In the Renaissance, there were many brilliant sculptors, artists, musicians, inventors. Leonardo da Vinci stands out from their background. He created musical instruments, he owns many engineering inventions, painted paintings, sculptures and much more.
His external data is also striking: tall, angelic appearance and extraordinary strength. Meet the genius of Leonardo da Vinci short biography will describe his main achievements.
Facts from the biography
He was born near Florence in the small town of Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci was the illegitimate son of a famous and wealthy notary. His mother is an ordinary peasant woman. Since his father had no other children, at the age of 4 he took little Leonardo to him. The boy showed an extraordinary mind and friendly character from the very beginning. early age and he quickly became a family favorite.
To understand how the genius of Leonardo da Vinci developed, a brief biography can be presented as follows:
- At the age of 14, he entered the workshop of Verrocchio, where he studied drawing and sculpture.
- In 1480 he moved to Milan, where he founded the Academy of Fine Arts.
- In 1499, he leaves Milan and begins to move from city to city, where he builds defensive structures. In the same period, his famous rivalry with Michelangelo begins.
- Since 1513 he has been working in Rome. Under Francis I, he becomes the court sage.
Leonardo died in 1519. As he believed, nothing of what he started was completed to the end.
creative way
The work of Leonardo da Vinci, whose brief biography was outlined above, can be divided into three stages.
- Early period. Many works of the great painter were unfinished, such is the "Adoration of the Magi" for the monastery of San Donato. During this period, the paintings “Madonna Benois”, “Annunciation” were painted. Despite his young age, the painter has already demonstrated high skill in his paintings.
- The mature period of Leonardo's creativity flowed in Milan, where he planned to make a career as an engineer. Most popular piece, written at this time, was The Last Supper, at the same time he began work on the Mona Lisa.
- In the late period of creativity, the painting "John the Baptist" and a series of drawings "The Flood" were created.
Painting has always complemented science for Leonardo da Vinci, as he sought to capture reality.
inventions
The contribution to science of Leonardo da Vinci cannot be fully conveyed by a short biography. However, the most famous and valuable discoveries of the scientist can be noted.
- He made the greatest contribution to mechanics, this can be seen from many of his drawings. Leonardo da Vinci explored the fall of the body, the centers of gravity of the pyramids, and much more.
- He invented a car made of wood that was powered by two springs. The mechanism of the car was provided with a brake.
- He came up with a spacesuit, fins and a submarine, as well as a way to dive to depth without using a spacesuit with a special gas mixture.
- The study of dragonfly flight has led to the creation of several variants of wings for humans. The experiments were unsuccessful. However, then the scientist came up with a parachute.
- He was engaged in developments in the military industry. One of his proposals was chariots with cannons. He came up with a prototype of an armadillo and a tank.
- Leonardo da Vinci made many developments in construction. Arched bridges, drainage machines and cranes are all his inventions.
There is no other person in history like Leonardo da Vinci. That is why many consider him an alien from other worlds.
Da Vinci's Five Secrets
Today, many scientists are still puzzling over the legacy left by the great man of the past era. Although Leonardo da Vinci should not be called that, he predicted a lot, and foresaw even more, creating his unique masterpieces and striking with the breadth of knowledge and thought. We offer you five secrets of the great Master, which help to lift the veil of secrecy over his works.
Encryption
The master encrypted a lot so as not to present ideas open, but to wait a bit until humanity “ripens, grows up” to them. Equally well-versed in both hands, da Vinci wrote with his left, in the smallest font, and even from right to left, and often in mirror image. Riddles, metaphors, rebuses - this is what is found on every line, in every work. Never signing his works, the Master left his signs visible only to an attentive researcher. For example, after many centuries, scientists discovered that looking closely at his paintings, you can find the symbol of a bird taking off. Or the famous "Madonna Benois", found among itinerant actors who carried the canvas as a home icon.
Sfumato
The idea of scattering also belongs to the great mystifier. Take a closer look at the canvases, all objects do not reveal clear edges, it’s like in life: the smooth flow of some images into others, blurring, dispersion - everything breathes, lives, awakening fantasies and thoughts. By the way, the Master often advised to practice in such a vision, peering into water stains, mud flows or hills of ash. Often, he specially fumigated the working premises with smoke in order to see in the clubs what is hidden beyond the bounds of a reasonable look.
Look at the famous picture - the smile of "Mona Lisa" from different angles is either gentle, or slightly arrogant and even predatory. The knowledge gained through the study of many sciences gave the Master the opportunity to invent perfect mechanisms that are only becoming available now. For example, this is the effect of wave propagation, the penetrating power of light, oscillatory motion ... and a lot of things still have to be analyzed not even by us, but by our descendants.
Analogies
Analogies are the main thing in all the works of the Master. The advantage over accuracy, when a third follows from two conclusions of the mind, is the inevitability of any analogy. And in quirkiness and drawing absolutely mind-blowing parallels to da Vinci, there are still no equals. One way or another, all of his works have some ideas that are not consistent with each other: the famous illustration " golden ratio" - one of them. With limbs apart and divorced, a person fits into a circle, with closed limbs into a square, and slightly raising his hands into a cross. It was such a kind of "mill" that gave the Florentine sorcerer the idea of creating churches, where the altar is placed exactly in the middle, and the worshipers stand in a circle. By the way, the engineers liked the same idea - this is how the ball bearing appeared.
counterpost
Definition means the opposition of opposites and the creation of a certain kind of movement. An example is the sculptural image of a huge horse in Corte Vecchio. There, the legs of the animal are located precisely in the contraposto style, forming a visual understanding of the movement.
incompleteness
This is perhaps one of the Master's favorite "tricks". None of his works are finite. To complete is to kill, and da Vinci loved each of his offspring. Slow and meticulous, the mystifier of all time could make a couple of brush strokes and go to the valleys of Lombardy to improve the landscapes there, switch to the creation of another masterpiece device or something else. Many works were spoiled by time, fire or water, but each of the creations, at least something meaningful, was and is “incomplete”. By the way, it is interesting that even after damage, Leonardo da Vinci never corrected his paintings. Having created his own paint, the artist even deliberately left a “window of incompleteness”, believing that life itself would make the necessary adjustments.
