IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci was born on 15th April 1452 to a peasant woman named Caterina in a country home in Vinci, a rural town near Tuscany, Italy. His father was Messer Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci, a wealthy landlord and notary, but Leonardo’s parents were not married. He was born out of wedlock to a single mother. As a result, Leonardo did not have a last name to take for his proper surname. The name of “da Vinci” comes from his hometown and is used as an informal last name, meaning that Leonardo was born of Vinci.
Leonardo the artist
As a child, Leonardo spent his time studying what every other child at the time was studying, which was basic reading, writing and arithmetic, but his real talent, as it turned out, was his artistic abilities. Instead of pressuring him to pursue higher formal education, when he was 14 years old, Leonardo’s family sent him to be an apprentice with an artist named Andrea del Verrocchio. He was trained in painting and sculpture techniques during the apprenticeship, and all of his hard work and the development of his natural abilities paid off. In 1472, he became a member of the painters’ guild in Florence, which provided him with a publicised title as a trained painter.
During his lifetime, Leonardo produced not more than 30 paintings, some of which are not completed. While the number of paintings he completed is comparitively small, the quality of his work surpasses that of most other artists to date. Leonardo’s most impressive works are the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. The Mona Lisa is considered to be the most famous painting in existence. The revolutionary technique of “sfumato”, or “Leonardo’s smoke”, was created and implemented by Leonardo to make the image look smoky. However, it is the lady’s smile in the portrait that has captured the hearts and minds of millions. Leonardo himself loved the painting so much that after he completed it, he took it with him whenever he travelled and refused to sell it to anyone. Another famous work, The Last Supper, was painted during the 1490s in the Convent of Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan, Italy. The painting portrays Jesus as he shares his final meal with his 12 apostles, including Judas who would soon betray him.
The reason that Leonardo’s paintings are so superior is that he used a labour-intensive technique of applying paint in layers, which gave images a three-dimensional quality as the lighter colours seemed to float above the darker base coat. As explained by the master artist himself, “A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.”
Leonardo the scientist, inventor, mathematician, engineer, thinker and lifelong learner
Leonardo studied many subjects, including geology, botany, anatomy and geometry, and he applied this knowledge to his paintings. He was truly a genius who learned in order to be able to apply his knowledge rather than just learning for learning’s sake.
While he did not paint hundreds of paintings, he did make thousands of sketches, drawings and notes in journals. One of his most famous drawings is of the Vitruvian Man, which is an anatomical sketch of the perfectly proportioned male. Leonardo would write down everything in his journals from his grocery list to his theories about the human body. However, during his lifetime, the Catholic Church was always on the lookout for heretics, or people who spoke out against what the Church proclaimed. As a free thinker, a lot of Leonardo’s ideas went against the Church. Yet instead of keeping all of his ideas a secret, he had another trick — he wrote the majority of his words backwards! In order to read his writings, you need to have a mirror to be able to see the letters correctly. Imagine writing all of your essay papers backwards, as if writing them in regular print is not hard enough.
What makes Leonardo so special is that he was not only a genius of a painter, but he became an expert in many areas of learning on his own. He never allowed his lack of learning at school hold him back. Eventually he taught himself to read and write successfully in Latin, so that he could teach himself philosophies and theories from the classical teachers. He began to learn advanced mathematical concepts, specifically geometry. Leonardo also studied science using hypotheses and systematic experimentation, which was unheard of during his time but is the same scientific method taught in schools today. As a result, Leonardo made several fascinating discoveries in science. He discovered the reason that fossils and layers of rock are packed in the formation that occurs naturally. This has allowed scientists to determine how old the Earth is and to categorise the different eras in life forms, such as the Jurassic Period and the Ice Age. Leonardo also studied the human body with fine-point precision, which led to his discovery of the maxillary sinus cavity, as well as some of the different parts of the human heart and their functions. In fact, students today who are studying to become physicians and surgeons still
refer to the drawings completed by Leonardo to study anatomy.
Leonardo’s enthusiasm for nature and for life was substantial, and he wanted to learn about everything he could so he could apply his knowledge to solve problems in society during his day. As a result, he drew out plans for many inventions, most of which were not carried out until the 20th century. These include the armoured car, machine gun, hang glider, parachute, inflatable tube for floating on water, bicycle, scissors, and dozens of engineering works from pump wells to ladders. The creations that Leonardo brought into the world were immense. However, in the words of Leonardo, “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 clearly happened to a lot of things during his lifetime!
Leonardo the nature and animal lover
Leonardo had always loved nature. This was probably because his childhood house had access to mountains, trees and rivers. There were also many animals. His love of animals also led him to become a strict vegetarian. This was quite unusual in those days when most people had no concept of their diet, other than they ate whatever they were served or could cook.
A life well lived
In the last three years of his life, Leonardo lived a life of peace and quiet in Clos Lucé, a mansion in Ambroise, France. Then on 2nd May 1519, at the age of 67, he died there and was buried in the Church of Saint-florentin. However, during the French Revolution, his grave marker was destroyed. Although Leonardo da Vinci’s grave was lost forever, his impressive legacy continues inspire us all.