Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452 - May 2, 1519) was a celebrated Italian Renaissance architect, inventor, engineer, sculptor and painter. He can be seen as the archetype of the Renaissance Man and has been described as a genius.

Life

His life was described in Giorgio Vasari's biography Vite.

Leonardo was born in Vinci, Italy. His father Ser Piero da Vinci was a well-off landowner or craftsman and his mother a peasant girl called Caterina. It has been suggested that Caterina was a slave of middle eastern origin owned by Piero, but the evidence is scant.

This was before modern naming conventions developed in Europe. Therefore, his full name was "Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci", which means "Leonardo, son of Piero, from Vinci". Leonardo himself simply signed his works "Leonardo" or "Io, Leonardo" ("I, Leonardo"). Most authorities therefore refer to his works as "Leonardos," not "da Vincis." Presumably he did not use his father's name because he was an illegitimate child.

Leonardo grew up with his father in Florence. He was a vegetarian throughout his life. He became a painter's apprentice and later an independent painter in Florence.

From 1482 to 1499 he worked for Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan and maintained his own workshop with apprentices there. Seventy tons of bronze that had been set aside for Leonardo's "Gran Cavallo" horse statue was cast into weapons for the Duke to save Milan from the French under Charles VIII in 1495 - see also Italian Wars.

When the French returned under Louis XIII in 1498, Milan fell without a fight, overthrowing Sforza. Leonardo stayed in Milan for a time, until one morning he found French archers using his life-size clay model for the "Gran Cavallo" for target practice. He left with Salai and his friend (and inventor of double-entry bookkeeping) Luca Pacioli for Mantua, moving on after 2 months for Venice, then moving again to Florence at the end of April 1500.

Self-portrait, ca. 1513
In Florence he entered the services of Cesare Borgia (also called "Duca Valentino" and son of Pope Alexander VI) as military architect and engineer. In 1506 he returned to Milan, now in the hands of Maximilian Sforza after Swiss mercenries drove out the French. There he met Francesco Melzi, who would become a close friend and companion until Leonardo's death, and later his heir.

From 1513 to 1516 he lived in Rome, where painters like Raphael and Michelangelo were active at the time; he did not have much contact with these artists, however.

In 1515 Francis I of France retook Milan, and Leonardo was commissioned to make a centrepiece (of a mechanical lion) for the peace talks in Bologna between the French king and Pope Leo X, where he must have first met the king. In 1516, he entered Francis' service, being given the use of the manor house Clos Lucé next to the king's residence at the Royal Chateau at Amboise, and recieving a generous pension. The king became a close friend.

He died in Cloux, France in 1519. According to his wish, 60 beggars followed his casket. He was buried in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert in the castle of Amboise.

Leonardo appears to never have had intimate relations with women. In 1476 he was anonymously accused of homosexual contact with a 17-year-old model, Jacopo Saltarelli, a notorious prostitute. He was, together with three other young men, charged with homosexual conduct and acquitted because of lack of evidence. For a time Leonardo and the others were under the watchful eye of Florence's "Officers of the Night" - a kind of Renaissance vice squad.

Art

Leonardo da Vinci: The Last Supper (1498)

Leonardo da Vinci:
Mona Lisa (1503-6)

Leonardo is well known for his masterful paintings, such as Last Supper (Ultima Cena or Cenacolo, in Milan), painted in 1498, and Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda, now at the Louvre in Paris), painted in 1503-1506. Only seventeen of his paintings, and none of his statues, survive.

Leonardo often planned grand paintings with many drawings and sketches, only to leave the projects unfinished in the end.

In 1481 he was commissioned to paint the altarpiece "The Adoration of the Magi". After grand plans and many drawings, the painting was left unfinished and Leonardo left for Milan.

There he spent many years making plans and models for a monumental 7 metre (24 feet) high horse statue in bronze ("Gran Cavallo"), to be erected in Milan. Because of war with France, the project was never finished. Based on private initiative, a similar statue was completed according to some of his plans in 1999 in New York, given to Milan and erected there.

Back in Florence, he was commissioned for a large public mural Battle of Anghiari; his rival Michelangelo was to paint the opposite wall. After producing a fantastic variety of studies preparing for the work, he left town, the mural unfinished because of technical difficulties.

Science and Engineering

Maybe even more impressive than his artistic work are his studies in science and engineering, recorded in notebooks comprising some 13,000 pages of notes and drawings which combine art and science. He was left-handed and used mirror writing throughout his life.