What was art before Leonardo da Vinci? Born among the rich, it fully reflected their interests, their worldview, their views on a person, on the world. The works of art were based on religious ideas and themes: the affirmation of the views on the world taught by the church, the depiction of plots from sacred history, instilling in people a sense of reverence, admiration for the “divine” and the consciousness of their own insignificance. The dominant theme also determined the form. Naturally, the image of the "saints" was very far from the images of genuine living people, therefore, schemes, artificiality, and static dominated in art. The people in these paintings were a kind of caricatures of living people, the landscape is fantastic, the colors are pale and inexpressive. True, even before Leonardo, his predecessors, including his teacher Andrea Verrocchio, were no longer satisfied with the template and tried to create new images. They have already begun searching for new methods of representation, began to study the laws of perspective, thought a lot about the problems of achieving expressiveness of the image.
However, these searches for something new did not give great results, primarily because these artists did not have a sufficiently clear idea of the essence and tasks of art and knowledge of the laws of painting. That is why they fell now again into schematism, then into naturalism, which is just as dangerous for genuine art, copying individual phenomena of reality. The significance of the revolution made by Leonardo da Vinci in art and in particular in painting is determined primarily by the fact that he was the first to clearly, clearly and definitely establish the essence and tasks of art. Art should be deeply vital, realistic. It must come from a deep, thorough study of reality and nature. It must be deeply truthful, must depict reality as it is, without any artificiality or falsehood. Reality, nature is beautiful in itself and does not need any embellishment. An artist must carefully study nature, but not for blind imitation of it, not for simple copying of it, but in order to, having understood the laws of nature, the laws of reality, create works; strictly comply with these laws. To create new values, the values of the real world - this is the purpose of art. This explains the desire of Leonardo to link art and science. Instead of simple, random observation, he considered it necessary to systematically, persistently study the subject. It is known that Leonardo never parted with the album and entered drawings and sketches into it.
They say that he loved to walk the streets, squares, markets, noting everything interesting - people's postures, faces, their expressions. Leonardo's second requirement for painting is the requirement for the veracity of the image, its vitality. The artist must strive for the most accurate transmission of the real in all its richness. In the center of the world stands a living, thinking, feeling person. It is he who must be portrayed in all the richness of his feelings, experiences and actions. For this, it was Leonardo who studied human anatomy and physiology, for this, as they say, he gathered peasants he knew in his workshop and, treating them, told them funny stories in order to see how people laugh, how the same event causes people have different experiences. If before Leonardo there was no real man in painting, now he has become dominant in the art of the Renaissance. Hundreds of drawings by Leonardo give a gigantic gallery of types of people, their faces, parts of their bodies. Man in all the variety of his feelings and actions is the task artistic image. And this is the strength and charm of Leonardo's painting. Forced by the conditions of the time to paint mainly on religious subjects, because his customers were the church, feudal lords and wealthy merchants, Leonardo imperiously subordinates these traditional subjects to his genius and creates works of universal significance. The Madonnas painted by Leonardo are, first of all, an image of one of the deeply human feelings - the feeling of motherhood, the mother's boundless love for the baby, admiration and admiration for him. All his Madonnas are young, blooming, full of life women, all babies in his paintings are healthy, full-cheeked, playful boys, in which there is not a single gram of "holiness".
His apostles in The Last Supper are living people of different ages, social status, different characters; in appearance they are Milanese artisans, peasants, and intellectuals. In striving for the truth, the artist must be able to generalize the individual he has found, he must create the typical. Therefore, even drawing portraits of certain, historically we famous people, as, for example, Mona Lisa Gioconda - the wife of a ruined aristocrat, the Florentine merchant Francesco del Gioconda, Leonardo gives in them, along with individual portrait features, typical, common to many people. That is why the portraits painted by him outlived the people depicted on them for many centuries. Leonardo was the first who not only carefully and carefully studied the laws of painting, but also formulated them. He deeply, like no one before him, studied the laws of perspective, the placement of light and shadow. All this was necessary for him to achieve the highest expressiveness of the picture, in order, as he said, "to catch up with nature." For the first time, it was in the works of Leonardo that the picture as such lost its static character, became a window to the world. When you look at his picture, the feeling of what is painted, enclosed in a frame, is lost and it seems that you are looking through an open window, revealing to the viewer something new, unheard of. Demanding the expressiveness of the picture, Leonardo resolutely opposed the formal play of colors, against the passion for form at the expense of content, against what so vividly characterizes decadent art.
The form for Leonardo is only a shell of the idea that the artist must convey to the viewer. Leonardo pays a lot of attention to the problems of the composition of the picture, the problems of placing figures, and individual details. Hence the composition, so beloved by him, of placing figures in a triangle - the simplest geometric harmonic figure - a composition that allows the viewer to capture the whole picture as a whole. Expressiveness, truthfulness, accessibility - these are the laws of real, truly folk art, formulated by Leonardo da Vinci, the laws that he himself embodied in his brilliant works. Already in his first major painting, Madonna with a Flower, Leonardo showed in practice what the principles of art he professed meant. Striking in this picture, first of all, is its composition, the surprisingly harmonious distribution of all the elements of the picture, which make up a single whole. Picture of a young mother with cheerful child in the hands deeply realistic. The deeply felt blue of the Italian sky through the window slit is incredibly skilfully conveyed. Already in this picture, Leonardo demonstrated the principle of his art - realism, the image of a person in the deepest accordance with his true nature, the image is not an abstract scheme, which taught and what medieval ascetic art did, namely, a living, feeling person.
