Leonardo_Da_Vinci_-_a_New_Kind_of_Art

Debra Carroll UNV-104 October 22, 2011 Henry (Chip) Hellman LEONARDO DA VINCI – A NEW KIND OF ART Leonardo da Vinci was, among many other things, an extremely noteworthy artist of the Italian Renaissance who was an innovation in style and technique. He describes the first picture in the world as "a line surrounding the shadow of a man, cast by the sun on the wall" so it could be said that Leonardo da Vinci’s gift was helping to turn that simple form of art into an expression of emotion combined with a truer reproduction of form (da Vinci tr. by Baring, 1906). Although Leonardo da Vinci had the aptitude for a number of other skills (sculptor, architect, musician, draftsman, engineer, and scientist), the focus here will be on what applied to his skill as a painter. He was born an illegitimate offspring, on April 15, 1452, of a Florentine Notary named Piero da Vinci with a young peasant woman, Caterina. Leonardo grew up in his father’s home developing a lifelong appreciation of nature, and also showing a notable skill in artistry. Due to his obvious talent, in 1466 he was sent to Florence to study under one of the most celebrated Italian sculptors of that time, Andrea Del Verrocchio. During this training in the arts of painting, sculpture, and mechanical arts, he is said to have painted the angel and part of the landscape of Verrocchio’s Baptism of Christa. Also during this period, he came into direct contact with several young and later recognized artists such as Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, and Lorenzo di Credi. Leonardo was able to register in the Painters’ Guild in 1472 and his wonderful but unfinished work, Adoration of the Magib was contracted by the monks of San Donato a Scopeto. This work displayed his first use of chiaroscuro (The Columbia Encyclopedia, 2008) which was a new use of light and shade in a picture that aided Leonardo in more clearly depicting emotional expression in his subjects. He didn’t feel any picture was complete unless it was able to effectively portray a subject’s current emotional state. After making a name for himself in Florence, in 1482 he went to work for the Duke of Milan (Ludovico Sforza) for sixteen years as a military/naval engineer, a sculptor, and a painter. During this time he composed the majority of a large part of his personal notebooks that show the full degree of his artistic genius and personal versatility (The Columbia Encyclopedia, 2008). From 1483 to 1498, Leonardo worked on the two versions of Madonna of the Rocksc (one in the Louvre, 1483-c.1486, and another in the National Gallery, London, 1483-1508) and a fresco of the Last Supperd, both of which considered world masterpieces (The Columbia Encyclopedia, 2008). After the fall of Ludovico Sforza in 1499, Leonardo left Milan and briefly traveled to Mantua and Venice, and then returned to Florence in 1500. In 1502 he served Cesare Borgia as a military engineer which took him to central Italy to study swamp reclamation projects; here he met Niccolo Machiavelli who later became a close friend. By 1503 he went back to Florence to work on a fresco of the battle of Anghiarie and the portrait of Mona Lisaf. In 1506, Leonardo returned to Milan to work for Charles d’Amboise in the name of the French king, Louis XII as an architect and engineer. Combined with his other studies, he continued searching for a scientific connection to art (Baring, 1906), and worked actively as a painter and sculptor; this work left a strong example of Leonardo’s handling of sfumoto which is a misty, subtle transition in tone. In 1515 Leonardo accepted an invitation of Francis I to settle at the castle of Cloux where he continued in his own fascinating and varied researches until his death in 1519 (The Columbia Encyclopedia, 2008). Leonardo da Vinci’s constant attempts in discovering the anatomical formation and how each piece fit together, his experiments in shading, coloration, and even the actual perspective of his paintings (“birds-eye view) are what added to the depth of his artistic achievements. These are his creations and are what makes his paintings more than simple reproduction (Xavier, 2008). His genius was in finding ways to make people feel his art as well as see it. References Vinci, Leonardo da. tr. Baring, Maurice (1906). Thoughts on art and life by leonardo da vinci. Introduction, Retrieved September 18, 2011, from http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29904/29904-h/29904-h.htm Vinci, Leonardo da. (2009). In Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://library.gcu.edu:2048/login'qurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.credoreference.com/entry/ebconcise/leonardo_da_vinci Vinci, Leonardo da. (2008). In The Columbia Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://library.gcu.edu:2048/login'qurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.credoreference.com/entry/columency/leonardo_da_vinci Vinci, Leonardo da. – The Complete Works. Copyright © 2002-2011, from Creative Commons License. Retrieved October 21, 2011, from http://www.leonardoda-vinci.org Xavier, J. (2008). Leonardo's Representational Technique for Centrally-Planned Temples. Nexus Network Journal, 10(1), 77-99.  Retrieved October 8, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 1898972571). http://library.gcu.edu:2048/login'url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb'did=1898972571&Fmt=6&clientId=48377&RQT=309&VName=PQD