December 22, 2004

 

 

The Accomplishments of Leonardo da Vinci

By Dr. Frank J. Collazo

 

Introduction:  In the fifteenth century, Italy was not the unified country we know today. At that time the boot-shaped peninsula was divided into many small independent states. Naples in the south was ruled by a series of kings.  Popes of the Roman Catholic Church ruled the middle section.  To the north different families controlled the largest and wealthiest city, the states of Florence, Milan, and Venice.  They fought wars against each other and against smaller neighboring states to increase their power. 

 

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Florentine artist, was one of the great masters of the High Renaissance and was celebrated as a painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, and scientist.  His profound love of knowledge and research was the keynote of both his artistic and scientific endeavors.  His innovations in the field of painting influenced the course of Italian art for more than a century after his death, and his scientific studies, particularly in the fields of anatomy, optics, and hydraulics, anticipated many of the developments of modern science.  With his sophisticated skills and love for learning, Leonardo was the quintessential Renaissance man. 

 

Leonardo was and is best known as an artist, the creator of such masterpieces as the Mona Lisa, Madonna of the Rocks, and The Last Supper.  He painted The Last Supper between 1495 and 1497.  Leonardo da Vinci was left handed as well as Benjamin Franklin.  Leonardo's Mona Lisa arguably ranks as the millennium's most recognizable painting.  He wrote his ideas backwards so that they could only be read in a mirror; about 4200 pages still exists.

Early Life in Florence

Student of Andrea del Verrochio:  Leonardo was born in the small town of Vinci, in Tuscany (Toscana), near Florence.  He was the son of a wealthy Florentine notary and a peasant woman.  In the mid-1460s the family settled in Florence, where Leonardo was given the best education that Florence, a major intellectual and artistic center of Italy, could offer.  He rapidly advanced socially and intellectually.  He was handsome, persuasive in conversation, and a fine musician and improviser.  About 1466 he was apprenticed as a garzone (studio boy) to Andrea del Verrocchio, the leading Florentine painter and sculptor of his day.  In Verrocchio's workshop Leonardo was introduced to many activities, from the painting of altarpieces and panel pictures to the creation of large sculptural projects in marble and bronze.  In 1472 he was entered in the painter's guild of Florence, and in 1476 he was still considered Verrocchio's assistant.  In Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ (1470?, Uffizi, Florence), the kneeling angel at the left of the painting is by Leonardo.

Leonardo Independent Thinker: In 1478 Leonardo became an independent master.  He was an astronomer, sculptor, geologist, mathematician, botanist, animal behaviorist, inventor, engineer, architect and even a musician.  He had a keen eye and quick mind that led him to make important scientific discoveries, yet he never published his ideas.  He was a gentle vegetarian who loved animals and despised war, yet he worked as a military engineer to invent advanced and deadly weapons.  He was one of the greatest painters of the Italian Renaissance, yet he left only a handful of completed paintings. 

Leonardo wrote in Italian using a special kind of shorthand that he invented himself. People who study his notebooks have long been puzzled by something else, however.  He usually used "mirror writing," starting at the right side of the page and moving to the left. Only when he was writing something intended for other people did he write in the normal direction.  His first commission, to paint an altarpiece for the chapel of the Palazzo Vecchio, the Florentine town hall, was never executed.  His first large painting, The Adoration of the Magi (begun 1481, Uffizi), left unfinished, was ordered in 1481 for the Monastery of San Donato a Scopeto, Florence. 

No one knows the true reason Leonardo used mirror writing, though several possibilities have been suggested.  He was trying to make it harder for people to read his notes and steal his ideas.  He was hiding his scientific ideas from the powerful Roman Catholic Church, whose teachings sometimes disagreed with what Leonardo observed.  Writing left handed from left to right was messy because the ink just put down would smear as his hand moved across it.  Leonardo chose to write in reverse because it prevented smudging. Leonardo da Vinci had. . . an indescribable grace in every effortless act and deed.  His talent was so rare that he mastered any subject to which he turned his attention.  He might have been a scientist if he had not been so versatile.  While portions of Leonardo's technical treatises on painting were published as early as 1651, the scope and caliber of much of his scientific work remained unknown until the 19th century.

Years in Milan: About 1482 Leonardo entered the service of the duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, having written the duke an astonishing letter in which he stated that he could build portable bridges; that he knew the techniques of constructing bombardments and of making cannons; that he could build ships as well as armored vehicles, catapults, and other war machines; and that he could execute sculpture in marble, bronze, and clay. He served as principal engineer in the duke's numerous military enterprises and was active also as an architect.  In addition, he assisted the Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli in the celebrated work Divina Proportione (1509).

Evidence indicates that Leonardo had apprentices and pupils in Milan for whom he probably wrote the various texts later compiled as Treatise on Painting (1651; translated 1956).  The most important of his own paintings during the early Milan period was The Virgin of the Rocks, two versions of which exist (1483-1485, Louvre, Paris; 1490s to 1506-1508, National Gallery, London).  He worked on the compositions for a long time, as was his custom, seemingly unwilling to finish what he had begun.  From 1495 to 1497 Leonardo labored on his masterpiece, The Last Supper, a mural in the refectory of the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.  Unfortunately, his experimental use of oil on dry plaster (on what was the thin outer wall of a space designed for serving food) was technically unsound, and by 1500 its deterioration had begun.  Since 1726 attempts have been made, unsuccessfully, to restore it.  A concerted restoration and conservation program making use of the latest technology was begun in 1977 and is reversing some of the damage.  Although much of the original surface is gone, the majesty of the composition and the penetrating characterization of the figures give a fleeting vision of its vanished splendor.

During his long stay in Milan, Leonardo also produced other paintings and drawings (most of which have been lost) theater designs, architectural drawings, and models for the dome of Milan Cathedral.  His largest commission was for a colossal bronze monument to Francesco Sforza, father of Ludovico, in the courtyard of Castello Sforzesco.  In December 1499, however, the Sforza family was driven from Milan by French forces. Leonardo left the statue unfinished (it was destroyed by French archers who used the terra cotta model as a target) and he returned to Florence in 1500.

Return to Florence: In 1502 Leonardo entered the service of Cesare Borgia, Duke of Romagna and son and chief general of Pope Alexander VI.  In his capacity as the duke's chief architect and engineer, Leonardo supervised work on the fortresses of the papal territories in central Italy.  In 1503 he was a member of a commission of artists who were to decide on the proper location for the David (1501-1504, Accademia, Florence) the famous colossal marble statue by the Italian sculptor Michelangelo, and he also served as an engineer in the war against Pisa. 

