Emma Flavell
Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo Da Vinci lived until he was sixty-seven years old, from April 15, 1452 until May 2,
1519. He was born in the village of Anchiano, which was about two miles away from, Vinci,
Italy. Although Leonardo’s birthplace was in Italy, he died in France from what’s believed
to be natural causes. By the time Leonardo was fifteen, he was already ahead of the game
with his art skills, which lead to his apprenticeship with Andrea Del Verrocchio. Soon
enough Leonardo was recognized for the angel he painted in one of del Verrocchio’s
painting, The Baptism of Christ, which ended up humiliating del Verrocchio and ending
their apprenticeship. Leonardo’s fame was on the rise, having -received two substantial
commissions for his art – but was soon charged with sodomy, eventually the charges were
dropped though.
After suffering embarrassment twice, Leonardo moved to Milan where he worked as a
painter, sculptor, and aided in military conceptions. Being in Milan for seventeen years, he
left when the French started to enter Milan. Heading back to Florence he became the
senior military architect and general engineer for Cesare Borgia. Before leaving Florence
once again, Leonardo painted his most famous work, The Mona Lisa. Six years after arriving
back in Florence, Leonardo traveled back to Milan to work for the French governor, Charles
d’Amboise.
While living in Milan for a second time, Leonardo mainly acted as an architect, and spent
much of his time researching the human anatomy. In 1513 Leonardo headed to Rome
where he didn’t receive any work commissions for his first three years, as his competition,
Michelangelo and Raphael, were already working. In 1516 Francis I asked Leonardo to join
him, and Leonardo accepted, leaving Italy. Three years later Leonardo died and was buried
in the church of Saint-Florentine.
Leonardo Da Vinci once wrote, “That figure is most praiseworthy, which by its action, best
expresses the passions of the soul.” This is how Leonardo focused his work. Leonardo can
be credited for having created the style which many used during the renaissance, as he was
a generation older then Michelangelo and Raphael. Leonardo used balanced designs,
heroic figures, and something called sfumato modeling. Sfumato is a painting technique
where the artist blurs/softens outlines to give illusion of depth. The Latin origin of Sfumato
is “to smoke.”
Emma Flavell
The Renaissance is considered to be a cultural movement involving the creation of
literature, science, art, religion and politics. Leonardo represents the Renaissance because
he brought science and art together in his paintings. When looking at one of Leonardo’s
creations you can see his knowledge of nature in how realistic his paintings look. Leonardo
was the first to study physical proportions in humans to figure out what the ideal human
figure would look like. Unlike Michelangelo for example, who made many of the characters
in his portraits and paintings extremely muscular and unrealistic, Leonardo wanted his
characters to be as real as possible. Leonardo believed that science was needed in art in
order to illustrate things properly.
Major Works
 The Last Supper (1498) – Painting
 Mona Lisa (1505) – Portrait
 Multi-Barrel Gun (1482) – Drawing
 Vitruvian Man (1487) – Drawing
 The Baptism of Christ (1476) – Painting
 Female Head (`1508)_- Drawing
 Leda and the Swam (`1508) – Painting
 The Annunciation (1473) – Painting
 St. Jerome in the Wilderness(1480)- Painting
 Madonna Litta (1481) – Painting
 Salvator Mundi(1504) - Painting
 The Virgin and Child with St. Anne (1508) - Painting
 Lady with an Ermine (1490) - Painting
Emma Flavell
 Portrait of a Musician (1485) - Painting
 Ginevra de’ Benci (1474)– Portrait
The Mona Lisa
1505
Oil Painting
Portrait of Lisa del Giaconda seated with a facial expression described as enigmatic.
The Last Supper
1498
Painting
Emma Flavell
Represents scene of The Last Supper from the final days of Jesus.
The Annunciation
1473
Painting
Christian celebration of the announcement that Mary would conceive Jesus.
Vitruvian Man
1487
Drawing
Depicts how a man should be proportioned in Leonardo’s POV.
The Baptism of Christ
1476
Painting
Emma Flavell
Mostly painted by Verrechio, but the angel is what helped him achieve fame.
Madonna Litta
1481
Painting
The head was sketched by Leonardo, but many details point to being finished by pupils.
Lady with an Ermine
1490
Painting
Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani most likely when she was mistress of the Duke of Milan.
Leonardo Da Vinci took a new approach to art during the renaissance. He was able to
take his interest in science and incorporate it into his many different forms of artwork. Most
often Leonardo sketched ideas in his journal type books and came up with new inventions. In my
opinion Leonardo can be considered and inventor, innovator, scientist, and an artist all wrapped
up into one.
Emma Flavell
Without Leonardo Da Vinci’s impact on the social culture of the time, many discoveries
and new techniques may not have emerged. With his new style of making objects and characters
in his portraits look three dimensional, many new forms of art occurred. Followers of Leonardo
Da Vinci often used the same type of realist art he used for his artwork. This included using
proportional body, and realistic expression and detail in his art. Even though Leonardo didn’t
complete many of his masterpieces, many great rulers were able to respect and wanted work
done from him. He often moved from commission to commission without completing full pieces
of work though, which gave him somewhat of a bad reputation. If he would have been more
consistent with getting his art work done he would’ve had more commissions throughout his life
without a doubt.
Not only did Leonardo Da Vinci make impacts on the artistic community during the
Renaissance period, he also made many scientific observations and came up with many scientific
ideas. Being extremely interested in the human anatomy, Leonardo was able to learn all about it
and then use it in his art for more realistic paintings. This helps tie in the theme of science and art
coming together during the Renaissance.