Leonardo da Vinci rightfully occupies one of the first places among the inventors of all ages and peoples. He was able to predict and predetermine the course of many inventions and thought in such a way that it was at odds with the then generally accepted norms and approaches. In this article, you will learn what Leonardo da Vinci invented. We will try to give the entire list of Leonardo's inventions and reveal the principles and essence of his mechanisms as much as possible.

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• Inventions of Leonardo da Vinci - part 1

Leonardo da Vinci gained fame during his lifetime, but world fame and fame came to him centuries later, when his notes and records were found in the 19th century. His papers contained sketches and sketches of amazing inventions and mechanisms. He divided many of his works into special "codes", and the total volume of his works is about 13 thousand pages. The main obstacle to the implementation of his ideas was the low technological and scientific level of the Middle Ages. In the 20th century, many of his inventions were repeated, if not in real size, then in the form of mock-ups and reduced copies, although there were often daredevils and enthusiasts who were ready to repeat everything exactly as described by the great inventor Leonardo da Vinci.

AIRCRAFTS

Leonardo da Vinci was practically obsessed with dreams of aircraft and the possibility of flight, because no machine is able to cause that quivering admiration and surprise, like a machine that can soar in the air like a bird.

In his notes, one could come across such an idea: “Watch how a fish swims, and you will learn the secret of flight.” Leonardo managed to make an intellectual breakthrough. He realized that water behaves like air, so he gained applied knowledge of how to create lift and showed an extraordinary understanding of the subject, which amazes specialists to this day.

One of the interesting concepts found in the work of a genius is the prototype of a helicopter or propeller-driven vertical aircraft.

Around the sketch there is also a description of the da Vinci propeller (helicon). The coating of the screw was supposed to be iron as thick as a thread. The height should be approximately 5 meters, and the radius of the screw should be about 2 meters. The apparatus was supposed to be set in motion with the help of muscular force. four people.

In the video below, four enthusiastic engineers, a historian and a light aircraft specialist tried to develop the idea of ​​Leonardo's helicopter and try to make it fly, although they were allowed to use a number of modern technologies and materials. As a result, it turned out that such a design had a number of serious drawbacks, the main of which was the lack of thrust necessary for flight, so the enthusiasts made significant modifications, but find out from the video whether they succeeded or not.

Leonardo da Vinci plane

The inventor did not sit long with the idea of ​​a helicopter and decided to go further, trying to create a prototype aircraft. Birds are the source of knowledge here.

Below in the picture are drawings of the wings, as well as sketches of a hang glider, which, after being built in our time, turned out to be quite workable.

Although his invention cannot be fully called an airplane, the name of a macholet or ornithopter is best for him, that is, an air apparatus lifted into the air due to the reaction of air with its planes (wings), which, by means of muscular effort, transmit a flapping movement, like in birds

Leonardo carefully began to make calculations and he began with ducks. He measured the length of a duck's wing, after which it turned out that the length of the wing is equal to the square root of its weight. Based on these premises, Leonardo decided that in order to lift his flywheel with a person on board (which reached about 136 kilograms), it would be necessary to create bird-like wings 12 meters long.

An interesting fact about the hang glider. In Assassin's Creed 2, the protagonist uses da Vinci's flying machine (hang glider) to fly from one side of the city of Venice to the other.

And if you're a fan of the Bruce Willis movies, you might remember that the movie The Hudson Hawk mentions a hang glider and a da Vinci parachute. And on a da Vinci hang glider, the main character even flew.

Parachute Leonardo da Vinci

Of course, Leonardo did not invent his parachute in order to escape in the event of an aircraft crash, it was also an aircraft that would allow you to smoothly descend from a great height. Below is a sketch of the parachute, its calculations and design.

The inventor's parachute has the shape of a pyramid, covered with dense fabric. The base of the pyramid was about 7 meters 20 cm long.

Interestingly, it is in Russia that the inventor Kotelnikov will bring to mind the da Vinci parachute, making the first ever backpack parachute that can be mounted on the back of the pilot and used during ejection.

In 2000, Andrian Nicholas, a skydiver from England, decided to test Leonardo's invention in the form in which he invented it, replacing only the material in it, realizing that linen would not withstand such a load. The first attempt was a failure, so he had to use a reserve parachute. True, in 2008, already the Swiss Olivier Tepp managed to achieve success. He abandoned the rigid design of the parachute and jumped from a height of 650 meters. The naturalist claims that the descent itself turned out to be safe, but it is impossible to control such a parachute.

INVENTIONS FROM THE FIELD OF ARCHITECTURE AND CONSTRUCTION

In the field of architecture and construction, Leonardo also achieved impressive knowledge. He studied the strength and resistance of materials, discovered a number of fundamental principles, and was able to understand how best to move various objects.

Leonardo explored the force that is needed to lift bodies of various masses. In order to lift a heavy object down an inclined plane, the idea of ​​using a system of screws, winches and capstans was considered.

Crane for lifting long objects

The base of the beam or pole rests on a special platform with a pair of wheels, which is pulled up by a horizontal rope from below. The force that must be applied to pull the horizontal rope always remains constant, and the movement of the column occurs in a straight line.

Leonardo invented a system of wheels and hammers for lifting loads. The operation of the system is similar to the work of hammer blows during minting, only it all happens on a special gear wheel. Three hammers with a special wedge included between the pins hit the wheel, rotating it and the drum where the load is attached.

Mobile crane and screw hoist

The high crane is shown in the sketch on the right. As you might guess, it was intended for the construction of tall buildings and structures (towers, domes, bell towers, and so on). The crane was placed on a special trolley, which moved along the guide rope, which was stretched over the crane.

The screw lift is shown in the sketch on the left and was intended for the installation of columns and lifting other heavy objects. The design is a huge screw, which is set in motion by the force of four people. It is clear that in this case the height and general design of such a lift limits the possibilities of its application.

Sketch of a crane on a trolley and a screw hoist

Ring platform crane

This crane is very similar to modern cranes in its functionality and was used by builders at the end of the 14th century. This lift allows you to move heavy objects around you. For his work, it was necessary to involve two workers. The first was on the lower platform and lifted heavy objects with the help of a drum, and the second worker was on the upper platform and rotated the lift around its axis with the help of a steering wheel. Also, the crane had wheels that allowed it to be moved. Such cranes were used in the time of Leonardo for the installation of pillars and columns, the construction of high walls, church domes, roofs of houses and more. Since the cars were wooden, they were usually burned after use.

Excavators by Leonardo da Vinci

Today, hardly anyone can be surprised by an excavator, but few people think about how they were invented. There is a point of view that the prototypes of excavators were used in ancient Egypt in the construction of canals and the deepening of river beds, but the truly conceptual model of the excavator was invented, of course, by the great Leonardo da Vinci.

The Renaissance excavators, of course, were not particularly automatic and needed the manual labor of workers, but they greatly facilitated it, because now it was easier for workers to move the excavated soil. Sketches of excavators give us a rough idea of ​​how huge these machines were at that time. The excavator used the principle of monorail movement, that is, it moved along one rail, while blocking the entire width of the channel, and the booms of its cranes could turn 180 °.

Fortress tower and double spiral staircase

In the picture you can see a sketch of a part of the fortress. To the left of the fortress tower, a sketch of a spiral staircase was made, which is an important component of the tower. The design of the stairs is similar to the well-known screw of Archimedes. If you take a closer look at the stairs, you will notice that it is double and its parts do not intersect, that is, you and your friend can go up or down different spirals of the stairs and not know about each other. Thus, you can go down on one side and go up on the other. without interfering with each other. This is extremely useful property during the war turmoil. Each part, respectively, has its own input and output. There are no steps added in the sketch, but the actual stairs have them.

The staircase, invented by Leonardo, was built after his death in 1519 in France inside the castle of Chambord, which served as a royal residence. There are 77 staircases in Chambord, there are spiral staircases, but only the double spiral staircase, made according to da Vinci's sketches, has become an interesting attraction.

Labyrinth building with many stairs, entrances and exits

Leonardo also thought about more sophisticated architectural concepts from stairs. In this case, this is a real maze! This building has 4 entrances and 4 staircases that spiral one above the other, wrapping around the central column in the form of a square pillar.. Leonardo was very good at finding harmonic structures, combining geometric features spaces, lines, shapes and materials, resulting in complete self-sufficient buildings.

Sliding (swivel) bridge

Sketch of Leonardo da Vinci's swing bridge

Another bridge, which, unfortunately, remained only a project, is a bridge capable of passing ships sailing along the river. Its main difference from modern bridges, working on the principle of breeding, is the ability to turn like a door. This effect is achieved through a system of capstans, hinges, winches and counterweights, where one end of the bridge is fixed on a special rotating mechanism, and the other end is slightly raised to turn.

Self-supporting ("mobile") bridge

This bridge is the answer to the question: "how can you quickly build a full-fledged crossing from improvised means?" And the answer is extremely beautiful and original.

Sketch of a self-supporting bridge by Leonardo da Vinci

This bridge forms an arch, that is, it is arched, and the assembly itself does not need nails or ropes. The distribution of the load in the bridge structure occurs due to the mutual expansion and pressure of the elements on each other. You can assemble such a bridge anywhere where trees grow, and they grow almost everywhere.

