one of the most original and insightful anatomists of all times, and while his paintings were widely known, only a few friends and collaborators had any knowledge of the depth of your medical research. He also dissected the human body, and drew pictures of the bones and muscles, which are used in medical schools today.

Some of his many inventions:

Invented the helicopter
The war tank
Machines for drilling the earth
Lifevest
Centrifugal pump
Stock-loading barrel
Conical screw
Belt transmission
Canal construction dredger
Link chain
Endless screw
Submarine
Compass
Device for winding and twisting wool
Spindle
Shuttle
Parachute
Chimney
Boat slide

In education

Although Leonardo does not seem to care too much about forming his own school, in his Milanese workshop a group of faithful apprentices and students was created little by little: Giovanni Boltraffio , Ambrogio de Predis , Andrea Solari , his inseparable Salai , among others; scholars have not yet agreed on the exact attribution of some works from this period, such as the Madonna Litta or the portrait of Lucrezia Crivelli .

Hired in 1483 by the brotherhood of the Immaculate Conception to make a painting for the church of San Francisco, Leonardo undertook the realization of what would be the famous Virgen de las Rocas, whose final result, in two versions, would not be ready at eight months that marked the contract, but twenty years later. The triangular structure of the composition, the grace of the figures, the brilliant use of the famous sfumato to enhance the visionary sense of the scene, make both works a new aesthetic revolution for their contemporaries.

On the sport

Da Vinci also established a singular analogy with certain sports tools or implements of the present. In 1486 he was attracted to the flight of birds and the results of his studies led him to outline the principles of aeronautics. Later, between 1510 and 1515, he designed the glider, the illustrations of which constituted the first description of controlled flight, similar to the later development of aviation using spectacular hang gliders.

Some historians insist on describing this prophet of the industrial age as a man who had a gloomy concept of the future, since most of his discoveries were for warlike purposes. However, when we read: “to subdue the air and to rise above it, with great wings (man) will succeed in overcoming its resistance”, we understand that the parachute and the flying machine were conceived with other aims.

In one of the rooms of the aforementioned Clos-Lucé museum, the great-grandfather of all parachutes, made of wood and cloth, in the shape of a cone, hangs from the ceiling. If we compare it with the modern ones, we will observe that the design of the genius was added to the upper opening and the strings in charge of directing the trajectory. That sketch of the pyramidal parachute, inspired by the tent, appears outlined in the Atlanticus codex and was made in 1845, where in the margin of the drawing the author noted: “As little as it has a cloth tent, in which all the openings have been covered, and that it is 12 fathoms diagonally (approximately six meters) by 12 high, it can be launched from no matter what height without fear of injury. ” The application of some inventions on the surface or in the deep sea allows to ensure that, in addition, he perfected diving equipment capable of reaching surprising modernism.

The latter is made up of a floating dome with several holes and other reinforced tubes, which lead to a system of valves that allow inspiration and expiration. Such equipment is complemented by the immersion suit, with boots and pants in which there were details for natural needs, highlighted in the Atlanticus codex itself. To the same extent we find the sketch of the life preserver, used by an individual who adopts the position of the crawl swimming style (free). The caricature of a young man in Renaissance costume on a two-wheeled implement, traced with a compass, and the eight-spoke wheels that appear colored, offer the surprising revelation of the bicycle A strange T-shape, joining the front wheel by two arched stems,It is the main element that allows interpreting the operation of the device from a third point of support in the center of the chassis. There you will find another wheel with thick wooden teeth, cubic and without points, with two pedals linked by a chain to another smaller wheel.

Although the paternity of the ball, kicked years ago by footballers, is attributed to the Chinese in ancient times, among the drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, belonging to 1509 and illustrators of the work De divina proportione ( Luca Pacioli ), there are numerous polyhedra regular and irregular. In this scheme, made up of 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons, the coincidence with the current design of the ball is remarkable, and who doubts the hypothesis that Da Vinci met the calcium matches in the Plaza Della Signaria in his native Florence.

The great difficulty in ensuring all the inventions proposed lies in the publication of his notebooks in the final years of the 19th century , when many scientists reinvented what was previously created by him.

