Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci is easily one of the most well known artists of the world. When most people hear his name, the first thing that probably comes to mind is the Mona Lisa, or perhaps The Last Supper, but those works of art seem to be the extent of people's knowledge about this great Renaissance artist. What many people do not know is why his art is so highly regarded, or that fact that he achieved many other fantastic things during his lifetime. Leonardo da Vinci was a genius ahead of his time, not only painting magnificent works of art, but also perfecting his skills as an architect, botanist, engineer, anatomist, mathematician, and many other things.

Born a love child in 1452 (Vezzosi 14), Leonardo was still accepted as a member of his father's family, and as a catholic (even though illegitimate children at the time were not usually accepted like this), and lived in his father's house after the age of four, when his mother married (Constantino 7). His father, a notary to the Signoria, was friends with a great Renaissance artist in the area of Florence, Andrea del Verrocchio, and at the age of thirteen, Leonardo became his apprentice, which would come to last an unusual length of nine years (Constantino 7). Here, Leonardo improved his skill as a painter and worked with other students on many projects in this legendary studio, although never receiving much of an education (Vezzosi 26). Many early paintings by Leonardo were also worked on by various other artists from Verrocchio's studio, including Lorenzo di Credi, Francesco Botticini, and Cosimo Rosselli (Constantino 16).

Verrocchio as a painter was not very influential to Leonardo, for Verocchio was more of a sculptor and architect than anything, but this gave Leonardo and his fellow students a lot of freedom to paint how they wished and Leonardo thrived on this (Brown 20). Although, Verroccio's work as an artist did serve as a "springboard" for Leonardo to make his own completely different style (Brown 23). Leonardo's painting's include a lot of detailed nature, Leonardo himself said that "Hence we may justly call it [painting] the grandchild of nature and related to God" (Vezzosi 1). He believed that nature was an intricate part of life (Kemp 134). It seems that he was an artist who really enjoyed the world, and such things like emotions, the forms of plants and animals, and water really captivated him (Philipson 44). Leonardo even came up with a formula through his study of anatomy, stating that the "total cross-sectional area at any level in the system should equal every other" (Kemp 138). This basically means that for the width of something, such as a tube which liquid passes through, the amount of fluid which passed through was proportional to it, basically a rule of necessity.

Leonardo's style is recognizable in a few ways, especially by his use of chiaroscuro, which is the dramatic use of light and shade, contrapostos, a specific stance, and linear perspective (Philipson 45). He was prone to paint very delicate things, especially hands and soft curling hair, water, and smooth skin (Philipson 44).

One of Leonardo's earlier works in The Virgin of the Rocks, and two different versions actually exist (Vezzosi 55). The painting is the central panel of an altarpiece that was commissioned by a religious brotherhood. The commission did not go well, possibly a feud over payment, and somehow two versions ended up being painted (Constantino 41). The subject of the painting is the Virgin Mary, Jesus and two prophets, one being John the Baptist, and the other, an angel whose identity is somewhat argued over. The painting is not of an specific part of the bible and has many different interpretations (Constantino 45). This painting also uses a lot of metaphor and symbolism, such as the cave representing a womb, and the rocks and mountains in the background are the real world, hosting this spiritual event (Vezzosi 56-57).

One of Leonardo's most famous paintings is the Last Supper, which is a fresco, and did not leave Leonardo da Vinci a lot of room for mistakes, and is now in very poor condition. The scene is of Jesus telling his disciples that one them will betray him, and their reaction to it. The duke of Milan commissioned Leonardo to paint this, and Leonardo took this opportunity to use many different techniques such as anatomy, architecture, color, perspective, and musical harmony, all in one painting