His approach to science was an observatory one: he tried to understand a phenomenon by describing and depicting it in utmost detail and did not emphasize experiments or theoretical explanations. Throughout his life, he planned a grand encyclopedia based on detailed drawings of everything. Since he lacked formal education in Latin and mathematics, Leonardo the scientist was mostly ignored by contemporary scholars.

He was always fascinated by the topic of flight, producing detailed studies of the flight of birds and plans for several flying machines, including a helicopter powered by four men (which would not have worked since it would have rotated) and a light hang-glider which could have flown. On January 3, 1496 he unsuccessfully tested a flying machine he had constructed.

He participated in autopsies and produced many extremely detailed anatomical drawings, planning a comprehensive work of human and comparative anatomy.

Vitruvian man: Leonardo da Vinci
draws the human body

In 1502 Leonardo da Vinci produced a drawing of a single span 720-foot (240 m) bridge as part of a civil engineering project for Sultan Beyazid II of Constantinople. The bridge was intended to span an inlet at the mouth of the Bosphorus known as the Golden Horn. It was never built, but Da Vinci's vision was resurrected in 2001 when a smaller bridge based on his design was constructed in Norway.

His notebook also contain several inventions in the military field: machine guns, an armored tank powered by humans or horses, cluster bombs, etc. even though he later held war to be the worst of human activities. Other inventions include a submarine, a cog-wheeled device that has been interpreted as the first mechanical calculator, and a car powered by a spring mechanism. In his years in the Vatican, he planned an industrial use of solar power, by employing concave mirrors to heat water.

In astronomy, Leonardo believed that the Sun and Moon revolve around the Earth and that the Moon reflect the sun light because its being covered by water.

Leonardo did not publish or otherwise distribute the contents of his notebooks. They remained obscure until the 19th century, and were not directly of value to the development of science and technology until that time. On this basis, L. Sprague de Camp, in his book, The Ancient Engineers, considered Leonardo not the first modern engineer, but "the last of the ancient ones", pointing out that after Leonardo's time the practice of disseminating and publishing scientific discoveries began in earnest.

In 1994, one of da Vinci's notebooks was purchased by American entrepreneur Bill Gates for US$25 million. A lot of his drawings are now owned by the British Royal family.

External links

Discovery channel article on his mother
The text of some notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci from Project Gutenberg (omits the drawings)
Some digitized notebook pages with explanations from the British Library (Macromedia Shockwave format)
BBC Leonardo homepage
The Leonardo Bridge Project
Leonardo's Horse
Anonymous accusation of homosexuality

Modern Usage: Leonardo Da Vinci

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. (The Third Man; writing credit: Graham Greene; Alexander Korda)
Clever	Our life is made by the death of others. (references; author: Leonardo Da Vinci) Intellectual passion drives out sensuality. (references; author: Leonardo Da Vinci) Time stays long enough for those who use it. (references; author: Leonardo Da Vinci) God sells us all things at the price of labor. (references; author: Leonardo Da Vinci) Just as courage imperils life; fear protects it. (references; author: Leonardo Da Vinci)
Movie/TV Titles	La Vita di Leonardo Da Vinci (1972) Leonardo da Vinci (1952)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Commercial Usage: Leonardo Da Vinci

Domain	Title
Books	Leonardo Da Vinci (reference) (more book examples)

Theater & Movies	Biography - Leonardo Da Vinci (reference) Life of Leonardo Da Vinci (reference) (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music	How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci (reference) Music in the Age of Leonardo Da Vinci (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Image Slideshow: Leonardo Da Vinci

Photo Album: Leonardo Da Vinci

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Santa Maria delle Grazie. Refectory containing picture of Last supper by Leonardo da Vinci.Credit: Library of Congress.		Leonardo da Vinci pitt. scul. e archi. Fiorentino / L. da Vinci pinsit ; C. Colombini sc.Credit: Library of Congress.
	Mona Lisa painting a portrait of Leonardo da Vinci.Credit: Library of Congress.		Exhibition & sale : original hand signed drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, Jan. 4 thru Feb. 17, Woolworth's basement.Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Familiar Quotations: Leonardo Da Vinci

Author	Quotation
Leonardo Da Vinci	Our life is made by the death of others.
	Intellectual passion drives out sensuality.
	Time stays long enough for those who use it.
	God sells us all things at the price of labor.
	Just as courage imperils life; fear protects it.
	The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.
	All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.
	Lying on a feather mattress or quilt will not bring you renown.
	Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Non-Fiction Usage: Leonardo Da Vinci