The purpose of the bridge was military and was necessary for the mobile and covert movement of troops. Leonardo assumed that such a bridge could be built by a small group of soldiers using trees growing nearby. Leonardo himself called his bridge "Reliability".

Suspension bridge

This type of bridge was another example of a mobile collapsible bridge that soldiers could assemble using ropes and winches. Such a bridge was quickly assembled and dismantled after itself during the offensives and retreats of the troops.

As in many other projects by Leonardo da Vinci, the principles of tension, statics and resistance of materials are used here. The device of this bridge is similar to the device of suspension bridges, where, in the same way, the main bearing elements are made of winches and ropes and do not need additional supports.

This bridge, created 500 years ago, could serve as a good military device during the Second World War. Later, engineers of subsequent centuries came to the conclusion that this bridge design was optimal, and the principles used in the suspension bridge are applied in many modern bridges.

Bridge for the Turkish Sultan

In 1502-1503, Sultan Bayezid II began looking for projects to build a bridge across the Golden Horn Bay. Leonardo proposed to the Sultan an interesting project for a bridge, which was to build a bridge 240 meters long and 24 meters wide, which at the time looked like something grandiose. It is also interesting to note that another project was proposed by Michelangelo. True, none of the projects managed to be implemented in practice.

500 years have passed and the concept of the bridge became interesting in Norway. In 2001, a small copy of the Da Vinci Bridge was built near Oslo in the small town of As. Architects and builders tried not to deviate from the master's drawings, but in some places they used modern materials and technologies.

City of the Future by Leonardo da Vinci

In 1484-1485, a plague broke out in Milan, from which about 50 thousand people died. Leonardo da Vinci suggested that the cause of the plague was unsanitary conditions, dirt and overcrowding, so he proposed to Duke Ludovico Sforza to build a new city devoid of all these problems. Leonardo's project would now remind us of various attempts by science fiction writers to portray a utopian city in which there are no problems, where technology is the solution to everything.

Sketches of the streets of Leonardo da Vinci's ideal city of the future

According to the plan of the great genius, the city consisted of 10 districts, where 30,000 people were supposed to live, while each district and house in it were provided with individual water supply, and the width of the streets had to be at least equal to the average height of a horse (much later, the State Council of London reported that the data proportions are ideal and all the streets in London should be brought in accordance with them). At the same time, the city was multi-tiered. The tiers were connected by means of stairs and passages. The uppermost tier was occupied by influential and wealthy representatives of society, while the lower tier of the city remained for merchants and the provision of various kinds of services.

The city could become the greatest achievement of the architectural thought of its time and could realize many of the technical achievements of the great inventor. one should not really think that the city was a continuous mechanism, first of all, Leonardo focused on convenience, practicality and hygiene. Squares and streets were conceived as extremely spacious, which did not correspond to the then medieval ideas.

An important point was the system of water channels connecting the entire city. Through a complex system of hydraulics, water came to every city building. Da Vinci believed that this would help to eliminate the unsanitary lifestyle and reduce the appearance of plague and other diseases to a minimum.

Ludovico Sforza counted this project adventurous and refused to implement it. At the very end of his life, Leonardo tried to present this project to the King of France, Francis I, but the project, unfortunately, did not interest anyone and remained unrealized.

WATER MECHANISMS AND DEVICES

Leonardo created many sketches of water devices, water manipulation devices, various plumbing and fountains, and irrigation machines. Leonardo loved water so much that he did everything that somehow came into contact with water.

Improved Archimedean screw

The ancient Greeks, in the person of Archimedes, invented a device long ago that allows you to raise water due to mechanics, and not manual labor. He invented such a mechanism around 287-222 BC. Leonardo da Vinci perfected the mechanism of Archimedes. He carefully considered the various relationships between the angle of inclination of the axis and the required number of spirals in order to select the optimal parameters. Thanks to improvements, the propeller mechanism began to deliver a larger volume of water with less loss.

In the sketch, the screw is shown on the left. It is a tightly wrapped tube. Water rises through the tube and gets from a special bath upstairs. By turning the handle, the water will flow continuously.

The Archimedes screw is still used today to irrigate farmland, and the principles of the screw underlie many industrial pumping stations and pumps.

Water wheel

Leonardo tried to find the most optimal way to use the power and energy of water with the help of various systems of wheels. He studied fluid dynamics and eventually invented the water wheel, which is shown in the sketch below. Special bowls were made in the wheel, which scooped up water from the lower container and poured it into the upper one.

This wheel was used to clear channels and deepen the bottom. Located on a raft and having four blades, the water wheel was set in motion by hand and collected silt. The silt was laid on a raft, which was fixed between two boats. The wheel also moved along the vertical axis, which made it possible to adjust the depth of scooping of the wheel.

Water wheel with buckets

Leonardo proposed an interesting way to deliver water in the city. For this, a system of buckets and chains was used, on which the buckets were attached. Interestingly, the mechanism did not require a person to operate, since all the work was carried out by the river through the water wheel.

Gate for gateway

The inventor has improved the sluice gate system. Now it was possible to control the amount of water in such a way as to equalize the pressure on both sides of the sluice gates, which made it easier to work with them. To do this, in the large gates, Leonardo made a small gate with a deadbolt.

Leonardo also invented a canal with a system of locks, allowing ships to continue navigation even on slopes. The gate system made it possible to control the water level so that ships could pass through the water without difficulty.

breathing apparatus underwater

Leonardo loved the water so much that he came up with instructions for diving, designed and described a diving suit.

According to Leonardo's logic, divers should have participated in anchoring the vessel. Divers in such a suit could breathe with the help of air, which they found in an underwater bell. The suits also had glass masks that allowed them to see underwater. Also, the suit had an improved breathing tube, which was used by divers in more ancient times. The hose is made of reed, and the joints are fastened with waterproof material. The hose itself has a spring insert that allows the hose to increase its strength (after all, there is a lot of water pressure at the bottom), and also makes it more flexible.

In 2002, professional diver Jacques Cozens experimented and made a diving suit according to Leonardo's drawings, made of pigskin and with bamboo tubes, as well as an air dome. Experience has shown that the design is not ideal and the experiment was only partially successful.

invention of flippers

The webbed glove that Leonardo invented would now be called flippers. It allowed to stay afloat and increased the distance a person could swim in the sea.

Five long sticks of wood continued the structure of the human skeleton along the phalanges of the fingers and were interconnected by membranes, like in waterfowl. Modern fins are based on exactly the same principle.

The invention of water skiing

The inventor tried to solve the problem of overcoming a long shallow water by soldiers and came to the conclusion that it was possible to use a skin previously filled with air (leather bags) by attaching this skin to the legs of people.

If the volume of the bag is sufficient, then it will be able to support the weight of a person. Leonardo also suggested using a wooden beam, which had increased buoyancy. Soldiers must take two special processions into their hands. to control balance and move forward.

Leonardo's idea was unsuccessful, but a similar principle formed the basis of water skiing.

Lifebuoy

If you translate the inscription, which is located at the bottom of the picture, you can read "How to save a life in the event of a storm or shipwreck." This simple invention is nothing more than a lifeline that allows a person to stay above the water level and not drown. It was assumed that the circle would be made of light oak bark, which could be found everywhere in the Mediterranean.

wheeled boat

In the Middle Ages, the seas and rivers remained convenient and optimal transport routes. Milan or Florence were vitally dependent on maritime navigation and the availability of fast and safe water transportation.

Leonardo created a sketch of a boat with a paddle wheel. The four blades are similar in shape to the fins of waterfowl. The man twisted the pedals with both feet, thereby rotating the wheel. The principle of reciprocating movements made the wheel spin counterclockwise, so the boat began to move forward.

Boat model Leonardo

In the video below you can see in more detail the device of a boat with wheels:

He seemed to know the evolutionary keys to mysteries human psyche. So, one of the secrets of Leonardo da Vinci was a special sleep formula: he slept for 15 minutes every 4 hours, thus reducing his daily sleep from 8 to 1.5 hours. Thanks to this, the genius immediately saved 75 percent of his sleep time, which actually lengthened his life time from 70 to 100 years!

"The picture of the painter will be little perfect if he takes the pictures of others as an inspirer; if he learns from the objects of nature, then he will produce a good fruit ..."

Painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, scientist, all this is Leonardo da Vinci. Wherever such a person turns, his every action is so divine that, leaving behind him all other people, he is something given to us by God, and not acquired by human art. Leonardo da Vinci. Great, mysterious, attractive. So distant and so modern. Like a rainbow, bright, mosaic, multi-colored fate of the master. His life is full of wanderings, meetings with amazing people and events. How much has been written about him, how much has been published, but it will never be enough. The mystery of Leonardo begins with his birth, in 1452 on April 15 in a town west of Florence. He was illegal born son a woman about whom almost nothing is known. We do not know her last name, age, or appearance, we do not know whether she was smart or stupid, whether she studied or not. Biographers call her a young peasant woman. Let it be so. Much more is known about Leonardo's father, Piero da Vinci, but also not enough. He was a notary and came from a family that settled in Vinci at least in the thirteenth century. Leonardo was brought up in his father's house. His education evidently was that of any boy from a good family who lives in a small town: reading, writing, beginning mathematics, Latin. His handwriting is amazing, He writes from right to left, the letters are reversed so that the text is easier to read with a mirror. In later years, he was fond of botany, geology, observing the flight of birds, the play of sunlight and shadow, the movement of water. All this testifies to his curiosity and also to the fact that in his youth he spent a lot of time in the fresh air, walking around the outskirts of the town. These neighborhoods, which have changed little over the past five hundred years, are now almost the most picturesque in Italy. The father noticed and taking into account the high flight of his son's talent in art, one fine day selected several of his drawings, took them to Andrea Verrocchio, who was his great friend, and urged him to say whether Leonardo would achieve any success by taking up drawing. . Struck by the huge inclinations that he saw in the drawings of the novice Leonardo, Andrea supported Ser Piero in his decision to devote him to this matter and immediately agreed with him that Leonardo enter his workshop, which Leonardo did more than willingly and began to practice not only in one area, but in all those where the drawing enters.

