Leonardo da Vinci
Meet Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci was born on April
15, 1452, in the small village of
Vinci, in a region of Italy called
Tuscany. In his own lifetime and in
the present day, da Vinci
continues to be universally
considered as one of the, if not the
most, influential thinker, engineer,
mathematician, scientist, inventor
and painter of all time.
Leonardo has often been described
as the ultimate Renaissance Man: a
man of "unquenchable curiosity"
and "feverishly inventive
imagination.” Growing up, Leonardo
da Vinci showed interest in the
visual arts, mainly in the areas of
sketching and painting. He began sketching and writing his ideas daily in
notebooks. One of the forms of writing Leonardo practiced was called
mirror writing.
Why Mirror Writing?
Mirror writing is formed when someone is
writing in the direction that is the reverse of
the normal way for a given language, such
that the result is the mirror image of normal
writing. Mirror writing only appears normal if
held in front of a mirror. Many of Leonardo’s
personal notes and documents have been
found to be mirror writing. There is no evidence as to why he did this.
Some historians believe he did this to keep his inventions private or secret.
Why is Leonardo da Vinci so important?
There are a series of people that have changed the world and have changed
the way that we look at it. Leonardo da Vinci is one of those people. He
painted some of the most recognizable paintings that have stood the test
of time. Paintings like the Mona Lisa and sketches of human anatomy opened
the door to a whole new world of possibilities where the imagination was
the source of knowledge.
The Mona Lisa is arguably the most famous painting in the
world. Its fame rests, in particular, with the smile. Some
people believe that the mystery is because Leonardo
shadowed the corners of the mouth and eyes.
Did you know it took Leonardo da Vinci ten years
to paint Mona Lisa’s mouth?
Not only was Leonardo one of the greatest painters of all time, he was also
a master of engineering. Leonardo’s scientific and technical drawings have
captured people’s imaginations for centuries. Leonardo theorized and
invented advanced technology. He was fascinated by the way things worked
and he invented new machines that would test human limits, in particular
flight. He was, perhaps, the first European interested in a practical
solution to flight. Leonardo designed a
series of mechanical devices, including
parachutes, and studied the flight and
structure of birds. Around 1485 he
sketched detailed plans for a humanpowered ornithopter (a wing-flapping
device intended to fly). There is no
evidence that he actually attempted to
build such a device. The notion of a
human-powered mechanical flight device, patterned after birds or bats,
recurred again and again over the next four centuries. One of da Vinci’s
most recognizable flying machines is the one that closely resembles a
present day helicopter.
Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man”
Leonardo da Vinci's understanding of the human body and mathematics was
groundbreaking. Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man is a set of mathematical rules
about the math of the body. Leonardo saw a kind of mathematical
perfection in the human form. The anatomically correct figure stands
within the form of the circle and the proportions of the square. This is said
to be one of the most iconic drawings in history. Leonardo was a fond
enthusiast of the human body, and intensely studied mathematics and
anatomy. The Vitruvian man is the perfect example of how math and the
proportions of the human body can go hand in hand.
In this drawing, he corrected inconsistencies
in Vitruvius’ measurements of the human
figure, based on his own observations and
measurements he had collected when
studying life models.
Through the precision of his own
measurements, he created an image that is
accepted as a true representation of
Vitruvius’ findings, and a perfectly realistic
image of the ideal proportions of the human
figure. The belief that mathematical law
governs everything in the universe goes back
hundreds of years before Leonardo’s birth.
All of Leonardo’s investigations regarding
natural phenomena were carried out with a firm belief in the mathematical
principles underlying all forms.
Body Proportions and The Vitruvian Man
In measurement, body proportions are used to relate two or more
measurements based on the body. Here are the proportions according
to Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man:















a palm is the width of four fingers
a foot is the width of four palms
the length of a man's foot is one-seventh of his height
the length of a man's outspread arms (arm span) is equal to his height
the distance from the hairline to the bottom of the chin is one-tenth of
a man's height
the distance from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin is oneeighth of a man's height
the distance from the bottom of the neck to the hairline is one-sixth of
a man's height
the maximum width of the shoulders is a quarter of a man's height
the distance from the middle of the chest to the top of the head is a
quarter of a man's height
the distance from the elbow to the tip of the hand is a quarter of a
man's height
the distance from the elbow to the armpit is one-eighth of a man's
height
the length of the hand is one-tenth of a man's height
the distance from the bottom of the chin to the nose is one-third of the
length of the head
the distance from the hairline to the eyebrows is one- third of the
length of the face
the length of the ear is one-third the length of the face
Literacy Connections
The power of literacy can be an influential way to begin or supplement a
student’s learning experience. To help introduce Leonardo da Vinci to your
students or to end the lesson, here are some engaging books for your class
to enjoy.
Leonardo da Vinci
By: Kathleen Krull
Grade level: 4- 12
Explores the scientific studies, experiments, and
observations of this world-renowned artist and scientist
of the fifteenth century through a review of the writings,
notes, and sketches left behind in his vast collection of
notebooks.
Leonardo and the flying boy: a story about Leonardo
Da Vinci
By Laurence Anholt
Grade level- Pre- Kindergarten- 4
Zoro, pupil to the great Leonardo Da Vinci, finds that his
master is building a mysterious flying machine, in a story
based on a true event.
Da wild, da crazy, da Vinci
By: Jon Scieszka
Grade level: 3-6
In their latest time travel adventure, Fred, Joe, and
Sam da Brooklyn meet Leonardo da Vinci and try to
avoid becoming toilet scrubbers in the sixteenthcentury Italian army.