Toward the end of the year Leonardo began to design a decoration for the great hall of the Palazzo Vecchio.  The subject was the Battle of Anghiari, a Florentine victory in its war with Pisa.  He made many drawings for the decoration and completed a full-size cartoon, or sketch, in 1505, but he never finished the wall painting.  The cartoon itself was destroyed in the 17th century, and the composition survives only in copies, of which the most famous is the one by the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens (1615?, Louvre).

During this second Florentine period, Leonardo painted several portraits, but the only one that survives is the famous Mona Lisa (1503-1506, Louvre).  One of the most celebrated portraits ever painted, it is also known as La Gioconda after the presumed name of the woman's husband.  Leonardo seems to have had a special affection for the picture, for he took it with him on all of his subsequent travels.

Time Share Between Milan and Florence: In 1506 Leonardo again went to Milan, at the summons of its French governor, Charles d'Amboise.  The following year he was named court painter to King Louis XII of France who was then residing in Milan.  For the next six years Leonardo divided his time between Milan and Florence, where he often visited his half brothers and half sisters and looked after his inheritance.  In Milan he continued his engineering projects and worked on an equestrian figure for a monument to Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, commander of the French forces in the city.  Although the project was not completed, drawings and studies have been preserved.  From 1514 to 1516 Leonardo lived in Rome under the patronage of Pope Leo X.  He was housed in the Palazzo Belvedere in the Vatican and seems to have been occupied principally with scientific experimentation.  In 1516 he traveled to France to enter the service of King Francis I.  He spent his last years at the Château de Cloux, near Amboise, where he died.

Paintings:  Although Leonardo produced a relatively small number of paintings, many of which remained unfinished, he was nevertheless an extraordinarily innovative and influential artist.  During his early years, his style closely paralleled that of Verrocchio, but he gradually moved away from his teacher's stiff, tight, and somewhat rigid treatment of figures to develop a more evocative and atmospheric handling of composition.  The early painting of The Adoration of the Magi introduced a new approach to composition in which the main figures are grouped in the foreground while the background consists of distant views of imaginary ruins and battle scenes.

Leonardo's stylistic innovations are even more apparent in The Last Supper, in which he represented a traditional theme in an entirely new way.  Instead of showing the 12 apostles as individual figures, he grouped them in dynamic compositional units of three, framing the figure of Christ who is isolated in the center of the picture.  Seated before a pale distant landscape seen through a rectangular opening in the wall, Christ (who is about to announce that one of those present will betray him) represents a calm nucleus while the others respond with animated gestures.  In the monumentality of the scene and the weightiness of the figures, Leonardo reintroduced a style pioneered more than a generation earlier by Masaccio, the father of Florentine painting. 

The Mona Lisa was by far Leonardo's most famous work.  This work is a consummate example of two techniques, sfumato and chiaroscuro, of which Leonardo was one of the first great masters.  Sfumato is characterized by subtle almost infinitesimal transitions between color areas, creating a delicately atmospheric haze or smoky effect.  It is especially evident in the delicate gauzy robes worn by the sitter and in her enigmatic smile.  Chiaroscuro is the technique of modeling and defining forms through contrasts of light and shadow; the sensitive hands of the sitter are portrayed with a luminous modulation of light and shade, while color contrast is used only sparingly.

Leonardo was among the first to introduce atmospheric perspective into his landscape backgrounds, an especially notable characteristic of his paintings.  The chief masters of the High Renaissance in Florence, including Raphael, Andrea del Sarto, and Fra Bartolommeo, all learned from Leonardo.  He completely transformed the school of Milan; and at Parma, the artistic development of Correggio was given direction by Leonardo's work.

Leonardo's many extant drawings, which reveal his brilliant draftsmanship and his mastery of the anatomy of humans, animals, and plant life, may be found in the principal European collections.  The largest group is at Windsor Castle in England.  Probably his most famous drawing is the magnificent self-portrait in old age (1510?-1513?, Biblioteca Reale, Turin, Italy).

Virgin of the Rocks: The Virgin of the Rocks by Leonardo da Vinci was actually painted twice.  The first version, done in 1485, was commissioned to be an altarpiece but was evidently rejected.  That painting now hangs in the Louvre, Paris.  This version was commissioned about ten years later, but wasn’t completed until about 1506.  The cross and halos were added later by someone else.  The painting hangs in the National Gallery, London.

Sculptural Projects: Because none of Leonardo's sculptural projects was brought to completion, his approach to three-dimensional art can only be judged from his drawings. The same strictures apply to his architecture.  None of his building projects was actually carried out as he devised them.  In his architectural drawings, however, he demonstrates mastery in the use of massive forms, a clarity of expression, and especially a deep understanding of ancient Roman sources.

Scientific and Theoretical Projects: The Mona Lisa is as well known for its mastery of technical innovations as for the mysteriousness of its legendary smiling subject.  Leonardo understood, better than anyone of his century or the next, the importance of precise scientific observation.  Unfortunately, just as he frequently failed to bring to conclusion artistic projects, he never completed his planned treatises on a variety of scientific subjects.  His theories are contained in numerous notebooks, most of which were written in mirror script.  Because they were not easily decipherable, Leonardo's findings were not disseminated in his own lifetime; had they been published, they would have revolutionized the science of the 16th century.

Leonardo actually anticipated many discoveries of modern times.  In anatomy he studied the circulation of the blood and the action of the eye.  He made discoveries in meteorology and geology, learned the effect of the moon on the tides, foreshadowed modern conceptions of continent formation, and surmised the nature of fossil shells.  He was among the originators of the science of hydraulics and probably devised the hydrometer; his scheme for the canalization of rivers still has practical value.  He invented a large number of ingenious machines, many potentially useful, among them an underwater diving suit.  His flying devices, although not practicable, embodied sound principles of aerodynamics.

