Leonardo Da Vinci :: essays research papers

1452-1519, Italian painter, sculptor, interior designer, musician, engineer, andscientist, probably the supreme example of conversion genius. Born in Vinci,Tuscany, he was the illegitimate son of a Florentine notary and a peasant girl.His precocious artistic talent brought him to Verrocchios shop class in 1466,where he met Botticelli and Ghirlandaio. The cul mination of his art in thisfirst end in Florence is seen in the magnificent, unfinished Adoration of theMagi (Uffizi), with its characteristic dramatic performance and chiaroscuro. Inc.1482 Leonardo went to the court of Ludovico Sforza in Milan and there composed around of his Trattato della pittura and the notebooks that demonstrate his versatile genius. The severe plagues in 1484 and 1485 drew his attention to townsfolkplanning, and his drawings and plans for domed churches reflect his concern witharchitectural problems. In 1483, Leonardo and his pupil Ambrogio de Predis werecommissioned to execute the famous Madonna of the Rocks (two versions1483-c.1486, Louvre 1483-1508, National Gall., London). The in a flash badly damagedLast Supper (c.1495-1498 Milan) was executed during the period when he wasexperimenting with the fresco medium, and this partly accounts for its damage.Despite this, a sublime spiritual content and function of invention mark it as oneof the worlds masterpieces. Leonardos model for an equestrian deposit toFrancesco Sforza was never cast, and in 1500 he returned to Florence, where hedid much theoretical start in mathematics andpursued his anatomical studies in the hospital of Santa maria Nuova. As amilitary engineer for Cesare Borgia he studied oversupply reclamation and met NiccolMachiavelli. In c.1503 he executed the celebrated Mona Lisa (Louvre). Then, asarchitect and engineer in Milan to the French king Louis Xii, he continued hisscientific investigations into geology, botany, hydraulics, and mechanics. In1510-11 he painted St. Anne, Mary, and the Child (Louvre), a work thatexemplifies his manipulation of sfumato-misty, subtle transitions in tone.