Leonardo Da Vinci

Hi friends, in preparing this article, I realized that I did not really realize the great work of Leonardo da Vinci, indeed, in addition to being an extraordinary painter he was also a super creative inventor but also a scientist, engineer, anatomist, sculptor, architect, urban planner, botanist, musician, poet, philosopher and writer! It's a lot for one man, do not you think?

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Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 of a notary and peasant woman to Vinci in the Florence region of Italy.

He received his education in the studio of the famous Florentine Verrocchio. Verrocchio was an Italian sculptor, painter and silversmith of the second half of Quattrocento.

He received a large number of orders from Laurent de Medici. His studio was then the largest in Florence. His pupils were Francesco Botticini, Perugino, Leonardo da Vinci, and Lorenzo di Credi.

In his youth, much of his active life was devoted to the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan. This was the second son of Duke Francesco Sforza who ruled over Milan from 1450 to 1466. He was first half-condottiere (mercenary army leader), half-looter.

Then for years, he invests in patronage by inviting to the ducal court many famous artists such as, for example, Leonardo da Vinci to whom he asks him to paint the Last Supper for the Dominican convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie.

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Leonardo da Vinci then worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice. He spent his last years in the service of Francis I in France in the house that he had offered him.

We discovered all his talents by his various creations but also by studying his notebooks after his death. These notebooks contain about 13,000 pages of writing and drawings that combine art and natural philosophy, that is, the natural sciences.

Indeed, his brain produced a thousand ideas per minute and he wrote them down in his notebooks with a tight writing or in the form of minute drawings.

His drawings struck men of the twentieth century, not only by their aesthetic beauty, but especially because they give the impression that Leonardo da Vinci was a forerunner of modern times with his inventions: flying machines, diving suits or still machines prefiguring the industrial revolution.

Many of his inventions appeared long before technology actually created them.
Many of his inventions never reached the end of their creation, during his lifetime. If they had been built in their day they could have revolutionized the history of technology, but the world at the time was not ready for Vinci. If he had lived in our time, God knows what he could have invented extraordinary with the help of our new technologies!

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Some of his inventions

The ancestor of the diving suit

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Leonardo da Vinci has always wanted to explore horizons beyond the limits of men. This is how he had the urge to explore the deep seabed and therefore, he designed the diving suit, still used today to dive to the bottom of the oceans.

The crazy helicopter

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The modern helicopter was born in the 20th century. But Leonardo da Vinci had already glimpsed the full potential of this technology. He left us a drawing of a strange machine overhung by an aerial screw ruled by human strength. This machine inspired the creation of our modern helicopters.

A pyramidal parachute

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It is he who invented the first parachute of history in case his invention of flying machine would have technical problems, he thought to invent a security system.

Its pyramidal shape was nevertheless not retained for the realization of the modern parachutes since there was too much catch in the wind.

A tank bristling with guns

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The idea of protecting himself from enemy shots and blows such as the turtle training of Roman legionaries inspired Leonardo da Vinci to draw a tank bristling with cannons.

The submachine gun

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Leonardo da Vinci drew the sketch of a machine-gun ancestor who never knew the light of day. His unusual invention rested on a lookout on which were laid several guns firing in bursts.

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Paintings

Leonardo da Vinci was, in his lifetime, a renowned painter. Among his works, the Mona Lisa is his most famous portrait and his mural of The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting of all time.

These paintings are famous for many reasons that have been much imitated by students and discussed at great length by connoisseurs and critics. Among the qualities that make Leonardo's works, unique pieces are often cited, the innovative techniques he used in the application of painting, his extensive knowledge of human and animal anatomy, botany and geology but also his use of light, his interest in physiognomy and the way humans use the register of emotions and gestural expressions, his sense of composition and the subtle, color gradients.

Leonard is famous for his drawings and paintings in which he introduces an innovative conception of perspective.

The Mona Lisa

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Also called Portrait of Mona Lisa or Mona Lisa, is a painting done with oil painting that represents a half-body portrait, probably that of the Florentine Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo.

This painting measures 77 × 53 cm and is exhibited at the Louvre Museum in Paris. The Mona Lisa is one of the few paintings attributed to Leonardo da Vinci.

The Mona Lisa has become a very famous painting because many artists have taken it as a reference. They were fascinated by this painting and helped to develop the myth that surrounds it, making this painting one of the most famous works of art in the world.
It has become the most visited art object in the world with 20,000 visitors who come to admire and photograph it daily.

The Last Supper

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The Last Supper is a mural of 460 × 880 cm, made for the refectory of the Dominican Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan.

The Last Supper is the name given by Christians to the last meal that Jesus of Nazareth took with the Twelve Apostles on the evening of Holy Thursday, before Passover, shortly before his arrest, the day before his Crucifixion and three days before his resurrection.

Here are the characters from left to right: Bartholomew, James the Minor, Andrew, Judas, Peter, John, Jesus, Thomas, James the Major, Philip, Matthew, Thaddeus and Simon.

The fresco is surmounted by three blazons of the Sforza dynasty from Milan.

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I hope this article has allowed you to know a little better Leonardo da Vinci who was for me an extraordinary man as there are few.