Restoration of Leonardo da Vinci Masterpiece: After 22 years of meticulous scraping, scrubbing, retouching, and repainting, the restoration of Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci's famed mural The Last Supper was recently unveiled to the public. The 15th-century mural is located in the refectory of the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy.  The lengthy restoration, the latest of at least seven restorations that have been made over the centuries, was hailed in Italy as a triumph.  Brimming with vibrant pastels, the restored mural is much lighter and brighter than it had been.  Previous repaintings, combined with accumulations of dust and grease, had darkened the original work.  But some experts have criticized the restoration, saying it has removed traces of earlier repairs that might have been faithful to the original.  The 40-square-meter (48-square-yard) mural was commissioned by Ludovico il Moro, a Milanese duke, in about 1495.  The Last Supper depicts Jesus telling his 12 disciples that one of them would betray him before the next dawn.

Unconventional Technique:  Leonardo used an unconventional technique to paint the mural.  The technique involved the application of pigment, mixed with egg and linseed oil, to a dry, primed plaster wall.  Unlike traditional fresco painting, a rapid painting process in which watercolors are applied to plaster while it is still wet, the experimental method developed by Leonardo permitted slow, deliberate work.  However, the technique produced an extremely fragile painting that began to crack and peel during Leonardo's lifetime.  By 1556 artist and biographer Giorgio Vasari said that the mural had become little more than a “blinding spot.”  A succession of restorations, some of questionable skill, followed.

 

Art Restorer Pinin Brambilla Barcilon: The latest makeover began in 1977 under the direction of art restorer Pinin Brambilla Barcilon.  Using a large magnifier and working centimeter by centimeter, Barcilon chipped and flaked away layers of dirt, oil, varnish, glue, and paint to get at the original work.  Large patches were touched up with pale watercolors; areas where all of the original paint was missing were covered with strokes of beige.  The restoration was intended to allow viewers to distinguish between what was original and what was added.  Many long-buried details emerged from the restoration, including tableware and food items, as well as sharper expressions on the faces of the disciples.  Some art historians, however, complained that the restoration had gone too far. These critics argued that much of the original painting had long since deteriorated and that the removal of virtually all traces of previous restorations may have destroyed detail that was true to the original.  Some scholars also questioned the accuracy of the restoration, noting that the Florentine master was known for creating dark, shadowy works.  Barcilon, however, disputed these criticisms, saying that close to 50 percent of the original painting remained and that the restoration clearly revealed Leonardo's original use of brilliant colors.

Quotations of Leonardo da Vinci

Remedies:  “You know that medicines when well used restore health to the sick: they will be well used when the doctor together with his understanding of their nature shall understand also what man is, what life is, and what constitution and health are.  Know these well and you will know their opposites; and when this is the case you will know well how to devise a remedy.”  Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) Italian Artist, Engineer, and Inventor, Notebooks.

 

Science:  “A bird is an instrument working according to a mathematical law, which instrument it is within the capacity of man to reproduce, with all its movements.

The peaks of the Apennines once stood up in a sea, in the form of islands surrounded by salt water, and above the plains of Italy where flocks of birds are flying today, fishes were once moving in large shoals.”

 

Theory: “Those who are enamored of practice without science are like a pilot who goes into a ship without rudder or compass and never has any certainty where he is going. Practice should always be based upon a sound knowledge of theory.”

 

“Close your eyes and look.  What you saw at first is there no more; and what you will see next has not yet come to life.”

 

“In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed—they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance.  In Switzerland they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce...?”  The Cuckoo Clock, Olson Wells (1915-1985).

 

“Leonardo da Vinci used to convince his patrons that his thinking time was worth…even more than his painting time and that may have been true for him, but I know that my thinking time isn't worth anything.  I only expect to get paid for my ‘doing’ time.”  Andy Warhol (1928? - 1987) U.S. artist and Filmmaker, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol.

“There are known writings, known etchings in museums ... that were Leonardo da Vinci’s, and you simply compare,” said the Hagensiekers’ attorney, James Johnson.

"Things of the mind left untested by the senses are useless."

According to Freud the following sentence, taken from one of Leonardo's notebooks, "indicates his frigidity."  "The act of procreation and anything that has any relation to it is so disgusting that human beings would soon die out if there no pretty faces and sensuous dispositions."

Giorgio Vasari would write in his biography on Leonardo that, "Everywhere, his mind turned to difficult matters."

"Whoever despises the high wisdom of mathematics nourishes himself on delusion and will never still the sophistic sciences whose only product is an eternal uproar."

 

"Mechanics is the paradise of the mathematical sciences, because by means of it one comes to the fruits of mathematics." 

 

"He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast."

 

"Inequality is the cause of all local movements."

 

"The merit of painting lies in the exactness of reproduction. Painting is a science and all sciences are based on mathematics. No human enquiry can be a science unless it pursues its path through mathematical exposition and demonstration."

 

"The function of muscle is to pull and not to push, except in the case of the genitals and the tongue."

 

"The sun does not move."

 

"No human investigation can be called real science if it cannot be demonstrated mathematically."

 

"Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to Authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory."

 

"There is no higher or lower knowledge, but one only, flowing out of experimentation."

 

"No human investigation can be called real science if it cannot be demonstrated mathematically."

 

"He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done."

 

"He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a day."

 

"There are three classes of people. Those who see, those who see when they are shown; those who do not see."

 

"Thou, O God, dost sell us all good things at the price of labour."

 

"While I thought I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die."

 

"Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigour of the mind."

 

"The supreme misfortune is when theory outstrips performance."

 

"You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure what you do not understand."

 

Accomplishments (Law of Proportion Theory)

Introduction:  After 22 years of meticulous scraping, scrubbing, retouching, and repainting, the restoration of Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci's famed mural The Last Supper was recently unveiled to the public.  Their canons were not only intended as a means of artistic workmanship, they were meant to achieve harmony. Proportions in painting, sculpture, and architecture were like harmony in music and gave intense delight.  Proportion is not only found in numbers and measurements but also in sounds, weights, time, and position, and whatever power there may be.  The proportions of the human body are here related to the most perfect geometric figures and may be said to be integrated into the spherical cosmos. 

Leonardo endeavored to verify and elaborate Vitruvius' mathematical formulae in order to put them on a scientific basis by empirical observations, and for this purpose he collected data from living models.  Geometry is infinite because every continuous quantity is divisible to infinity in one direction or the other.  But the discontinuous quantity commences in unity and increases to infinity, and as it has been said the continuous quantity increases to infinity and decreases to infinity.

Anthropometrics Measurements: Vitruvius, the architect, says in his work on architecture that the measurements of the human body are distributed by nature as follows: 4 fingers make 1 palm; 4 palms make 1 foot; 6 palms make 1 cubit (17.22 inches); 4 cubits make a man's height; and 4 cubits make one pace; and 24 palms make a man; and these measures he used in buildings.

