Leonardo Da Vinci was an italian polymath and is considered as the greatest Genius ever born in this world . He is renowned as the greatest painters of all time ( however only 15 of his paintings have survived ). He had mastered diverse subjects like drawing, painting, sculpture, science , architecture, music, mathematics, engineering, robotics , literature, anatomy, astronomy, geology, botany, paleontology, and cartography .
Biography / Wiki :-
Leonardo Di Vinci biography summary is as below :-
| Real Name | Leonardo Da Vinci |
| Date of Birth | April 14 / 15 ,1452 |
| Date of Death | May 02 , 1519 |
| Age when Died | 67 years |
| Birthplace | Vinci, Republic of Florence ( presently known as Italy) |
| Place of Death | Amboise, Kingdom of France |
| Movement | High Renaissance |
| Famous Works | Mona Lisa The Last Supper Lady with an Ermine Virgin of the Rocks The Vitruvian Man Salvator Mundi |
Prolific Work :-
Firstly, because Leonardo became a master in more fields than any other since or before him. Most Geniuses such as Albert Einstein , William Shakespeare or Alfred Hitchcock were masters in just a single field. This simply isn’t the case with Leonardo. No subject matter was beyond his grasp, once he began meticulously dissecting it. This is partly because he more than anyone in his time, did not see subjects disjointed from one-another especially the way we tend to today. For him, art and science in its many forms were inseparable which any of his invention tends to show. The connection between Leonardo Da Vinci and science is also present in any of his painted masterpieces.
As a result of his boundless nature, he explored and mastered subjects as diverse as surgical anatomy, cartography, archaeology and engineering to botany (to just name a few!) whilst also earning his main livelihood from creating painted masterpieces such as the Last Supper painting.
Early History :-
Secondly, Leonardo was mostly a self taught Genius. His formal education had been very basic and completed at a very young age. His brilliance stemmed not from a natural talent (even though any drawing from his youth is obviously advanced). But his Genius instead stemmed from an insatiable spirit driven to reach a goal that he gave himself from again a very young age. He was so mesmerised by the beauty and workings of nature in Tuscany (his original home) as a child that he chose to learn absolutely everything there was about how nature worked! He decided no secret held by nature would be kept from him.
One of Leonardo’s motivations of his inventions was to mimic nature, learn from it or in a sense control it! The true Genius of Leonardo Da Vinci was thus a product of his overall positive and driven attitude with his endless energy flowing from his deep commitment to complete his goal.
Invention & Originality :-
Thirdly why Leonardo stands out from other great Geniuses is that he pushed for originality and the invention of cutting-edge methods always.
He also had an imagination that was not afraid of seeing what most would dismiss as the impossible. Instead, armed with his accumulated and growing knowledge earned through real experience and scientific experiment, he strove to recreate his fantasies in reality regardless of if other scholars in the same field could conceive such possibilities.
Leonardo came to be a pioneer in almost every field of study he undertook. For example, informally he is the father of the science of ‘Embryology’ as he was the first to study the human foetus in great detail. He also came up with an evolution theory fundamentally the same as Charles Darwin but over 300 years before him! Any Leonardo Da Vinci invention such as his flying machine (which was similar to the Wright Brothers glider that made aviation history), the military tank, the first scuba diving equipment or his helicopter reflect his hunger to push for originality. These inventions were only reinvented around 400 years after his death in 1519, which cannot easily be said the same for any other known Geniuses.
Study of Everything :-
Lastly, Leonardo was a person who undertook many projects simultaneously and successfully, which included both private studies for his own curiosity and those that he sold to patrons. Every artefact he created for his patrons were masterpieces be it a painting or a piece of machinery. (In fact, Leonardo’s paintings were mainly created to pay for his living costs, as he preferred to spend his time on private studies of nature instead.) His personal notebooks in which he recorded his thoughts, findings, inventions and even doodling were intended to be reorganised by him and turned into the most comprehensive encyclopaedia of the time (think of the Britannica encyclopaedia but created by the findings of just one person!). View a page of any one of Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebooks and you will see ideas, boundless thoughts and experimentation for a multitude of diverse projects.
