Leonardo Da Vinci Life Journey : History, Artwork and Legacy
By. Balqis S.P
Leonardo da Vinci is one of the famous painters in the world, known for his Mona Lisa painting. He was born in Anchiano, Tuscany, now Italy, close to the town of Vinci that provided the surname we associate with him today. In his own time he was known just as Leonardo or as “Il Florentine,” since he lived near Florence—and was famed as an artist, inventor and thinker.
Da Vinci had no official schooling beyond basic reading, writing, and math, but his father recognized his creative aptitude and apprenticed him to Andrea del Verrocchio, a well-known sculptor and painter in Florence, when he was around 15 years old. Da Vinci spent almost a decade refining his painting and sculpting techniques as well as studying mechanical arts.
He began work on The Adoration of the Magi, his first commissioned piece, for Florence’s San Donato, a Scopeto monastery. However, da Vinci never finished the artwork because he moved to Milan shortly afterward to work for the reigning Sforza family as an engineer, painter, architect, designer of royal festivals, and, most famously, sculptor. To honor dynasty founder Francesco Sforza, the family commissioned da Vinci to construct a spectacular 16-foot-tall bronze equestrian monument. Da Vinci worked on the project intermittently for 12 years before completing a clay model in 1493.
Da Vinci thought that science and nature were inextricably linked. He created dozens of secret journals with inventions, observations, and thoughts about subjects ranging from aeronautics to anatomy, while being largely self-educated. However, the rest of the world was only beginning to communicate knowledge through moveable type books, and the thoughts described in his notebooks were frequently difficult to understand. As a result, while he was praised as a great artist at the time, his contemporaries often underestimated his genius—the combination of intellect and imagination that enabled him to create, at least on paper, inventions like the bicycle, the helicopter, and an airplane based on the physiology and flying ability of bats.
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Reference
Heydenreich, L. H. (2022, April 11). Leonardo da Vinci | Biography, Art, Paintings, Mona Lisa, Drawings, Inventions, Achievements, & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved April 26, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leonardo-da-Vinci
Leonardo Da Vinci – The Complete Works – leonardoda-vinci.org. (n.d.). Leonardo Da Vinci. Retrieved April 26, 2022, from https://www.leonardoda-vinci.org/
Leonardo Da Vinci. (n.d.). [Photograph]. Famous Similar Figures 9/10 : Leonardo Da Vinci and Lu Ban. https://nl.shenyunperformingarts.org/blog/view/article/e/MdR68HH0adA/beroemde-vergelijkbare-figuren-9-10-leonardo-da-vinci-en-lu-ban.html