Leonardo da Vinci - Term Paper Example

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is an Italian artist and possibly the most versatile genius who ever lived. Leonardo was born in Tuscany in 1452, as an illegitimate son of Piero da Vinci and a peasant girl (“Rennaisance Man,” n.p.). Leonardo was the embodiment of what came to be called Renaissance man – one skilled in wide range of activities. His field of research included anatomy, botany, hydraulics, engineering, mathematics, and philosophy, as well as sculpture and painting. Among the first teacher of Leonardo was Andrea de Verrocchio in Florence; and Leonardo’s first big breaks was painting the “Baptism of Christ” (“Rennaisance Man,” n.p.). Little is known about Leonardo’s early studies in painting and sculpture, at which he seems to have worked with as much earnest endeavor and interest as his studies in natural sciences. At the age of 20, Leonardo became a member of the Painter’s Guild of Florence, then one of the most notable organizations of the age. The dates and facts concerning his early work are as few and as doubtful as the information as his youthful studies. Although it is certain that Leonardo was Your Last Name 2 already a master painter in 1478 and that Leonardo was then employing others in the business of producing pictures. It is known though that later on, Leonardo was requested by the Signorina of Florence to paint a certain picture for the Saint Bernard Chapel, in the Public Palace, but what this picture was or whether any of those put forward as it are really the picture in question. By 1482, Leonardo acted as the specially commissioned bearer of a present from the famous Lorenzo il Moro, ruler of Milan (Illustrated Dictionary of Essential Knowledge, p.195). The present itself indicates the favor in which Da Vinci was regarded at court. It was a strangely constructed, yet beautifully sounding instrument which the young ambassador had himself invented and upon which he played with great skill and wondrous sweetness. This mission proved to be one of the most eventful undertakings in Leonardo’s life, since it was destined to connect Leonardo. The ruler of Milan valued Leonardo not as a painter but as an engineer and general manager. It was in Milan that Leonardo began painting extensively. Leonardo also wrote an important work on painting, which showed a wonderful knowledge of the art. This, it is said was intended to as a guide and mentor for his own numerous pupils. After Milan, Da Vinci went to Venice and devoted two years of his life there in art. Then Leonardo went back to Florence where he seems to have received great favor from the church and artist fraternity (Illustrated Dictionary of Essential Knowledge, p.195). Leonardo da Vinci secured numerous important commissions from churches and monasteries; and some of the work that Leonardo executed in this connection, and the designs he drew for others to paint from created a great impression upon Your Last Name 3 the artist of his days. Leonardo’s artworks were consequently copied and extensively imitated, not only in Italy but also in Latin countries. One of the most remarkable works of Leonardo during his time is the painting of the Madonna and Saint Catherine in the Louvre. Leonardo also painted the “Madonna of the Rocks” also known as the “Madonna of the Grotto” shows the Virgin and child together with the infant St. John the Baptist and an angel. Another work is known as the “Annunciation” which is known to be one of Leonardo’s early works (“Leonardo da Vinci,” p.98). Mona Lisa or Monna Lisa in other books, is a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, third wife of Francesco del Giocondo, painted by Leonardo da Vinci possibly between 1500 and 1504, although some critics date it between 1503 and 1506. The painting also known as La Gioconda, is a half-length, life-size portrait on a canvas 30”x20”. Francis I was said to have bought it a few years after its completion for 4,000 scudi, an equivalent of about$8,000 (“Leonardo da Vinci,” p.99). It remained at Fontainebleau until it was removed to Versailles by Louis XIV, probably after 1694, and the portrait was not exhibited at the Louvre, where it now hangs, until the French Revolution. The portrait disappeared on the morning of August 21, 1911, when Vencenzo Peruggia, an Italian painter who was frequently employed at the Louvre, removed the canvass and kept it in a closet of his room. On December 12, 1913, Vencenzo Peruggia took the