Anatomy Drawings :-
Leonardo’s anatomy drawings are so perfect in their depiction of the human dissection on a detailed level to this day, that many of his drawings are still being used in scientific illustration.
Any inventions in the myriad of subject fields he ventured into were so far reaching into the future that his notebooks are still being fine-combed for new discoveries. Scientists are hoping to locate possibilities that have not yet been realised even over 480 years after his death. Scholars who would have not taken him so seriously when he was still alive are venerating Leonardo. The notebooks under inspection include anatomy sketches, which are under the magnifying glass of professional clinical surgeons and scientists.
Bronze Horse :-
Though Leonardo only completed the pre-model to the Bronze Horse he was to build, the clay model was said to be awe inspiring and both an artistic and technical masterpiece within itself.
Leonardo studied for a pouring on a large scale by talking to cannon and bell makers and also casters of bronze in Milan.
Whomever could have created the Horse out of bronze successfully would have had achieved worldwide recognition and fame. Leonardo did achieve a level of fame and respect for his clay pre-model. He however also fell victim to those individuals jealous of his genius and labelled him a man who did not finish his commissions as the Horse was meant to be made of bronze, not clay.
The Da Vinci Code Movie :-
A brief explanation of the Da Vinci code movie now follows; The Da Vinci code story explains that the legend of the Holy Grail does not actually refer to a cup but instead to the bloodline of Jesus. The mythical power associated with the cup more specifically relates to the power of the church, which will diminish considerably if people knew that Jesus was a mortal prophet. This will mean the Church will no longer have a monopoly on who can go to heaven and thus will no longer have direct control over it’s followers. Also, Jesus’s leading Disciple (and therefore the original leader of the Church) was his pregnant wife Mary Magdalene.
All this was allegedly known by the great Leonardo who was said to the leader of a secret society (called the Priory of Sion), which was sworn to protect the bloodline from the aggressive censorship of the church. Leonardo is believed to have communicated his knowledge of the Holy Grails’ ‘true’ nature through his last supper painting and somewhat through the Mona Lisa painting.
Inventions :-
Leonardo has made great designs of the inventions in technology which gives great insight of his mind and thought process . Few of the designs of his Inventions were :-
- FLIGHT :-
- Glider
- Helicopter
- Parachute
- FORGERIES – Turin Shroud
- MAPS
- MILITARY :-
- Automobile car
- Machine gun
- Scaling Ladder
- Tank
- PAINTINGS
- The Last Supper
- ROBOTS
- STATUES
- Bronze Horse
The Last Supper painting Masterpiece
In the painting Jesus Christ tells his disciples that this will be his last meal before he will be betrayed by one of his followers, which will lead to his execution.
Leonardo started to work on this painting in 1495 and completed in 1498 ( three years)
Leonardo’s aim was to capture the most poignant moment when Jesus reveals that one of his disciples (Judas) will betray him.
Leonardo took over two years to find the right portrait for Judas, the main star of the painting other than Jesus.
Leonardo found most of his character portraits in the streets of the local Market place.
Unfortunately, a few years later, the dry plaster of the wall painting would begin to crack as it absorbed water.
Despite the painting being damaged, the painting is still one of the greatest masterpieces of all time.
Mathematician & Higher Maths :-
Leonardo had a grasp for higher mathematics but he did not know how to express it in the academic form of numbers we recognise in mathematics today. Interestingly, Albert Einstein was somebody who also learnt the language of higher mathematics later in his career. Even when Leonardo learnt the language of mathematics he preferred computing through geographical shapes to calculate equations, which as always, enlisted his artist abilities. Leonardo’s main pursuit in mathematics remained the exploration of the world of proportionality and spatial mechanics.
Mona Lisa Painting :-
This painting was started by Leonardo in 1503 and finished in 4 years by 1507. Lisa was a middle class housewife married to a successful Silk-merchant. She was pregnant at the time of the sitting for the painting.
