Leonardo da
Vinci
1452 to
The Era
• Da Vinci was born in Italy during a time in
history called ‘The Renaissance’ – this is
French for ‘rebirth’ or ‘new birth’.
• It was a time of learning and creativity.
• Men were thirsty for knowledge and it was a
time of big ideas.
• It was a time of great works of art by
brilliant artists.
• Raphael, Da Vinci, Titian, Corregio,
Michelangelo and others produced words of
art that have never been surpassed.
Early Life
Leonardo
da Vinci
was born in
Europe.
He was born
in Italy on
April 15,
1452.
He was born in
the town of
Vinci, just
outside
Florence.
• He was the son of a wealthy
Florentine notary (a legal
officer who can authorise
documents) and a peasant
woman called Catarina.
• In the mid-1460s the family
settled in Florence, where
Leonardo was given the best
education that Florence, a
major intellectual and artistic
centre of Italy, could offer.
•He was handsome, persuasive in
conversation, and a fine musician
and improviser.
• When he was about 15 (in about 1466) his father
apprenticed him to the renowned workshop of Andrea del
Verrochio in Florence. Verrocchio was the leading
Florentine painter and sculptor of his day.
• Even as an apprentice, Leonardo demonstrated his colossal
talent.
• In 1472 he was entered in the painter's guild of Florence,
and in 1476 he was still considered Verrocchio's assistant.
• In 1478 Leonardo became an independent master.
• In search of new challenges and the
big bucks, he entered the service of
the Duke of Milan in 1482, abandoning
his first commission in Florence, "The
Adoration of the Magi".
• He spent 17 years in Milan, leaving only
after Duke Ludovico Sforza's fall
from power in 1499. It was during
these years that Leonardo hit his
stride, reaching new heights of
scientific and artistic achievement.
• The Duke kept Leonardo busy painting and
sculpting and designing elaborate court
festivals, but he also put Leonardo to work
designing weapons, buildings and machinery.
• From 1485 to 1490, Leonardo produced
studies on loads of subjects, including
nature, flying machines, geometry,
mechanics, municipal construction, canals and
architecture (designing everything from
churches to fortresses). His studies from
this period contain designs for advanced
weapons, including a tank and other war
vehicles, various combat devices, and
submarines.
An Artillery Park is a 1487 drawing by Leonardo da Vinci.
Designs for a Boat is part of a series of (1485 - 1487)
The ornithopter flying machine was never actually created. It was a design
that Leonardo Da Vinci made to show how man could fly. Some experts say
that the modern day helicopter was inspired by this design.
Design for a Flying Machine
1488
Design for a Flying Machine 1488
Armoured Car a pen drawing dated 1487
Drawing of giant crossbow about 1485 to 1487
Machine for Storming Walls a
1480 drawing by Leonardo da
Vinci for a war machine
Eight Barrelled
Machine Gun
Designed and Drawn
by Leonardo da Vinci
Parachute Drawing
Line drawing
of
submarine.
The Mona Lisa
is one of Da
Vinci’s most
famous
paintings.
It hangs in the
Louvre gallery
in Paris.
Leonardo da Vinci died May
2, 1519 in Cloux, near
Amboise, France.
•As a scientist Leonardo towered above all his
contemporaries.
•His scientific theories, like his artistic
innovations, were based on careful observation
and precise documentation. He understood,
better than anyone of his century or the next,
the importance of precise scientific observation.
•Unfortunately, just as he often failed to finish
artistic projects, he never completed his planned
treatises on a variety of scientific subjects.
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.
•His theories are contained in many
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 da Vinci is considered a
genius - an Italian inventor, artist,
architect, and scientist.
• Many of his inventions were so
advanced that they would have to be
reinvented hundreds of years later when
technology had caught up with them.
• Da Vinci was a brilliant artist and a great
inventor. He was also a gentle, peace-
loving vegetarian, who bought caged
birds just for the joy of setting them free.
Useful websites
• www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/LeosMysteriousmachinery.html
• inventors.about.com/od/.../a/LeonardoDaVinci.htm
• www.bbc.co.uk/science/leonardo/
• www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/page/d/davinci.shtml
• http://inventors.about.com/od/dstartinventors/ig/Inventions-of-Leonar
do-DaVinci/
• http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/leonardo/leonardo.html
• http://www.lairweb.org.nz/leonardo/
• http://www.leonardo-history.com/inventor.htm
• www.jsayles.com (renaissance music)
