Leonardo Da Vinci's Influence On The Human Body

The Italian Renaissance genius, Leonardo da Vinci, was born in the town of Vinci, Italy on April 15, 1452. Leonardo was an architect, sculptor, inventor, scientist, master painter, anatomist, and engineer during the fifteenth century. He had displayed extraordinary talent in sculpting; therefore, his parents had apprenticed him to a sculptor near Florence, Italy at only fifteen years of age. By 1477, he had opened his own studio to practice his crafts, but by 1482 he realized he has not appealed to his full potential; he needed a new challenge (Museum of Science). He was a compassionate vegetarian that highly condemned war; however, he worked as a military engineer to invent some of the most advanced and deadly weapons. Leonardo da Vinci was
As unpleasant as this sounds, Leonardo dissected corpses of criminals in horrific and gruesome conditions so that he could draw and note the use of human limbs. He is one of the first few that began research on the human body, and to this day, dissection is still used in medical fields of research. As stated on the Museum of Science website, he was interested in the interdependence of the different nerves and joints of human bodies. Leonardo paid strict attention to the microscopic capillaries, small organs, and even the smallest and least visible parts of the human skeleton. His perspective in the method of research was making close observations, repeated testing of those observations, and clear-cut drawings with brief explanations, which today are the basis of every scientific experiment. His take on the previous and modern-day scientific inquiries was that the authors had written very wordy and confusing notes. Because of this, he thought that illustrating his findings with brief explanations was the answer to all problems in the science world. In the nineteenth century, this had become the leading method for research of natural sciences, once again proving that Leonardo was a gifted genius that was well ahead of his
However, being the genius that he is, he used his artistic abilities and adapted them in his other fields of interest, which included: military engineering, canal building, architecture, and weapon design. He was ambitious to create new mechanical devices to introduce to the world, such as “new transportation devices that were precursors of helicopters, tanks, and automobiles” (Futurist; May/June 1997, Vol. 31, p25-26, 2p). Stated by “Leonardo Da Vinci: An Inventor Ahead of His Time”, although the first helicopter was not constructed until the 1940’s, it is well accepted that da Vinci’s sketches were supremely influential to the modern day helicopter. Da Vinci was offered a position to be the military engineer for the Duke of Milan, Lodvico Sforza, after writing him a proposal letter of a few of his ideas: “collapsible bridges, new types of guns, and methods for destroying ships” (Tech Directions; September 1999, Vol. 59 Issue 2, p9-9, 1p). Outweighing his peers, Leonardo da Vinci had phenomenal illustration skills, the brains, and the courage to start new, never before seen trends that surpassed the Renaissance time period. Leonardo had such boundless drawing ability in his military drawings that his brief explanations were almost superfluous. After the defeat of the Duke of Milan, Leonardo