Picture Madonna in the grotto. 1483-86

In nature, everything is wisely thought out and arranged, everyone should mind their own business, and in this wisdom is the highest justice of life. Leonardo da Vinci

Painting Mona Lisa (La Gioconda). 1503-04

By 1514 - 1515 refers to the creation of the masterpiece of the great master - the painting of the Mona Lisa. Until recently, it was thought that this portrait was written much earlier, in Florence, around 1503. They believed the story of Vasari, who wrote: “Leonardo undertook to complete for Francesco del Gioconde a portrait of Monna Lisa, his wife, and after working on it for four years, left it incomplete. This work is now with the French king in Fontainebleau. By the way, Leonardo resorted to the following trick: since Madonna Lisa was very beautiful, while writing a portrait, he kept people who played the lyre or sang, and here constantly there were jesters who kept her cheerful and removed the melancholy that painting usually imparts to portraits.

Where the spirit does not guide the hand of the artist, there is no art.

Picture Madonna with a flower (Madonna Benois). 1478

Thinking that I was learning to live, I learned to die.

Picture Madonna Litta. 1490

Painting "Madonna with pomegranate". 1469

Picture Madonna. 1510

Picture Lady with an ermine. 1483-90

Painting Portrait of Ginevra de Benci. 1474-76

Picture of the Annunciation. 1472-75

The Last Supper. 1498

Picture of John the Baptist. 1513-16

Woman's head. 1500?

"Vitruvian Man" 1487

Virgin Mary with child and St. Anna

Portrait of a musician

The greatest scientist of his time, Leonardo da Vinci enriched almost all areas of knowledge with insightful observations and conjectures. But how surprised a genius would be if he knew that many of his inventions were used even 555 years after his birth. Oddly enough, only one invention of da Vinci received recognition during his lifetime - a wheel lock for a pistol that was wound up with a key. At first, this mechanism was not very common, but by the middle of the 16th century it had gained popularity among the nobles, especially in the cavalry, which even affected the design of the armor: Maximilian armor for firing pistols began to be made with gloves instead of mittens. The wheel lock for a pistol, invented by Leonardo da Vinci, was so perfect that it continued to be found in the 19th century. But, as often happens, recognition of geniuses comes centuries later: many of his inventions were supplemented and modernized, and are now used in everyday life. For example, Leonardo da Vinci created a device capable of compressing air and driving it through pipes. This invention has a very wide range of applications: from kindling stoves to ... ventilation of rooms. He was educated at home, masterfully played the lyre, was the first to explain why the sky is blue and the moon is so bright, was ambidexterous and suffered from dyslexia. He masters several drawing techniques: Italian pencil, silver pencil, sanguine, pen. In 1472, Leonardo was accepted into the guild of painters - the guild of St. Luke, but remained to live in Verrocchio's house. He opened his own workshop in Florence between 1476 and 1478. On April 8, 1476, Leonardo da Vinci was accused of being a sadome by a denunciation and arrested along with three friends. At that time in Florence sadomea was a crime, and the highest punishment was burning at a stake. Judging by the records of that time, many doubted the guilt of Leonardo, neither the accuser nor the witnesses were ever found. The fact that among those arrested was the son of one of the nobles of Florence probably helped to avoid a harsh sentence: there was a trial, but the guilty were released after a slight flogging. In 1482, having received an invitation to the court of the ruler of Milan, Lodovico Sforza, Leonardo da Vinci unexpectedly left Florence. Lodovico Sforza was considered the most hated tyrant in Italy, but Leonardo decided that Sforza would be a better patron for him than the Medici, who ruled in Florence and disliked Leonardo. Initially, the duke took him as the organizer of court holidays, for which Leonardo invented not only masks and costumes, but also mechanical "miracles". Magnificent holidays worked to increase the glory of Duke Lodovico. For a salary less than that of a court dwarf, in the Duke's castle, Leonardo acted as a military engineer, hydraulic engineer, court painter, and later - an architect and engineer. At the same time, Leonardo "worked for himself", doing several areas of science and technology at the same time, but he was not paid for most of the work, since Sforza did not pay any attention to his inventions. In 1484-1485, about 50 thousand inhabitants of Milan died from the plague. Leonardo da Vinci, who considered the reason for this the overcrowding of the city and the dirt that reigned in the narrow streets, suggested that the duke build a new city. According to Leonardo's plan, the city was to consist of 10 districts of 30 thousand inhabitants each, each district had to have its own sewage system, the width of the narrowest streets had to be equal to the average height of a horse (a few centuries later, the London State Council recognized the proportions proposed by Leonardo as ideal and gave the order to follow them when laying out new streets). The design of the city, like many other technical ideas of Leonardo, was rejected by the duke. Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned to found an academy of arts in Milan. For teaching, he compiled treatises on painting, light, shadows, movement, theory and practice, perspective, movements of the human body, proportions of the human body. In Milan, the Lombard school, consisting of students of Leonardo, arises. In 1495, at the request of Lodovico Sforza, Leonardo began to paint his "Last Supper" on the wall of the refectory of the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. On July 22, 1490, Leonardo settled young Giacomo Caprotti in his house (later he began to call the boy Salai - "Demon"). Whatever the young man did, Leonardo forgave him everything. Relations with Salai were the most constant in the life of Leonardo da Vinci, who had no family (he did not want a wife or children), and after his death, Salai inherited many of Leonardo's paintings.
After the fall of Lodovik Sforza, Leonardo da Vinci left Milan. In different years he lived in Venice (1499, 1500), Florence (1500-1502, 1503-1506, 1507), Mantua (1500), Milan (1506, 1507-1513), Rome (1513-1516). In 1516 (1517) he accepted the invitation of Francis I and left for Paris. Leonardo da Vinci did not like to sleep for a long time, he was a vegetarian. According to some testimonies, Leonardo da Vinci was beautifully built, possessed great physical strength, had good knowledge in the arts of chivalry, horseback riding, dancing, fencing. In mathematics, he was attracted only by what can be seen, therefore, for him, it primarily consisted of geometry and the laws of proportion. Leonardo da Vinci tried to determine the coefficients of sliding friction, studied the resistance of materials, was engaged in hydraulics, modeling. The areas that Leonardo da Vinci was interested in were acoustics, anatomy, astronomy, aeronautics, botany, geology, hydraulics, cartography, mathematics, mechanics, optics, weapon design, civil and military construction, and city planning. Leonardo da Vinci died on May 2, 1519 at the Château de Cloux near Amboise (Touraine, France).

If you happened to fly, then henceforth you will walk the earth, turning your eyes to the sky, because there you were and you will always strive to go there.

Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo da Vinci is a genius whose inventions belong undividedly to both the past, present and future of mankind. He lived ahead of his time, and if at least a small part of what he invented was brought to life, then the history of Europe, and possibly the world, would be different: already in the 15th century we would have been driving cars and crossing the seas on submarines. Leonardo da Vinci enriched almost all areas of knowledge with insightful observations and conjectures. But how surprised a genius would be if he knew that many of his inventions are used even centuries after his birth.

I present to your attention a couple of inventions by Leonard da Vinci: Military equipment, Aircraft, Hydraulics, Various mechanisms.

The most daring dream of Leonardo the inventor, without a doubt, was the flight of man. One of the very first (and most famous) sketches on this topic is a diagram of the device, which in our time is considered to be the prototype of a helicopter. Leonardo proposed to make a propeller with a diameter of 5 meters from thin flax soaked in starch. It was supposed to be driven by four people rotating levers in a circle. Modern experts argue that the muscular strength of four people would not be enough to lift this device into the air (especially since even if it were lifted, this structure would begin to rotate around its axis), but if, for example, a powerful spring were used as an "engine" , such a "helicopter" would be capable of flying - albeit a short one.

After a long and careful study of the flight of birds, which he began during his stay in Milan, Leonardo designed in 1490, and possibly built the first model of an aircraft. This model had wings like a bat, and with its help, using the muscular efforts of the arms and legs, a person had to fly. Now we know that in such a formulation the problem is unsolvable, because the muscular energy of a person is not enough for flight.

The drawing of the device turned out to be prophetic, which Leonardo himself described as follows: "If you have enough linen fabric sewn into a pyramid with a base of 12 yards (about 7 m 20 cm), then you can jump from any height without any harm to your body" .

The figure shows an underwater breathing apparatus with details of the air intake and exhaust valves.

Swimming webbed gloves. To speed up swimming, the scientist developed a scheme of webbed gloves, which eventually turned into well-known flippers.

