Leonardo Da Vinci

Gabriel Chicancham P: 3 November 19, 2012 Biographical Information ■ Birth name: Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci ■ Born: April 15, 1452 (Vinci, Republic of Florence present-day Italy) ■ Died May 2, 1519 (Age 67 Amboise, Kingdom of France) ■ Nationality: Italian ■ Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. ■ Leonardo da Vinci was the love child of a landowner and a peasant girl. Raised by his father, he began apprenticing at the age of 14 under the artist Verrocchio. Within six years, he was a master artist and began taking commissions from wealthy clients. His best-known works are two of the most famous paintings of all time, the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. His scientific inquiries fill 13,000 pages, ranging from anatomy to war machines. Important Works ■ Leonardo's most well-known painting, arguably the most famous painting in the world, the Mona Lisa, was a privately commissioned work and was completed sometime between 1505 and 1507. ■ He began working on it in 1495, and finished Last Supper in 1498. This is worth nothing, as Leonardo was known with a marked trend to leave projects unfinished. Mona Lisa ■ Possibly one of the most famous paintings in the world, the portrait of the Mona Lisa is referred to as simply the Mona Lisa, La Joconde, or La Gioconda. It is an oil on board painting that is 77cm high and 53cm wide. It is thought that the portrait is the wife of the wealthy socialite Francesco del Giocondo, Lisa Gherardini. The portrait has been written about and discussed in countless books and publications. Artists and more recently film makers have also produced derivative works from the Mona Lisa. Artists like Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp produced works inspired by the painting. The film starring Julia Robert called the "Mona Lisa Smile" and the popular novel by Dan Brown titled “The da Vinci Code” was also influenced by the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France and is visited by thousands of tourists every year. The Last Supper ■ In 1495 Leonardo begins work on The Last Supper in the refectory of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. ■ What influenced Da Vinci to paint the last supper was because his employer requested he do so. Leonardo worked for Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, for nearly eighteen years (1482-99). The Duke decided he wanted this particular religious scene painted and Leonardo decided painting it made perfect financial sense. ■ The original mural is on a wall of the refectory (dining hall) in the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. Renaissance Worldview ■ During the renaissance age, people's worldview began to shift. They began to believe in the power of the human being, and how the human being can do things on his own without divine intervention. They saw the world as something to discover, and began to find things out for themselves. The world was a new and interesting place, and they saw that they had a role in it. This idea in itself, the power of the human being, is the basis of the humanist ideals. The worldview of the renaissance age was, for the most part, a humanistic worldview, which sparked so many great things, along with our modern age. How Did Da Vinci Exemplify the Era and Spirit of the Renaissance Period? ■ Well basically his work was the standard. The renaissance was the time of new developing. The art became less religious. Most of Europe was exploring the world basically trying to gain a better understanding of everything. Da Vinci expressed these models for his work was non religious and human center. He was a man of science and exploration of the human. The world of renaissance wanted a better understanding. Da Vinci even did autopsies (Perform a postmortem examination on a body or organ) to better know how the human worked to paint them. To sum it up Da Vinci expressed a thirst for knowledge and a want for more physically knowledge instead of spiritual.

SITES ■ http://blog.biographyonline.net/2010/03/leonardo-da-vinci-facts.html ■ http://www.leonardodavincisecrets.com/ ■ http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/vinci.html ■ http://www.davincilife.com/timeline.html ■ http://arthistory.about.com ■ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_Leonardo_da_Vinci ■ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci