LEONARDO DA VINCI - Born 1452, Died 1519. Leonardo da Vinci
was one of the greatest inventor-scientist of recorded history. His genius was
unbounded by time and technology, and was driven by his insatiable curiosity,
and his intuitive sense of the laws of nature.
Da Vinci was
dedicated to discovery of truth and the mysteries of nature, and his insightful
contributions to science and technology were legendary. As the archetypical
Renaissance man, Leonardo helped set an ignorant and superstitous world on a
course of reason, science, learning, and tolerance. He was an internationally
renowned inventor, scientists, engineer, architect, painter, sculptor,
musician, mathematician, anatomist, astronomer, geologists, biologist, and
philosopher in his time.
Born in 1452 as an
illegitimate son of Ser piero da Vinci, da Vinci was sent to Florence in his
teens to apprentice as a painter under Andrea del Verrocchio. He quickly
developed his own artistic style which was unique and contrary to tradition,
even going so far as to devised his own special formula of paint. His style was
characterized by diffuse shadows and subtle hues and marked the beginning of
the High Renaissance period. Like many great original efforts, da Vinci's
artistic style was largely unpopular for the next quarter century.
Later Da Vinci
became the court artist for the duke of Milan. Throughout his life he also
served various other roles, including civil engineer and architect, and
military planner and weapons designer (designing rudimentary tanks, catapults,
machine guns, and even navel weapons). Da Vinci's creative, analytic, and
visionary inventiveness has yet to be matched.
Da Vinci's most well-known painting, and arguably the most famous painting in the world, the "Mona Lisa," was a privately commissioned work and was completed sometime between 1505 and 1507. The "Mona Lisa" is a picture of Lisa Gioconda, the real-life wife of a merchant, but that's far from certain. the "Mona Lisa" was forever a work in progress, as it was his attempt at perfection.
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