 

If you open your legs so much as to decrease your height by 1/14 and spread and raise your arms so that your middle fingers are on a level with the top of your head, you must know that the navel will be the center of a circle of which the outspread limbs touch the circumference; and the space between the legs will form an equilateral triangle.

 

Man Outspread Arms: The span of a man's outspread arms is equal to his height.

From the roots of the hair to the bottom of the chin is the tenth part of a man's height; from the bottom of the chin to the crown of the head is the eighth of the man's height; from the top of the breast to the crown of the head is the sixth of the man; from the top of the breast to the roots of the hair is the seventh part of the whole height; from the nipples to the crown of the head is a fourth part of the man.  The maximum width of the shoulders is the fourth part of the height; from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger is the fifth part; from the elbow to the end of the shoulder is the eighth part.  The complete hand is the tenth part.  The penis begins at the center of the man.  The foot is the seventh part of the man.  From the sole of the foot to just below the knee is the fourth part of the man.  From below the knee to where the penis begins is the fourth part of the man.

 

Distance of Chin and Nose: The distance between the chin and the nose and that between the eyebrows and the beginning of the hair is equal to the height of the ear and is a third of the face.

 

Length of the Foot to the Heels: The length of the foot from the end of the toes to the heel goes twice into that from the heel to the knee, that is, where the leg-bone joins the thighbone.  The hand to the wrist goes four times into the distance from the tip of the longest finger to the shoulder-joint.

 

Hip Measurements: A man's width across the hips is equal to the distance from the top of the hip to the bottom of the buttock, when he stands equally balanced on both feet; and there is the same distance from the top of the hip to the armpit.  The waist, or narrower part above the hips, will be halfway between the armpits and the bottom of the buttock.

 

Limb Measurements: Every man at three years is half the full height he will grow to at last.  There is a great difference in the length between the joints in men and boys.  In man the distance from the shoulder joint to the elbow, and from the elbow to the tip of the thumb, and from one shoulder to the other, is in each instance two heads, while in a boy it is only one head; because Nature forms for us the size which is the home of the intellect before forming what contains the vital elements.  Remember to be very careful in giving your figures limbs that they should appear to be in proportion to the size of the body and agree with the age.  Thus a youth has limbs that are not very muscular nor strongly veined, and the surface is delicate, round and tender in colour.  In man the limbs are sinewy and muscular; while in old men the surface is wrinkled, rugged and knotty, and the veins very prominent.

The Anatomy and Movement of the Body

Study of Corpses : The human body is a complex unity within the larger field of nature, a microcosm wherein the Elements and Powers of the universe were incorporated. Leonardo can claim to be the first man to show the correct shape of the spine and the tilt of the pelvis.  In order to study its structure, Leonardo dissected corpses and examined bones, joints, and muscles separately and in relation to one another, making drawings from many points of view and taking recourse to visual demonstration since an adequate description could not be given in words.  The circular movements of shoulder, arm, and hand, for instance, is suggestive of a pictorial continuity such as we may see on a strip of film.

Movement Function: The study of structure included that of function, of the manner in which actions and gestures were performed, how the various muscles work together in bending and straightening the joints; how the weight of a body is supported and balanced. Leonardo looked upon anatomy with the eye of a mechanician.  Each limb, each organ was believed to be designed and perfectly adapted to perform its special function.

 

Muscles Function: Thus the muscles of the tongue were made to produce innumerable sounds within the mouth enabling man to pronounce many languages.  In his time divisions between the various branches of anatomy did not exist.  He investigated problems of physiology and embryology, the systems of nerves and arteries.  He anticipated the principle of blood circulation and prepared the ground for further analyses on many subjects.

 

Anatomical Demonstration from Leonardo: You who say that it is better to watch an anatomical demonstration than to see these drawings, you would be right if it were possible to observe all the details shown in such drawings in a single figure, in which with all your cleverness you will not see or acquire knowledge of more than some few veins.  While in order to obtain a true and complete knowledge of these, I have dissected more than ten human bodies, destroying all the various members and removing the minutest particles of the flesh which surrounded these veins, without causing any effusion of blood other than the imperceptible bleeding of the capillary veins. 

 

And as one single body did not suffice for so long a time, it was necessary to proceed by stages with so many bodies as would render my knowledge complete; this I repeated twice in order to discover the differences. And though you should have a love for such things you may perhaps be deterred by natural repugnance, and if this does not prevent you, you may perhaps be deterred by fear of passing the night hours in the company of these corpses, quartered and flayed and horrible to behold; and if this does not deter you, then perhaps you may lack the skill in drawing, essential for such representation; and if you had the skill in drawing, it may not be combined with a knowledge of perspective; and if it is so combined you may not understand the methods of geometrical demonstration and the method of estimating the forces and strength of muscles; or perhaps you may be wanting in patience so that you will not be diligent.

The Inner Structure of Man: The painter who has a knowledge of the nature of the sinews, muscles, and tendons will know very well in the movement of a limb how many and which of the sinews are the cause of it, and which muscle by swelling is the cause of the contraction of that sinew; and which sinews expanded into most delicate cartilage surround and support the said muscle.  Thus he will in divers ways and universally indicate the various muscles by means of the different attitudes of his figures; and will not do like many who, in a variety of movements, still display the same things in the arms, the backs, the breasts, and legs.  And these things are not to be regarded as minor faults.

In fifteen entire figures there shall be revealed to you the microcosm on the same plan as before me was adopted by Ptolemy in his cosmography; and I shall divide them into limbs as he divided the macrocosm into provinces; and I shall then define the functions of the parts in every direction, placing before your eyes the representation of the whole figure of man and his capacity of movements by means of his parts.  And would that it might please our Creator that I were able to reveal the nature of man and his customs even as I describe his figure.  Remember, in order to make sure of the origin of each muscle to pull the tendon produced by this muscle in such a way as to see this muscle move, and its attachment to the ligaments of the bones.

 

You will make nothing but confusion in demonstrating the muscles and their positions, origins and ends, unless you first make a demonstration of thin muscles after the manner of threads; and in this way you will be able to represent them one over the other as nature has placed them; and thus you can name them according to the limb they serve, for instance the mover of the tip of the big toe, and of its middle bone or of the first bone, etc.  And when you have given this information you will draw by the side of it the true form and size and position of each muscle; but remember to make the threads which denote the muscles in the same positions as the central line of each muscle; and so these threads will demonstrate the shape of the leg and their distance in a plain and clear manner.

