Leonardo da Vinci A true Renaissance man

A jack-of-all-trades

• A sculptor

• A painter

• A designer

• A scientist

• A visionary

• Born in 1452 in Vinci about 60 miles from Florence

• At 15 he was taken to Florence to be an apprentice

• Apprentice: someone who lived with & worked for another for a specified period, in return for instruction in a trade or craft

• He learned painting, designing & sculpting under the master

• He spent long hours copying drawings to become familiar with the master's style

• He surpassed his master fairly quickly ... An artist of rare ability!

• Legendary story ....• At the age of 20, he opened his own workshop

Master of all trades: The Milan years

• The duke of Milan found an engineer, a painter, an architect and a sculptor in Leonardo

• Painted the "Last Supper" for a prior on the wall of a monastery (prior: person or officer in charge of a priory or monastery)

• Why did it take so long?

• Why has the fresco deteriorated?

Science, art & war

• Designed: a device that allowed a person to study an eclipse without damaging the eyes, the 1st parachute, a model city, and instruments.

• Studied math because he believed it was the foundation of art.

• Observed nature, drawing & recording

After Milan• After France captured Milan in

1499, he moved to Mantua & then to Florence

• Painted the "Mona Lisa"

• Viewers are mesmerized by the gaze and smile. What was she thinking?

• Returned to Milan and turned science as well as art.

• Worked for Pope Leo X in Rome

• Moved to France to work for King Francis I

Renaissance man• He only finished a dozen paintings & no sculpture

• Lots of detailed & accurate drawings of human body & mechanical devices

• 5,000 pages of sketches from notebooks

• He may not have been the best painter, sculptor, engineer or thinker of his time ... But no one has ever combined all these skills into one calling!

• That makes him a true Renaissance man.