Leonardo's life spanned the mid 15th and early 16th centuries, a period known as the Renaissance. During this time, artistic, social, scientific and political thought shifted from the ignorance and superstition of the Middle Ages to embrace reason, science, learning and tolerance.
Born in Italy on April 15, 1452 in the small mountain town of Vinci, Leonardo was the son of a lawyer. He grew up exposed to a tradition of painting. Legend has it that when Leonardo was young, his father asked him to paint a picture of a shield. Leonardo thought it would be much more interesting to paint a monster. He collected lizards, bats and other dead animals and tried to replicate them to create his masterpiece. He didn't even notice that the animals were rotting as he painted. When his father saw the painting, he was impressed by its realism and knew that Leonardo must be an artist.
Leonardo also experimented with light and shadow in his artwork to recreate the 3-dimensional form of objects. His paintings were among the first to show changes in the detail and color of an object to create an illusion of depth and distance. His most famous artworks include The Baptism of Christ, The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and The Adoration of Three Kings.
An important aspect of Leonardo's work as an artist was his ability to combine art and science. He used his knowledge of anatomy and his observations of how objects moved and appeared naturally to complement his art. Since the 19th century, Western culture has considered art and science as separate schools of thought. Many consider Leonardo's work to symbolize the former state of unity between the two disciplines
Leonardo the Scientist During the later years of his life, Leonardo was more fascinated by science than he was by art. Leonardo was not limited by the technology of his time. He studied and thought of ideas that were possible. One of his greatest accomplishments is the range of topics that he studied including anatomy, zoology, botany, geology, optics, aerodynamics and hydrodynamics. His interests were so broad that he often became interested in something else and failed to finish what he started.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
The renaissance is a when a new city is reborn. There were many great artist like Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo. In my opinion the most significant artist was Leonardo da Vinci. One reason why is he was a significant artist was because he lived with only his father and this brought him to be the artist he was. I think this because in Leonardo’s DBQ it states “became an apprentice of Andrea del Verrocchio.”…
- 241 Words
- 1 Page
Satisfactory Essays -
The first piece of evidence given about leonardo would have to be when it states all of the skills he accompanies. If you go back to his most famous work, “The Last Supper” you would know that he used math and science to get it to look symmetrical. He also had shown realism with all of the people’s gestures and facial expressions. Without his talents all of his most famous works/masterpieces…
- 247 Words
- 1 Page
Good Essays -
Leonardo Da Vinci, an artist and sculptor, was also very talented as an engineer, scientist, inventor and a religious man. He was born in the heart of the Renaissance, in April 15, 1452 near the town of Vinci, in Tuscan. Da Vinci, was not born in nobility and was son of a local lawyer. His learning started in the workshop, in Florence which was from an artist and sculptor named Andrea del Verrocchio. There, Leonardo was introduced to perspective, metalwork as well as, drawings and paintings and he quickly mastered perspective, which was Verrocchio's speciality. Soon, he became an independent experienced.…
- 292 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Leonardo Da Vinci is one of the most well known artist in the Italian renaissance, and has been said to have influenced many artists over the years. Da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in Tuscany close to the village of Anchiano, Italy to Ser Piero and Caterina a peasant. Growing up he was taught reading, writing and mathematics. His parents noticed that Da VInci had a great talent for the arts. At the age of 14 leonardo started apprenticeship with Andrea del Verrocchio. Verrocchio was a well known artist and taught Da Vinci metalworking, carpentry, painting, and sculpting.…
- 238 Words
- 1 Page
Satisfactory Essays -
Throughout his life, Leonardo Da Vinci embodied the expectations of an exemplary Renaissance man, due to his knowledge in many studies. A model Renaissance man was well educated, and “had learned enough to understand good literature, painting, and music” (Wallbank). Da Vinci clearly manifests the qualities of a Renaissance man because he was an excellent artist and studied a diverse array of subjects. He was well studied and it is shown within the 5,000 pages worth of journals, written on his findings. Da Vinci explored a wide variety of sciences, mostly pertaining to nature and humans. It was inferred that Leonardo Da Vinci studied motion, sound, water, plants, meteorology, air, fire, earth and water. His many studies contributes to his image…
- 189 Words
- 1 Page
Good Essays -
Leonardo da Vinci explains in a notebook entry, The Art of Painting that artists should know human anatomy because it makes the art realistic. The Renaissance was a time period during the 1500s of the revival of art, literature and learning . The Renaissance marked the transformation from medieval time to modern time. Leonardo da Vinci was a well rounded renaissance man. He is a renaissance man because he had many talents. Da Vinci painted, created sculptures and inventions. He was also good at mathematics, architecture, and engineering. He studied the faces of people to find different types of structures. By studying the specific variations of the face and different features of the body artists make their drawing realistic. He found about…
- 186 Words
- 1 Page
Good Essays -
Leonardo’s contributions to art during the Renaissance period were just as amazing as his scientific ones. Leonardo da Vinci was a very talented artist; he painted the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, and many more famous paintings. Because of his understanding of Linear Perspective, integration of light and shadow, and his understanding of anatomy many of his works were famous. Unlike his findings in the field of science he was accepted as a very…