The Hand from Within: When you begin the hand from within first separate all the bones a little from each other so that you may be able quickly to recognize the true shape of each bone from the palm side of the hand and also the real number and position in each finger; and have some sawn through lengthwise, so as to show which is hollow and which is full.  Having done this, replace the bones together at their true contacts and represent the whole hand from within wide open.

Hand Muscles Demonstration:  The next demonstration should be of the muscles around the wrist and the rest of the hand.  The fifth shall represent the tendons which move the first joints of the fingers.  The sixth represents the tendons which move the second joints of the fingers.  The seventh those which move the third joints of these fingers.  The eighth shall represent the nerves which give them the sense of touch; the ninth the veins and the arteries.  The tenth shall show the whole hand complete with its skin and its measurements; and measurements should also be taken of the bones. 

 

And whatever you do for this side of the hand you should also do for the other three sides; that is for the palmar side, for the dorsal side, and for the sides of the extensor and flexor muscles.  And thus in the chapter on the hand you will give forty demonstrations; and you should do the same with each limb. In this way you will attain a thorough knowledge.  You should afterwards make a discourse concerning the hands of each of the animals in order to show in what way they vary.  In the bear for instance the ligaments of the tendons of the toes are attached above the ankle of the foot.

 

Weight, force, and the motion of bodies and percussion are the four elemental powers in which all the visible actions of mortals have their being and their end.

 

After the demonstration of all the parts of the limbs or men and of the other animals, you will represent the proper way of action of these limbs, that is in rising from lying down, in moving, running, and jumping in various attitudes, in lifting and carrying heavy weights, in throwing things to a distance, and in swimming; and in every action you will show which limbs and which muscles perform it, and deal especially with the play of the arms.

 

Movement of Limbs: As regards the disposition of the limbs in movement you will have to consider that when you wish to represent a man who for some reason has to turn backwards or to one side you must not make him move his feet and all his limbs towards the side to which he turns his head.  Rather you must make the action proceed by degrees and through the different joints, that is those of the foot, the knee, the hips, and the neck. If you set him on the right leg, you must make his left knee bend inwards and his left foot slightly raised on the outside and let the left shoulder be somewhat lower than the right; and the nape of the neck is in a line directly over the outer ankle of the left foot.  And the left shoulder will be in a perpendicular line above the toes of the right foot.  Always set your figures so that the side to which the head turns is not the side to which the breast faces, since nature for our convenience has made us with a neck which bends with ease in many directions as the eye turns to various points and the other joints are partly obedient to it.

On the Grace of Limbs: The limbs should be adapted to the body with grace and with reference to the effect that you wish the figure to produce.  If you wish to produce a figure that shall look light and graceful in itself you must make the limbs elegant and extended, and without too much display of the muscles; and the few that are needed you must indicate softly, that is, not very prominently and without strong shadows; the limbs and particularly the arms easy, so that they should not be in a straight line with the adjoining parts.  If the hips, which are the pole of a man, are placed so that the right is higher than the left, then let the right shoulder be lower than the left and make the joint of the higher shoulder in a perpendicular line above the highest prominence of the hip.  Let the pit of the throat always be over the center of the ankle of that foot on which the man is leaning.  The leg which is free should have the knee lower than the other, and near the other leg.  The positions of head and arms are infinitely varied, and I shall therefore not enlarge on any rules for them.  Let them, however, be easy and pleasing, with various turns and twists and the joints gracefully bent, that they may not look like pieces of wood. That is called simple movement in a man when he simply bends forward, or backwards, or to the side.  It is called a compound movement in a man when some purpose required bending down and to the side at the same time.…

Human Movement:  When you wish to represent a man in the act of moving some weight reflect that these movements are to be represented in different directions.  A man may stoop to lift a weight with the intention of lifting it as he straightens himself; this is a simple movement from below upwards; or he may wish to pull something backward, or push it forward or draw it down with a rope that passes over a pulley.  Here you should remember that a man's weight drags in proportion as the center of his gravity is distant from that of his support, and you must add to this the force exerted by his legs and bent spine as he straightens himself.

The sinew which guides the leg, and which is connected with the patella of the knee, feels it a greater labor to carry the man upwards in proportion as the leg is more bent; the muscle which acts upon the angle made by the thigh where it joins the body has less difficulty and less weight to lift, because it has not the weight of the thigh itself.  And besides this its muscles are stronger being those which form the buttock.

 

Theory of Movement:  The first thing that the man does when he ascends by steps is to free the leg which he wishes to raise from the weight of the trunk which is resting upon this leg, and at the same time he loads the other leg with his entire weight including that of the raised leg.  Then he raises the leg and places the foot on the step where he wishes to mount; having done this he conveys to the higher foot all the weight of the trunk and of the leg and leaning his hand upon his thigh, thrusts the head forward and moves towards the point of the higher foot, while raising swiftly the heel of the lower foot; and with the impetus thus acquired he raises himself up; and at the same time by extending the arm which was resting upon his knee he pushes the trunk and head upwards and thus straightens the curve of his back. 

 

Man and every animal undergoes more fatigue in going upwards than downwards, for as he ascends he bears his weight with him and as he descends he simply lets it go.  A man, in running, throws less of his weight on his legs than when he is standing still.  In like manner the horse, when running, is less conscious of the weight of the man whom it is carrying; consequently many consider it marvelous that a horse in a race can support itself on one foot only.  Therefore we may say regarding weight in transverse movement that the swifter the movement the less the weight towards the center of the earth.

Scientific Achievements

Mathematics: An interest in mathematics was raised when Leonardo met up with Fra Luca Pacioli who introduced him to the delights of the topic, especially geometry.  For a time the Italian mathematician moved in with Leonardo, and he later illustrated Fra Luca Pacioli's book "On Divine Proportion."  This new interest caused him to develop the idea, "There is no certainty where one cannot apply any of the mathematical sciences." Today this concept is universally accepted, but in Leonardo's time it was revolutionary thinking.

