Artist

The year 1469 marks the time when Leonardo da Vinci began his life as an artist. He was then sent by his his father to the legendary workshop of Andrea del Verocchio in Florence. Leonardo soon mastered drawing skills. In fact, he quickly surpassed Verocchio, and by the time he was in his early twenties - his fame was wide. In 1472 he painted the kneeling angels in Verocchio's "The Baptism of Christ", thus shadowing the master himself...

Leonardo remained in Florence until 1482). He then created another 3 works of art: The Adoration of the Magi, The Annunciation, St. Jerome. At that time his technical talents reveal themselves and result in a number of drawings with machines, weapons and fortifications. The Milanese period (1483 - 1499) is related to Leonardo's work in the service of the city's duke Lodovico Sforza. The paintings of that period include: "Lady with an Ermine", "The Virgin of the Rocks", "The Last Supper" as well as architectural designs: models for the dome of the Milan cathedral and palace plans.

On his return to Florence (1500 - 1506) Leonardo worke on sketches for the painting: "The Virgin and Child with St. Anne", "The Mona Lisa" and sketches for the mural: "The Battle of Anghiari". The second Milanese period (1506 - 1513) is the time of intensive research on human anatomy. The works ascribed to this period are numerous drawings such as: the second version of "The Virgin of Rocks", "The Virgin and Child with St. Anne", "St. John the Baptist", "Bachus" oraz "Leda and the Swan".

While seeking a universal language in painting, Leonardo employed perspective and other realistic elements to depict life in a most faithful manner. Such desire to present things realistically was downright innovative at the time and was afterwards adopted as an objectivity standard by painters in the 16th century.

Very skilfull at the techniques of the day, Leonardo went further to conduct a scientific study of light and shadow in nature. He discovered that objects did not consist of outlines, but were actually three-dimensional bodies defined by light and shadow. As a result of the technique referred to as chiaroscuro, his paintings acquired a soft, lifelike quality.

Having studied they way an object's detail and color changed while receding in the distance he also excellently developed the sfumato technique, thus being able to create unique atmosphere and depth on his paintings.

In his endless search for improvement and perfection, Leonardo turned to science. His stunningly realistic paintings reflected a careful study of nature and anatomy whereas the dissections of the human body led to creation of remarkably accurate figures. He was the pioneer in studying the physical proportions of men, women and children and using these studies to determine the "ideal" human figure.

Unlike many of his contemporaries - he was far from painting ludicrously muscular bodies, Leonardo believed that apart from the rules of perspective, the artist must know all the laws of nature. He considered the eye to be the perfect instrument for learning these laws, and the artist the perfect person to illustrate them.

Leonardo da Vinci in a most harmonious manner was able to combine the individuality of a great artist with remarkable knowledge of a scientist.

Scientist

The uniqueness of Leonardo the scientist consisted in his bridging the gap between the shockingly unscientific medieval methods and our own familiar modern approach. His experiments in anatomy and the study of fluids were utterly innovative in comparison to the achievements made by his predecessors.

His scientific investigations started in Milan and were intensified around 1505. The range of topics that came under his inquiry is unbelievably versatile: anatomy, zoology, botany, geology, optics, aerodynamics, hydrodynamics and others.

Though remaining under great influence of the works of the ancient Greeks and Romans, Leonardo, unlike many of his contemporaries, never limited himself to those. He actually observed nature and kept asking seemingly simple scientific questions, e.g. about the way birds fly and then presented the answers through his sketches. His observations revealed matchless perceptive skills and perfect reasoning abilities. What is more, his determination to examine, explore and draw conclusions was unimaginable.

When it comes to scientific study, Leonardo da Vinci also paved the way for new methods - the systematic and descriptive method of the natural sciences. That unquestionably innovative method prevailed well into the 19th century. In the notes accompanying his studies of human body, Leonardo pointed out that anatomy should not be dealt with by means of "tormentingly long-winded and confused styles". What he advocated was a precise portrayal from different perspectives. He was strongly in favour of the technique of reproducing things by printing.

Leonardo consequently used this method of scientific inquiry: close observation, repeated testing of the observation, precise illustration of the subject object or phenomenon with brief explanatory notes. As a result, the mankind inherited volumes of remarkable notes on an amazing variety of topics, from the nature of the sun, moon and stars to the formation of fossils and, perhaps most notably, the mysteries of flight.

Inventor

Even such genius like Leonardo had to make a living, so he had to employ his drawing skills for the purposes of more lucrative fields of architecture, military engineering, canal building and weapons design. He landed a job working for the Duke of Milan by calling himself a military engineer and bringing into light some of his sinister ideas for weapons and fortifications. Leonardo was really talented as an engineer. There were numerous good illustrators in Renaissance Italy, but, again, Leonardo left his contemporaries far behind in his determination to create "new machines" for a "new world".

Leonardo's brilliant ideas ranged from the practical to the prophetic. As military engineer and architect to Cesare Borgia, Leonardo proposed creating a dry route across the Gulf of Istanbul, connecting the Golden Horn and the Bosporus with a bridge. Unfortunately, like most great ideas, the bridge plan fell through as the engineers had not been able to face the challenge of such great undertaking. However, modern engineers have determined that the bridge would have been completely sound. Furthermore, they prove its construction would have been entirely feasible, which proves yet yet again that Leonardo was a genius indeed.

Measuring time was another source of fascination for Leonardo. What he found most interesting was the use of mechanical gears, and he truly enjoyed studying them. As a result, he invented plenty of different things, such as: a bicycle, a helicopter, an "auto-mobile", and some bizarre weapons. However, it was water - the ultimate source of power at that time - that constantly intrigued Leonardo. Having studied all possible forms of it - liquid, steam, ice - he came up with various ideas for making use of it.

He made plans for: a device to measure humidity, a steam-powered cannon, many different waterwheels, and numerous useful industrial machines powered by flowing water. He also devised some highly ambitious plans to revitalize Milan with canals, which he intended to implement with some equally ambitious construction machines. In fact, having embarked on the subject of water he kept inventing such peculiar things like: floating snowshoes to walk on water, breathing devices (including a diving hood) and webbed gloves to explore underwater, a life preserver to remain afloat, devices to attack and sink ships from underwater, and an "unsinkable" double-hulled ship and dredges for clearing harbors and channels.

Leonardo da Vinci is an everlasting source of inspiration. Forever encouraging to explore and go beyond the limits, his passion and dilligence is certainly an example to be followed.