Transcript Leonardo da Vinci: 1452-1456 “Renaissance Man”

Leonardo da Vinci
1452-1519
scientist,
mathematician,
engineer,
inventor, anatomist,
painter, sculptor,
architect,
botanist, musician
writer.
Child of the Renaissance
• Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452, in the Tuscan
hill town of Vinci, in the lower valley of the Arno River
in the territory of Florence.
• He was the illegitimate son of a clerk, Messer Piero
Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci, and Caterina, a peasant
who may have been a slave from the Middle East.
• Leonardo had no surname in the modern sense, "da
Vinci" simply meaning "of Vinci": his full birth name
was "Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci", meaning
"Leonardo, son of (Mes)ser Piero from Vinci."
Uneducated
Genius
Leonardo had no formal
education but became the
most knowledgeable man
of his times because he
was curious about
everything.
At the age of 14, Leonardo
was apprenticed to the
famous artist Verrocchio,
whose David may have
been modeled on the
young Leonardo himself.
Leonardo the
Anatomist
He dissected
corpses to find out
what the human
body really looked
like, from the
skeleton out.
Leonardo the Artist
Before Leonardo:
Focus on the spiritual idea
(“symbolism”)
After Leonardo
Focus on the physical form
(“realism” or “naturalism)
He drew animals
that looked like
animals.
Leonardo used the same
process of working from
nature in his paintings
and frescoes, inventing a
technique called
chiaroscuro meaning
“light-dark” in Italian.
Shading created a threedimensional effect, more
representative of the
physical world.
Though the subject may
have been spiritual, or
otherworldly, the
representation was
entirely physical, of this
world.
Leonardo the
Inventor
Leonardo approached the
world as a scientist: he
observed and learned
from nature.
He was especially
fascinated with the idea of
flying and studied birds to
discover the secret of
flight.
According to
contemporaries, he would
buy birds in the market
just to set them free and
watch them fly.
From Bird Wing…
…to Flying Machines
…to War Machines
The Armored Car
the Automatic Crossbow
Of course, he was an Architect, too.
And a Poet…
“For once you have tasted flight you will
walk the earth with your eyes turned
skywards, for there you have been and there
you will long to return.”
a Philosopher…
“You can have no dominion greater or less than
that over yourself.”
“There are three classes of people: those who
see, those who see when they are shown,
those who do not see.”
A Teacher…
“Learning never exhausts the mind.”
“The noblest pleasure is the joy of
understanding.”
…and an Inspiration
“It had long since come to my attention that
people of accomplishment rarely sat back and
let things happen to them. They went out and
happened to things.”
Humanity: The Measure of All Things