Geology (Rocks and Fossils) 1482-1499: He became the first man to recognize that fossils are the preserved remains of dead life forms.  Leonardo da Vinci realized that rocks can be formed by sediments in the water, and that rivers erode rocks and carry their sediment to the sea.  He stated that, "the stratified stones of the mountains are all layers of clay, deposited one above the other by the various floods of the rivers.  In every concavity at the summit of the mountains we shall always find the divisions of strata in the rocks."  He raised a theory that the Earth had once been covered with water and that, over the ages, it had grown out of the depths of the sea.  He made many observations on mountains and rivers and grasped the principle that rocks can be formed by deposition of sediments by water while at the same time the rivers erode rocks and carry their sediments to the sea in a continuous grand cycle. 

 

Leonardo appeared to have grasped the law of superposition which would later be articulated fully by the Danish scientist Nicolaus Steno in 1669.  In any sequence of sedimentary rocks, the oldest rocks are those at the base.  He also appears to have noticed that distinct layers of rocks and fossils could be traced over long distances, and that these layers were formed at different times.  He also recorded how distinct layers of rocks and fossils could be followed over distances, and that varying layers were formed at different times.  “The shells in Lombardy are at four levels, and thus it is everywhere, having been made at various times."  Nearly three hundred years later, these principles would once again be rediscovered and used by modern geologists.

 

Val D’ Arno Landscape:  Leonardo's most important landscape is that of the Val d' Arno.  This drawing is particularly interesting for several reasons, the main one being that it is the first of Leonardo's works which can be securely dated.  On the top left-hand corner, in Leonardo's famous mirror writing, appears the notation August 5, 1473.  This is accompanied with the comment that it is the feast day of the Madonna of the Snow. Calculations show us that Leonardo was 21 at the time of this drawing, which depicts a gorge and a distant valley near his birthplace of Vinci.

Proportion Canon:  Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, from around 1492, shows a man within a circle and a square, an illustration of the proportional canon of ancient Roman architect Vitruvius.  Leonardo and many other Renaissance artists were interested in mathematical and scientific measurement.  This work is in the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice, Italy.

Last Supper:  One of the most famous religious paintings of all time, Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper (about 1495-1497) decorates the walls at Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy.  This mural depicts the moment immediately following Christ’s dramatic announcement to his disciples that “One of you shall betray me.”  Unfortunately, much of the mural has deteriorated because Leonardo painted with an oil-tempera mixture that did not stick well to the wall.  A 15th and early 16th century Italian artist and scientist, Leonardo ranks as one of the great creative figures of the European Renaissance (1300-1600).

In 1503-1506, during this second Florentine period, Leonardo painted several portraits, but the only one that survives is the famous Mona Lisa (1503-1506, Louvre).  One of the most celebrated portraits ever painted, it is also known as La Gioconda, after the presumed name of the woman's husband.  Leonardo seems to have had a special affection for the picture, for he took it with him on all of his subsequent travels.

In 1509, he assisted the Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli in the celebrated work Divina Proportione (1509).

The Mona Lisa, Leonardo's most famous work, is as well known for its mastery of technical innovations as for the mysteriousness of its legendary smiling subject.  This work is a consummate example of two techniques, sfumato and chiaroscuro, of which Leonardo was one of the first great masters.

Pinpoint by pinpoint of pigment, restorers in Milan, Italy work on Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci’s painting The Last Supper, begun about 1495.  Their goal was to preserve what is left of Leonardo’s work and to eliminate clumsy overpainting and other layers added during the past five centuries.  This restoration effort was completed in 1999.

Leonardo da Vinci, an Italian Renaissance artist, was a master draftsman.  The four caricatures, drawn in brown ink, reveal the effortless quality of Leonardo’s drawing skill. He was fascinated by faces, and produced countless drawings of them, using a range of models from haggard elderly people to angelic children.

Odometer Concept:  A Roman engineer, Vitruvius, described the concept of an odometer in the 1st century BC.  Around 1500 AD, Italian inventor Leonardo da Vinci designed a device that used stones to indicate distance traveled.  Da Vinci devised a container that had a hole in the bottom just big enough for certain stones to fall through. The container, loaded with stones, was attached so that rotation of one of the vehicle’s wheels caused a plate or drum to rotate around the container of stones.  This plate had a single hole about the same size as the hole in the container.  After the wheel rotated a certain number of times, the two holes lined up and a stone fell through the opening into a box.  Distance traveled could be estimated by the number of stones in the box.

 

In modern odometers, the motion of either the vehicle’s wheels or its transmission gears is relayed, usually by a cable and a series of gears, to small drums or dials inside the odometer.  As each drum rotates, it displays a series of numbers from zero to nine.  The instrument is calibrated so that either one mile or one kilometer produces a complete rotation of the drum that indicates single units of distance.  Ten rotations of that drum causes the drum to the left of it to advance one number.  In that manner, the display changes from 19 to 20, for example, with the passage of the 20th mile.  This process is repeated for the remaining dials, so that three, four, or more dials will turn as the distance traveled by the vehicle mounts.  Odometers usually display a maximum of 999,999 miles or kilometers before coming around full circle to the beginning number 000,000.

 

Chain Invention: The exact origin of the chain is unknown, but it has been used for more than 2500 years.  Archaeologists have found evidence of chains made of bronze and other metals in the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Among other functions, they were used to secure ships and to shackle slaves and criminals.  Italian artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci sketched a number of inventions that used chains to transmit power, but it is not known if any of these devices were built. Chains did not begin to replace ropes in common applications until the 19th-century Industrial Revolution.

 

Codex Invention

Codex:  Codex was an early form of book consisting of bound sheafs of handwritten pages.  Even after this form was replaced by printed books, a book of law could be referred to as a codex.

Oil Lamp Invention:  Despite the refinements introduced by the Greeks and Romans, the typical oil lamp in medieval times was an open saucer or container of oil and a floating wick.  In 1490 Italian inventor Leonardo da Vinci improved the design by enclosing the flame in a glass tube, which in turn was placed inside a glass globe filled with water.  Da Vinci’s lamp burned steadier than open-container lamps and also threw off a more dispersed lighting pattern.  In the 1700s wicks were moved from the side of the oil reserve to its center, and the use of flat wicks began.  Swiss chemist Aimé Argand made several improvements to oil lamp design in the 1780s, including a tubular wick (which gave a brighter, stronger flame), a glass chimney to protect the wick, and reflectors to direct the light.

