Leonardo da Vinci

Add to favorites

Edit page

Search at Amazon

Stats

Birth Name: Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci

Country of origin: Italy

Currently Residing In: France

Relationship Status: Single

Lists

104 votes

Self-Portrait (55 items)
list by Nusch

Published 9 years, 3 months ago

9 comments

96 votes

Draw A Line (40 items)
list by Gabi

Published 9 years ago

14 comments

85 votes

What is Art? (78 items)
list by johanlefourbe

Published 9 years, 6 months ago

19 comments

57 votes

Some Good Quotes I Like (17 items)
list by Katherine Fell

Published 8 years, 7 months ago

7 comments

56 votes

More Letters to Dead People (94 items)
list by ccc25

Published 9 years, 10 months ago

8 comments

View all Leonardo da Vinci lists

Leonardo da Vinci Videos

Leonardo's Last Supper: A Vision by Peter Greenaway - Preview

46 Views, 1 votes

Added 3 years ago

Leonardo da Vinci: The Renaissance Man

24 Views, 1 votes

Added 9 months ago

Leonardo's Universe | National Geographic

44 Views

Added 4 years ago

View all Leonardo da Vinci videos

Photos

12 votes

7 votes

6 votes

5 votes

View all Leonardo da Vinci pictures

Description: Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519, Old Style) was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance Man, a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination". He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented p Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519, Old Style) was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance Man, a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination". He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived. According to art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, the man himself mysterious and remote". Marco Rosci points out, however, that while there is much speculation about Leonardo, his vision of the world is essentially logical rather than mysterious, and that the empirical methods he employed were unusual for his time.
Born out of wedlock to a notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman, Caterina, at Vinci in the region of Florence, Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Florentine painter, Verrocchio. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan. He later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice, and he spent his last years in France at the home awarded him by Francis I.
Leonardo was and is renowned primarily as a painter. Among his works, the Mona Lisa is the most famous and most parodied portrait and The Last Supper the most reproduced religious painting of all time, with their fame approached only by Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam. Leonardo's drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also regarded as a cultural icon, being reproduced on items as varied as the euro, textbooks, and T-shirts. Perhaps fifteen of his paintings survive, the small number because of his constant, and frequently disastrous, experimentation with new techniques, and his chronic procrastination. Nevertheless, these few works, together with his notebooks, which contain drawings, scientific diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting, compose a contribution to later generations of artists only rivalled by that of his contemporary, Michelangelo.
Leonardo is revered for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualised a helicopter, a tank, concentrated solar power, a calculator, the double hull, and he outlined a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or were even feasible during his lifetime, but some of his smaller inventions, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire, entered the world of manufacturing unheralded. He made important discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, optics, and hydrodynamics, but he did not publish his findings and they had no direct influence on later science. ... (more)