2. EARLY LIFE
• A major figure of the fifteenth -century high renaissance , became one of the most eminent
painters and most variously accomplished geniuses the world has ever seen .Besides being one of
greatest Italian masters of painting , sculpture and architecture who ever lived ,he was a talented
engineer and a pioneer investigators in the natural sciences .His portrait Mona Lisa and his
religious scene Last Supper rank among the most significant and influential masterpieces in the
history of painting.
• He was often called as universal genius because of his excellency in an astonishing number of
areas .With his new techniques and perceptions Leonardo da Vinci rid paintings of many old
medieval , traditionalist thoughts .He changed attitudes and resurrected beauty in a time and
place of mostly traditional minds bereft of visual stimulation. Leonardo's figures ,man or animal
,his botanical illustrations , flowers or trees ; and his innovative methods of chiaroscuro or
shading , influenced the most important artist's for years after his death .
3. ……..
• Historians are not sure where Leonardo was born. Most agree his birth in1452 occurred at
Anchiano, close to the village of Vinci, near Florence in the .Historians agree, however, that
Leonardo was the illegitimate son of Ser Pieroda Vinci, a legal specialist (notary), and a
peasant girl named Caterina. Presumably Ser Piero’s family raised the child in their home and
trained him as a painter.
• It is believed he developed his lifelong interests in nature as a child while(dates
differ with accounts), when he was about 13, he became an apprentice at the
Fraternity of St. Luke in Florence to Florentine painter, goldsmith, and sculptor
Andrea del Verrocchio (c. 1435–1488). Verrocchio, a resourceful, well- known
quattrocento (1400s) sculptor and painter in Florence, evidently never dictated
the directions of Leonardo’s brush.
4. • Although accounts vary as to Leonardo’s guidance, Ser Piero, his father, prob- ably made the
arrangements for his education. According to biographer Giorgio Vasari, “Piero one day took
some of Leonardo’s drawings along to Andrea del verrocchio and earnestly begged him to say
whether it was profitable for the boy to study design .Andrea was amazed ....and urged Piero to
make him study the subject .While working in the studio Leornardo met Florentine painter Sandro
Botticeli and fresco painter Domencio Ghirlandaio who had at one time Michelangelo as an
apprentice
• As art historian Vasari reported the following circumstances regarding this painting: Verrocchio
had already done the main work. Leonardo painted an angel who was holding some garments;
and despite his youth, he executed it in such a manner that his angel was far better that the
figures painted by Verrocchio. This was the reason why Andrea would never touch colors again,
he was so ashamed that a boy understood their use better than he did. ”
5.
6. • He also executed numerous architectural drawings both of
ground plans and of other elevations. He made plaster
casts of each one. Moreover, while still very young his
engineering surfaced He also executed numerous
architectural very young, his engineering propensities
surfaced. He proposed, for example, reducing the Arno River
to a navigable canal between Pisa and Florence. No one
before him had thought of this. Continuing interest in
engineering, he drew de- signs for mills and engines that
could be driven by water power.
7.
8. THE ANNUNCIATION c 1470s
• The first work of the twenty-year-old master, The Annunciation is not yet what one would call
Leonardesque. The composition follows a centuries-old model with the angel on the left, the
Virgin on the right, and a lectern in between; the whole depicted in an architectural setting that
opens out onto a landscape. The kneeling angel is magnificently youthful with his high forehead,
stylized wings, rich clothing, and lily. The Virgin, surprised while reading, raises her hand in a
gesture of astonishment, and displays a fine-featured face which some have described as cold.
Her pose, with knees evenly spread and covered with broad and supple drapery, gives her a
strong monumental character.
• Verrocchio used lead-based paint and heavy brush strokes. He left a note for Leonardo to finish
the background and the angel. Leonardo used light brush strokes and no lead. When the
Annunciation was x-rayed, Verrocchio's work was evident while Leonardo's angel was invisible.