Mona Lisa painting is widely recognised as Leonardo’s greatest work and is referred to as his Magnum Opus in the Art world.
Some viewers have found it difficult to understand the fascination that people tend to have with the Mona Lisa. It seems that as the painting always has a busy viewing, it is difficult to take a moment to absorb the paintings’ enigma. The few individuals that have been lucky to view the painting privately and especially whom were previously unimpressed have said that they became transfixed by the painting. There seems to be an otherworldly quality to the painting not explained by the cold physics of the painting which grabs the viewer when in a quite viewing.
The Mona Lisa has a distinct splinter mark on its wooden panel on the back.
List of Paintings :-
| PAINTINGS | ||
| YEAR | NAME | THEME |
| 1466 | Baptism of Christ | Biblical Scene |
| 1473 | Genevra de Benci | Portrait |
| 1475 | Madonna of the Carnation | Biblical Scene |
| 1478 | Benois Madonna | Biblical Scene |
| 1481 | Annunciation (Larger) | Biblical Scene |
| 1481 | Annunciation (Smaller) | Biblical Scene |
| 1481 | Madonna Litta | Biblical Scene |
| 1482 | Virgin of the Rocks (Without Halos) | Biblical Scene |
| 1482 | Cecilia Gallerani | Portrait |
| 1485 | Portrait of a Musician | Portrait |
| 1486 | The Holy Infants Embracing | Biblical Scene |
| 1490-1519 | Salvator Mundi | Biblical Scene |
| 1495 | Last Supper | Biblical Scene |
| 1496 | La belle ferronnière | Portrait |
| 1498 | Sala delle Asse | Ceiling Fresco |
| 1501 | Madonna of the Yarnwinder | Biblical Scene |
| 1507 | Mona Lisa | Portrait |
| 1508 | The Virgin and Child with St. Anne | Biblical Scene |
| 1514 | St John the Baptist | Biblical Scene |
| CARTOONS | ||
| YEAR | NAME | THEME |
| 1481 | St Jermome | Biblical Scene |
| 1481 | Adoration of the Magi | Biblical Scene |
| 1502 | Virgin and Child with St Anne (2nd Cartoon) | Biblical Scene |
Quotes by leonardo Da Vinci :-
- The function of the muscle is to pull and not to push, except in the case of the genitals and the tongue.
- The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.
- Obstacles cannot crush me, every obstacle yields to stern resolve
- He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind
- Blinding ignorance does mislead us
- O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!
- All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions
- You can have no dominion greater or less that that over yourself.
- Life well spent is long.
- He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year.
Robotic Expertise :-
Leonardo Da Vinci is recorded as being the creator of the first robot in human form (1495). The Robot is a knight in appearance wearing the traditional for the time, Italian-German armour.
Leonardo had created other forms of robotics also, including a walking mechanical lion and a spring-powered car, which is considered to be the first programmable computer!
Leonardo created his robot to prove to himself that a human beings’ body could be imitated. He also built it to showcase it in working mode at parties for his patron Lodovico Sforz. The aim was to send the party members into amazement with his ability for theatrics. Da Vinci’s robot would have been the highlight of the party with Leonardo at the helm of the crank powering the robot to move. The robot dressed, as a knight would have also tickled his patron’s humour, as he was a man interested in military warfare.
Sadly, the Robot is lost or was destroyed long ago.
Leonardo used his initial studies of anatomy and kinaesthetics in Florence to design the robot. His creation was an extension of his hypothesis that the human body is a machine in structure (we now recognise it as a chemically based machine) and that it’s intricate movements could be imitated with the use of engineering machine parts such as levers and pulleys.
When Leonardo built his Robot in 1495, it had the capability to walk, stand and sit, open and close it’s mouth and raise its arms. The robot could also move its head side to side which it did so with the use of a lissomneck. The robot is noted to have a jaw anatomically correct.
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