When Leonardo is considered in relation to the variety and complexity of his artistic and scientific activities, the defining features are his categorical rejection of the principle of authority and the affirmation of experience as an exclusive value. In his activity as a painter this will also be his defining feature. Learned the two basic principles of the Florentine painting of the Quattrocento , the three-dimensional representation system and the valuation of classical antiquityas a teacher, she will oppose them, overcoming them and proposing a new system of representation; To the geometric construction of space and the linear perspective achieved by the Quattrocentists, he opposes the aerial perspective, the basis of which is found in his continuous research on the phenomenon of light. Before the lesson of classical antiquity, he reacts through a rational, vast and experienced knowledge of the phenomena of nature.

Great Works of Da Vinci

“The Vitruvian man, canon of the human body”

The squaring of the circle reached by Leonardo da Vinci The Vitruvian Man is the drawing made by Leonardo da Vinci around the year 1492 in one of his diaries and which is accompanied by anatomical notes. The drawing is done in pencil and ink and measures 34.2 x 24.5 cm.

Today it is part of the collection of the Gallery of the Academy of Venice. It is a study of the proportions of the human body, made from the texts of the Roman architect Vitruvius entitled -Vitruvii De Architectura-, and from which the drawing takes its name. Leonardo represents himself naked and in two superimposed positions of arms and legs and inscribed in a circle and a square.

Above all, his friendship with the mathematician Luca Pacioli , a Franciscan friar who published his treatise on Divina proportione in 1494, was fruitful., illustrated by Leonardo. Pondering sight as the most accurate instrument of knowledge that human beings have, Leonardo argued that through careful observation, objects should be recognized in their shape and structure to describe them in the most exact way in painting. In this way the drawing became the fundamental instrument of his didactic method, to the point that it could be said that in his notes the text was to explain the drawing, and not the latter to illustrate the former, for which Da Vinci has been recognized as the creator of modern scientific illustration. The Leonardo da Vinci notes that accompany the drawing determine the proportions of the human body according to the ancient text of Vitruvius:

A palm is the width of four fingers.
One foot is the width of four palms.
A forearm is the width of six palms.
The height of a man is four forearms (24 palms).
One step equals four forearms.
The length of a man’s outstretched arms is equal to his height.
The distance between the hairline and the chin is one tenth of a man’s height.
The height of the head to the chin is one eighth of the height of a man.
The distance from the hairline to the upper part of the chest is one seventh of a man’s height.
The height from the head to the end of the ribs is a quarter of the height of a man.
The maximum width of the shoulders is a quarter of the height of a man.
The distance from the elbow to the end of the hand is one fifth of a man’s height.
The distance from the elbow to the armpit is one eighth of a man’s height.
The length of the hand is one-tenth the height of a man.
The distance from the chin to the nose is one third of the length of the face. -The distance between the hairline and the eyebrows is one third of the length of the face.
The height of the ear is one third of the length of the face.
The ideal of the saper vedere guided all his studies, which in the 1490s began to emerge as a series of treatises (unfinished, which were later compiled in the Codex Atlanticus , so called because of its large size). It includes works on painting, architecture, mechanics, anatomy, geography, botany, hydraulics, Aerodynamics , fusing art and science in an individual cosmology that also provides a way out for an aesthetic debate that was anchored in a rather sterile Neoplatonism .

In this same period belong portrait Ginevra Benci ( 1475 – 1478 ), with its innovative relationship proximity and distance and beauty expressive La Belle Ferronnière. But around 1498 Leonardo was finishing a mural painting, initially a modest commission for the refectory of the Dominican Convent of Santa Maria dalle Grazie, which would become his definitive pictorial consecration: The Last Supper. We need an effort today to understand its original splendor, as it quickly deteriorated and was poorly restored many times. The brilliant plastic capture of the dramatic moment in which Christ tells the apostles “one of you will betray me” gives the scene a psychological unity and a dynamic apprehension of the fleeting moment of surprise of the diners (from which only Judas is excluded). The mural became not only a celebrated Christian icon, but also

It is also an object of pilgrimage for artists from all over the continent.