These principles are even more clearly expressed in the second major painting by Leonardo "Adoration of the Magi" in 1481, in which not a religious plot is significant, but a masterful depiction of people, each of whom has his own, individual face, his own pose, expresses his own feeling and mood. Life truth is the law of Leonardo's painting. The most complete disclosure of the inner life of a person is its goal. In The Last Supper, the composition is brought to perfection: despite the large number of figures - 13, their placement is strictly calculated so that all of them as a whole represent a kind of unity, full of great inner content. The picture is very dynamic: some terrible news communicated by Jesus struck his disciples, each of them reacts to it in his own way, hence the huge variety of expressions of inner feelings on the faces of the apostles. Compositional perfection is complemented by an unusually masterful use of colors, the harmony of light and shadows. The expressiveness, the expression of the picture reaches its perfection thanks to the extraordinary variety of not only facial expressions, but the position of each of the twenty-six hands painted in the picture.
This record of Leonardo himself tells us about the careful preliminary work that he carried out before painting the picture. Everything is thought out in it to the smallest detail: postures, facial expressions; even such details as an overturned bowl or knife; all this in its sum constitutes a single whole. The richness of colors in this picture is combined with the subtle use of chiaroscuro, which emphasizes the significance of the event depicted in the picture. The subtlety of perspective, the transfer of air, colors make this picture a masterpiece of world art. Leonardo successfully solved many problems facing artists at that time, and opened the way further development art. By the power of his genius, Leonardo overcame the medieval traditions that weighed on art, broke them and discarded them; he managed to expand the narrow limits that the then ruling clique of churchmen limited the creative power of the artist, and instead of the hackneyed gospel stereotyped scene, show a huge, purely human drama, show living people with their passions, feelings, experiences. And in this picture, the great, life-affirming optimism of the artist and thinker Leonardo again appeared.
Over the years of his wanderings, Leonardo painted many more paintings that received well-deserved world fame and recognition. In "La Gioconda" the image is deeply vital and typical. It is this deep vitality, the unusually relief transfer of facial features, individual details, costume, combined with a masterfully painted landscape, that gives this picture a special expressiveness. Everything in her - from the mysterious half-smile playing on her face to calmly folded hands - speaks of a great inner content, a great spiritual life of this woman. Leonardo's desire to transmit inner world in the external manifestations of spiritual movements is expressed here especially fully. An interesting painting by Leonardo "The Battle of Anghiari", depicting the battle of cavalry and infantry. As in his other paintings, Leonardo sought here to show a variety of faces, figures and poses. Dozens of people depicted by the artist create an integral impression of the picture precisely because they are all subject to a single idea underlying it. It was a desire to show the rise of all the forces of a person in battle, the tension of all his feelings, brought together to achieve victory.
There is a theory according to which geniuses are born only at that historical moment when development, cultural and social, has already prepared the ground for them. This hypothesis well explains the emergence of great personalities, whose deeds were appreciated during their lifetime. The situation is more difficult with those brilliant minds whose calculations and developments have far surpassed their era. Their creative thought, as a rule, received recognition only after centuries, often being lost in the centuries and reborn again when all the conditions appeared for the implementation of brilliant plans.
The biography of Leonardo da Vinci is just an example of such a story. However, among his achievements were those recognized and understood by his contemporaries, and those that could only be appreciated at their true worth recently.
notary's son
Leonardo da Vinci's date of birth is April 15, 1452. He was born in sunny Florence, in the town of Anchiano, not far from the town of Vinci. Most of all, his name is evidence of his origin, which actually means "Leonardo comes from Vinci." The childhood of the future genius predetermined in many respects his entire life. later life. Leonardo's father, the young notary Piero, was in love with a simple peasant woman, Katerina. The fruit of their passion was da Vinci. However, soon after the birth of the boy, Piero married a wealthy heiress and left his son in the care of his mother. Fate was pleased to dispose so that their marriage turned out to be childless, because in three years old little Leo was separated from his mother and began to live with his father. These events left an indelible imprint on the future genius: all the work of Leonardo da Vinci was permeated with the search for the image of the mother Katerina, abandoned in childhood. According to one version, it was her artist who captured it in the famous painting "Mona Lisa".
First successes
From childhood, the great Florentine showed a penchant for many sciences. Quickly grasping the basics, he was able to confound even the most experienced teacher. Leonardo was not afraid of complex mathematical problems, he was able to build his own judgments on the basis of learned axioms, which often surprised teachers. Music was also in high esteem. Among the many instruments, Leonardo gave his preference to the lyre. He learned to extract beautiful melodies from her and sang with pleasure to her accompaniment. But most of all he liked painting and sculpture. He was fond of them selflessly, which soon became noticeable to his father.
Andrea del Verrocchio
Piero, paying tribute to the sketches and sketches of his son, decided to show them to his friend, the then famous painter Andrea Verrocchio. The work of Leonardo da Vinci made a great impression on the master, and he offered to become his teacher, to which his father, without thinking twice, agreed. So the young artist began to join the great art. The biography of Leonardo da Vinci covered here will be incomplete if you do not mention how this training ended for the painter.
Once Verrocchio was commissioned to paint the baptism of Christ. At that time, the masters quite often instructed the best students to write secondary figures or backgrounds. Having depicted St. John and Christ, Andrea del Verrocchio decided to draw two angels side by side and instructed the young Leonardo to complete one of them. He did the work with all diligence, and it was hard not to notice how much the skill of the student surpassed the skill of the teacher. The biography of Leonardo da Vinci, set out by Giorgio Vasari, a painter and the first art critic, contains a mention that Verrocchio not only noticed the talent of his apprentice, but refused to take the brush in his hands forever after that - this superiority hurt him so much.
