Sunday, January 30, 2005
Drawing of the human skull (c.1489)
Windsor Castle, RL 19058 recto, c.1489. Oblique view of the human skull. The text (translated by O'Malley and Saunders, cited below) reads:
"The confluence of all the senses has perpendicularly below it at a distance of 2 fingers the uvula, where one tastes the food, and lies straight above the wind-pipe and above the opening of the heart by the space of a foot. A half-head above it is the junction of the cranial bones [bregma], and a third of a head anterior to it in a horizontal line is the lacrimator [nasolacrimal duct] of the eye. 2/3 of a head posterior to it is the nape [of the neck], and at an equal distance and height to the side are the 2 pulses of the temples. The veins which are represented in the cranium in their ramifications make an imprint of a half of their width in the cranial bone, and the other half is hidden in the membranes which cover the brain. Where the bone is poorly provided with veins within, it is refreshed from without by the vein a m [middle meningeal vessels] which issues forth from the cranium, passes into the eye and then into the ..."
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"In his notebooks, Leonardo expressed a desire to leave behind a drawing of himself 'for posterity'. He probably made many sketches of himself during his lifetime.It was common for Renaissance artists to include images of themselves in their paintings. There is a lone shepherd in the Adoration of the Magi which could well be a likeness of the young artist. It is also likely that the master used his own reflection as a basis for his studies of the proportions of the human face.As well as the self portraits, there are several likenesses of Leonardo by other artists. The most recognisable is a drawing (right) by Leonardo's pupil Melzi, of the master in his latter years. Leonardo also appears as Plato in Raphael's painting of Greek philosophers, and he may also have been the model for Verrocchio's sculpture of David.The Melzi portrait is now part of the Royal Collection, owned by The Queen."
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"Leonardo was fascinated by flight, and drew many designs for flying machines. Although he never completed any, he did spend time thinking what might happen if one would fail.
The drawing on the right is Leonardo's design for a parachute. Unlike modern versions, it contains rigid poles, which could have caused a nasty accident on landing.Although Leonardo never built a full-sized version, he probably tested smaller prototypes."
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"In Leonardo's time, most people believed that the Moon - like all celestial bodies - was a perfect, unblemished sphere which shone with its own light. However, Leonardo noticed that the Moon did not look uniform. He also realised that when it was low in the sky, you could sometimes see the whole of its round surface faintly, even when only a thin crescent was lit.Leonardo decided that the Moon itself did not shine with its own light, but reflected the light of the Sun. Although he was not the first person to suggest this, it is a perfect example of how he was willing to trust his own observations over conventional wisdom.Leonardo also realised that if you were standing on the surface of the Moon, then the Earth might appear as the Moon does to us. He also suggested that it might be covered with water, and that the markings seen from the Earth were caused by giant waves on the surface. Clearly this last idea was wrong. However, his understanding of the Solar System was one of the most advanced of the age."
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"We usually think of Leonardo as an artist. However, it was his skill as a military engineer that was largely responsible for securing his employment in 15th century Milan.Around 1486, Leonardo drew several designs for a giant crossbow. The figure atop the machine gives an indication of scale. The weapon was cranked with winding gears. It had two different firing mechanisms - the simplest of which involved releasing a holding pin by striking it with a mallet."
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"By the 15th century, cannons had been used in battle for over a hundred years, and Leonardo himself drew designs for several. However, fifteenth century firearms were slow and cumbersome. This catapult was designed to be loaded quickly, and could be left armed in case of surprise attacks. Leonardo envisioned rows of catapults fired simultaneously by men striking firing pins with hammers.Leonardo also designed projectiles for his catapults. These had two tail fins for stability, and were filled with gunpowder, which would explode on landing."
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"When Leonardo offered his services to the Duke of Milan, one of his selling points was his ability to build machines of war. This page shows two of his most famous designs.His armoured car was designed to go into battle ahead of foot soldiers. Its shell was re-enforced with metal plates containing holes that the occupants could fire weapons through. The machine was powered by eight men, who moved cranks to turn the wheels. Leonardo also toyed with the idea of using horses to drive the machine, but decided they would panic in the enclosed space.One interesting feature of this design is that it contains a flaw. As Leonardo has drawn it, the wheels would have turned in opposite directions, making the tank undrivable. This could have been because Leonardo was a pacifist, and did not want to see his ideas put to use, or it could have been to stop other people stealing his idea. On the other hand, it could simply have been a mistake.The other sketch on this page shows one of Leonardo's designs for a scythed chariot. The blades were intended to slice the limbs from its victims.
Look at the dismembered corpses that surround Leonardo's chariot. It was typical of him to include such figures in his drawings of war machines."
