Leonardo da Vinci
He has always been regarded as one of the three great creators of the Renaissance of the 16th century. During this period there were many small but prosperous States in Italy ruled over by families who had grown affluent from trade, banking, and commerce. The de Medici of Florance, the Borgias, the Skorzas of Milan, etc. were well-known families and houses. They were great lovers and patrons of arts and architecture. These men and women of great aesthetic taste attracted great artists of all kinds. Italy became a great center of new ideas, innovations, culture, and good taste. and manners. People flocked to Florance, Venice, and Milan from all over Europe to learn new ideas and imbibe new styles.
Leonardo da Vinci was a contemporary of Perugino, Signorelli, Michael Angelo, and Raphel. But he was much senior to Michael and Raphel. He was a man of dynamic and multifaceted genius and his range of work and interest was so large and diffused as defied any limits. He almost discovered blood circulation, invented the first armored fighting vehicle, projected many aircraft and helicopters, and anticipated the submarine. But unfortunately, none of these discoveries and inventions were complete. He left behind thousands of brilliant and practicable ideas in the form of notes and diaries with sketches and drawings and a handful of excellent paintings. He really anticipated Galileo, Newton, Copernicus, Bacon, Harvey, etc. His genius was versatile, unique, and matchless. He was a great painter, sculptor, thinker, architect, engineer, natural philosopher, and a great visionary, all rolled into one.
Leonardo, one of the greatest luminaries, was born in 1542 at Venice, the illegitimate and out-of-wedlock son of a Florentine notary. His mother Caterina, a sixteen-year lady was the daughter of a peasant family. Name of his father was Piero da Vinci. Piero married another woman of a well-known family, but he brought. Leonardo at his home as a legitimate son. Leonardo spent his early years of childhood s on the family estate near Florance. He indulged in clay modeling and drawing at an early stage with certain perfection too much for his age. And so his father put him under Verrocchio, the Florentine artist. In no time he became a skilled painter and artist and began to help his master with his works. He is said to have painted the left-hand angel in his master’s “Baptism” as a result of it Verrocchio gave up painting " forever out of shame and stuck to sculpture only.
Thus, very soon Leonardo became an independent and famous artist. At Verrocchio’s studio, he came across another artist Boticelli and they became intimate friends. Unfortunately, most of Leonardo’s early master paintings are lost. Besides painting and sculpture, he studied optics, anatomy, botany, geography, and astronomy as extensions of the art. He regarded art and science as two aspects of the same coin, His thirst for knowledge and . reproduction of the beauties and marvels of nature was insatiable. In . the artistic atmosphere and environment of Florence his genius found full expression and fruition, By 1472, he had already become a Master in the Guild of Florence. He made many new experiments and broke new ground in the field of art.
He made a special study of fold structure, the interplay of light and shade to create something new, innovative, and different from the old school, He also studied human biology and physiology closely and visited hospitals, graveyards, churches, and busy marketplaces, He was a very keen observer of things and nothing worth its name escaped his notice. He also experimented with the technique of oil painting as is evident in the Madonna in Munich in which the minute detail of the dew drops on the crystal vase was so remarkable that they astounded his contemporary painters. His reputation as a master artist and painter was rapidly increasing as is evident from the fact that he was commissioned to paint a large “Adorations of the King” for the monks of S. Donato a Scopeto near Florence.
In about 1483 Leonardo moved to Milan to work for Lodovico Sforza, II Moro Duke of Milan. Lodovico or Ludovico, the Duke of Milan was a man Of great taste but also tyrannical and with ruthless ambition. He actually ruled as a regent for his nephew but made himself the real center of power and authority. He made alliances with Rodrigo Borgia and married a daughter of the powerful d’Este family -from Ferrara. He invited great artists to his court and Leonardo da Vinci was one of them. Perhaps Leonardo was recommended to him by Lorenzo de Medici. A draft letter addressed to Lodovico Sforza IH by Lodovico exists in which he offered his services to the former. In this letter, Leonardo claimed in detail to be a highly skilled military engineer ‘ and then concluded it by saying “In peace, I believe that I can give you as complete satisfaction as only one in the construction of buildings, both public and private... I can further execute sculpture in marble, bronze, or clay, and in painting, I can do as much as anyone, whoever he may be. Moreover, I would undertake the commission of the bronze horse, which will endow with immortal glory and eternal honor the auspicious memory of your father and of the illustrious house of Sforza.”
The stories of Leonardo’s slowness in working on his paintings are well known. Later it was interpreted in an altogether different light and he came to be regarded as the “originator of the idea of the artist ag a contemplative and creature thinker, the equal of the philosopher, and Dot a mere artisan who was paid to cover so many square yards of the wall a day. Certainly, all the 16th-century ideas on the dignity of artist can be traced back to the example set by him.” That is why there are only a few paintings that he actually completed and finished though he planned and sketched in a large number. It appears that he was never satisfied and did not consider any piece of art well done and finished with such high was his standard and expectations.
The French invasion of Milan in 1499 greatly disturbed Leonardo’s artistic life. He was obliged to leave Milan and return to Florence. During 1502-03 he was working as a military engineer for Caesar Borgia. It is during these years also that he undertook a lot of dissections and became an expert anatomist of his time. He also undertook the project of a gigantic wall painting showing Florentine Victories in the Council Chamber of the New Republic but again it was left unfinished. One of Leonardo’s few finished works is the famous portrait of the wife of a Florence official, known as Mona Lisa or La Gioconda. It was done during 1500-1504.
Leonardo regarded Mona Lisa as his masterpiece and never gave it and took it with him to France when invited there by king Francis 1. The king then bought the painting for 12 thousand francs and hung it in the Louvre, the national museum of art in Paris which contains one of the finest art collections in the world. It was built for Francis 1. He spent his last years in France, at Cloux near Amboise in a chateau given by the king. His last years were mainly spent on scientific projects. It is said that his last painting was done in 1517 before he moved to France. It was the “S. John” (Louvre, Paris). A treatise on paintings written on the basis of Leonardo's notes was published in 1651. The finest collection of his drawings is in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, London, situated on the River Thames. He died on May 12, 1519, at the age of 68.
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