9. • The product of collaborative efforts in Verrocchiio's studio, this
picture is nonetheless a masterful achievement and proof of
Leonardo da Vinci's innate pictorial talent. Everything in this work is
of a high poetic and stylistic quality: the handling of the figures and
their attributes, the spatial construction, and the distant trees and
watercourse, which attest to the artist's enduring love of nature.
Many changes were to come in his painting, for Leonardo da Vinci
was a tireless innovator, but this picture would suffice to rank him
among the greatest.
10.
11. THE VIRGIN OF ROCKS ,1483
• The Virgin of the Rocks (sometimes The Madonna of the Rocks) is the name used for two
Leonardo da Vinci's paintings, of the same subject, and of a composition which is identical except
for two significant details. One painting usually hangs in the Louvre, Paris, and the other in the
National Gallery, London. Both paintings show the Madonna and Christ Child with the infant John
the Baptist and an angel, in a rocky setting which gives the paintings their usual name.
• The significant compositional differences are in the gaze and right hand of the angel. There are
many minor ways in which the works differ, including the colours, the lighting, the flora, and the
way in which sfumato has been used. Although the date of an associated commission is
documented, the complete histories of the two paintings are unknown, and lead to speculation
about which of the two is earlier.
• In The Virgin of the Rocks, the laws are nature's but the final creation Leonardo's. And he here
defies the natural in many ways that cut across previous artistic assumptions. The result is organic
rather than intellectual .
12.
13. THE LAST SUPPER ,1498
• In 1495, Leonardo da Vinci began what would become one of history's most influential works of
art - The Last Supper .The Last Supper is Leonardo's visual interpretation of an event chronicled in
all four of the Gospels (books in the Christian New Testament). The evening before Christ was
betrayed by one of his disciples, he gathered them together to eat, tell them he knew what was
coming and wash their feet (a gesture symbolizing that all were equal under the eyes of the Lord).
As they ate and drank together, Christ gave the disciples explicit instructions on how to eat and
drink in the future, in remembrance of him. It was the first celebration of the Eucharist, a ritual
still performed.
• Leonardo balanced the perspective construction of the Last Supper so that its vanishing point is
immediately behind Christ's right temple, pointing to the physical location of the center, or sensus
communis, of his brain. By pulling a string in radial directions from this point, he marked the table
ends, floor lines, and orthogonal edges of the six ceiling coffer columns. From the right and/or left
edge of the horizon line, he drew diagonal lines up to the coffer corners, locating points for the
horizontal lines of the 12 coffer rows.
14.
15. • Leonardo was well known for his love of symmetry. In his Last Supper, the layout is largely
horizontal. The large table is seen in the foreground of the image with all of the figures behind it.
The painting is largely symmetrical with the same number of figures on either side of Jesus.
• The Last Supper is a very popular religious scene painted by many celebrated artists. Unlike artists
before and after him, Leonardo da Vinci chose not to put halos on Jusus Christ. Many art
historians believe that Leonardo da Vinci believe in nature, not in God. To Leonardo, nature is
God, so he treated every character in the fresco as common people.
16.
17. MONA LISA c 1503-1513
• Mona Lisa, also known as La Gioconda, is the wife of Francesco del Giocondo. This painting is
painted as oil on wood. The original painting size is 77 x 53 cm (30 x 20 7/8 in) and is owned by
the Government of France and is on the wall in the Louvre in Paris, France.
• This figure of a woman, dressed in the Florentine fashion of her day and seated in a visionary,
mountainous landscape, is a remarkable instance of Leonardo's sfumato technique of soft, heavily
shaded modeling. The Mona Lisa's enigmatic expression, which seems both alluring and aloof, has
given the portrait universal fame.
• The Mona Lisa's famous smile represents the sitter in the same way that the juniper branches
represent Ginevra Benci and the ermine represents Cecilia Gallerani in their portraits, in
Washington and Kra
18. • Leonardo made this notion of happiness the central motif of the portrait: it is this notion that
makes the work such an ideal. The nature of the landscape also plays a role. The middle distance,
on the same level as the sitter's chest, is in warm colors know respectively.
