Leonardo da Vinci: A Man of His Times or a Visionary - Assignment Example

 Leonardo da Vinci: A Man of His Times or a Visionary? Leonardo da Vinci is most commonly thought of as a great painter who lived during the time of the Italian Renaissance, making significant contributions to the world of art. He produced several material works of art that continue to be revered. His artistic techniques were recorded regarding his use of color and light to create more realistic, dimensional images on a flat surface. The word ‘Renaissance’ literally means ‘rebirth,’ but “the term ‘Renaissance’ might now be defined as a model of cultural history in which the culture of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe is represented as a repudiation of medieval values in favor of the revival of the culture of ancient Greece and Rome” (Campbell, 2004). The Renaissance period is characterized by a renewed focus on learning and knowledge. This renewed focus on learning and knowledge encouraged the curious Leonardo to explore all his interests in nature and life. Discovering how things work had fascinated him since he was a young boy in the Italian countryside. More than just painting, Leonardo displayed a particular genius in investigating many subjects, constantly learning, observing and making hypotheses that he would test out whenever he could. “His four main areas of study resulted in what are known as his Treatises, on painting, architecture, mechanics and human anatomy” (Mason, 2004: 21). To discover whether Leonardo was the thoroughly ‘modern man’ he has been claimed in the past or merely a product of his times, it is necessary to investigate these four areas of his career. Da Vinci revolutionized the artistic world with his explorations in color, light, landscapes and expression. He is considered the master of the sfumato technique as well as chiaroscuro. Sfumato is a word deriving from the Italian word for smoke and refers to a technique in which translucent layers of color are overlaid to create a perception of depth, volume and form in a painting by blending the colors to such a degree that there is no perceptible transition from one color to the next. Chiaroscuro refers to the subtle shading between light and dark areas that provide a figure with a three dimensional effect. Both of these techniques are used brilliantly in one of Leonardo’s most well-known portraits, the Mona Lisa. “His use of soft lines and colors created the illusion of movement which became the trademark of High Renaissance art” (Connor, 2006). It is for this reason that Leonardo is marked as the father of the high renaissance. However, he was only one of the many artists who were inspired by the use of light and technique in Botticelli’s paintings. In The Baptism of Christ, one can see the careful melding of Verrocchio (Leonardo’s teacher at the time), Leonardo and Botticelli. “Leonardo’s unique style was evident in his colorful painting of the angel on the left side of the painting. The rich and vibrant landscape in this painting is believed to be the contribution of Leonardo and … Botticelli” (Connor, 2006). In exploring new ways of achieving more realistic and three dimensional effects in paint, Leonardo was simply following the signs of the times in which all artists were making this attempt. His techniques build upon the techniques of his masters while his experiments did not always fare so well. An example of this can be found in his famous painting The Last Supper. From his notes and early reports, the experimental blend of tempera and oil paints that Leonardo used in the painting were effective in delivering the depth and breadth of color ability he desired for the piece, but very quickly dulled and began flaking off the walls making it impossible for us to accurately determine just what Leonardo intended (Shea, 2006). Most of Leonardo’s architectural ideas were never carried out. His plans for a re-design of the city included a series of waterways that would function to keep the city streets clean. This plan included a series of locks, canals and paddlewheels that would function to wash the streets on a regular basis (Whitcombe, 2004). “He proposed to build a new city, breaking it up into towns of 30,000 each; there would be watercourses to carry off the sewage and the streets would be broad and airy, the width equal to the average height of the houses” (Wallace, 1966). Leonardo’s ideas regarding how to redesign Milan to reduce the risk for disease were not realized in his lifetime. Several centuries later, though, the County Council of London declared his measurement of the width of the street compared to the height of the houses was the ideal proportion and used it to lay out their new streets (Wallace, 1966). He also designed the streets to be built on two levels, creating a higher level for pedestrian use and a lower level for commercial use. In addition to this anticipation of potential traffic problems, Leonardo’s planning included the consideration of the streets’ practical use. To reduce the problem of vagrants defiling hidden landings on the stairways that would connect the levels, Leonardo designed the new city with spiral stairways. Although only a few of his major investigations and works have been explored, Leonardo’s notebooks are filled with many more inventions and designs in a number of different areas. Some of his more practical designs included the invention of a jack to help lift heavy weights, an alarm clock of sorts that functioned to lift his feet out of the bed after a certain amount of water had dripped into a reservoir and several instruments that helped him to measure time, distance, inclination and atmospheric humidity among other things. In 1502, he “drew a map of Imola that was amazingly accurate, the first real