Not only a painter
One way or another, the union of the two masters brought a lot of results. Andrea del Verrocchio was also involved in sculpture. To create a statue of David, he used Leonardo as a sitter. A characteristic feature of the immortalized hero is a slight half-smile, which a little later will become almost da Vinci's calling card. There is also reason to believe that Verrocchio created his most famous work, the statue of Bartolomeo Colleone, together with the genius Leonardo. In addition, the master was famous for being an excellent decorator and director of various festivities at the court. Leonardo also adopted this art.
Signs of a genius
Six years after starting his studies with Andrea del Verrocchio, Leonardo opened his own workshop. Vasari notes that his restless and always eager to achieve perfection at once in many ways, the mind had a certain flaw: Leonardo often left his undertakings unfinished and immediately took up a new one. The biographer regrets that much was never created by the genius because of this, how many great discoveries he did not make, although he stood on their threshold.
Indeed, Leonardo was both a mathematician, and a sculptor, and a painter, and an architect, and an anatomist, but many of his works lacked completeness. Take at least the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci. For example, he was assigned to portray Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The painting was intended as a gift to the Portuguese king. The artist masterfully painted the trees, which, it seemed, could rustle at the slightest breath of wind, carefully depicted the meadow and animals. However, on that he completed his work, without bringing it to the end.
Perhaps it was this inconsistency that made Leonardo a jack of all trades. Throwing the picture, he took to the clay, discussing the development of plants, at the same time observing the life of stars. Perhaps, if a genius aspired to complete each of his works, today we would only know the mathematician or the artist Leonardo da Vinci, but not both of them rolled into one.
"The Last Supper"
In addition to the desire to embrace a lot, the great genius was characterized by a desire to achieve perfection and the ability to understand where the limit of his capabilities in this sense was. The paintings of Leonardo da Vinci became famous during the lifetime of the master. One of his most famous works he performed for the Dominican order in Milan. The refectory of the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie is still decorated with his Last Supper.
There is a legend associated with the painting. The artist has been looking for suitable models for the face of Christ and Judas for a long time. According to his plan, the Son of God was supposed to embody all the good that is in the world, and the traitor - evil. Sooner or later, the search was crowned with success: among the choristers, he spotted a sitter suitable for the face of Christ. However, the search for a second model took three years, until finally Leonardo noticed a beggar in a ditch, whose face was more than suitable for Judas. The drunk and dirty man was taken to the church because he was unable to move. There, seeing the picture, he exclaimed in surprise: she was familiar to him. A little later, he explained to the artist that three years ago, when fate was more favorable to him, Christ was painted from him for the same picture.
Information Vasari
However, most likely, this is only a legend. At least, the biography of Leonardo da Vinci, set out by Vasari, does not contain any mention of this. The author provides other information. While working on the picture, the genius really could not complete the face of Christ for a long time. It remained unfinished. The artist believed that he would not be able to depict the extraordinary kindness and great forgiveness with which the face of Christ should shine. He was not even going to look for a suitable model for him. However, even in this unfinished form, the picture is still striking. On the faces of the apostles, their love for the teacher and suffering due to the inability to comprehend everything that he tells them are clearly visible. Even the tablecloth on the table is written out so carefully that it cannot be distinguished from the real one.
most famous painting
The main masterpiece of the great Leonardo is, without a doubt, the Mona Lisa. Vasari quite definitely calls the picture a portrait of the third wife of the Florentine Francesco del Giocondo. However, the author of many biographies, in addition to verified facts, used legends, rumors and conjectures as sources. For a long time, researchers could not find an exhaustive answer to the question of who was da Vinci's model. Researchers who agreed with Vasari's version dated the Giaconda to 1500-1505. During these years, Leonardo da Vinci worked in Florence. Opponents of the hypothesis noted that by that time the artist had not yet achieved such perfect skill, and therefore, probably, the picture was painted later. In addition, in Florence, Leonardo was working on another work, The Battle of Anghiari, and it took a lot of time.
Among the alternative hypotheses were the assumptions that the "Mona Lisa" is a self-portrait or an image of da Vinci's lover and student, Salai, whom he captured in the painting "John the Baptist". The opinion was also expressed that the model was Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Milan. All the mysteries of Leonardo da Vinci faded before this one. However, in 2005, scientists were able to find solid evidence in favor of Vasari's version. The notes of Agostino Vespucci, an official and friend of Leonardo, were discovered and studied. They, in particular, indicated that da Vinci was working on a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo.
ahead of time
If da Vinci's paintings gained fame during the author's lifetime, then many of his achievements in other areas were appreciated only centuries later. The date of death of Leonardo da Vinci is May 2, 1519. However, it was only at the end of the nineteenth century that the recordings of the genius were made public. The drawings of Leonardo da Vinci describing the devices were far ahead of their time.
If the master inspired many contemporaries with his painting and laid the foundation for the art of the High Renaissance, then his technical developments were impossible to bring to life at the level of technological development that was in the sixteenth century.
Flying machines of Leonardo da Vinci
The ingenious inventor wanted to soar not only in thoughts, but also in reality. He worked on the creation of a flying machine. The drawings of Leonardo da Vinci contain a diagram of the structure of the world's first hang glider model. It was already the third or fourth version of the flying machine. The pilot was to be placed inside the first. The mechanism was set in motion by rotating pedals, which he twisted. The hang glider prototype was designed for a gliding flight. This model was tested in the UK in 2002. Then the world champion in hang gliding managed to stay above the ground for seventeen seconds, while she rose to a height of ten meters.
