Research Paper On Leonardo Da Vinci

Nikhil Kumar
Professor Nnette Gyorody
Arts History & Theory – FA – ARTS – 1013
3rd October, 2013

The Life & Works of Leonardo da Vinci
Biography:
One of the most creative minds of Italian Renaissance not only as a great painter but also as a skilled sculptor, architect and a talented engineer, Leonardo da Vinci was born on 15th April 1452 near the Tuscan town of Vinci. He was an illegitimate child of Ser Pierro da Vinci – an influential local lawyer and a young peasant girl named Caterina, who were in wedlock. Leonardo spent his early childhood till 1457 in a hamlet of Anchiano, 5 km from Vinci with his mother and her parents. His father San Pierro, after a series of marriages and divorces eventually married to a lady from wealthy
Young Leonardo spent a great deal of time with his uncle working outdoors, drawing sketches and found him influential during his formative years. Leonardo was educated in various fields including arithmetic, geometry, music and latin till the age of 14. However, it was his drawing and painting skills that stood out foremost and to further develop his talents, at the age of 15, he went for apprenticeship to the then, renowned workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence. Florence in those early Renaissance days was an independent republic and a commercial centre, and was developing into a hub of artistic talent that was seminal in shaping the Italian Renaissance. Andrea del Verrochio’s workshop was among the best in Florence and was associated with education of several great Renaissance artists apart from Leonardo like Perugino, Ghirlandaio, and Sandro Boticelli. During the apprenticeship Leonardo learnt not only painting, sculpting and modelling, but also a wide variety of
He worked for 17 years in Milan on various projects including painting, sculpting, designing for elaborate festivals and also provided the Duke with interesting design of weapons, equipments and architect. During the period from 1485 to 1490 he produced experiments and studies based on a wide variety of subjects like flying machines, geometry, mechanics, municipal constructions, canals and bridges, war vehicles, combat equipments etc. He also supplied the Duke with war strategies and made him his strong patron. It was also during this time, he performed studies on structure of human anatomy at his buzzing workshop in Milan. He would often spend time outside studying nature or experimenting secretly in his workshop dissecting body parts of the dead to reveal the human anatomy, much against the conventional norms of the church. Leonardo’s curios mind compelled him to skip from one thing to other and hence a majority of Leonardo’s work is unfinished. During the 17 years at Milan, Leonardo completed only 6 paintings the most notable of them being The Last Supper and Virgin on the Rocks. During the last decade of the 15th century, Leonardo also developed a habit of maintaining his personal notebook, in which he used to draw sketches and write about his observations. His work covered four main themes: painting, architecture, mechanics and human anatomy and is preserved in codices which are