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		Leonardo da Vinci and his contemporaries came to believe that the brain was the central organ responsible for sensation. (references)
Economic History	Italy	Near term investments are still being made by both the private and the public sector for airport expansion (i.e. traffic control systems at the Milan International Airport "Malpensa 2000"), for upgrading of existing infrastructures (i.e. Bari Palese airport, Rome Leonardo da Vinci airport), and purchase of ground support equipment and systems. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Leonardo Da Vinci

Modern Translations: Leonardo Da Vinci

Language		Translations for "Leonardo da Vinci"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Danish		Anden fase af Fællesskabets handlingsprogram for erhvervsuddannelse Leonardo da Vinci (LEONARDO DA VINCI II, Second phase of the Community vocational training action programme Leonardo da Vinci). (various references)

Dutch		Tweede fase van het communautaire actieprogramma inzake beroepsopleiding Leonardo da Vinci (LEONARDO DA VINCI II, Second phase of the Community vocational training action programme Leonardo da Vinci). (various references)

Finnish		Yhteisön ammatillista koulutusta koskeva Leonardo da Vinci -toimintaohjelma (LEONARDO DA VINCI II, Second phase of the Community vocational training action programme "Leonardo da Vinci"). (various references)

French		Deuxième phase du programme d'action communautaire en matière de formation professionnelle "Leonardo da Vinci". (various references)

German		Zweite Phase des gemeinschaftlichen Aktionsprogramms in der Berufsbildung "Leonardo da Vinci". (various references)

Greek		�"εύτερο στάδιο του κοινοτικού προγράμματος δράσης στον τομέα της επαγγελματικής κατάρτισης "Leonardo da Vinci". (various references)

Italian		Seconda fase del programma d'azione comunitaria in materia di formazione professionale "Leonardo da Vinci". (various references)

Pig Latin		eonardolay aday incivay

Portuguese		Segunda fase do programa comunitário de acção em matéria de formação profissional "Leonardo da Vinci". (various references)

Spanish		Segunda fase del programa de acción comunitario en materia de formación profesional " Leonardo da Vinci". (various references)

Swedish		Andra etappen av gemenskapens åtgärdsprogram för yrkesutbildning Leonardo da Vinci (LEONARDO DA VINCI II, Second phase of the Community vocational training action programme "Leonardo da Vinci"). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Anagrams: Leonardo Da Vinci

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-a-c-d-d-e-i-i-l-n-n-o-o-r-v"
	-4 letters: endocardial.
	-5 letters: adenoviral, colonnaded, crinolined, endocardia, invariance.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Alternative Orthography: Leonardo Da Vinci

Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

4C 65 6F 6E 61 72 64 6F 44 61 56 69 6E 63 69

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01001100 01100101 01101111 01101110 01100001 01110010 01100100 01101111 00100000 01000100 01100001 00100000 01010110 01101001 01101110 01100011 01101001

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#76 &#101 &#111 &#110 &#97 &#114 &#100 &#111 &#32 &#68 &#97 &#32 &#86 &#105 &#110 &#99 &#105

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

004C 0065 006F 006E 0061 0072 0064 006F 0044 0061 0056 0069 006E 0063 0069

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

Expression	Frequency per Day	Expression	Frequency per Day
leonardo da vinci	4,141	leonardo da vinci flying machine	8
leonardo da vinci biography	188	leonardo da vinci portrait	8
leonardo da vinci last supper	182	pinturas de leonardo da vinci	8
leonardo da vinci picture	104	fact about leonardo da vinci	7
leonardo da vinci painting	96	jolly hotel leonardo da vinci	6
leonardo da vinci mona lisa	59	leonardo da vinci gallery	6
leonardo da vinci drawing	50	leonardo da vinci vitruvian man	6
leonardo da vinci invention	42	leonardo da vinci image	6
the last supper by leonardo da vinci	41	leonardo da vinci photo	6
leonardo da vinci notebook	27	leonardo da vinci anatomy	5
leonardo da vinci art	21	leonardo da vinci artist	5
information about leonardo da vinci	19	leonardo da vinci work	5
life of leonardo da vinci	19	mona lisa by leonardo da vinci	5
leonardo da vinci airport	18	leonardo da vinci book	4
leonardo da vinci inventor	15	who is leonardo da vinci	4
leonardo da vinci self portrait	13	leonardo da vinci the painter	4
leonardo da vinci sketch	13	leonardo da vinci picture of the last supper	3
leonardo da vinci art work	12	leonardo da vinci for kid	3
leonardo da vinci pic	12	leonardo da vinci museum	3
painting by leonardo da vinci	12	hotel leonardo da vinci	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Definition: Leonardo Da Vinci