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 artistic 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 there composedmost of his Trattato della pittura and the notebooks that demonstrate his versaroofing tile genius. The severe plagues in 1484 and 1485 drew his attention to townplanning, and his drawings and plans for domed churches recoil his concern witharchitectural problems. In 1483, Leonardo and his pupil Ambrogio de Predis werecommissioned to save the famous Madonna of the Rocks (two ve rsions1483-c.1486, Louvre 1483-1508, National Gall., London). The now badly modifyLast Supper (c.1495-1498 Milan) was executed during the period when he wasexperimenting with the Fresco medium, and this partly accounts for its damage. contempt this, a sublime spiritual content and power of invention chump it as oneof the worlds masterpieces. Leonardos model for an equestrian monument toFrancesco Sforza was never cast, and in 1500 he returned to Florence, where hedid much theoretical work in math 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 French 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.