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Course: Europe 1300 - 1800 > Unit 4
Lesson 3: Leonardo da Vinci- About Leonardo
- Letter to the Duke of Milan
- Leonardo: Anatomist - by Nature Video
- Leonardo and his drawings
- Virgin of the Rocks
- Virgin of the Rocks
- Adoration of the Magi
- “Vitruvian Man”
- Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist (Burlington House Cartoon)
- The Last Supper
- The Last Supper
- The Last Supper
- Mona Lisa
- Mona Lisa
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Leonardo and his drawings
Born near the town of Vinci in 1452, Leonardo trained in the Florentine workshop of Andrea Verrocchio (1435-88). His first masterpiece was the unfinished Adoration of the Magi (1481, Uffizi, Florence). In 1481-2 he travelled to Milan to work for the Duke, where he painted the Virgin of the Rocks (Musée du Louvre, Paris-a later version exists in the National Gallery, London) and the Last Supper (1495-7; Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie (Refectory), Milan). In 1499 he travelled to Mantua and Venice, arriving back in Florence in 1500.
In 1503 he began the cartoon of the Battle of Anghiari with its scenes of ferocious fighting for the wall in the Great Council Chamber of the Palazzo Vecchio, but this work was never completed. He returned to Milan in 1506 for seven years and in 1513 he moved to Rome. The French king, Francis I, invited him to his court and about 1516, Leonardo settled in the manor of Cloux, near Amboise in the Loire valley. Leonardo died there in 1519.
Leonardo is arguably the greatest draughtsman in Western art. He was technically superb in whichever medium he used: silverpoint, pen and ink, black and particularly red chalks. Driven by his scientific curiosity, he studied the world around him in minutest detail, making botanical and anatomical studies. In his drawings and paintings he created figures which lived, breathed, moved and gave expression to their emotions.
This is one of a number of sheets of drawings by Leonardo in which he designed instruments of war. He drew them while working for Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan (1494–99). Under each drawing in ink and brown wash, Leonardo has written words of explanation in his characteristic reversed writing (that is it needs to be read in a mirror).
At the top of the sheet is a chariot with scythes on all sides. Below it Leonardo has written: "when this travels through your men, you will wish to raise the shafts of the scythes so that you will not injure anyone on your side." At lower left is an upturned armored car without its roof, showing "the way the car is arranged inside" with the line "eight men operate it and the same men turn the car and pursue the enemy." At lower right, the same tank-like vehicle is shown moving and firing its guns, with the line below: "this is good for breaking the ranks, but you will want to follow it up." At the far right is a more conventional weapon of the time, a large pike or halberd, perhaps more ceremonial than practical.
Leonardo's fertile imagination and scientific knowledge are here combined in the creation of war machines for his warlike patron. It is highly unlikely, however, that any of these machines were ever made or used in contemporary warfare. Indeed, as Leonardo himself wrote in his Notebooks, such new weapons were often as dangerous to their users as to the enemy.
Suggested readings:
M. Kemp and J. Roberts, Leonardo da Vinci (Hayward Gallery, London, 1989).
A.E. Popham and P. Pouncey, Italian Drawings in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum: Raphael and His Circle (London, The British Museum Press, 1950).
M. Kemp, Leonardo da Vinci (London, J.M. Dent & Sons, 1981).
© Trustees of the British Museum
Want to join the conversation?
- Define what is meant by cartoon in this era?(8 votes)
- A cartoon is a drawing done -- usually in full scale -- in preparation for a piece to be rendered later using some other art medium like oil, tempera, fresco, and even stained glass or mosaic.(15 votes)
- From what I have just read above, Leonardo and Michelangelo had co-operated to paint an enormous battle scene Battle of Cascina. Is there any link to read about that painting more clearly?(8 votes)
- I wonder if Leonardo's reversed handwriting offers any insights into how his brain worked? I seem to remember reading that Charles Peirce (another genius) also wrote backwards. Clearly, their brains worked differently than most people's.(5 votes)
- It was formerly supposed that daVinci wrote in mirror image to prevent others from being able to read his notes but a more recent theory is that since he was a lefty, it was easier for him to write "backwards" - remember that he was writing with a quill and lefties tend to drive the point of a pen into the paper instead of dragging it along the surface like righties. Also, by writing in reverse, he wouldn't have smeared the wet ink as his hand moved across the parchment.(10 votes)
- how did he draw the veins in the correct way, did he use any diagram of the human system internally ?(2 votes)
- It is a believed, and heavily supported, idea that Leonardo did dissections - so he most likely have done observational drawings for himself. This is also how he did some accurate drawings of the heart and other bodily features - though not all his drawing are scientifically accurate to today's standards.(3 votes)
- I am astonisted Leonardo work how dose he think these idea?(2 votes)
- did he wrote the materials for the deadly weapons?(1 vote)
- does the vitruvian man have any relation to the vitruvian canon of roman architecture?(1 vote)
- What materials did Leonard use for his drawings?(1 vote)
- According to the article, "...he used: silverpoint, pen and ink, black and particularly red chalks."(1 vote)
- was this created before for war?(1 vote)
- so what are some well known drawings(not paintings) that da Vinci has drew?(1 vote)
- Probably the most well known and recognizable drawing of Leonardo Da Vinci is the so-called Vitruvian Man (sometimes also called "the Proportional Man"). You have surely come across it printed onto various items such as notebooks, tee-shirts, posters etc.
See here to learn more about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man(1 vote)