Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian polymath, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician, and writer. His work made him one of the greatest creative minds of the Renaissance.
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About His Life
Leonardo di Ser Piero da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in Florence. He was an illegitimate son of a notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant girl Catherine of Vinci. He was an apprentice of the famous Florentine painter Verrocchio. In his youth, Leonardo was in service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan. Later, he worked in Rome, Bologna, and Venice. Then, he spent the rest of his life in France and died on May 2, 1519.
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What are His Major Works
- The Annunciation
- Madonna of the Carnation
- Madonna Litta
- Virgin of the Rocks
- Lady with an Ermine
- La Belle Ferronnière
- Salvator Mundi
- The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne
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- The Mona Lisa (1503-1506) is da Vinci’s most famous work and is one of the most valuable exhibits in the Louvre in Paris. The Italians call it La Gioconda while the French call it La Joconde. Additionally, Leonardo masterfully managed to convey the feeling of general harmony in the picture, which reflects the idea of the unity of man and nature.
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- The Last Supper is a mural painting on the back wall of the dining room in the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Italy. The painting, created from 1495 to 1498, is based on the last meal of Christ and his twelve Apostles. Moreover, composition of the work is based on ratio and balance. We can identify an equilateral triangle, which forms the body of Christ, and a circle, which appears in the silhouette of a curved pediment against the background. In addition, the ideal geometric forms are a manifestation of Renaissance and Neo-platonic theories.
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- The Vitruvian Man (1487) is a world-famous drawing of a nude male figure in two superimposed positions, inscribed in a circle and a square. Additionally, the drawing demonstrates the relationship between ideal human proportions and geometry. It is sometimes referred to as the Canon of Proportions or, less commonly, Human Proportions. Further, the idea of the Vitruvian Man was first described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in his treatise De Architectura.
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Features of Da Vinci’s Style
- He used the technique of sfumato with great skill. Sfumato refers to the subtle gradation of tone used to obscure sharp edges and create a synergy between lights and shadows in a painting.
- Leonardo modeled his objects in two dimensions by capturing the light and shadow in three dimensions. This effect is known as chiaroscuro.
- Leonardo da Vinci typically painted with oil colors which he made by hand from ground pigments. Later in his career, he worked with tempera made from egg whites.
- Leonardo da Vinci’s painting technique used natural shades of subtle intensity. Most often, his works used blues, browns and greens in accord with the earth itself, while also incorporated neutral grays, for the background paint.
- His finished works have a more cohesive appearance thanks to the use of such a small range of colors.
- Generally his work surface would be a canvas or board, or sometimes a stone when painting a mural.
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Info sources:
http://www.leonardoda-vinci.org/
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/famous-paintings/mona-lisa.htm
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leonardo-da-Vinci/The-Last-Supper
http://www.leonardodavinci.net/the-vitruvian-man.jsp
http://www.artble.com/artists/leonardo_da_vinci
http://www.davincilife.com/article4-davinci-painting-technique.html