 

King Francisi: King Francis adopted the pose of a chivalric king, the first gentleman of his kingdom, although his autocratic statecraft was imbued with a shrewd realism.  His patronage of the arts was intended to augment the splendor of his court.  He brought Leonardo da Vinci and other great Italian artists to France to design and ornament his châteaux.  Francisi also brought to France artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Benvenuto Cellini.  The result was a fusion of Renaissance and late French Gothic styles, as exemplified in the jewel-like royal residences Francis built along the Loire.

 

Tank Invention:  Florentine artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci designed a crank-operated covered chariot in 1482, but development of an effective, track-laying armored vehicle was only possible after the invention of the internal-combustion engine.

 

Two Wheel Bicycle: Leonardo da Vinci drew plans for a two-wheeled vehicle some five hundred years ago.  This wooden model, based on those plans, was constructed for a museum.  Corbis/Owen Franken bicycles such as the touring and mountain bicycles evolved from 17th, 18th, and 19th century predecessors.  The development of the draisine in 1816, with its steering bar in front, marked an important improvement on earlier designs.  Pedal-powered bicycles emerged in the 1860s, and by the 1890s bicycles were being built with equal-sized front and rear wheels, a centered crank connected to the wheels by a chain linkage, and inflatable tires and coaster brakes.  This bicycle was not invented by any one person.  Rather, it is an outgrowth of ideas and inventions dating to the late 18th century.  Some people claim the bicycle's history goes back even further, citing certain drawings by Leonardo da Vinci of a two-wheeled vehicle.

 

Astronomy Contributions:  The Italian artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci questioned the basic assumptions of the centrality and immobility of Earth.

 

Aviation Inventions:  At the beginning of the 16th century, Leonardo da Vinci gathered data on the flight of birds and anticipated developments that subsequently became practical.  Among his important contributions to the development of aviation were his invention of the airscrew, or propeller, and the parachute.  He conceived three different types of heavier-than-air craft: an ornithopter, a machine with mechanical wings designed to flap like those of a bird; a helicopter, designed to rise by the revolving of a rotor on a vertical axis; and a glider, consisting of a wing fixed to a frame on which a person might coast on the air.  Leonardo's concepts involved the use of human muscular power, quite inadequate to produce flight with the craft that he pictured.  Nevertheless, it was important because he was the first to make such scientific proposals.

 

Ornithoper: An ornithopter is a machine designed to fly by the action of flapping wings, as does a bird.  Also called flapping-wing machines, ornithopters have captivated the attention of aviation enthusiasts for centuries.  The great Italian artist and thinker Leonardo da Vinci envisioned and sketched an ornithopter in the 15th century.  Since that time, a number of different ornithopter designs have been developed.

 

Helicopter:  Inventors and engineers perfected the design of the helicopter gradually, over many years.  Original inspiration came from objects like an ancient Chinese top, which rose upward when spun rapidly.  One of the earliest inventors to design a helicopter was Leonardo da Vinci.  In one of his notebooks from 1480, he illustrated a model helicopter driven by a clockwork motor.  His notes imply that the model flew, but, from his sketch, an antitorque device is not apparent.

 

Anatomy Contributions: The revival of Western civilizations brought great advances in human anatomy.  Some resulted from the work of artists, including Italian Leonardo da Vinci, who dissected human corpses to portray muscles and other structures more accurately.

 

Zoology Contributions:  The anatomical studies of Leonardo da Vinci were far in advance of the age.  His dissections and comparisons of the structure of humans and other animals led him to important conclusions.  He noted, for example, that the arrangement of joints and bones in the leg are similar in both horses and humans, thus grasping the concept of homology (the similarity of corresponding parts in different kinds of animals, suggesting a common grouping).  The value of his work in anatomy was not recognized in his time.  Instead, the Belgian physician Andreas Vesalius is considered the father of anatomy; he circulated his writings and established the principles of comparative anatomy.

 

Parachute Invention: The use of the parachute was also suggested by Leonardo da Vinci, and he created plans for parachute-like devices.  However, skydivers consider French inventor André-Jacques Garnerin to be the first parachutist.  The first practical parachute was invented in the 1780s.  The French aeronaut Jean Pierre Blanchard dropped a dog equipped with a parachute from a balloon in 1785.  Twelve years later, on October 22, 1797, André-Jacque Garnerin jumped from a hot air balloon over Parc Monceau in Paris and descended using a cloth parachute.  He made many subsequent jumps in other parts of France and in England.  After this time parachutes became a regular part of the equipment of balloonists, and after World War I they were adopted as lifesaving devices for the pilots and passengers of airplanes.  He made many subsequent jumps in other parts of France and in England.

 

Power Driven Engine Invention:  In the 15th century, Italian inventor Leonardo da Vinci envisioned possibilities for power-driven vehicles.  By the late 17th century, English physicist Sir Isaac Newton had proposed a steam carriage, and by the late 18th century French army captain Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot had actually built one.  By the mid-1800s, the popularity of steam vehicles began to decline because they were dangerous to operate and difficult to maintain.  At about the same time, inventors became interested in the internal-combustion engine.

 

Contact Lenses: Leonardo da Vinci was, in 1508, the first to suggest the use of contact lenses to correct defective vision.  In Germany, nearly four centuries later, the first contact lens manufactured was a glass shell that covered the entire surface of the eye. Modern contact lenses appeared in the 1940s.  Today, many Americans prefer them over eyeglasses for reasons of convenience or cosmetics, although spectacles offer far more protection for the eye.

 

Crayon:  Crayon, in art, is a mixture of chalk and a binding medium such as wax or oil used in drawing on paper.  The two terms, crayon and chalk, are, however, often used interchangeably.  Chalk occurs naturally in tones of black, white, or red, and these are the traditional colors for chalk or crayon drawings.  Artificially tinted chalks of other colors are properly termed pastels.  Crayon has been used as a drawing medium throughout recorded history, beginning with Stone Age cave drawings (see Cave Dwellers).  In modern times, Leonardo da Vinci was one of the first masters to use black and red crayon together.  The use of the three basic colors together, called the trois crayons technique, reached its peak in the 18th-century work of the French artist Jean-Antoine Watteau.

Tower Opened by President Coolidge: Incorporated in 1917, Lake Wales is famous for its annual Black Hills Passion Play and for its mosaic replica of Leonardo da Vinci's painting The Last Supper.  North of Lake Wales is Mountain Lake Sanctuary and Singing Tower, which President Calvin Coolidge opened in 1929.  Constructed of marble, the Singing Tower stands on Iron Mountain, one of the highest points in Florida, population 9,670 (1990); 10,194 (2000).