- 831 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Leonardo Da Vinci is if not the most popular artist in the world, one of the most popular artists in the world. He was one of the greatest masters of the High Renaissance he was most known as a painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, and scientist. He helped people with scientific research and artistic revival, his scientific studies in the fields of anatomy, optics, and hydraulic helped us exceed in many of the developments of modern science.…
- 986 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
He tried to understand the inner workings of nature. Majority of his inventions and scientific ideas were ahead of its time. Leonardo was one of the first people to study the flight of birds and make an invention that modeled after how they glided in the wind. He also made drawings, schematics and designs for tanks, helicopters, and a parachute. "Leonardo's importance to art was even greater than his importance to science. He had a strong influence on many leading artists, including Raphael and Michelangelo. Leonardo's balanced compositions and idealized figures became standard features of later Renaissance art. Painters also tried to imitate Leonardo's knowledge of perspective and anatomy, and his accurate observations of nature. What most impresses people today is the wide range of Leonardo's talent and achievements. He turned his attention to many subjects and mastered nearly all. His inventiveness, versatility, and wide-ranging intellectual curiosity have made Leonardo a symbol of the Renaissance spirit.” (Bnl)…
- 1512 Words
- 7 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Leonardo da Vinci was a great mathematician whose contributions to the discipline were immense, especially in the field of geometry. Besides being a mathematician, Leonardo da Vinci was a renowned painter, inventor, architect, and a student of scientific concepts (Cremante, Leonardo & Pedretti, 2005). Since Leonardo’s natural genius encompassed several disciplines, he personified the term “Renaissance man.” At present, Leonardo is best acknowledged for his art masterpieces, particularly the “The Last Supper” and “Mona Lisa” that are still among the worlds most renowned and admired (Cremante et al., 2005). In all his works, Leonardo believed that there is a significant connection between art, science…
- 1214 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
Leonardo da Vinci was known as the master of perspective and composition during his time (Kuiper 13). He was also a Renaissance man which could have had some impact on most of his paintings being mostly religious. Da Vinci also learned when he was younger, how to express lighting in his paintings. Da Vinci appreciated this way of painting because it put everything in a new perspective when the artist can play with the lighting more. An example of this would be in one of paintings which will be mentioned later. Da Vinci used light to show the different ways the sky can look in various areas in the artwork. He was also very interested in flight; he would draw multiple pieces of birds flying in his notebooks (Strickland 34). This can relate to the theme of religion in his pieces because angels and God are floating above us and da Vinci appreciated that greatly. He was very curious when thinking about what he should draw or sketch next and some of the…
- 1463 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
Though Leonardo da Vinci may be most famous for his works as an artist, he actually spent quite a bit more time working on his endeavors in science and technology. Of course, his detailed sketches and distinct artistry played a large role in his inventions, and his sketchbooks later provided evidence that da Vinci had envisioned many ideas long before the technology to build them actually existed.…
- 1015 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15 1452 in the village of Anchiano, Italy near the town of Vinci. In 1467 at the age of 15 Leonardo was sent to Florence to work as and apprentice for Andrea De Verrocchio. In 1472 at the age of 20 years old Leonardo was accepted into the painters guild of Florence.9 years later Leonardo begins painting the Adoration of the Magi, an altarpiece for the Monastery of San Dontao at Scopeto. In 1495 Leonardo begins painting The Last Supper in the refectory of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan.3 years later Leonardo finishes The Last Supper. This extremely difficult to visit painting remains on the walls at the refectory of the Santa Maria delle Grazie, and is one of the most widely sold Da Vinci Posters of all time. Around the year 1500, Leonardo decided to leave Milan and head back to Florence where his good reputation had him readily received by the city. By 1502 Leonardo had entered the service of Pope Alexander the IV's much feared son Cesare Borgia as a senior military architect and general engineer. Leonardo returned to Florence once more in 1503 at which time he was commissioned to paint a mural in the council hall in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio.…
- 444 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Da Vinci can be classified as a scientist because he was a brilliant inventor and astronomer. He dissected the human body which was illegal at the time punishable by death. He studied animals and plants too. Leonardo da Vinci had the first concept of the parachute. But it's cloth part was not big enough to catch air, and their was too much wood. It was designed to catch air and slow a fall. He discovered where things were like bones, the brain, muscles, veins, and the heart. He was one of the first people that knew this type of stuff because, as I said before, it was illegal to cut open bodies. But, dissecting bodies made him more knowledgeable in the field of medicine. In Mr. da Vinci's notebook that he carried with him everywhere he went and he wrote backwards to keep people from what they couldn't understand. For example, he wrote the sun does not move backwards because in that time period most of the population thought the sun moved around the Earth. Leonardo's discoveries in science and medicine are still helping the doctors and inventors in our world…
- 797 Words
- 4 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Leonardo Da Vinci’s life began on April 15th 1452. He was born in a Tuscan hill town called Vinci.…
- 539 Words
- 3 Pages
Satisfactory Essays