“Leonardo da Vinci epitomized the genius and diversity of achievements that we associate with the Italian Renaissance.“ Leonardo da Vinci is best known for being called one of the best artists of all time. However, he was gifted in more areas than just this; he was also an amazing inventor, scientist, musician, architect, and engineer. He was, as the quote says, the essence of the Renaissance, with a hold in almost every area.
Leonardo da Vinci was the illegitimate child born to Ser Piero, a notary, in April of 1452. Later, both Ser Piero and his mother, Caterina, wed other people. Little is known about Leonardo’s childhood, but he grew up in the care of his father, probably spending most of his time with his uncle, Francesco. Since Leonardo was illegitimate and he would not inherit anything from Ser Piero, he had to work for himself. Some say that, as a child, Leonardo did not have an interest in any kind of schoolwork, but developed taste for science and math later in life. Either way, he always loved nature. Legend has it that Leonardo filled his room with animal skeletons to draw. He later reflected that nature was one of his teachers, and that one could learn the most from the world around them.
Eventually, Ser Piero must have noticed Leonardo’s artistic capabilities, because he sent him to Florence to study under Andrea del Verrocchio, a prominent artist of the time. Leonardo was sent to his workshop when he was 15 years old, where he improved his painting, drawing, and furniture making skills. Verrocchio accomplished some technical and architectural feats while apprenticing Leonardo, creating in the latter a craving for both artistic and technical challenges. Verrocchio respected Leonardo and, in around 1477, asked him to paint an angel in one of his paintings, the Baptism of Christ. The portion completed by apprentice far outperformed that of the master. Andrea del Verrocchio was so appalled that he vowed never to paint again. While this reaction is, perhaps, a bit extreme, Leonardo’s work is quite astonishing.
Leonardo left the workshop and went to serve the Duke of Milan, Lodovico Sforza, in 1482. The duke assigned Leonardo many projects, ranging from painting and sculpting to weapons and buildings. He was the model Renaissance man, with a diverse variety of talents. Leonardo was very independent, with ambition to spare. He ruined a few of his paintings for experiment’s sake and declared he would write an encyclopedia for himself.
Verrocchio and many under him used tempera paint, but Leonardo asserted his standalone nature by preferring to use oil paint, creating a different look about his work. His Mona Lisa, by far his most famous painting, was just meant to be a minor painting. There is controversy over the subject of the piece; some say she was pregnant, or a man in drag. It is most likely of La Gioconda, a random middle class woman, but it was never given to whoever commissioned it. In 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre. Its return made it more famous than it ever was in its century.
Leonardo is known for his excellence in the use of light. His style of chiaroscuro (from Italian chiaro, meaning light and oscuro, meaning dark) led to paintings with great depth and contrast. Whether he used this technique or simply like the idea, Leonardo himself said, “A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.” This was a new concept to Medieval Europe. Many artists of that time had difficulty portraying light, which made depth perception limited and created a very two-dimensional feel. Western Medieval artists discovered the practice of chiaroscuro; it came into being with Leonardo and Raphael in the 16th century, and it wasn’t until the Baroque period that it really began to be exercised.
Another technique credited to Leonardo is sfumato (Italian for “to tone down”), or the act of blurring edges and colors to create a smoother, mellower feel. This creates a more realistic approach to art and dilutes sharpness of lines and light when used in conjunction with chiaroscuro. Leonardo used earthy, coinciding colors, such as blue, green, and brown. He preferred these to the bright, luminous colors more common in that era. Sfumato also makes the scene more unified. The background is often as smooth as the subject of the painting.
“Leonardo da Vinci was the first artist to use value consistently across colors, achieving tonal unity in which a figure presents a single, swelling, homogeneously generated volume in contrast to the inevitably fragmented effects of color-modeling. Light, color and form are now related in a way that approximates, and describes, their scientific and naturalistic behavior.” Leonardo, having grown up on the beautiful landscape of Vinci, had always been a fan of nature, longing to learn more about it and imitate it in his work. He believed that whoever wanted to paint or recreate an object or person must first understand how it worked. This led to his pursuit of science and human anatomy.