topographic map of a city” (Labella, 1990: 132). In working for Cesare Borgia, he designed several military machines. These included the submarine, the tank and the automobile. To save his patron’s men from the dangerous recoil of the traditional cannons and backfire, he designed the ballista, a giant crossbow. This also provided the troops with a more accurate weapon to aim at their enemies. Several of his inventions paved the way for later ideas. The hydraulic screw operated with the force of slowly dripping water and was the early ancestor of the water turbine which wasn’t invented until the 19th century. His variable speed drive gear system wasn’t used for anything during the Renaissance, but is in wide use today in many of the transmission systems in modern automobiles. He made improvements to Gutenberg’s printing press that enabled it to be operated by one man alone with the aid of a screw, even though the designs were actually put into use until the 17th century. A file-cutter he designed used a threaded shaft to automatically control the movement of a file blank so that it was scored evenly by a trip hammer. At the same time, a falling weight was used to provide the power in a clockwork-type mechanism. This mechanism, applied to an industrial use, represents a step toward automation that would not be recognized for many centuries (“Leonardo da Vinci Collection”, 2005). However, again, Leonardo can be said to have been merely the product of his times in that he reverted to the knowledge and practices of the ancient Greeks. Archemides, the ancient Greek mathematician, had already designed the water screw and evidence of the ancient’s great water ducts remain observable even in our own times (Heseltine, 2002). Leonardo is also well-known for his intimate and careful study of human anatomy, perhaps most considered with his famous Vitruvian Man. In conducting his research, Leonardo is generally credited with basically inventing the current system of medical investigation. “His ability to investigate a vast range of subjects by meticulous observation, rational thought, and teleological deductive reasoning, associated with a divine gift for drawing, produced anatomical and physiological revelations, elements of which remain relevant now. By applying rigorous contemporary methods of logic and rhetoric, he was able to derive important ideas and truths that were not recognized in his own time” (Wells & Crowe, 2004: 929). However, again, there are indications that rather than being ahead of his time, Leonardo was working predominantly off of the ideas of his time. One particularly blatant example is demonstrated by Dr. Muskin, a professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University. In discussing how an individual cannot separate himself out of the culture and beliefs in which he has been born, Muskin provides an illustration drawn by Leonardo that supposes the physiological placement of human anatomy during the act of sexual intercourse. Despite Leonardo’s careful dissection procedures and adherence to observation, he nevertheless drew two distinct tubes in the penis, one leading from the man’s spine in imitation of an idea put forth by Hippocrates, and another leading up from the bladder “because the Church had the notion that semen wasn’t bad. Semen was good; urine was polluted and you had to have two tubes carrying these things. They had to be separate” (Muskin, 2007). Leonardo could not have been drawing what he saw because there are not two tubes in the penis, just as there is not a tube from the woman’s breast into the vagina, which is also indicated in the image. In many ways, Leonardo was a forward-thinker, a truly Modern Man. “He was an anatomist, architect, botanist, city planner, costume and stage designer, chef, humorist, engineer, equestrian, inventor, geographer, geologist, mathematician, military scientist, musician, painter, philosopher and physicist. He was what we would call today a holistic thinker” (Lewarne, 2007). At the same time, however, he was very much a product of his time, susceptible to the same beliefs, strictures, pre-conceptions and behaviors of his countrymen. This does not make him irrelevant. Instead, ‘holistic thinkers’ like Leonardo must be cultivated in today’s society if we are to overcome the impending disaster of global warming and the actions of previous generations. Leonardo was a product of his times, but he was also a man willing to delve into the depths of his interests, attempting to find new solutions to old problems. Works Cited Campbell, Gordon. Renaissance Art and Architecture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Connor, Linda. “Leonardo da Vinci: A Portrait of a Man and His Time.” Computer Application in Education. Manitoba, Canada: University of Manitoba, 2007. Heseltine, Simon. “Ancient Greece: Archimedes the Mathematician.” Essortment. Pagewise, 2002. December 22, 2007 Labella, Vincenzo. A Season of Giants: 1492-1508. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990. “Leonardo da Vinci Collection.” Samuel C. Williams Library. 2005. Stevens Institute of Technology. December 22, 2007 Lewarne, Eva. “Re-Birth of the Renaissance Man/Woman.” The Contemporary Arts Review. 2007. December 22, 2007 Mason, Antony. Leonardo da Vinci. Strongsville, OH: Gareth Stevens, 2004. Muskin, Philip. “Talking About Sexual Dysfunction to Enhance Adherence to Medication.” Medscape Today. 2007. December 22, 2007 Shea, Lisa. “The Last Supper: Leonardo da Vinci, Mary Magdalene, The Hand and Knife.” (2006). Minerva Web Works. December 22, 2007 Wells, F.C. & Crowe, T. “Leonardo da Vinci as a Paradigm for Modern Clinical Research.” The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. The American Association for Thoracic Surgery, Vol. 127, (2004): 929-944. Read More