 

Recognition:  To commemorate the 450th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci, the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace dug into the royal family's collection of 30,000 drawings and prints, 600 of which are by Leonardo, and came up with a selection of 163 of the master's best drawings, the largest number ever to be exhibited at one time. Leonardo da Vinci edges Michelangelo as the quintessential Renaissance man.  When it comes to sheer artistry there is no real competition.  Even though Leonardo's Mona Lisa arguably ranks as the millennium's most recognizable painting, Michelangelo's total body of work, his sculptures, paintings, and frescoes, is unequaled.

 

Old Masters and Early Art: "The Classical Contribution to Western Art" was a major activity of the Metropolitan's exhibition calendar.  Designed to show the intellectual dependence of the West on the art of antiquity and of the Christian era, this expressed a similar attitude to that revealed in its director's attack on modern art.  On the West Coast, the Los Angeles County Museum organized the first comprehensive exhibition of the works and thoughts of Leonardo da Vinci ever held in the Western Hemisphere.  In 1939 an exhibition of models based on da Vinci notebooks had been built in Milan and subsequently exhibited in New York's Museum of Science and Industry in Rockefeller Center.  These were destroyed in Tokyo during the war. 

 

For the Los Angeles show, 66 new models were built, and masterpieces of painting, sculpture, and drawings assembled. The conception of the modern man as a synthesis of scientist and artist thus was put forward.  In Baltimore, the Walters Art Gallery and the Baltimore Museum of Art collaborated in showing medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts from the eighth to the seventeenth centuries.

 

National Gallery: The National Gallery in Washington, D.C. paid a reported $5.8 million for a portrait, Ginevra dei Benci, by Leonardo da Vinci and purchased from the collection of Prince Franz Josef II of Liechtenstein.  It is the first Leonardo painting to find a home in America.

 

Summary:  About 1466 Leonardo was apprenticed as a garzone (studio boy) to Andrea del Verrocchio, the leading Florentine painter and sculptor of his day.  In Verrocchio's workshop Leonardo was introduced to many activities, from the painting of altarpieces and panel pictures to the creation of large sculptural projects in marble and bronze.  In 1478 Leonardo became an independent master.  His first large painting, The Adoration of the Magi (begun 1481, Uffizi), left unfinished, was ordered in 1481 for the Monastery of San Donato a Scopeto, Florence. 

 

He worked on the compositions for a long time, as was his custom, seemingly unwilling to finish what he had begun.  From 1495 to 1497 Leonardo labored on his masterpiece, The Last Supper, a mural in the refectory of the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.  His largest commission was for a colossal bronze monument to Francesco Sforza, father of Ludovico, in the courtyard of Castello Sforzesco.  The subject was the Battle of Anghiari, a Florentine victory in its war with Pisa.  He made many drawings for the decoration and completed a full-size cartoon, or sketch, in 1505, but he never finished the wall painting. 

 

Leonardo painted several portraits, but the only one that survives is the famous Mona Lisa (1503-1506, Louvre).  In Milan he continued his engineering projects and worked on an equestrian figure for a monument to Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, commander of the French forces in the city.  Although the project was not completed, drawings and studies have been preserved.  In 1516 he traveled to France to enter the service of King Francis I. He spent his last years at the Château de Cloux, near Amboise, where he died.  Although Leonardo produced a relatively small number of paintings, many of which remained unfinished, he was nevertheless an extraordinarily innovative and influential artist. 

 

The early painting The Adoration of the Magi introduced a new approach to composition, in which the main figures are grouped in the foreground, while the background consists of distant views of imaginary ruins and battle scenes.  Instead of showing the 12 apostles as individual figures, he grouped them in dynamic compositional units of three, framing the figure of Christ, who is isolated in the center of the picture.

 

The Mona Lisa, Leonardo's most famous work, is as well known for its mastery of technical innovations as for the mysteriousness of its legendary smiling subject.  Leonardo frequently failed to bring to conclusion artistic projects.  He never completed his planned treatises on a variety of scientific subjects.

 

In anatomy he studied the circulation of the blood and the action of the eye.  He made discoveries in meteorology and geology, learned the effect of the moon on the tides, foreshadowed modern conceptions of continent formation, and surmised the nature of fossil shells.  He was among the originators of the science of hydraulics and probably devised the hydrometer; his scheme for the canalization of rivers still has practical value. He invented a large number of ingenious machines, many potentially useful, among them an underwater diving suit.  His flying devices, although not practicable, embodied sound principles of aerodynamics. 

 

After 22 years of meticulous scraping, scrubbing, retouching, and repainting, the restoration of Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci's famed mural The Last Supper was recently unveiled to the public.  His Law of Proportion applicable to painting, sculpture, and architecture was like the harmony in music and gave intense delight.  Leonardo embarked into an intense study of anthropometric measurements of the human body to set the standards for future artists.  The proportions of the human body are here related to the most perfect geometric figures and may be said to be integrated into the spherical cosmos.

 

Leonardo actually anticipated many discoveries of modern times.  In anatomy he studied the circulation of the blood and the action of the eye.  He made discoveries in meteorology and geology, learned the effect of the moon on the tides, foreshadowed modern conceptions of continent formation, and surmised the nature of fossil shells.  He was among the originators of the science of hydraulics and probably devised the hydrometer.  His scheme for the canalization of rivers still has practical value.  He invented a large number of ingenious machines, many potentially useful, among them an underwater diving suit.  His flying devices, although not practicable, embodied sound principles of aerodynamics.

Bibliography

Leonardo da Vinci by Ruth Saunders Magurn, Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

The Art Restoration of the Leonardo Master Piece, Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

 

Orson Wells (1915 - 1985) U.S. actor, director, producer, and writer as Harry Lime in Carol Reed's celebrated film.  The Third Man (co-written with Graham Greene and Carol Reed).

 

Andy Warhol (1928? - 1987) U.S. artist and filmmaker.  Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

 

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) Italian Artist, Engineer, and Inventor, Notebooks.

 

Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519, http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/vinci.html

 

Leonardo, the Man and his Machines, http://www.lairweb.org.nz/leonardo/

 

The Adopted Son of Leonardo, http://www.lairweb.org.nz/leonardo/salai.html

 

Chronology of Leonardo da Vinci, http://www.lairweb.org.nz/leonardo/chron.html