|
Birth of Leonardo da Vinci is shrouded in mysterious circumstances – he was born on the 15th of April 1452 in Vinci, Italy as an illegitimate son of a notary Ser Piero, and Caterina, wife of Acattabrigo di Piero del Vacca da Vinci. There are no records of his childhood, and so his early years are a mere legend. We can only assume that he grew up in the family of his mother. Young Leonardo is believed to have been of pleasant appearance, and so strong that he could bend iron bars.
The first record of Leonardo dates from 1467, when he entered the artistic workshop of Italian sculptor Verrochio, which was the center of active artistic life in Florence. Another document of Leonardo is from the year 1476, due to his imprisonment for homosexual offenses in a public place.
Leonardo was a man with a multitude of interests, but it is difficult to reconstruct his work and inspiration. The young painter spent some time in Verrochio's workshop where he also worked with young Botticelli and Perugino. However, it is uncertain whether Leonardo studied directly under Verrochio, who while being a sculptor and a great innovator, was not a painter. Dozens of paintings signed by Verrochio contribute to confusing circumstances – a possible explanation is that the master and owner of the workshop often signed works of his pupils. Verrochio was a man of many interests, with knowledge of mathematics and music, which were intellectual qualities that later became typical for Leonardo. Verrochio's sculptures were an essential basis for Leonardo’s stylistic and theoretical experiments and subtle play of light and shadow.
The first work of which it is possible to say with some certainty that it is by Leonardo is a drawing of a landscape, dated from 1473. Never in the history of art has an artist’s first known work been filled with so strong a personality and genius, so original and complex, as is this drawing, which contains the foundations of a fundamental change in the history of art.
In 1478 Leonardo moved from Florence to Milan, whereby he was able to free himself from the rules of the Academy, which deemed him as uneducated and did not recognize his artistic style. In Milan he gathered around him a group of students and friends who remained faithful to him for the rest of his life. In Florence he would have never found such admiration, as his style was at that time extremely innovative, and conservative skepticism of Florentines would have not offer him the recognition he so richly deserved.
Leonardo’s style balanced the will of the artist with strong poetic feelings, filled with unique mysticism. Leonardo rejected simple geometric perspective, to create a deep view of a landscape in paintings; he used free composition of endless relationships of all living organisms pictured on the canvas. In his paintings he expressed the internal dynamics of characters by painting them in s-shaped positions of the body, which has become one of the great examples for all classic characters of the sixteenth century. His figures also gave the impression of guardians and witnesses to the secret essence of humanity and the universe. Leonardo thus created a unique language of genius of his era.
In Milan around the year 1483 Leonardo began his studies of aerodynamics and physics, anatomy, meteorology, astronomy and cosmography. He was interested in the mathematical theories of Pythagoras, which he soon mastered and made the basis of his own scientific research, and also the creation of harmonious relations between his paintings and their viewers. Leonardo used knowledge gained through scientific research to increase the vitality of the subjects and the dramatic effect of the whole composition. For Leonardo art and science became inseparable.
In 1495 Leonardo began work on The Last Supper. He used new techniques in tempera and oil. His experimentation proved unfortunate in this case, because it turned out that the materials he used quickly lost the quality of appearance he sought. By the middle of the sixteenth century this work was already described as completely faded and has required numerous restorations since then.
Leonardo’s compositions radiate mysterious, almost esoteric dimensions; the viewers were invited to the world emotions and endless dynamism of light. His choice of colors became a means of describing the atmosphere. Delicate combination of light and shadow created a new form and helped to arouse the imagination of the viewers. Figures were depicted in typicalrenaissance style and in combination with the background they gained the impression of both monumentality and balance.
Leonardo also created sculptures, however, too few remain to draw any conclusions about his complex style. Almost all his sculptures remained unfinished, they usually only served as models for his paintings. From Leonardo’s personal records, however, we know he considered himself equally gifted in both painting and sculpture, and particularly in the difficult technique of bronze casting.
There are no known architectural structures based on Leonardo’s designs. From his countless analytical drawings can be deduced that Leonardo enthusiastically dedicated himself to theoretical exploration of architecture, the result of which was an architectural ideal, which was however so impractical that it could never be fully realized.
All Leonardo’s art works are characterized by his sensitivity to the shapes of the human body. As a prominent artist, Leonardo was granted a permission to dissect human bodies at the hospital Santa Maria Nuova in Florence and later at hospitals in Milan and Rome. From 1510 to 1511 Leonardo worked with doctor Marcantonio della Torre, with whom he then prepared theoretical studies of anatomy for which Leonardo created more than two hundred drawings. This book was finally published in the year 1680, 161 years after Leonardo’s death. Leonardo drew the whole human body, including skeleton, uncovered muscles, and internal organs, and was one of the first artists to draw a fetus in utero. He was also very interested in the effects of strong emotions, such as anger, on a person. He also drew various deformities and symptoms of diseases in the faces of people. Leonardo also studied anatomy of animals: cattle, birds, monkeys, bears and frogs, though the best known are his drawings of horses.
In 1500 Leonardo returned to Florence, where he stayed with the monks from the order of Santissima Annunziata. He then returned for several years to Milan. Next he moved to Rome and then in 1517 he finally settled in Cloux near Amboise, France. Now old and with a paralyzed right hand, Leonardo worked mainly on philosophical and scientific projects. He felt that his life was coming to an end, but opposed to this fact he created beautiful studies of dynamic forces of nature, which build and destroy the universe. The only pleasure in his old age was his favorite pupil Francesco de'Melzi, to whom Leonardo bequeathed in his last will most of his notes and workbooks. Only nineteen of Leonardo’s workbooks are known to have survived to this day, these contain more than 3,500 pages covered with writings and drawings.
Leonardo’s work in all disciplines has become a perfect symbol of the ideal human spirit and mind, he was a true renaissance man, and he ushered in a new age. Leonardo was one of the greatest painters the world has known. He stands out as a lone genius glorified by his desire to create. Leonardo and his works added new dimensions to the spiritual, creative and intellectual life of mankind.
Leonardo died on the 2nd of May 1519 at Clos Lucé, France. He was buried in the Chapel of St. Hubert in the castle in Amboise.
Final version – 4. 5. 2008
All rights reserved. No part of texts from this webpage may be copied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission. To obtain written permission, contact Martina Glenn.
|