Diving suit. The project of Leonardo's diving suit was connected with the problem of finding a person underwater. The suit was made from waterproof leather. It was supposed to have a large breast pocket that was filled with air to increase its volume, which made it easier for the diver to get to the surface. The diver at Leonardo was equipped with a flexible breathing tube.

Life buoy. One of the most necessary things for teaching a person to swim is a life buoy. This invention of Leonardo remained practically unchanged.

Water walking system Leonardo's water walking system included swimming boots and poles.

Optics was popular in Leonardo's time and even had a philosophical connotation. Here are several machines for making mirrors and lenses. The second one from the top is for making concave mirrors, the third one is for polishing them, the fourth one is for the production of flat mirrors. The first and last machines are able to grind mirrors and lenses, make their surface smooth, while transforming rotary motion into a variable. Also known is the project (performed by Leonardo between 1513 and 1516 during his stay in Rome) of a large parabolic mirror with many facets. It was conceived to heat laundry boilers by concentrating solar energy.

It is better to be motionless than tired of being useful.

Leonardo da Vinci.

Milan's Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology is the largest in Europe. Leonardo da Vinci is famous for creating the ideal human image and expressing the ideal of female beauty in his painting Mona Lisa, painted in 1503. Leonardo da Vinci, more often known only as an artist, was a genius who made numerous discoveries, developed innovative projects, who conducted research in the field of exact and natural sciences, including mathematics and mechanics. Leonardo wrote more than 7 thousand sheets by hand in the process of developing his projects. Leonardo da Vinci made discoveries and guesses in almost all areas of knowledge, and his notes and sketches are considered as sheets from a natural-philosophical encyclopedia. He became the founder of a new natural science, which made conclusions on the basis of experiments. Leonardo's favorite subject was mechanics, which he called "the paradise of the mathematical sciences." Leonardo believed that by unraveling the laws of mechanics, one can learn the secrets of the universe. Having devoted a lot of time to the study of bird flight, he became the designer and creator of some aircraft and parachutes. Once in the Leonardo da Vinci Museum, you will plunge into the world of interesting discoveries that will make you think about the infinity and ingenuity of the human mind.

What was Leonardo not fond of! Incredibly, even cooking and table setting were among his interests. In Milan for 13 years he was the manager of court feasts. Leonardo invented several culinary devices that make life easier for cooks. This is a device for chopping nuts, a bread slicer, a corkscrew for left-handers, as well as a mechanical garlic crusher "Leonardo", which Italian chefs still use to this day. In addition, he invented an automatic spit for frying meat, a kind of propeller was attached to the spit, which was supposed to rotate under the action of heated air streams going up from the fire. A rotor was attached to a number of drives with a long rope, the forces were transmitted to the skewer using belts or metal spokes. The hotter the oven heated, the faster the spit rotated, which protected the meat from burning. The original dish "from Leonardo" - thinly sliced ​​meat stewed with vegetables laid on top - was very popular at court feasts.
Leonardo da Vinci - brilliant artist, a remarkable experimenter and an outstanding scientist, who embodied in his work all the most progressive trends of the Renaissance. Everything about him is amazing: the absolutely extraordinary versatility, and the power of thought, and scientific inquisitiveness, and the practical mindset, and technical ingenuity, and the richness of artistic imagination, and the outstanding skill of the painter, draftsman and sculptor. Having reflected in his work the most progressive aspects of the Renaissance, he became that great, truly folk artist, whose historical significance far outgrew the boundaries of his era. He looked not to the past, but to the future.

Leonardo da Vinci is one of the most talented and mysterious people of the Renaissance. The Creator left behind a lot of inventions, paintings and secrets, many of which remain undiscovered to this day. Da Vinci is called a polymath, or "universal man." After all, he reached heights in almost all areas of science and art. In this article, you will learn the most interesting things from the life of this man.

Biography

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in the settlement of Anchiano in the Utuscan town of Vinci. The parents of the future genius were the lawyer Piero, 25 years old, and the peasant orphan Katerina, 15 years old. However, Leonardo, like his father, did not have a last name: da Vinci means "from Vinci."

Until the age of 3, the boy lived with his mother. The father soon married a noble but barren lady. As a result, 3-year-old Leonardo was taken to be raised in a new family, forever separated from his mother.

Pierre da Vinci gave his son a comprehensive education and more than once tried to introduce him to the notarial business, but the boy did not show any interest in the profession. It is worth noting that during the Renaissance, illegitimate births were considered equal to legitimate ones. Therefore, even after the death of his father, Leonardo was helped by many noble people of Florence and the town of Vinci itself.

Workshop of Verrocchio

At the age of 14, Leonardo became an apprentice in the studio of the painter Andrea del Verrocchio. There, the teenager drew, sculpted, learned the basics of the humanities and technical sciences. 6 years later, Leonardo qualified as a master and was admitted to the Guild of St. Luke, where he continued to study the basics of drawing and other significant disciplines.

The case of Leonardo's victory over a teacher has gone down in history. While working on the canvas "The Baptism of Christ", Verrocchio asked Leonardo to draw an angel. The student created an image that was many times more beautiful than the whole picture. As a result, the amazed Verrochio left painting for the whole.

1472–1516

1472–1513 years are considered the most fruitful in the life of the artist. After all, it was then that polymath created his most famous creations.

In 1476–1481 Leonardo da Vinci had a private workshop in Florence. In 1480, the artist became famous and began to receive fabulously expensive orders.

1482–1499 da Vinci spent years in Milan. The genius arrived in the city as a messenger of peace. The head of Milan - the Duke of Moreau - often ordered da Vinci various inventions for wars and for the fun of the court. In addition, in Milan, Leonardo da Vinci began to keep a diary. Thanks to personal notes, the world learned about many discoveries and inventions of the creator, about his passion for music.

Due to the French invasion of Milan, in 1499 year the artist returned to Florence. In the city, the scientist served the Duke of Cesare Borgia. On his instructions, da Vinci often visited Romagna, Tuscany and Umbria. There, the master was engaged in reconnaissance and prepared the battlefields. After all, Cesare Borgia wanted to capture the Papal States. The whole Christian world considered the duke a fiend, and da Vinci respected him for his perseverance and talent.

In 1506 Leonardo da Vinci returned to Milan, where he studied anatomy and the study of the structure of organs with the support of the Medici family. In 1512, the scientist moved to Rome, where he worked under the patronage of Pope Leo X until the latter's death.

In 1516 Leonardo da Vinci became a court adviser to the King of France, Francis I. The ruler allocated Clos Luce Castle to the artist and gave him complete freedom of action. In addition to an annual fee of 1000 ECUs, the scientist received an estate with vineyards. Da Vinci noted that the French years gave him a comfortable old age and were the most calm and happy in life.

Death and grave

Leonardo da Vinci's life ended on May 2, 1519, presumably from a stroke. However, the signs of the disease appeared long before that. The artist could not move his right hand due to partial paralysis since 1517, and shortly before his death, he completely lost the ability to walk. The maestro bequeathed all his property to his students.

Da Vinci's first tomb was destroyed during the Huguenot wars. Remains various people mixed and buried in the garden. Later, the archaeologist Arsen Usse identified the artist's skeleton from the description and transferred it to a restored grave on the territory of the Amboise castle.

In 2010, a group of scientists intended to exhume the body and conduct a DNA examination. For comparison, it was planned to take the material of the buried relatives of the artist. However, the owners of the castle Watermelon did not allow the exhumation of da Vinci.

Secrets of personal life

Personal life Leonardo da Vinci kept them in the strictest confidence. The artist described all love events in his diary using a special cipher. Scientists put forward 3 opposite versions regarding the personal life of a genius:

Secrets in the life of da Vinci

In 1950, the list of Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion, a Jerusalem order of monks founded in the 11th century, was made public. According to the list, Leonardo da Vinci was a member of a secret organization.

A number of researchers believe that the artist was its leader at all. The main task of the group was to restore the Merovingian dynasty, the direct descendants of Christ, on the throne of France. Another of the group's missions was to keep the marriage of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene a secret.

Historians dispute the existence of the Priory and consider Leonardo's participation in it a hoax. Scientists emphasize that the Priory of Sion was created in 1950 with the participation of Pierre Plantard. According to them, the documents were forged at the same time.

However, few surviving facts can only speak of the caution of the monks of the order and their desire to hide their activities. Da Vinci's style of writing also speaks in favor of the theory. The author wrote from left to right, as if imitating Hebrew writing.

The secret of the Priory formed the basis of Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code. Based on the work in 2006, a film of the same name was shot. The plot talks about the cryptex allegedly invented by da Vinci - a device for encryption. When you try to hack the device, everything written is dissolved by vinegar.

Leonardo da Vinci's predictions

Some historians consider Leonardo da Vinci a seer, others consider him a time traveler who fell into the Middle Ages from the future. So, scientists are wondering how the inventor could create a gas mixture for scuba without knowledge of biochemistry. However, questions are raised not only by da Vinci's inventions, but also by his predictions. Many prophecies have already come true.

So, Leonardo da Vinci described Hitler and Stalin in detail, and also predicted the appearance of:

• missiles;
• phone;
• skype;
• players;
• electronic money;
• loans;
• paid medicine;
• globalization, etc.

