Leonardo DaVinci
Geniuses come few and far between in
history. Hippocrates came in the late BC
period. Einstein came in the late
1800s-early 1900s. Leonardo came in between
the two of them, but is not
recognized as well as they are. He was a brilliant
human being. He was a
master in the fields of painting, designing, engineering,
and science. Most
people know him merely as an artist, and some know him as an
inventor, but
not too many people know him for what he really was. This is
because his life
and his accomplishments are not taught, as in depth as they
should be. During
the height of the renascence, a genius was born in 1452 in the
small town of
Vinci, near Florence. He would become a great artist, engineer,
inventor, and
a scientist. His name was Leonardo, a name that would soon be
associated with
the word brilliant. He was born to Piero, the lawyer of the
town, and
Catarina, who gave Leonardo to his father, and left them both for a
man of
her social class. She is not mentioned in Leonardo's notebooks, as he
was
probably too young to remember her. Leonardo grew up feeling different
from the
other children. He had a strange curiosity that was lacking in the
other
children. He would buy birds from the markets, and set them free,
because he
thought it was wrong to keep them locked up in cages. He also had
a strange
curiosity about the world around him. He kept collections of
"snakeskins,
odd stones polished by water, birds' eggs, the skeletons of
small animals,
insects stuck on pins, tadpoles, and strange plants," in his
room because
they fascinated him. Leonardo would draw the things in his
collection in a
notebook. When his father saw the notebook, he thought that
there was a
possibility that Leonardo had a chance to become an artist. Piero
went into
Florence once a month on business and one time he brought some
of his son’s
work. He showed it to his friend Andrea del Verrocchio. "He saw
more than just
mere talent in Leonardo" and almost immediately, Leonardo
moved to Florence as
Verrocchio apprentice. Leonardo never got married.
From what is known, he did
not have any children, either. I find this tragic,
for if he had any children,
they may have possibly continued in Leonardo’s
footsteps, and become great
geniuses as well. Leonardo was so talented that
after Leonardo painted two
angels in the corner of Verrocchio’s Baptism of
Christ, Verrocchio never
painted again. Soon after that Leonardo went on to
paint the Annunciation, which
was his first of only a few completed
paintings. When Leonardo painted he
generally experimented with new
techniques, and paints, so once he finished
perfecting the experiment he went
on to another work. Leonardo’s paintings are
truly masterful. He made two
copies of one of his first paintings, The Virgin on
the Rocks. The first one
he painted in Florence. The second one he painted for
the Confraternity of
the Immaculate Conception. He was commissioned to paint for
them. He felt he
was not being paid enough to create a new painting. Therefore,
rather than
refusing to paint, or raising the price, Leonardo, smart as he was,
suggested
that he copy of The Virgin on the Rocks for them. Although the
paintings are
relatively the same, there are noticeable differences in the
details of the
two of them. Leonardo’s version of The Last Supper is truly the
best version
ever created. "Artists before Leonardo had tried to recreate this
dramatic
moment in Christ’s life, but no one had succeeded with such nobility
and
force." Leonardo depicted all the apostles with such personality and
grace
that all of their emotions and feelings were masterfully revealed. The
betrayal
is shown beautifully as well. Truly, no one has ever come close to
surpassing
the true genius of DaVinci’s depiction of the Last Supper. Another
great
painting by Leonardo DaVinci is the Mona Lisa. This is his most famous
painting.
Mona Lisa was the daughter of a Florentine merchant. She is
sitting with her
hands folded, with a particular grin, which is seen in many
of Leonardo’s
paintings. Leonardo’s inventions were way ahead of his time. He
created plans
for tanks, helicopters, submarines, and many other weapons of
war and machinery.
He also experimented with flying, and although now one
really knows for sure,
many people believe that he was unsuccessful at this.
For every recreation of
his experiment has used materials that Leonardo
didn’t have in his time
period. However, his plan for the submarine did work
when it was recreated using
the recently developed materials. His plans for
mutlibarrelled guns, tanks,
cannons, and many other weapons were created
successfully by him. Another one of
Leonardo’s inventions was central
heating, which he installed in a castle. He
designed many different types of
bridges, and scientific instrument, which most
certainly changed the worlds
of travel and especially science. He was a
brilliant scientist. He studied
the fields of anatomy, and botany. He made many
findings, and broke a lot of
new ground in both of these fields. He studied the
bodies of thirty corpses,
to unlock the secrets of man. He studied the muscles,
organs, and tissues, to
learn all that he could. He examined faces in depth, as
well as the brain
cavity, and bones of the skull. He was searching for what he
called the "
‘vital force,’ the soul, which gave life to the body". He
found out by
studying frogs that if the spinal cord is pierced we die instantly.
He
realized that the heart was the center of all life, and that each beat sent
a
wave of blood throughout the body. He drew many botanical drawings in
the
interests of studying the plants. He created many of the backgrounds in
his
paintings from these drawings, but not before using them to study
plantlife. He
solved many engineering problems. He planned for an olden day
freeway, to cut
down on traffic. He engineered many brutal warships, for
ramming and slicing
into other ships. He engineered the first air conditioner
for the d’Este
family. He engineered the first tanks, which were very
successful in battle. He
engineered a double spiral staircase in towers so
that in time of war soldiers
could be moving up and down at the same time.
During his lifetime, Leonardo
lived in six different cities, making seven big
moves. He was born in Vinci, and
from there, he went to Florence. After
Florence, he moved to Milan, then Venice,
then to Rome, back to Florence, and
back to Rome. Finally, he moved to France,
which is where he died in 1519. In
his lifetime, Leonardo accomplished more in
terms of progress than anyone
else in history. He had a gigantic effect on life
in those days, as he still
does today. His great success and artistic excellence
has inspired many young
men to start painting, and many others to give it up. He
pushed the progress
of man further and faster than anyone else did during the
renascence. Many
things that he designed were later created and improved by
nineteenth and
twentieth century inventors. He painted many paintings that even
now puzzle,
inspire, and intrigue many young
people.