Even earlier, the genius developed a scheme for a device that was supposed to rise into the air with a single main rotor. The machine remotely resembles a modern helicopter. However, this mechanism, set in motion as a result of the coordinated work of four people, had a lot of flaws, and it was not destined to become a reality even after centuries.
military vehicles
Biographers often, citing a description of Leonardo da Vinci as a person, note his peacefulness and condemnation of hostilities. However, apparently, this did not prevent him from developing mechanisms whose only function was to defeat the enemy. For example, he created a blueprint for a tank. It had little in common with the operating mechanisms of the Second World War.
The car was set in motion thanks to the efforts of eight people who turned the levers of the wheels. And she could only move forward. The tank had a rounded shape and was equipped with a large number of guns aimed at different sides. Today, almost any museum of Leonardo da Vinci can demonstrate such a combat vehicle, made according to the drawings of a brilliant master.
Among the tools invented by da Vinci was a terrifying-looking chariot-scythe, and a prototype of a machine gun. All these products demonstrate the breadth of thought of a genius, his ability to foresee for many centuries which way of development society will move.
Automobile
Was among the developments of a genius and a car model. Outwardly, it did not look much like the cars we are used to, rather it resembled a cart. For a long time it remained unclear how Leonardo intended to move it. This mystery was solved in 2004, when in Italy, according to the drawings, they created a da Vinci car and supplied it with a spring mechanism. Perhaps this is exactly what the author of the model intended.
Ideal City
Leonardo da Vinci lived in turbulent times: wars were frequent, plague raged in many places. The searching mind of a genius, faced with serious illnesses and the misfortunes they bring, sought to find a way to improve the quality of life. Da Vinci developed a scheme of an ideal city, divided into several levels: the upper one is for the upper strata of society, the lower one is for trade. According to the author's idea, all houses should have constant access to water with the help of a system of pipes and canals. The ideal city consisted not of narrow streets but from wide squares and roads. The aim of these innovations was to reduce disease and improve hygiene. The project remained on paper: the kings to whom Leonardo proposed it considered the idea too bold.
Achievements in other areas
Science owes a lot to genius. Leonardo da Vinci was well versed in human anatomy. He worked hard, sketching the features of the internal arrangement of organs and the structure of muscles, and created the principles of anatomical drawing. He also made a description of the thyroid gland, its main functions. Devoting time to astronomical research, he explained the mechanism by which the Sun illuminates the Moon. Da Vinci did not deprive da Vinci of his attention and physics, introducing the concept of the coefficient of friction and determining the factors influencing it.
There are in the works of a genius and ideas characteristic of modern archeology. So, he was not a supporter of the official version at that time, according to which the shells, found in abundance on the slopes of the mountains, got there due to Flood. According to the scientist, once upon a time these mountains could be the shores of the seas or even their bottom. And after unimaginable intervals of time, they "grew up" and became what they see.
Secret writings
Among the mysteries of Leonardo, after the mystery of the Mona Lisa, his mirror handwriting is most often discussed. The genius was left-handed. He made most of his notes the other way around: the words went from right to left and could only be read with the help of a mirror. There is a version according to which da Vinci wrote this way so as not to lubricate the ink. Another hypothesis says that the scientist did not want his works to become the property of fools and ignoramuses. Most likely, we will never know the correct answer to this question.
No less secret is the personal life of the great Leonardo. Little is known about her, since the genius did not seek to flaunt her. That is why today there are a lot of the most incredible hypotheses in this regard. However, this is a topic for a separate article.
Leonardo da Vinci's contribution to world art, his extraordinary mind, which could almost simultaneously comprehend problems from completely different areas of human knowledge. Few people in history can compare with Leonardo in this sense. At the same time, he was a worthy representative of his era, incorporating all the ideals of the Renaissance. He gave the world the art of the High Renaissance, laid the foundations for a more accurate transfer of reality, created the canonical proportions of the body, embodied in the drawing "Vitruvian Man". With all his activities, he actually defeated the idea of the limitations of our mind.
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci is a man of Renaissance art, sculptor, inventor, painter, philosopher, writer, scientist, polymath (universal man).
The future genius was born as a result of a love affair between the noble Piero da Vinci and the girl Katerina (Katarina). According to the social norms of that time, the marriage union of these people was impossible due to the low birth of Leonardo's mother. After the birth of her first child, she was given in marriage to a potter, with whom Katerina lived the rest of her life. It is known that from her husband she gave birth to four daughters and a son.
Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci
The first-born Piero da Vinci lived with his mother for three years. Immediately after his birth, Leonardo's father married a rich representative of a noble family, but his legal wife was never able to give birth to an heir. Three years after the marriage, Piero took his son to him and took up his upbringing. Stepmother Leonardo died after 10 years, trying to give birth to an heir. Pierrot remarried, but was quickly widowed again. In total, Leonardo had four stepmothers, as well as 12 paternal half-siblings.
Creativity and inventions of da Vinci
The parent gave Leonardo as an apprentice to the Tuscan master Andrea Verrocchio. During his studies with a mentor, Piero's son learned not only the art of painting and sculpture. Young Leonardo studied the humanities and technical sciences, the skill of leather dressing, the basics of working with metal and chemical reagents. All this knowledge was useful to da Vinci in life.
Leonardo received confirmation of the qualifications of the master at the age of twenty, after which he continued to work under the supervision of Verrocchio. The young artist was involved in small work on the paintings of his teacher, for example, he prescribed background landscapes and clothes. secondary characters. Leonardo had his own workshop only in 1476.
Drawing "Vitruvian Man" by Leonardo da Vinci In 1482, da Vinci was sent by his patron Lorenzo de' Medici to Milan. During this period, the artist worked on two paintings that were never completed. In Milan, Duke Lodovico Sforza enrolled Leonardo in the court staff as an engineer. A high-ranking person was interested in defensive devices and devices for entertaining the court. Da Vinci had the opportunity to develop the talent of an architect and the ability of a mechanic. His inventions turned out to be an order of magnitude better than those offered by contemporaries.
