Aricle about Leonardo Da Vinci

: Leonardo Da Vinci was born was born in the town ofVinci, Italy, in 1452 on April 15, a natural child of ser Piero.

Ser Piero was a
successful government official, and his mother, Caterina, a peasant girl in
service with the family. Leonardo spent his early years on his familys farm.
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Leonardo Da Vinci
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Leonardo Da Vinci was born was born in the town of Vinci, Italy, in 1452 on
April 15, a natural child of ser Piero.

Ser Piero was a successful government
official, and his mother, Caterina, a peasant girl in service with the family.Leonardo spent his early years on his familys farm. Free to explore in the
fields and streams, he grew to love the outdoors and he had a keen interest in
how things worked. He was always full of questions and wonderment. By 1469
Leonardo had moved with his father to Florence, where the young man was
apprenticed to the painter and sculptor, Andrea del Verrocchio.

He learned the
techniques of drawing, painting and sculpting. In the seven years or more
Leonardo spent in Verrocchios studio he was especially inspired by his
teachers imaginative sculpture. 1472 listed Leonardo as a master of the
painters guild. A few years later he painted such a beautiful angel that
Verrocchio, his master, is said to have, given up painting for good.

(The
New Book of Knowledge page 153. L volume 11, 1967, Grolier Incorporated, New
York, New York).After this Leonardos skill as a painter must have been known, because he
painted an altarpiece, The Adoration of Kings, for the monks of Saint Donate of
Scopeto in 1478. About 1482, Leonardo left Florence to enter the house of
Lodovico Sforza, Duke of Milan. He performed a variety of services there.

He
painted court portraits, supervised pageants, designed costumes, built machines
of war and even installed control heating in the palace. He also supposedly
played the lyre and sang to entertain the Duke and his friends.While in Milan, Leonardo worked on his magnificent painting, The Last Supper,
in 1495. Before that, in 1492, he designed costumes (as I mentioned earlier) for
the wedding of Ludovico il Moro and Beatrice dEste.

Also in that time frame
there was the death of Lorenco the Magnificent and Columbus sails to the New
World. He also painted in that time a portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, Ludovicos
mistress, a woman of wit and beauty, who for many years shone at the Milanese
Court. The severe hairstyle emphasizes the perfection of her face and striking
eyes. The white ermine she holds is a symbol of purity; its name in Greek
suggests her name.One of Leonardos greatest interests was the study of the human body.

At
first, like other artists of the 15th century, he studied the outward appearance
of the body. Then he became fascinated with its inner structure and dissected
corpses to find out how the body was put together. Perhaps the most stunning
drawings in Leonardos notebooks are those that show his careful study of
autonomy. He did not approach anatomy as a artist, he approached anatomy as a
scientist. (Leonardo Da Vinci Diane Stanley.

Pg.18., 1996, William
Morrow and Company, Incorporated. New York, New York.) His studies of the heart
in particular were very advanced. Leonardo looked at plants as closely as he
looked at men and animals, and he made many discoveries about plant growth.

Soon after he arrived in Milan, Leonardo began to write down things that
interested him. His notebooks show the great variety and originality of his
scientific observations. He illustrated his theories with very beautiful and
exact drawings. By studying his drawings of machines, twentieth century
engineers, with modern materials, have been able to build models that worked
perfectly. The notebooks are hard to read because he used mirror writing.

He did
not want his ideas to be stolen.Leonardos life in the court of Milan was suddenly interrupted in 1499 by
the invasion of the French Army. Leonardos patron, Lodovico, was taken
prisoner, and Leonardo fled to Venice. He left with the mathematician, Luca
Pacioli. He was a Franciscan Friar and a man of science. He knew Leonardo in
Milan, and awakened his interests in mathematics.

Leonardo stayed at Vaprio, in
Mantua, where he makes two portraits of Isabella dEste. In March 1500, about
a year later, he went back o Florence, still an active center of art. He was
given a commission to paint an altarpiece for the church of the Annynziata. When
his full-scale drawing of the Virgin and child with St. Anne was placed on
public view, people filed by for two days and admired it enthusiastically.In 1502, Leonardo briefly served Prince Cesare Borgia in Rome as a military
engineer and architect.