In addition, da Vinci painted the end of the world by depicting an atomic one. Among the future cataclysms, scientists describe the failures of the earth's surface, the activation of volcanoes, the flood and the coming of the Antichrist.

inventions

Leonardo da Vinci left the world a lot of useful inventions that became prototypes:

• parachute;
• airplane, hang-glider and helicopter;
• bicycle and car;
• robot;
• eyeglasses;
• telescope;
• spotlights;
• scuba gear and spacesuit;
• life buoy;
• military devices: a tank, a catapult, a machine gun, mobile bridges and a wheel lock.

Among the great inventions of da Vinci, his "Perfect City". After the plague pandemic, the scientist developed a Milan project with a competent layout and sewerage. It was supposed to divide the city into levels for the upper classes and trade, to ensure constant access of water to the houses.

In addition, the master rejected narrow streets, which were a breeding ground for infections, and emphasized the importance of wide areas and roads. However, the Duke of Milan, Lodovico Sforza, did not accept the bold scheme. Centuries later, according to an ingenious project, a new city was built up - London.

Leonardo da Vinci also left a mark on anatomy. The scientist was the first to describe the heart as a muscle and tried to create a prosthetic aortic valve. In addition, da Vinci accurately described and depicted the spine, thyroid gland, tooth structure, muscle structure, and the location of internal organs. Thus, the principles of anatomical drawing were created.

The genius also contributed to the development of art by developing blurry drawing technique and chiaroscuro.

Great paintings and their mysteries

Leonardo da Vinci left behind many paintings, frescoes and drawings. However, 6 works were lost, the authorship of another 5 is disputed. The world's most famous 7 creations of Leonardo da Vinci:

1. Da Vinci's first work. The drawing is realistic, accurate and made with light pencil strokes. When looking at the landscape, it seems that you are looking at it from a high point.

2. "Turin self-portrait". The painter created a masterpiece 7 years before his death. The painting is valuable in that it gives the world an idea of ​​what Leonardo da Vinci looked like. However, some art historians believe that this is just a sketch for the Mona Lisa, made from another person.

3. . The drawing was created as an illustration for the book. Da Vinci captured a naked man in 2 positions superimposed on each other. The work is considered both an achievement of art and science. After all, the artist embodied the canonical proportions of the body and the golden ratio. Thus, the drawing emphasizes the natural ideality and mathematical proportionality of a person.

4. . The picture has a religious plot: it is dedicated to the Mother of God (Madonna) and the Christ Child. Despite its small size, the picture is striking in its purity, depth and beauty. But "Madonna Litta" is also shrouded in mystery and raises a lot of questions. Why does a baby have a chick in her arms? Why is the Mother of God's dress ripped open in the chest area? Why is the painting done in dark colors?

5. . The painting was commissioned by the monks, but due to moving to Milan, the artist never completed the work. The canvas depicts Mary with the newborn Jesus and the Magi. According to one version, the 29-year-old Leonardo himself is depicted among the men.

6th masterpiece –

The Last Supper is a fresco depicting the last supper of Christ. The work is no less mysterious and mysterious than the Mona Lisa.
The history of the creation of the canvas is shrouded in mysticism. The artist quickly painted portraits of all the characters in the picture.

However, it was impossible to find prototypes for Jesus Christ and Judas. Once da Vinci noticed a bright and spiritual young man in a church choir. The young man became the prototype of Christ. The search for a model for the drawing of Judas dragged on for years.

Later, da Vinci found the most heinous person in his opinion. The prototype of Judas was a drunkard found in a gutter. Having already completed the picture, Da Vinci learned that Judas and Christ were painted by him from the same person.

Among the mysteries of the Last Supper is Mary Magdalene. Da Vinci depicted her at the right hand of Christ, as a lawful wife. The marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene is also indicated by the fact that the contours of their bodies form the letter M - "Matrimonio" (marriage).

7th masterpiece - "Mona Lisa", or "La Gioconda"

"Mona Lisa", or "La Gioconda" - the most famous and mysterious picture Leonardo da Vinci. To this day, art critics argue who is depicted on the canvas. Among the popular versions: Lisa del Giocondo, Constanza d'Avalos, Pacifica Brandano, Isabella of Aragon, an ordinary Italian, da Vinci himself and even his student Salai in a woman's dress.

In 2005, it was proved that the painting depicts Lisa Gerandini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo. This was indicated by the notes of da Vinci's friend Agostino Vespucci. So, both names become understandable: Mona - an abbreviation for the Italian Madonna, my mistress and Gioconda - after the name of Lisa Gerandini's husband.

Among the secrets of the picture is the demonic and at the same time divine smile of the Mona Lisa, which can enchant anyone. When focusing on the lips, it seems that they begin to smile more. It is said that people who look at this detail for a long time go crazy.

Computer research has shown that Mona Lisa's smile simultaneously expresses happiness, anger, fear and disgust. Some scientists are convinced that the effect is caused by the absence of front teeth, eyebrows, or the heroine's pregnancy. Others say that the smile seems to slip away because it is in the low-frequency light range.

The Smith-Kettlewell researcher claims that the smile-changing effect is due to random noises in the human visual system.

The view of the Mona Lisa is also written in a special way. From whatever angle you look at the girl, it seems that she is looking at you.

The technique of writing "Gioconda" is also impressive. The portrait, including the eyes and smile, is a series of golden sections. The face and hands form an isosceles triangle, and some details fit perfectly into the golden rectangle.

Secrets of Da Vinci Paintings: Hidden Messages and Meanings

The paintings of Leonardo da Vinci are shrouded in mysteries, over which hundreds of scientists from all over the world are struggling. In particular, Hugo Conti decided to apply the mirror method. This idea was inspired by da Vinci's prose. The fact is that the author wrote from left to right, and his manuscripts can only be read with the help of a mirror. Conti applied the same approach to reading pictures.

It turned out that the characters in da Vinci's paintings point with their eyes and fingers to the places where a mirror should be placed.

A simple technique reveals hidden images and figures:

1. In the painting "The Virgin and Child, Saint Anna and John the Baptist" discovered a number of demons. According to one version, this is the Devil, according to another, the Old Testament god Yahweh in the papal tiara. It was believed that this god "protects the soul from the vices of the body."

Click to enlarge

2. In the painting "John the Baptist"- "tree of life" with an Indian deity. A number of researchers believe that in this way the artist hid the mysterious painting "Adam and Eve in Paradise." The canvas was often mentioned by da Vinci's contemporaries. For a long time it was believed that "Adam and Eve" is a separate picture.

3. On the "Mona Lisa" and "John the Baptist"- the head of a demon, the Devil or the god Yahweh in a helmet, somewhat similar to the hidden image on the canvas "Our Lady". With this, Conti explains the mystery of the looks in the paintings.

4. On the "Madonna in the Rocks"(“Madonna in the Grotto”) depicts the Virgin Mary, Jesus, John the Baptist and an Angel. But if you bring a mirror to the picture, you can see God and a number of biblical characters.

5. In the painting "The Last Supper" a hidden vessel is revealed in the hands of Jesus Christ. Researchers believe that this is the Holy Grail. In addition, thanks to the mirror, the two apostles become knights.

6. In the painting "Annunciation" angelic, and according to some versions, alien, images are hidden.

Hugo Conti believes that you can find a hidden mystical drawing in every picture. The main thing is to use a mirror for this.

In addition to mirror codes, Mona Lisa also stores secret messages under layers of paint. Graphic designers have noticed that when the canvas is turned on its side, images of a buffalo, a lion, a monkey and a bird become visible. Da Vinci, thus, told the world about the four Essences of man.

Here are some interesting facts about da Vinci:

1. The genius was left-handed. Many scholars explain the master's special style of writing by this. Da Vinci always wrote in a mirror image - from left to right, although he knew how to write with his right hand.
2. The creator was not constant: he quit one job and jumped to another, never returning to the previous one. Moreover, da Vinci moved to completely unrelated areas. For example, from art to anatomy, from literature to engineering.
3. Da Vinci was a talented musician and played the lyre beautifully.
4. The artist was a zealous vegetarian. He not only did not eat animal food, but also did not wear leather and silk things. Da Vinci called people who eat meat "walking graveyards". But this did not prevent the scientist from being the manager at court feasts and creating a new profession - the "assistant" of the cook.
5. Da Vinci's passion for drawing knew no bounds. So, the master spent hours sketching in detail the bodies of the hanged.
6. According to one version, the scientist developed colorless and odorless poisons, as well as glass listening devices for Cesare Borgia.

They say that geniuses are born only when the world is ready to accept them. However, Leonardo da Vinci was way ahead of his time. The bulk of his discoveries and creations were appreciated only centuries later. Da Vinci proved by his own example that the human mind knows no boundaries.

Books were written about the titan of the Renaissance, films were made, monuments were erected in his honor. Minerals, craters on the Moon and asteroids were named after the great scientist. And in 1994 they found a truly beautiful way to perpetuate the memory of a genius.

Breeders have bred a new variety of historical rose, called Rosa Leonardo da Vinci. The plant blooms continuously, does not burn out and does not freeze in the cold, like the memory of the "universal man".

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Childhood

The house where Leonardo lived as a child.

Workshop of Verrocchio

Defeated teacher

Painting by Verrocchio "The Baptism of Christ". The angel on the left (lower left corner) is a creation by Leonardo.