The engineer stayed in Milan under the Duke of Sforza for about seventeen years. During this time, Leonardo painted the paintings “Madonna in the Grotto” and “Lady with an Ermine”, created his most famous drawing “Vitruvian Man”, made a clay model of the equestrian monument of Francesco Sforza, painted the wall of the refectory of the Dominican monastery with the composition “The Last Supper”, made a number of anatomical sketches and drawings of devices.
Leonardo's engineering talent was useful to him after returning to Florence in 1499. He got a job with Duke Cesare Borgia, who counted on da Vinci's ability to create military mechanisms. The engineer worked in Florence for about seven years, after which he returned to Milan again. By that time, he had already completed work on his most famous painting, which is now stored in the Louvre Museum.
The master's second Milan period lasted six years, after which he left for Rome. In 1516, Leonardo went to France, where he spent his last years. On the journey, the master took with him Francesco Melzi, a student and main heir artistic style da Vinci.
Portrait of Francesco Melzi Despite the fact that Leonardo spent only four years in Rome, it is in this city that the museum named after him is located. In the three halls of the institution you can get acquainted with the devices built according to the drawings of Leonardo, look at copies of paintings, photos of diaries and manuscripts.
The Italian devoted most of his life to engineering and architectural projects. His inventions were both military and peaceful. Leonardo is known as a developer of tank prototypes, an aircraft, a self-propelled cart, a searchlight, a catapult, a bicycle, a parachute, a mobile bridge, a machine gun. Some drawings of the inventor still remain a mystery to researchers.
Drawings and sketches of some of the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci In 2009, the Discovery TV channel aired a series of films called Da Vinci Apparatus. Each of the ten episodes of the documentary series was dedicated to the construction and testing of mechanisms according to Leonardo's original drawings. The film's technicians tried to recreate the inventions of the Italian genius using materials from his era.
Personal life
The personal life of the master was kept by him in the strictest confidence. For entries in his diaries, Leonardo used a cipher, but even after decoding, the researchers received little reliable information. There is a version that da Vinci's unconventional orientation was the reason for the secrecy.
The basis of the theory that the artist loved men was the guesswork of researchers based on circumstantial facts. At a young age, the artist appeared in a case of sodomy, but it is not known for certain in what capacity. After this incident, the master became very secretive and stingy with comments about his personal life.
Possible lovers of Leonardo include some of his students, the most famous of which is Salai. The young man was endowed with an effeminate appearance and became a model for several paintings by da Vinci. The painting "John the Baptist" is one of the surviving works of Leonardo, for which Salai posed.
There is a version that "Mona Lisa" was also written from this sitter, dressed in a woman's dress. It should be noted that there is some physical similarity between the people depicted in the paintings "Mona Lisa" and "John the Baptist". It remains a fact that da Vinci bequeathed his artistic masterpiece to Salai.
Historians also rank Francesco Melzi as a possible beloved of Leonardo.
There is another version of the secret of the Italian's personal life. There is an opinion that Leonardo had a romantic relationship with Cecilia Gallerani, who, presumably, is depicted in the portrait "Lady with an Ermine". This woman was the favorite of the Duke of Milan, the owner of the literary salon, the patroness of the arts. She introduced young artist in the circle of Milanese bohemia.
Fragment of the painting "Lady with Ermine" Among da Vinci's notes, a draft letter was found addressed to Cecilia, which began with the words: "My beloved goddess ...". Researchers suggest that the portrait of the "Lady with an Ermine" was painted with clear signs of unspent feelings for the woman depicted on it.
Some researchers believe that the great Italian did not know at all carnal love. Men and women were not physically attracted to him. In the context of this theory, it is assumed that Leonardo led the life of a monk who did not give birth to descendants, but left a great legacy.
Death and grave
Modern researchers have concluded that the probable cause of the artist's death is a stroke. Da Vinci died at the age of 67 in 1519. Thanks to the memoirs of contemporaries, it is known that by that time the artist was already suffering from partial paralysis. Leonardo couldn't move right hand, as researchers believe, due to a stroke in 1517.
Despite the paralysis, the master continued active creative life, resorting to the help of a student of Francesco Melzi. Da Vinci's health was deteriorating, and by the end of 1519 it was already difficult for him to walk without assistance. This evidence is consistent with the theoretical diagnosis. Scientists believe that a second attack of cerebrovascular accident in 1519 ended the life of the famous Italian.
Monument to Leonardo da Vinci in Milan, Italy At the time of his death, the master was in the Clos Luce castle near the city of Amboise, where he lived for the last three years of his life. In accordance with Leonardo's will, his body was buried in the gallery of the church of Saint-Florentin.
Unfortunately, the master's grave was devastated during the Huguenot wars. The church in which the Italian rested was plundered, after which it fell into severe disrepair and was demolished by the new owner of the Amboise castle, Roger Ducos, in 1807.
After the destruction of the Saint-Florentin chapel, the remains from many graves from different years were mixed and buried in the garden. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, researchers made several attempts to identify the bones of Leonardo da Vinci. Innovators in this matter were guided by the lifetime description of the master and chose the most suitable fragments from the remains found. They have been studied for some time. The work was led by archaeologist Arsen Usse. He also found fragments of a tombstone, presumably from the grave of da Vinci, and a skeleton, in which some fragments were missing. These bones were reburied in the reconstructed tomb of the artist in the chapel of Saint Hubert on the grounds of the Château d'Amboise.
In 2010, a team of researchers led by Silvano Vincheti was about to exhume the remains of a Renaissance master. It was planned to identify the skeleton using genetic material taken from the graves of Leonardo's paternal relatives. Italian researchers failed to obtain permission from the owners of the castle to carry out the necessary work.
In the place where the Church of Saint-Florentin used to be, at the beginning of the last century, a granite monument was erected, marking the four hundredth anniversary of the death of the famous Italian. The reconstructed tomb of the engineer and the stone monument with his bust are among the most popular sights of Amboise.