• The painting was among the first portraits to depict the sitter before an imaginary landscape and
Leonardo was one of the first painters to use aerial perspective. The enigmatic woman is
portrayed seated in what appears to be an open loggia with dark pillar bases on either side.
Behind her, a vast landscape recedes to icy mountains. Winding paths and a distant bridge give
only the slightest indications of human presence.
• In the Renaissance which brought together all human activities, art meant science, art meant
truth to life: Leonardo da Vinci was a great figure because he embodied the epic endeavor of
Italian art to conquer universal values: he who combined within himself the fluctuating sensitivity
of the artist and the deep wisdom of the scientist, he, the poet and the master.
19.
20. FURTHER ACCOMPLISMENT
• In spite of paintings and drawings and being busy simultaneously with several different projects
,Leonardo made plans for numerous supporting devices ,models and , and even directions for
parting gold from silver. He kept notes on architecture, specifically columns and capitals, and on
making aquafortis (nitric acid).According to Vasari, “he used to make models and plans showing
how to excavate and tunnel through mountains . . . and he demonstrated how to lift and draw
great weights by means of levers, hoists, and winches and ways of cleansing harbors and using
pumps to suck up water from great depths” (Vasari
• In addition, he planned an ideal city. Crowded and horribly unclean, fifteenth- century
Italian cities bred some of the world’s most dangerous diseases. Modern in its
consideration of hygiene and attention to population density, conceived on two levels
connected by ramps and stairs, Leonardo’s ideal city was ultra- modern for its time.
Within the city, living areas occupy the top, and lower levels not only serve traffic but
also include canals for sewage disposal. His innovations included plans to solve health
problems such as cholera suffered by crowded cities. His awareness of the necessity of
clean water and sun-exposed areas surpassed any planners of the day.
21. • Furthermore, with an interest in the human body, he studied the processes of reproduction,
digestion, breathing, and all the internal organs. Studying the heart, he became aware of the
circulation of the blood, although he never concluded his investigation to understand it
completely. He also studied the development of the fetus in the womb and the birth of an infant.
Using red chalk and pen and ink, he made meticulously detailed sketches of legs showing bones
and tendons. He always carried such experiments to the furthest extremes. For example,
according to Frederick Hartt, “Leonardo compared the behavior of the muscles overlying the
bones of the human leg to that of ropes, as if, in his combined scientific and creative studies, he
could make a machine that would function like a human being” (Hartt, p. 435).
• One of the most unusual aspects of Leonardo’s genius was the extreme at- tempt he made to
examine perfect modeling. He searched endlessly for the flaw- less inky shadow
22. • Leonardo ,a good and warm heated person comforted the most troubled soul. A kind, though
adamant philosopher, he frequently persuaded people to embrace his ideas Physically strong, he
could bend the iron ring of a horseshoe with his right hand as if it were no more than soft lead.
He was generous to a fault. He fed and took care of all his friends, rich or poor, provided they had
talent or attracted him with their looks.
• Throughout his life Leonardo made copious notes on painting. As early as1651 his followers
published a treatise from his notes. Also, in 1965 historians discovered two of his lost notebooks
in the National Library of Spain in Madrid. The first notebook treats technological principles. The
second is an intellectual diary written over a period of 14 years. In 1974 both notebooks were
published as The Madrid Codices.
23. DEATH
• Finally, in old age, sick for a long time, knowing he would die,
Leonardo turned to the Catholic church. For the first time in his life,
having painted the Madonna and her Child numerous times, he
wanted to learn all he could about the Catholic religion. After this, he
confessed and repented. Although too weak to stand up, supported
by friends, a priest gave him the Blessed Sacrament. Leonardo da
Vinci, age 67, died at Cloux, near Am- broise, Italy, on May 2, 1519.
24. Bibliography
• Irene Earls_ Leonardo da Vinci
• HALL JAMES.DICTIONARY OF SUBJECTS AND SYMBOLS ; OXFORD
,WESTVIEW PRESS,1979 .
• VASARI GIORGIO. LIVE OF THE ARTIST .BALTIMORE :PENGUIN 1979
• Leonardodavinci.net