canvass to an art dealer in Florence who noticed the police. After a short exhibition at the Uffizi Gallery, the portrait of Mona Lisa was returned to the Louvre unchanged. During World War I and II, the painting was put in storage for safekeeping, and was again returned to the center gallery in Your Last Name 4 October 1947. The portrait has not been well preserved (“Leonardo da Vinci,” p.100). Mona Lisa was the most celebrated portrait that Leonardo da Vinci has done. It is one of the few works that Leonardo completed. This portrait broke ground by portraying the subject’s features with more naturalism and more subtlety than had been previously been achieved. It is said that the numerous years Leonardo spent in the painting of Mona Lisa were constant strivings to catch the fleeting manifestations of the secret soul of his attractive and winsome subject (“Leonardo da Vinci,” p.100). There are two Mona Lisa’s attributed by experts to Leonardo da Vinci, neither of which is a copy of the other. Since no original sketch exists for Mona Lisa, it is not thought improbable that Da Vinci first painted one portrait directly on canvass before working on the final copy. The Isleworth version, in England, is admitted by many to be more beautiful than the Louvre painting. It is thought to be the final, unfinished portrait since it is much richer in shading and tone, and is probably the one from which Raphael made his famous sketch (“Leonardo da Vinci,” p.100). In Leonardo’s Mona Lisa painting, almost all the details of this particular portrait have en disputed (Traston, n.p.). Although Lisa Gherardini has been traditionally accepted as the sitter, Adolfo Venturi, the Italian art critic, in the Encyclopedia Italiana, believes that the sitter was Constanza d’Avalos; while others maintain that it is not a portrait at all (Illustrated Dictionary of Essential Knowledge, p.196). Few dates in Da Vinci’s life are certain, and the dates of his painting are often estimated from the developments of his style in coordination with scanty Your Last Name 5 biographical data. Giorgio Vasari, an Italian art historian who wrote within a few years of Da Vinci’s death, states that the picture was in process for four years, but criticism awoke in the Romantic period, for this painting appealed to the sensuous rather than the rational nature. Walter Pater, in contrast to Vasari’s appreciation of the artist’s technique, expressed his criticism in his essay The Rennaisance: From Childhood we see this image defining itself in th fabric of his dreams; and but for the express historical testimony, we might think that this was but his ideal lady, embodied and beheld at last writing as “It is a beauty wrought out from within upon the flesh, the deposit, cell by cell,, of strange thoughts and fantastic reveries and exquisite passions…she is older than the rocks amongst which she sits; like the vampire, she has been dead many times, and learned the secrets of the grave…” (“Mona Lisa,” p.335). Much has been written about the Mona Lisa’s smile, but many critics find nothing unusual about it. Pater notes that “the unfathomable smile, always with a touch of something sinister in it” was a technique that Leonardo da Vinci’s master, Verrocchio, which had been copied many times (“Mona Lisa,” p.335). Others would say that Mona Lisa is not really a name, rather, Mona is just s short term for Madonna, which is commonly used in Italy; it means 'my lady' and that the name Mona Lisa was just a result of an error because the true name is said to be Monna Lisa (Traston, n.p.). Moreover, the reason that it became so famously known by other great painters was because of the incident that the painting was rumored to have gotten stolen, but retrieved again and placed Your Last Name 6 back in the Louvre. Whether or not all these are true, Leonardo da Vinci’s name ahs already been written in history books, and it will remain there for centuries more to come. Bibliography Traston, M. "Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci."EzineArticles.com. 30 April 2009. . “Leonardo da Vinci.” Illustrated Dictionary of Essential Knowledge. Reader’s Digest. The Reader’s Digest Association Limited: London; 1995. "Renaissance Man." Museum of Science. 30 April 2009. . “Leonardo da Vinci.” Encyclopedia Americana. Volume 28, pp. 98-100. U.S.A.: Encyclopedia Americana Corporation,1975. “Mona Lisa.” Encyclopedia Americana. Volume 19, pp. 334-335. U.S.A.: Encyclopedia Americana Corporation,1975. Read More