1. LEONARDO DA VINCI
Leonardo di Ser Piero da Vinci was one of the great
masters of the Renaissance, famous as a painter,
sculptor, architect, engineer, and scientist. His deep
love of knowledge and research was the key to both
his artistic and scientific behaviors, he marveled at the
idea of flying and was the predecessor of such
inventions as the helicopter, the parachute and the
glider. He also invented scissors, the printing press,
and the diving suit; in addition to artifacts from the
war.
Leonardo was born in 1452 in the Tuscan villa of Vinci,
the son of a peasant woman and a notary, who would
have 11 children (all boys) in total. His insatiable
curiosity manifested itself as a child: he was already
drawing mythological animals, hybrids between
reality and fantasy.
The first pictorial work of Leonardo Da Vinci is a terracotta plaque dating from 1471 that
represents a young Archangel Gabriel and could even be a self-portrait of the Renaissance
genius, the renowned expert Ernesto Solari announced Thursday.
Leonardo made this drawing, considered a self-portrait of the artist, during his stay in Milan
around 1512. Francesco del Giocondo was widowed twice and in 1495 he married a young
woman named Lisa. The Mona Lisa's posture indicates serenity and, together with the sideways
look, but direct towards the viewer, shows the mastery of feelings, something that was not
normally attributed to a woman at that time.
He was undoubtedly the representative of one of the greatest artistic contexts in history: the
**Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci was able to capture humanism like no one else and was key
to the development of artistic and technological progress thanks to the influences of the famous
Vitruvian Man.
