Leonardo Di Ser Piero Da Vinci

Leonardo Di Ser Piero Da Vinci April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519
Leonardo Di Ser Piero Da Vinci (Leonardo Son of Piero of Vinci) by some people the creator of the Renaissance era was born on Vinci, twenty miles west of Florence in a farmhouse three kilometers from the center of the city, between the town of Anchiano and Faltognano. Leonardo was the illegitimate son of notary Ser Piero Da Vinci and a peasant woman by the name of Caterina. Leonardo was a man of many different talents; among those talents were polymath, painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, inventor, engineer, writer, geologist, anatomist, cartographer, anatomist, and botanist. Leonardo was primarily known for his painting (Mona Lisa, the last supper, Vitruvian Man), and his fascinating inventions (Helicopter, tank, flying Machine, Viola Organista) which I will be talking about in depth in my research paper.
First study science, and then follow with practice based on science…..The painter who draws by practice and judgment of the eye without the use of reason is like the mirror the reproduces within itself all the objects which are set opposite to it without knowledge of the same….The youth ought first to learn perspective, then the proportions of everything, then he should learn from the hand of a good master. Leonardo Da Vinci
The Renaissance marked the transition point from the middle ages to the modern world. Young Leonardo Di Ser Piero Da Vince received his education of Painter, sculptor, and engineering in Florence in the early 1440s. In a time when coming with a new approach toward science was considered a direct insult or challenge to the church, Leonardo managed to project his new finding of science, Mathematics formulas, and logical reasoning without creating a new reform of cultural beliefs.
Among his creation we can find what is considered to be an early predecessor of today’s helicopter. Between 1480 and 1493 Leonardo Da Vinci designed what is known today as the “Aerial Screw” or also known as the “Helical Air Screw”. Leonardo’s Helical Air Screw measure approximately fifteen feet across and the material used to build it were reed, linen, and wire. The main power proportion came from four men that were standing in the middle of the craft rotating different pedals in order to rotate the screw like shaft (See figure L-1).
Leonardo was a very methodical reader and writer. He often read books that interest him with pen on hand. He was so critical of himself that he used to describe his though in writing, and draw them most of the time in order to retrace his thinking. In the old time it was common for inventors to read others innovators ideas in order to create new ones or reproduce the same invention with improvements. One of those creations was the Leonardo’s “Assault Vehicle”. After researching Roberto Valturio’s “De re military“, Leonardo Da Vinci went ahead and created the Assault Vehicle with a technology that was unheard of at the time. Due to the lack of funds and the war at the Apennine Peninsula Leonardo had to restrain his master creation to just a blueprint. The Assault Vehicle had an upside-down cone shape with four wheels at the bottom, and a crankshaft for propulsion. Been that Leonardo was so critical of his own invention, he decided to make improvement to his own invention at a later time. One of those improvements was the vehicle self-propulsion. Leonardo achieved this improvement by creating a spring-power system (As the Motor), and an innovated differential transmission system. (L-2 Picture of Assault Vehicle)
Another area in which Leonardo Da Vinci broke new ground was painting. But to his misfortune in life by 1514 most of his paintings were not completed due to lack of commissions and Italian’s wars. One of those paintings happened to be the “Mona Lisa” or “La Joconde” a 16th century oil painting portray of “Lisa di Antonio Maria Gherardini” which in today’s expert opinion it is one of the most impossible to comprehend painting in the history of art. Leonardo started to paint the Mona Lisa in 1503 under the commission of Francesco di Bartolomeo di Zanobi del Giocondo and finished in1519 shortly before he died. By 1511 Leonardo had to migrate under the Melzi family protection to Vaprio where he resided and produced magnificent creation of arts for two years in order to repay the Melzi family hospitality. While at Vaprio Leonardo continued to develop his new projects and improving his paintings knowing that sooner or later he will have to find a more suitable patron in order to be able to finance his work. The solution to financials impasse came in February 1513 in the hand of Giovanni de’ Medici, the younger descendent of Lorenzo il Magnifico. With the death of Pope Julius II in Rome and Giovanni asserted to papacy under the name of Pope Leo X. Giuliano de’ Medici brother of Pope Leo X and by them commander of the papal army, invited Leonardo to Rome for his knowledge of art and military technology.
The invitation to Rome by Giuliano de’ Medici was the opportunity that Leonardo Da Vinci was waiting for. Unlimited commissions, immeasurable social status, and a very power full patron. What else? By September 1513 Leonardo relocated himself back to Rome where he was accommodated in the Vatican’s luxury Belvedere villas together with all his painting including some half stages such us the Leda, the Mona Lisa, and the Saint Anne.