In 1510-1512, Leonardo practically invented embryology. His famous drawings of the human fetus were never officially published, but were discovered in personal journals after his death. While in Milan serving the duke, he spent time with anatomist Marcantonio della Torre, which probably helped his later study in embryology. Leonardo is credited to having an accurate assessment of the womb and function of the umbilical cord. He learned a lot from the textbooks of Avicenna and Mundinus, but made educated guesses from studying animals.
One of the wonders of Leonardo is his series of journals. His messy writing filled 20 volumes of notebooks. His writing was not systemic, in fact, most of it was written backwards, leaving questions of both his dexterity (perhaps he was ambidextrous or left-handed) and his intent (perhaps he encrypted the notes). Either way, no information about his personal life can be gained from the journals; they are all about science, art, or math.
Something that is known about that pertains to his personal life is that when he was 24, there was a scandal about his sexuality. He was accused of molesting a 17-year-old man, but, when it came time for the trial, no witnesses or evidence was brought against him. Since there is no historical evidence of any close female friends, it has been assumed that Leonardo was homosexual. This is interesting because he seems of upright character, since he was vegetarian, quite against animal cruelty, and somewhat integritous. He probably liked to travel, since he often changed location, from Florence to Milan to Mantua, and Venice to Rome to France.
Leonardo was also a musician. Some trace his musical ability to Andrea del Verrocchio, who was a musician and an instrument maker. Others say he went to a music school apart from Verrocchio’s workshop. Leonardo probably would credit his interest in music to nature’s natural sounds because of his interest in his surroundings. Of course, being an engineer, he couldn’t allow any inefficient instruments to pass, so he improved a few. He created a lyre out of a horse’s skull, a mechanical drum that played when pulled like a suitcase, a trumpet with bellows so as not to waste breath, and a portable piano-viola-harpsicord. These are all quite abstract ideas, and not all were carried out, but mere drawings still deserve credit.
Not all his inventions were quite so peaceful, though. By observing the physics of birds, Leonardo created a few contraptions for flight. He drew up a design for a helicopter-type machine, what he called an ornithopter. He also observed that guns took too long to be loaded again and again, so he created a machine gun of sorts. He created a spring-powered cart with steering. While in Venice, the city of water, he thought up a diving suit to sneak up on an enemy under the water. He came up with an armored car or tank, but it had a major flaw. It was designed for men or horses to crank the wheels, but the way his drawings dictated, it would not work. If used as designed, the front and back wheels would rotate in opposite directions. Such an elementary mistake left historians wondering if Leonardo was, in fact, a pacifist, and deliberate in this mistakes. Perhaps his love of nature convicted him to the point of refusing to promote war.
Also credited to being a scientist, Leonardo discovered Earthshine, the Earth’s glow on the moon. Seen at sunset, Earthshine happens when the Earth reflects the sun and shines on the moon. Leonardo, influenced by his own interest in light and shading, was convinced that the moon’s surface was covered in water, making it reflective. He guessed that the moon had its own atmosphere and gravity, and when the sun shone on the Earth’s oceans, the light reflected to the moon.
Michelangelo Buonarroti, Leonardo’s chief rival, was born in 1475. The younger artist is famous for sculpting David, painting the Sistine Chapel, and designing the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica. Michelangelo was very religious opposed to Leonardo’s atheism. The two masterminds finally had a showdown when the Florentine mayor commissioned them each for a fresco on opposing walls of the Town Hall. At that time, Michelangelo had only done sculptures and Leonardo had years of painting experience, but the latter never finished. But according to Leonardo, neither did Michelangelo; one of his famous quotes is, “Art is never finished, only abandoned.”
In France, on May 2, 1519, a genius died, most likely of natural causes. The man known for The Last Supper, Madonna of the Rocks, Adoration of the Magi, the Fetus, and of course, Mona Lisa, was much more than that. He was an engineer, a musician, an inventor, and an overall brilliant mind. Leonardo da Vinci himself said, “It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.” Leonardo da Vinci followed his own advice.