Secrets of da Vinci paintings
Leonardo's work has occupied the minds of art historians, religious researchers, historians and the public for more than four hundred years. The works of the Italian artist became an inspiration for people of science and creativity. There are many theories that reveal the secrets of da Vinci's paintings. The most famous of them says that when writing his masterpieces, Leonardo used a special graphic code.
With the help of a device of several mirrors, the researchers managed to find out that the secret of the views of the characters from the paintings "La Gioconda" and "John the Baptist" lies in the fact that they are looking at a masked creature resembling an alien alien. The secret cipher in Leonardo's notes was also deciphered using an ordinary mirror.
Mystifications around the work of the Italian genius led to the emergence of a number of works of art, the author of which was the writer . His novels have become bestsellers. In 2006, the film The Da Vinci Code was released, based on the work of the same name by Brown. The film was met with a wave of criticism from religious organizations, but set box office records in its first month of release.
Lost and unfinished works
Not all of the master's works have survived to our time. Works that have not survived include: a shield with a painting in the form of the head of Medusa, a sculpture of a horse for the Duke of Milan, a portrait of the Madonna with a spindle, the painting "Leda and the Swan" and the fresco "Battle of Anghiari".
Modern researchers know about some of the master's paintings thanks to the preserved copies and memoirs of da Vinci's contemporaries. For example, the fate of the original Leda and the Swan is still unknown. Historians believe that the painting may have been destroyed in the mid-seventeenth century on the orders of the Marquise de Maintenon, wife of Louis XIV. Sketches made by Leonardo's hand, and several copies of the canvas made by different artists.
The painting depicted a young naked woman in the arms of a swan, at whose feet babies hatched from huge eggs play. When creating this masterpiece, the artist was inspired by a famous mythical story. It is interesting that the canvas based on the story of the copulation of Leda with Zeus, who took the form of a swan, was written not only by da Vinci.
Leonardo's lifetime rival also painted a picture dedicated to this ancient myth. The painting by Buonarotti suffered the same fate as the work of da Vinci. Paintings by Leonardo and Michelangelo simultaneously disappeared from the collection of the French royal house.
Among the unfinished works of the brilliant Italian, the painting "The Adoration of the Magi" stands out. The canvas was commissioned by the Augustinian monks in 1841, but remained unfinished due to the departure of the master to Milan. The customers found another artist, and Leonardo saw no reason to continue working on the painting.
Fragment of the painting “The Adoration of the Magi” Researchers believe that the composition of the canvas has no analogues in Italian painting. The painting depicts Mary with the newborn Jesus and the Magi, and behind the backs of the pilgrims are horse riders and the ruins of a pagan temple. There is an assumption that Leonardo depicted in the picture among the men who came to the son of God, and himself at the age of 29 years.
- Researcher of religious mysteries Lynn Picknett published the book Leonardo da Vinci and the Brotherhood of Zion in 2009, naming the famous Italian as one of the masters of a secret religious order.
- It is believed that da Vinci was a vegetarian. He wore clothes made of linen, neglecting outfits made of leather and natural silk.
- A team of researchers plans to isolate Leonardo's DNA from the surviving personal belongings of the master. Historians also claim they are close to finding da Vinci's maternal relatives.
- The Renaissance was the time when noble women in Italy were addressed with the words "my mistress", in Italian - "Madonna" (ma donna). In colloquial speech, the expression was reduced to "monna" (monna). This means that the name of the painting "Mona Lisa" can literally be translated as "Madame Lisa".
- Raphael Santi called da Vinci his teacher. He visited the studio of Leonardo in Florence, tried to adopt some features of his artistic style. Raphael Santi also called Michelangelo Buonarroti his teacher. The three artists mentioned are considered the main geniuses of the Renaissance.
- Australian enthusiasts have created the largest traveling exhibition of the inventions of the great architect. The exposition was developed with the participation of the Leonardo da Vinci Museum in Italy. The exhibition has already visited six continents. During its operation, five million visitors were able to see and touch the works of the most famous engineer of the Renaissance.
Leonardo da Vinci - italian artist(painter, sculptor, architect) and scientist (anatomist, naturalist), inventor, writer and musician, one of the largest representatives of the art of the High Renaissance.
So in front of you biography of Leonardo da Vinci.
Biography of Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in the small town of Vinci, not far from Florence. He was born as a result of a love affair between the notary Piero and the peasant woman Katerina.
The official union of these two people was impossible due to the fact that the girl came from the lower class.
Features of Leonardo da Vinci Childhood and youth
Soon, da Vinci's father married a wealthy woman, as a result of which the first years of his life, Leonardo lived with his own mother.
However, when Piero and his wife did not have children for a long time, the father decided to adopt his first child, taking him from Katerina.
Leonardo's childhood attachment to his mother, which he lost in such early years forever imprinted in his memory.
Subsequently, in many of his paintings, he tried to convey the maternal image that he carefully kept in his heart.
The house where Leonardo da Vinci lived as a child After 10 years, the first wife of the notary Piero died, after which he remarried.
In total, Leonardo da Vinci had 4 stepmothers, as well as 12 paternal sisters and brothers.
The work of Leonardo da Vinci
When Leonardo da Vinci grew up a little, his father sent him to study with the master Andrea Verrocchio, who taught him various crafts.
This was the first important stage in the biography of Leonardo da Vinci. Already in childhood, he showed abilities in various fields of activity.
Supposed self-portrait by Leonardo da Vinci He quickly learned to paint, create sculptures, dress leather, process metals and learn about various things. In the future, all this knowledge was useful to da Vinci.
When the young man was 20 years old, he continued to work with his teacher. Verrocchio, of course, saw how gifted his student was.
He often trusted Leonardo to finish any fragments on his canvases, for example, minor characters, or.