This is the period of time where he studied
Fortification Systems and War Machines. He designed the catapult, cannon
foundry, large crossbow, and a design for a gun with an array of horizontal
barrels. In 1503 he returned to Florence, where he spent a few very productive
years. For example, he painted the Mona Lisa in 1503, and the Florentine
Republic commissioned him to paint the Battle of Angahiari in the great hall
also in the year of 1503, the Palazzo Vecchio(1503). In 1504 he begins work on
the Battle of Angahiari, on this particular painting Leonardo experimented with
wax paint.

The work began to melt even before he finished it. Now Leonardo and
Michelangelo were enemies but it is still said that, Michelangelo wept and
the city council was plunged to gloom. (The New Book of Knowledge page
155. L volume 11, 1967, Grolier Incorporated, New York, New York).

Leonardo was
disappointed, but as a scientist he knew that to achieve success a man must
expect some experiments to fail. In the year of 1504 Michelangelo completed his
David and Raphael moved to Florence, and was deeply influenced by Leonardos
work.In the year of 1508, Leonardo leaves Florence and returns to Milan and
devotes himself to geology and autonomy. In Rome, Michelangelo is commissioned
to paint the Sistine Ceiling. In 1513 Leonardo was invited to Rome by Giuliano
deMedici, a brother of Pope Leo the fifth.

There he continued his experiments
and he remained there for three years, while pursues mathematical and scientific
studies. Leonardo drew up the plans to drain the Pontine marshes, in the year of
1514. Also in that same year the master architect, the death of Bramante and
Raphael succeeds him as architect of St, Peter'. Sometime in 1516 Leonardo
left Italy to become chief painter and engineer to the King of France.

King
Francis the first gave Leonardo a chateau near Amboise, in the place of Cloux,
where he was free to carry on his experiments. In the year of 1518 he designed
the stage sets for the wedding of Lorenzo deMedici and a niece of the French
King then he takes part in celebrations for the Dauphins baptism.While in France, Leonardo became paralyzed. He had to stop painting, but his
mind remained active. During his last years he received countless visitors, who
listened with awe to the masters brilliant ideas about art and science. In
the year of 1529 Charles V was elected Holy Roman Emperor.

A sick man Leonardo
makes his will on April twenty-third, naming his pupil, his painter friend
Francesco melzi as executor. Renaissance men set impossibly high goals for
themselves. Leonardo Da Vinci, the man who came closest to reaching all of those
goals, died in his French chateau on May second, 1519.Perhaps no one in history achieved so much in so many different fields as
Leonardo Da Vinci. An outstanding painter, sculptor, and architect, he also
designed the diving bell and tank, and though they could not be built with the
materials of the time - flying machines like the helicopter. He made important
discoveries about the structure of the human body.

I admire Leonardo in many ways and I am glad I chose him as my research
project I have learned many things.
Bibliography
1.Bramly, Serge. Discovering the life of Leonardo Da Vinci.New York, New York:
Harper Collins Publishers, 1991
2.Stanley, Diane.

Leonardo Da Vinci.New York, New York:
William Morrow and Company Inc., 1996
3.Bacci, Mina. Leonardo.Milan, Italy
Fabbri Editori, 1978
4.

Wasserman, Jack. Leonardo Da vinci.New York, New York:
Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1984
5.

Fleming, William. Arts ; Ideas.Third Edition, pgs245-246, 260-262,287, 157-258.New York, New York:
Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc.1993
6.

Hartt, Frederick. Art.Fourth Edition, pgs 618, 688-670, 714, 749, 903, 918
New York, New York:
Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1993
7.

Honour, Hugh,. Fleming, John., The Visual Arts: A History
Third edition, pgs 402, 404, 413-419, 441
New York, New York:
Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1982
8.The New Book of Knowledge encyclopia.

L volume 11
New York, New York:
Grolier In corportated. 1967
9.Romei, Francesca. Leonardo Da Vinci.New York, New York:
Peter Bedrick Books.1994
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