In the 15th century, ideas about the revival of ancient ideals were in the air. At the Florentine Academy, the best minds of Italy created the theory of the new art. Creative youth spent their time in lively discussions. Leonardo remained aloof from the stormy public life and rarely left the studio. He had no time for theoretical disputes: he improved his skills. Once Verrocchio received an order for the painting "The Baptism of Christ" and instructed Leonardo to paint one of the two angels. It was a common practice in art workshops of that time: the teacher created a picture together with student assistants. The most talented and diligent were entrusted with the execution of a whole fragment. Two angels, painted by Leonardo and Verrocchio, clearly demonstrated the superiority of the student over the teacher. As Vasari writes, the amazed Verrocchio abandoned the brush and never returned to painting.

Professional activity, 1476-1513

At the age of 24, Leonardo and three other young men were brought to trial on false and anonymous accusations of sodomy. They were acquitted. Very little is known about his life after this event, but he probably had his own workshop in Florence in 1476-1481.

In 1482, Leonardo, being, according to Vasari, a very talented musician, created a silver lyre in the form of a horse's head. Lorenzo de' Medici sent him as a peacemaker to Lodovico Moro, and sent the lyre with him as a gift.

Personal life

Leonardo had many friends and students. As for love relationships, there is no reliable information on this subject, since Leonardo carefully concealed this side of his life. He was not married, there is no reliable information about novels with women. According to some versions, Leonardo had an affair with Cecilia Gallerani, Lodovico Moro's mistress, with whom he wrote his famous painting"Lady with an Ermine". A number of authors, following the words of Vasari, suggest intimate relationships with young men, including students (Salai), others believe that, despite the painter's homosexuality, relations with students were not intimate.

End of life

Leonardo was present at the meeting of King Francis I with Pope Leo X in Bologna on December 19, 1515. Francis commissioned a craftsman to construct a mechanical lion capable of walking, from whose chest a bouquet of lilies would emerge. Perhaps this lion greeted the king in Lyon or was used during negotiations with the pope.

In 1516, Leonardo accepted the invitation of the French king and settled in his castle of Clos Luce, where Francis I spent his childhood, not far from the royal castle of Amboise. In the official rank of the first royal painter, engineer and architect, Leonardo received an annual annuity of a thousand ecu. Never before had Leonardo held the title of engineer in Italy. Leonardo was not the first Italian master who, by the grace of the French king, received "the freedom to dream, think and create" - before him, Andrea Solario and Fra Giovanni Giocondo shared a similar honor.

In France, Leonardo hardly painted, but masterfully organized court festivities, planned a new palace in Romorantan with a planned change in the riverbed, a canal project between the Loire and Saône, the main two-way spiral staircase in the Chateau de Chambord. Two years before his death, the master became numb right hand and he had difficulty walking without assistance. Leonardo, 67, spent the third year of his life in Amboise in bed. On April 23, 1519, he left a will, and on May 2, he died surrounded by his students and his masterpieces at Clos Luce. According to Vasari, da Vinci died in the arms of King Francis I, his close friend. This unreliable, but widespread legend in France is reflected in the paintings of Ingres, Angelika Kaufman and many other painters. Leonardo da Vinci was buried in the castle of Amboise. An inscription was engraved on the tombstone: “The ashes of Leonardo da Vinci, the greatest artist, engineer and architect of the French kingdom, rest in the walls of this monastery.”

The main heir was the disciple and friend Francesco Melzi who accompanied Leonardo, who for the next 50 years remained the main manager of the master’s legacy, which included, in addition to paintings, tools, a library and at least 50 thousand original documents on various topics, of which only a third has survived to this day. Another student of Salai and a servant got half of Leonardo's vineyards each.

Main dates

• - birth of Leonardo ser Piero da Vinci in the village of Anchiano near Vinci
• - Leonardo da Vinci enters the studio of Verrocchio as an apprentice artist (Florence)
• - member of the Florentine Guild of Artists
• - - work on: "Baptism of Christ", "Annunciation", "Madonna with a vase"
• Second half of the 70s. Created "Madonna with a flower" ("Madonna Benois")
• - Saltarelli scandal
• - Leonardo opens his own workshop
• - according to the documents, this year Leonardo already had his own workshop
• - the monastery of San Donato a Sisto orders Leonardo a large altarpiece "The Adoration of the Magi" (not completed); work has begun on the painting "Saint Jerome"
• - invited to the court of Lodovico Sforza in Milan. Work has begun on the equestrian monument of Francesco Sforza.
• - "Portrait of a musician" was created
• - development of a flying machine - ornithopter based on bird flight
• - anatomical drawings of skulls
• - painting "Portrait of a musician". A clay model of the monument to Francesco Sforza was made.
• - Vitruvian Man - the famous drawing, sometimes called canonical proportions
• - - completed "Madonna in the Grotto"
• - - work on the fresco "The Last Supper" in the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan
• - Milan is captured by the French troops of Louis XII, Leonardo leaves Milan, the model of the Sforza monument is badly damaged
• - enters the service of Cesare Borgia as an architect and military engineer
• - cardboard for the fresco "Battle in Anjaria (at Anghiari)" and the painting "Mona Lisa"
• - return to Milan and service with King Louis XII of France (at that time in control of northern Italy, see Italian Wars)
• - - work in Milan on the equestrian monument to Marshal Trivulzio
• - painting in St. Anne's Cathedral
• - "Self-portrait"
• - moving to Rome under the auspices of Pope Leo X
• - - work on the painting "John the Baptist"
• - moving to France as a court painter, engineer, architect and mechanic
• - dies of disease

Achievements

Art

Leonardo is primarily known to our contemporaries as an artist. In addition, it is possible that da Vinci could also have been a sculptor: researchers from the University of Perugia - Giancarlo Gentilini and Carlo Sisi - claim that the terracotta head they found in 1990 is the only sculptural work of Leonardo da Vinci that has come down to us. However, da Vinci himself at different periods of his life considered himself primarily an engineer or scientist. He gave fine arts not very much time and worked quite slowly. Therefore, the artistic heritage of Leonardo is not quantitatively large, and a number of his works have been lost or badly damaged. However, his contribution to the world artistic culture is extremely important even against the background of the cohort of geniuses that the Italian Renaissance gave. Thanks to his work, the art of painting moved to a qualitatively new stage of its development. The Renaissance artists who preceded Leonardo decisively abandoned many of the conventions of medieval art. It was a movement towards realism and much has already been achieved in the study of perspective, anatomy, greater freedom in compositional decisions. But in terms of picturesqueness, work with paint, the artists were still quite conventional and constrained. The line in the picture clearly outlined the subject, and the image had the appearance of a painted drawing. The most conditional was the landscape, which played a secondary role. Leonardo realized and embodied a new painting technique. His line has the right to blur, because that's how we see it. He realized the phenomena of light scattering in the air and the appearance of sfumato - a haze between the viewer and the depicted object, which softens color contrasts and lines. As a result, realism in painting moved to a qualitatively new level.

List of paintings

Name the form Year Museum Landscape of the Arno Valley Ink, pencil, paper 15 August 1473 Baptism of Christ Oil and tempera on panel 1473-1475 Uffizi Annunciation Oil and tempera on panel 1473-1475 Uffizi Adoration of the Magi 1472-1477 Uffizi Portrait of Ginevra de Benci Oil and tempera on panel OK. 1475-1478 National Gallery of Art Madonna with a flower (Madonna Benois) Oil transferred from board to canvas 1478-1480 hermitage Museum Madonna Litta 1478-1482 hermitage Museum Madonna in the Rocks (Madonna in the Grotto) Oil on panel 1483-1486 Louvre, London National Gallery lady with ermine Oil on panel OK. 1488-1490 Czartoryski Museum Portrait of a musician Oil on panel 1485-1490 The Last Supper Oil and tempera on plaster 1494-1498 Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) Oil on poplar panel 1503 Louvre Battle of Anghiari wall painting 1503-1505 Louvre Leda with a swan Oil on panel 1508-1514 John the Baptist Oil on panel 1512 Louvre Turin self-portrait 1514-1515

Science and Engineering

His only invention, which received recognition during his lifetime, was a wheel lock for a pistol (wound with a key). At the beginning, the wheeled pistol was not very common, but by the middle of the 16th century it had gained popularity among the nobles, especially the cavalry, which even affected the design of armor, namely: Maximilian armor for firing pistols began to be made with gloves instead of mittens. The wheel lock for a pistol, invented by Leonardo da Vinci, was so perfect that it continued to be found in the 19th century.