Interestingly, Leonardo da Vinci will have his own workshop in 4 years.
In 1482, Lorenzo de' Medici sent Leonardo da Vinci to Duke Lodovico Sforzo, who was in dire need of talented engineers.
He urgently needed high-quality defensive devices, as well as devices to amuse his yard.
Leonardo da Vinci did not let the duke down, having managed to build the necessary devices, which turned out to be much better than those offered by other inventors.
It is not surprising that Sforzo greatly valued an unusually talented artist and scientist. As a result, Leonardo da Vinci stayed at the court of Lodovico Sforzo for about 17 years.
During this period of his biography, he managed to create many ingenious paintings and sculptures, and complete a lot of anatomical sketches. In addition, the great Leonardo drew many drawings of various devices.
He wanted to design machines that could not only drive on land, but also swim under water and fly in the sky.
In 1499, Leonardo da Vinci returned to Florence, where he began working at the court of Cesare Borgia. The Duke was primarily interested in the creation military equipment, with which it was possible to wage an effective war with the enemy.
In the service of the Borgia, Leonardo da Vinci stayed for 7 years, after which he decided to return to Milan. By this point in his biography, he had already managed to write the famous La Gioconda, which is now in the French Louvre.
After arriving in Milan, he stayed in this city for 6 years, and then moved to Rome. IN given period biographies, he still continued to paint and invent various devices.
In 1516, 3 years before his death, Leonardo da Vinci went to where he stayed until the end of his life. On this trip, he was accompanied by one of his students and the main follower of his artistic style, Francesco Melzi.
Personal life
Not much is known about Leonardo da Vinci's personal life. Despite the fact that he kept a personal diary, he encrypted all his notes.
However, even after they were able to decipher, the researchers received very little information about the true biography of the great scientist.
Some biographers have suggested that the reason for Leonardo da Vinci's secrecy could be his unconventional orientation.
Moreover, there are versions that the artist's lover could be his student Salai, who has an effeminate appearance. However, there is no evidence for such claims.
By the way, Salai posed for several paintings by Leonardo da Vinci. For example, he was the model for famous painting"John the Baptist". There is a version that the Mona Lisa was also painted with Salai, since many art historians see the obvious similarity of the characters depicted on both canvases.
However, as mentioned earlier, there are simply no facts about relationships with men or even women in the biography of Leonardo da Vinci.
A number of researchers reasonably argue that Leonardo never knew carnal intimacy at all, having lived a virgin all his life.
Death and grave
The great Leonardo da Vinci died on May 2, 1519 at the age of 67, in the castle of Clos Luce. He bequeathed to bury his body in the church of Saint-Florentin.
Researchers speculate that a stroke may have been the likely cause of his death. To this day, the memoirs of his contemporaries have survived who claimed that Leonardo da Vinci was partially paralyzed. For example, 2 years before his death, he could not move his right arm due to a stroke he suffered.
In the last years of his life, he continued to create with the help of his student Francesco Melzi. However, every day his health deteriorated, as a result of which he could no longer move without assistance.
The life path of the Florentine genius ended after a second stroke in 1519.
At the same time, it is worth emphasizing that all assumptions about how the last years of the biography of Leonardo da Vinci passed were not confirmed by reliable facts, but are only guesses.
Monument to Leonardo da Vinci in Milan, Italy At the height of the Huguenot wars, the tomb of Leonardo da Vinci was devastated. Only after three hundred years, scientists have made attempts to identify his remains.
Today, on the site of the ruined church in which he was buried, a granite monument with a bust of the great Leonardo has been erected.
Secrets of Leonardo da Vinci
The works of Leonardo da Vinci are seriously studied by scientists, art historians, and even religious figures. Many assume that when writing his paintings, the artist allegedly used some kind of graphic code.
For example, with the help of several mirrors, scientists were able to unravel the mystery of the views of the Gioconda and John the Baptist.
As it turns out, both characters are fixing their eyes on the mysterious masked creature. The secret code in da Vinci's diaries was also revealed through mirrors.
Drawings and sketches of some of the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci Simultaneously American writer Dan Brown has written more than one book related to the artist's work. In 2006, based on Brown's work, the film The Da Vinci Code was filmed, which gained immense popularity around the world.
Many religious leaders and believers have criticized the film, calling it blasphemous. An interesting fact is that both Christians and Muslims adhered to this opinion.
Despite this, the film was watched by a record number of viewers. This, in turn, led to the fact that a lot of people began to take a keen interest in the personality and biography of Leonardo da Vinci, as well as his brilliant works.
History of Leonardo da Vinci
An interesting fact is that today anyone can visit the museum in Rome, named after Leonardo, and see with his own eyes the devices built according to his drawings.
There are also copies of da Vinci's brilliant paintings and photographs of his original manuscripts. In other words, by visiting this museum you will be able to realistically imagine the life story of the great Florentine.
Inventions of Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci paid great attention to engineering and architectural art. He is the author of many inventions that were ahead of their time by several centuries.
A brief biography of Leonardo da Vinci does not allow a detailed description of all the inventions of this great genius. Here are just a few of them: the world's first tank, an aircraft and a catapult, a machine gun and scissors, a bicycle, etc., etc.
Just think, all these inventions were designed by Leonardo da Vinci in the 15th century, more than 500 years ago!
Moreover, the world's first parachute was also invented by the genius da Vinci. An interesting fact is that recently modern scientists were able to create an exact copy of such a parachute according to da Vinci's drawings. Tests have shown that he does his job quite well.
Monument to Leonardo da Vinci in Amboise It is important to note that today many drawings and sketches of Leonardo da Vinci are still incomprehensible to scientists.
Perhaps in the future we will be able to penetrate the mystery of the biography of Leonardo da Vinci, and solve all the mysteries that he left us.
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