Landscape of the Arno valley. This pen drawing, the oldest that we keep of Leonardo, is dated in his handwriting using specular writing: “The day of Our Lady of the Snows, August 5, 1473.” The region reproduced in it has been identified as a mountainous region near Vinci. On the back is the notation “I am satisfied […]”. Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

The Adoration of the Magi (ca. 1481-1482). In March 1481 Leonardo received the commission for this oil (today in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence) from the monks of San Donato de Scopeto, in Florence. The administrator of the monastery was Leonardo’s father, and it is highly probable that he induced the monks to hire his son.

Leonardo created The Last Supper , his best work, the most serene and far from the temporal world, during those years

The Last Supper (1495-1498), by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Work of art that has been the subject of description by writer Dan Brown in his book “The Da Vinci Code”, although experts consider it to be inaccurate and incoherent, just to make sense of the plot of his bestseller.
characterized by war conflicts, intrigues, worries and calamities. He finished it, although he, eternally dissatisfied, declared that he would have to continue working on it. It was exposed to the view of all and contemplated by many. The fame that the “great horse” had raised was built on a stronger foundation. From that moment he was considered without question one of the first masters of Italy, if not the first. The artists came from far away to the refectory of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, looked at the painting carefully, copied it and discussed it. The King of France, upon entering Milan, toyed with the idea of removing the fresco from the wall to take it to his country. During its realization countless legends were woven around the master and his work. The stories of Bandello and Giraldi,Otherwise devoted to radically different themes, they also collect the genesis of The Last Supper. The Mona Lisa is the portrait that has generated the most literature throughout the history of art; it has given rise to stories, novels, poems and even operas. It was a famous work from the moment of its creation; young Rafael drank from it. His smile has made rivers of ink. I know

he has seen cruelty in her and has been considered the merciless smile of the woman who enslaves man. Others have been dazzled by its charm, by its sweetness. For Walter Pater it symbolizes the “modern spirit with all its pathogenic features.” There is also a more prosaic explanation, based on Leonardo’s own annotations: the master brought that expression to the surface of his model with the sound of the lute. Let us quote Vasari: «Monalisa was very beautiful and Leonardo, while painting, made sure that there was always someone singing, playing an instrument or joking. In this way, the model kept in a good mood and did not look sad, tired […] »

The Palais de Cloux in Amboise was Leonardo’s last residence and is currently a museum in honor of him.

Other contributions and discoveries

500 years ago, Leonardo Da Vinci solved an ancient astronomical riddle: the mystery of the brightness of the Earth. When you think of Leonardo Da Vinci, you probably think of the Mona Lisa or the submarines of the 16th century, or perhaps a certain thriller. All of that is old school. From now on, think about the Moon.

Little known to most, one of Leonardo’s best works is not a painting or an invention, but something more related to astronomy; Da Vinci solved the enigma of the brightness of the Earth.

You can see the brightness of the Earth when there is a crescent moon on the horizon at sunset. For thousands of years humans have marveled at the beauty of this ashen glow, or the old moon in the arms of the new moon. But what was it? No one knew until the 16th century when Leonardo solved the mystery.

In 2005 , after Apollo, the answer may seem obvious. When the Sun sets on the Moon, the Moon darkens — but not completely. There is still one source of light in heaven: Earth. The Palneta Earth illuminates the lunar night with a brightness 50 times greater than a full moon, producing the ashy glow.

Visualizing this in the 1500s required an overflowing imagination. No one had ever been to the Moon and looked down at Earth. Most people didn’t even know that the Sun orbited the Earth. Copernicus’s heliocentric theory wasn’t published until 1543 , 24 years after Leonardo’s death.

Overflowing imagination was one thing Leonardo had in abundance. His notebooks are filled with sketches of flying machines, military tanks, scuba diving suits, and other fantastic gadgets centuries ahead of their time. He even designed a robot: an armed knight who could sit up, wave his arms, and move his head while opening and closing an anatomically correct jaw.

For Leonardo, the brightness of the Earth was an attractive enigma. As an artist, he was keenly interested in light and shadow. As a mathematician and engineer, he was fond of geometry. All that remained was a trip to the moon.