Leonardo da Vinci was interested in the problems of flight. In Milan, he made many drawings and studied the flight mechanism of birds of various breeds and bats. In addition to observations, he also conducted experiments, but they were all unsuccessful. Leonardo really wanted to build an aircraft. He said: “He who knows everything, he can do everything. Just to find out - and there will be wings! First, Leonardo developed the problem of flight with the help of wings set in motion by human muscle power: the idea of ​​​​the simplest apparatus of Daedalus and Icarus. But then he came to the idea of ​​building such an apparatus to which a person should not be attached, but should retain complete freedom to control it; the apparatus must set itself in motion by its own power. This is essentially the idea of ​​an airplane. Leonardo da Vinci worked on a vertical takeoff and landing apparatus. On the vertical "ornitottero" Leonardo planned to place a system of retractable ladders. Nature served as an example for him: “look at the stone swift, which sat on the ground and cannot fly up because of its short legs; and when he is in flight, pull out the ladder, as shown in the second image from the top ... so you need to take off from the plane; these ladders serve as legs ... ". With regard to landing, he wrote: “These hooks (concave wedges) which are attached to the base of the stairs serve the same purpose as the tips of the toes of a person who jumps on them and his whole body does not shake while doing so, as if he jumping in heels." Leonardo da Vinci proposed the first scheme for a spotting scope (telescope) with two lenses (now known as the Kepler spotting scope). In the manuscript of the Atlantic Code, sheet 190a, there is an entry: “Make spectacle glasses (ochiali) for the eyes to see the moon big” (Leonardo da Vinci. “LIL Codice Atlantico ...”, I Tavole, S. A. 190a),

Anatomy and medicine

During his life, Leonardo da Vinci made thousands of notes and drawings on anatomy, but did not publish his work. Making an autopsy of the bodies of people and animals, he accurately conveyed the structure of the skeleton and internal organs, including small details. According to professor of clinical anatomy Peter Abrams, da Vinci's scientific work was 300 years ahead of its time and in many ways surpassed the famous Grey's Anatomy.

inventions

List of inventions, both real and attributed to him:

• Lightweight portable bridges for the army
• double lens telescope

Thinker

... Empty and full of errors are those sciences that are not generated by experience, the father of all certainty, and do not end in visual experience ...

No human research can be called true science unless it has gone through mathematical proofs. And if you say that the sciences that begin and end in thought have truth, then we cannot agree with you on this, ... because experience, without which there is no certainty, does not participate in such purely mental reasoning.

Literature

The vast literary heritage of Leonardo da Vinci has survived to this day in a chaotic form, in manuscripts written with the left hand. Although Leonardo da Vinci did not print a single line of them, however, in his notes, he constantly turned to an imaginary reader and that’s all. last years life did not leave the thought of publishing his works.

Already after the death of Leonardo da Vinci, his friend and student Francesco Melzi selected from them passages related to painting, from which the “Treatise on Painting” (Trattato della pittura, 1st ed.,) was subsequently compiled. In its full form, the manuscript legacy of Leonardo da Vinci was published only in the 19th-20th centuries. In addition to its enormous scientific and historical significance, it also has artistic value due to its concise, energetic style and unusually clear language. Living in the heyday of humanism, when the Italian language was considered secondary compared to Latin, Leonardo da Vinci admired his contemporaries for the beauty and expressiveness of his speech (according to legend, he was a good improviser), but did not consider himself a writer and wrote as he spoke; therefore, his prose is an example of the colloquial language of the 15th century intelligentsia, and this saved it as a whole from the artificiality and eloquence inherent in the prose of the humanists, although in some passages of the didactic writings of Leonardo da Vinci we find echoes of the pathos of the humanistic style.

Even in the least "poetic" fragments, the style of Leonardo da Vinci is distinguished by vivid imagery; thus, his "Treatise on Painting" is equipped with magnificent descriptions (for example, the famous description of the flood), which amaze with the skill of verbal transmission of picturesque and plastic images. Along with descriptions in which the manner of an artist-painter is felt, Leonardo da Vinci gives in his manuscripts many examples of narrative prose: fables, facets ( humorous stories), aphorisms, allegories, prophecies. In fables and facies, Leonardo stands on the level of the prose writers of the fourteenth century, with their ingenuous practical morality; and some of its facies are indistinguishable from Sacchetti's novellas.

Allegories and prophecies have a more fantastic character: in the first, Leonardo da Vinci uses the techniques of medieval encyclopedias and bestiaries; the latter are in the nature of humorous riddles, distinguished by the brightness and accuracy of phraseology and imbued with caustic, almost Voltaireian irony, directed at the famous preacher Girolamo Savonarola. Finally, in the aphorisms of Leonardo da Vinci, his philosophy of nature, his thoughts about the inner essence of things, are expressed in epigrammatic form. Fiction had for him a purely utilitarian, auxiliary meaning.

Diaries of Leonardo

To date, about 7,000 pages have survived from Leonardo's diaries, which are in various collections. At first, the priceless notes belonged to the master's favorite student, Francesco Melzi, but when he died, the manuscripts disappeared. Separate fragments began to "emerge" at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. At first, they did not meet the due interest. Numerous owners did not even suspect what kind of treasure fell into their hands. But when the scientists established the authorship, it turned out that the barn books, and art history essays, and anatomical sketches, and strange drawings, and research on geology, architecture, hydraulics, geometry, military fortifications, philosophy, optics, drawing technique - the fruit of one person. All entries in Leonardo's diaries are made in a mirror image.

Students

From the workshop of Leonardo came such students (“leonardeski”) as:

• Ambrogio de Predis
• Giampetrino

The illustrious master summarized his many years of experience in educating young painters in a number of practical advice. The student must first master the perspective, explore the forms of objects, then copy the drawings of the master, draw from life, study the works of different painters, and only after that take on his own creation. “Learn diligence before speed,” advises Leonardo. The master recommends developing memory and especially fantasy, encouraging you to peer into the vague contours of the flame and find new, amazing forms in them. Leonardo calls on the painter to explore nature, so as not to become like a mirror that reflects objects without knowing about them. The teacher created "recipes" for images of faces, figures, clothes, animals, trees, sky, rain. In addition to the aesthetic principles of the great master, his notes contain wise worldly advice to young artists.

After Leonardo

In 1485, after a terrible plague in Milan, Leonardo proposed to the authorities a project of an ideal city with certain parameters, layout and sewerage system. The Duke of Milan, Lodovico Sforza, rejected the project. Centuries passed, and the authorities of London recognized Leonardo's plan as the perfect basis for the further development of the city. In modern Norway, there is an active bridge designed by Leonardo da Vinci. Tests of parachutes and hang gliders, made according to the sketches of the master, confirmed that only the imperfection of the materials did not allow him to take to the skies. At the Roman airport, bearing the name of Leonardo da Vinci, a gigantic statue of a scientist with a model helicopter in his hands is installed. “Do not turn around the one who aspires to the star,” wrote Leonardo.

• Leonardo, apparently, did not leave a single self-portrait that could be unambiguously attributed to him. Scientists have doubted that Leonardo's famous self-portrait of sanguine (traditionally dated to -1515), depicting him in old age, is such. It is believed that perhaps this is just a study of the head of the apostle for the Last Supper. Doubts that this is a self-portrait of the artist have been expressed since the 19th century, the last of which was recently expressed by one of the largest experts on Leonardo, Professor Pietro Marani.

• He played the lyre with virtuosity. When Leonardo's case was considered in the court of Milan, he appeared there precisely as a musician, and not as an artist or inventor.

• Leonardo was the first to explain why the sky is blue. In the book "On Painting" he wrote: "The blue of the sky is due to the thickness of the illuminated particles of air, which is located between the Earth and the blackness above."

• Leonardo was ambidexterous - he was equally good at right and left hands. It is even said that he could simultaneously write different texts with different hands. However, he wrote most of the works with his left hand from right to left.

• Leonardo in his famous diaries wrote from right to left in a mirror image. Many people think that in this way he wanted to make his research secret. Perhaps that is the way it is. According to another version, the mirror handwriting was his individual feature (there is even evidence that it was easier for him to write in this way than in a normal way); there is even the concept of "Leonardo's handwriting."

• Among Leonardo's hobbies were even cooking and serving art. In Milan for 13 years he was the manager of court feasts. He invented several culinary devices that make the work of cooks easier. The original dish "from Leonardo" - thinly sliced ​​stew with vegetables laid on top - was very popular at court feasts.

• In Terry Pratchett's books, there is a character named Leonard, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci. Pratchett's Leonard writes from right to left, invents various machines, does alchemy, paints pictures (the most famous is the portrait of Mona Jagg)

• A considerable number of Leonardo's manuscripts were first published by the curator of the Ambrosian Library, Carlo Amoretti.

Bibliography

Compositions

• Natural science writings and works on aesthetics. ().

About him

• Leonardo da Vinci. Selected natural science works. M. 1955.
• Monuments of world aesthetic thought, vol. I, M. 1962.
• I. Les manuscrits de Leonard de Vinci, de la Bibliothèque de l'Institut, 1881-1891.
• Leonardo da Vinci: Traite de la peinture, 1910.
• Il Codice di Leonardo da Vinci, nella Biblioteca del principe Trivulzio, Milano, 1891.
• Il Codice Atlantico di Leonardo da Vinci, nella Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milano, 1894-1904.
• Volynsky A. L., Leonardo da Vinci, St. Petersburg, 1900; 2nd ed., St. Petersburg, 1909.
• General history of arts. T.3, M. "Art", 1962.
• Gukovsky M. A. The mechanics of Leonardo da Vinci. - M.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1947. - 815 p.
• Zubov V.P. Leonardo da Vinci. M.: Ed. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1962.
• Pater V. Renaissance, M., 1912.
• Seil G. Leonardo da Vinci as artist and scientist. Experience in psychological biography, St. Petersburg, 1898.
• Sumtsov N. F. Leonardo da Vinci, 2nd ed., Kharkov, 1900.
• Florentine readings: Leonardo da Vinci (collection of articles by E. Solmi, B. Croce, I. del Lungo, J. Paladina and others), M., 1914.
• Geymüller H. Les manuscrits de Leonardo de Vinci, extr. de la Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1894.
• Grothe H., Leonardo da Vinci als Ingenieur und Philosoph, 1880.
• Herzfeld M., Das Traktat von der Malerei. Jena, 1909.
• Leonardo da Vinci, der Denker, Forscher und Poet, Auswahl, Uebersetzung und Einleitung, Jena, 1906.
• Müntz, E., Leonardo da Vinci, 1899.
• Peladan, Leonardo da Vinci. Textes choisis, 1907.
• Richter J. P., The literary works of L. da Vinci, London, 1883.
• Ravaisson-Mollien Ch., Les écrits de Leonardo de Vinci, 1881.

