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Leonardo Da Vinci
Florentine artist
 * April 15, 1452    + May 2, 1519

Known for Initiating the Italian High Renaissance with paintings that set a new standard for composition and expression of complex emotion.

Possessing a sprawling intellect that touched astoundingly diverse areas of knowledge, but suffering from a tendency to assume too many projects in various fields, and failing to complete most.
1466  Began his career as an apprentice to Florentine artist Andrea del Verrochio.
1470  Contributed a kneeling angel to Verrochio's Baptism of Christ. Leonardo's angel is generally considered superior to Verrochio's central figures.
1481  Began painting Adoration of the Magi, an unfinished work that reveals his technique of beginning with a dark painting surface and adding elements of light, unlike most painters of his time who started with outlined figures on a white surface.
1485  While serving the duke of Milan as a military advisor, painted The Virgin of the Rocks, which demonstrated his use of sfumato, a technique he developed for blending tones to create a soft glow and sense of atmosphere.
1495-1497  At Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, painted The Last Supper, a dramatic depiction of the moment Jesus announced that he would be betrayed.
1503  Began but did not finish Battle of Anghiari, a work that broke with conventions of battle painting and depicted the violent fury of battle rather than the historical narrative.
1503-1506  Painted the Mona Lisa, which he kept with him for the remainder of his life.
1506  Was summoned to Milan by Charles d'Amboise, where he designed a military monument that was never built, and devoted his energies to anatomical studies.
1510?-1513?  Drew a self-portrait, perhaps the most famous of the many drawings he produced.
1514-1516  Resided in the Vatican and focused his attention on scientific experimentation.
1516  Moved to France to enter the service of King Francis I, and spent much of his remaining years conversing with the king and observing the properties of water.

The subtlety of expression and glow of faces depicted by Leonardo is attributed in part to his practice of painting by the soft light of dusk with a linen sheet drawn overhead to further diffuse the illumination.

The Last Supper, which began to deteriorate in Leonardo's lifetime, suffered further damage when 17th-century monks cut a door through the lower portion, and was nearly destroyed by Allied bombing in World War II.

Leonardo established modern techniques of scientific illustration with highly accurate renderings such as Embryo in the Womb.

Knowledge of Leonardo's Battle of Anghiari, which was destroyed in the 17th century, is based on later artists' rendering of the work, most notably a drawing by Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens.

Leonardo performed autopsies on corpses to improve his knowledge of physiology, and ridiculed lesser artists' depictions of human flesh, saying they looked like "sacks of nuts."

Leonardo da Vinci was, in 1508, the first to suggest the use of contact lenses to correct defective vision. In Germany, nearly four centuries later, the first contact lens manufactured was a glass shell that covered the entire surface of the eye. Modern contact lenses appeared in the 1940s. Today, many Americans prefer them over eyeglasses for reasons of convenience or cosmetics, although spectacles offer far more protection for the eye.
Mona Lisa

The ornithopter is one of many intriguing ideas created by Leonardo da Vinci. Although these inventions were never carried through to completion, the drawings for them are skillful. The ornithopter was the result of the artist's interest in the flight of birds; da Vinci could be called the first scientific illustrator.
The Ornithopter


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by Mauro ©