Genius in the series

Among all the films about Leonardo, The Life of Leonardo da Vinci (1971), directed by Renato Castellani, is perhaps the best example in which a compromise is found between entertaining and educational. The film begins with the death of Leonardo in the arms of Francis I. And then the announcer (a technique used by the director to give historical explanations without disturbing the film's overall flow) interrupts the narrative sequence to tell us that this is nothing more than a fictionalized version of the Lives of » Vasari . Thus, already in the prologue of the film, Castellani touches upon the problem of the mystical riddle of a person, incredibly rich and multifaceted (“What, after all, do we know about the life of such famous person? Very few!") Critical moments in the Castellani biopic were the scenes when Leonardo makes a sketch of a man hanged for participation in the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478, shocking his friend Lorenzo di Credi, and another episode where Leonardo dissects a corpse in the hospital of Santa Maria Nuovi to find out “the cause of an easy death” - both episodes are presented as a metaphor for the indefatigable thirst for knowledge of the artist, who does not know any moral obstacles even in the face of death. The first years of life in Milan were marked by projects for Navigli and an incredibly passionate work on never-written treatises on anatomy, but there were few works of art, among them the amazing “Lady with an Ermine”, depicted so convincingly. In that Leonardo, who organized magnificent festivities and empty glorifications of il Moro, we see the fate of the artist (it seems that this is what Renato Castellani alludes to) - both yesterday and today - to be forced to drive hack-work or do what is required of an obliging courtier in order to to be able to do what the artist himself wants.

Gallery

see also

Notes

1. Giorgio Vasari. Biography of Leonardo da Vinci, Florentine painter and sculptor
2. A. Makhov. Caravaggio. - M.: Young Guard. (ZhZL). 2009. p. 126-127 ISBN 978-5-235-03196-8
3. Leonardo da Vinci. Masterpieces of graphics / Ya. Pudik. - M.: Eksmo, 2008. - S. 182. - ISBN 978-5-699-16394-6
4. Original Leonardo Da Vinci Music
5. White, Michael (2000). Leonardo, the first scientist. London: Little, Brown. p. 95. ISBN 0-316-64846-9
6. Clark, Kenneth (1988). Leonardo da Vinci. Viking. pp. 274
7. Bramly, Serge (1994). Leonardo: The Artist and the Man. Penguin
8. Georges Goyau, Francois I, Transcribed by Gerald Rossi. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VI. Published 1909. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 2007-10-04
9. Miranda, Salvador The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church: Antoine du Prat (1998-2007). Archived from the original on August 24, 2011. Retrieved October 4, 2007.
10. Vasari Giorgio Lives of the Artists. - Penguin Classics, 1568. - P. 265.
11. Reconstruction of a mechanical lion by Leonardo (Italian). Archived from the original on August 24, 2011. Retrieved January 5, 2010.
12. "Ici Léonard, tu sera libre de rêver, de penser et de travailler" - Francis I.
13. Art historians have found the only sculpture of Leonardo. Lenta.ru (March 26, 2009). Archived from the original on August 24, 2011. Retrieved August 13, 2010.
14. How accurate are Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical drawings? , BBCRussian.com, 05/01/2012.
15. Jean Paul Richter The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci. - Dover, 1970. - ISBN 0-486-22572-0 and ISBN 0-486-22573-9 (paperback) 2 volumes. A reprint of the original 1883 edition, cited by
16. Leonardo da Vinci's Ethical Vegetarianism
17. TV company NTV. Official site | NTV news | Another Da Vinci Mystery
18. http://img.lenta.ru/news/2009/11/25/ac2/picture.jpg

Literature

• Antseliovich E. S. Leonardo da Vinci: Elements of physics. - M .: Uchpedgiz, 1955. - 88 p.
• Volynsky A. L. The life of Leonardo da Vinci. - M.: Algorithm, 1997. - 525 p.
• Dityakin V. T. Leonardo da Vinci. - M .: Detgiz, 1959. - 224 p. - (School library).
• Zubov V.P. Leonardo da Vinci. 1452-1519 / V. P. Zubov; Rep. ed. cand. art history M. V. Zubova. The Russian Academy of Sciences . - Ed. 2nd, add. - M .: Nauka, 2008. - 352 p. - (Scientific and biographical literature). - ISBN 978-5-02-035645-0(in trans.) (1st edition - 1961).
• Camp M. Leonardo / Per. from English. K. I. Panas. - M.: AST: Astrel, 2006. - 286 p.
• Lazarev V. N. Leonardo da Vinci: (1452-1952) / Design by the artist I. F. Rerberg; Institute of Art History of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. - M .: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1952. - 112, p. - 10,000 copies.(in trans.)
• Mikhailov B.P. Leonardo da Vinci architect. - M.: State publishing house of literature on construction and architecture, 1952. - 79s.
• Mogilevsky M. A. Optics from Leonardo // Science first hand. - 2006. - No. 5. - S. 30-37.
• Nicholl Ch. Leonardo da Vinci. Flight of the mind / Per. from English. T. Novikova. - M.: Eksmo, 2006. - 768 p.
• Seil G. Leonardo da Vinci as an artist and scientist (1452-1519): An experience of psychological biography / Per. from fr. - M.: KomKniga, 2007. - 344 p.
• Filippov M. M. Leonardo da Vinci as Artist, Scientist and Philosopher: A Biographical Sketch. - St. Petersburg, 1892. - 88 p.
• Zoelner F. Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519. - M.: Taschen; Art spring, 2008. - 96 p.
• Zoelner F. Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519: Complete collection of paintings and drawings / Per. from English. I. D. Glybina. - M.: Taschen; Art spring, 2006. - 695 p.
• "100 People Who Changed the Course of History" Leonardo da Vinci Weekly Edition. Issue #1
• Jessica Taish, Tracey Barr Leonardo da Vinci for dummies = Da Vinci For Dummies. - M .: "Williams", 2006. - S. 304. -

Other scientists believe that the point is in the peculiarities of the author's artistic manner. Allegedly, Leonardo applied paint in such a special way that the face of Mona Lisa is constantly changing.

Many insist that the artist depicted himself in a female form on the canvas, which is why such a strange effect turned out. One scientist even found symptoms of idiocy in Mona Lisa, motivating them with disproportionate fingers and lack of flexibility in the hand. But, according to the British doctor Kenneth Keel, the peaceful state of a pregnant woman is conveyed in the portrait.

There is also a version that the artist, who was allegedly bisexual, painted his student and assistant Gian Giacomo Caprotti, who was next to him for 26 years. This version is supported by the fact that Leonardo da Vinci left this painting to him as a legacy when he died in 1519.

They say... ... that the great artist owes his death to the Gioconda model. That many hours of exhausting sessions with her exhausted the great master, since the model herself turned out to be a biovampire. This is still talked about today. As soon as the picture was painted, the great artist was gone.

6) Creating the fresco "The Last Supper" Leonardo da Vinci searched for ideal models for a very long time. Jesus must embody Good, and Judas, who decided to betray him at this meal, is Evil.

Leonardo da Vinci interrupted work many times, going in search of sitters. Once, while listening to the church choir, he saw in one of the young singers the perfect image of Christ and, inviting him to his studio, made several sketches and sketches from him.

Three years have passed. The Last Supper was almost completed, but Leonardo never found a suitable sitter for Judas. The cardinal, who was in charge of painting the cathedral, hurried the artist, demanding that the fresco be completed as soon as possible.

And after a long search, the artist saw a man lying in the gutter - young, but prematurely decrepit, dirty, drunk and ragged. There was no time for studies, and Leonardo ordered his assistants to deliver him directly to the cathedral. With great difficulty they dragged him there and put him on his feet. The man did not really understand what was happening and where he was, and Leonardo da Vinci captured on canvas the face of a man mired in sins. When he finished the work, the beggar, who by this time had already recovered a little, went up to the canvas and shouted:

I have seen this picture before!

- When? Leonardo was surprised. “Three years ago, before I lost everything. At that time, when I sang in the choir, and my life was full of dreams, some artist painted Christ from me ...

7) Leonardo had the gift of foresight. In 1494, he made a series of notes that paint pictures of the world to come, many of which have already come true, and others are coming true now.

"People will talk to each other from the most distant countries and answer each other" - we are talking here, of course, about the telephone.

"People will walk and not move, they will talk to those who are not, they will hear those who do not speak" - television, tape recording, sound reproduction.

"You will see yourself falling from great heights without any harm to you" - obviously skydiving.

8) But Leonardo da Vinci also has such riddles that baffle researchers. Maybe you can figure them out?

"People will throw out of their own homes those supplies that were meant to sustain their lives."

"Most of the male race will not be allowed to breed, because their testes will be taken away."

Want to learn more about Da Vinci and bring his ideas to life?