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"This drawing dates from around 1510, although Leonardo had first started looking at human skulls in 1499, when he got access to human cadavers from the hospital of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. He used innovative techniques, such as injecting molten wax, to locate and draw the cavities around the brain in the bones of the cranium.
In common with many people at the time, he was keen to find the seat of the human soul. The spine was thought to be the most likely location. Leonardo showed that the brain and spine were connected but never identified where the human soul lies. He disputed the belief - then widely held - that sperm were produced in the marrow of the spinal column.
The sketch is one of the Windsor Folios, part of the Royal Collection, held at Windsor."
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"Leonardo's investigations of the heart and circulation began in the 1490s; this anatomical depiction was produced around 1510 while he was based in Milan. Many of da Vinci's heart drawings were made from studies of the organs of oxen and pigs. It was only later in his life that he had access to human organs.
Leonardo made a number of advances in the understanding of blood flow:
showed the heart is indeed a muscle and that it does not warm the blood
found it has four chambers and connected the pulse in the wrist with contraction of the left ventricle
deduced that eddy currents in the blood flow - created by structures in the main aorta artery - help heart valves to close
suggested that arteries fur up over a lifetime, creating a health risk
He didn't understand that the blood was in a circulation system. He went along with the belief (commonly held at the time) that blood was made in the liver, cooled in the lungs, pumped by the heart and consumed in the muscles.
The sketch is one of the Windsor Folios, part of the Royal Collection, held at Windsor."in
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Saturday, January 29, 2005
"This red chalk on paper drawing dates from around 1506, a period when Leonardo had relatively easy access to human bodies that he could study and dissect.
He believed that, "motion is the cause of everyday life" and always applied his engineer's eye to investigating the way joints and limbs operate. Aware of the idea of opposed forces, he worked hard to establish the groupings of muscles that enable us to perform movements like walking.
The original of this sketch belongs to the British Museum in London and can be viewed online.
Although the sketch includes the abdomen, genitals, leg and feet, it's clear that this sketch is a study of the muscle groups in the upper and lower leg."
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"This drawing by Leonardo da Vinci was rediscovered in the 19th century and was immediately assumed to be a self-portrait. This is no longer thought to be true.
This sketch dates from the 1490s, when Leonardo would only have been in his forties. No one is even sure that Leonardo had a beard until his later years.
Leonardo was certainly interested in the features of old people. He drew them many times during his career. This was unusual at a time when most artists were solely interested in painting beauty.
The original work is held by the Biblioteca Reale in Turin."
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"This sketch, and the notes that go with it, show how Leonardo understood the proportions of the
human body. Each separate part was a simple fraction of the whole. For example, the head measured from the forehead to the chin was exactly one tenth of the total height, and the outstretched arms were always as wide as the body was tall.These ideas were not Leonardo's, but were taken from the writings of the Roman architect Vitruvius. Both men believed that the same principles should be used when designing buildings. However, Leonardo tried to take these ideas further, and spent much of his life searching for connections between the structure of the human body, and other patterns in nature. Elsewhere in his notes, he proclaimed that "Man is the model of the world."Vitruvian man may also give us an insight into another problem that occupied Leonardo for much of his life; that of 'squaring the circle'. This involves drawing a circle and square that have the same area without measuring. Some argue that this diagram shows that Leonardo had a sophisticated understanding of the problem, which other mathematicians would not develop until much later.
Leonardo has marked the bottom of the image with fractions to measure the proportions of the body."
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"Virgin of the Rocks was the first painting executed by Leonardo after he arrived in Milan. Critics argue over exactly what the painting depicts; some claim it shows the immaculate conception, while others think it recalls the moment when the infant Christ met St John the Baptist.When Leonardo was commissioned to paint this piece, he was given a year to complete it. True to form, he over-ran, and a lengthy law suit followed. Leonardo also fell out with his sponsors over how much he should be paid for the work. Perhaps this is why he began a second version of the painting to give to the commissioners, selling the first on elsewhere.See the National Gallery version of this painting. There is some debate as to whether both artworks are entirely by Leonardo. In particular, the version that hangs in the National Gallery may have been a collaboration between Leonardo and a second artist, or may have been a project which he simply oversaw.
The painting is set in a cave. Was he giving himself an opportunity to paint nature - or was he implying that nature was his church?Leonardo has painted light to give this picture structure and form. Before Leonardo, artists had only used light crudely in their work."
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"We can always tell a Leonardo work by his treatment of hair, angelic in its fineness, and by the lack of any rigidity of contour. One form glides imperceptibly into another (the Italian term is sfumato), a wonder of glazes creating the most subtle of transitions between tones and shapes. The angel's face in the painting known as the Virgin of the Rocks in the National Gallery, London, or the Virgin's face in the Paris version of the same picture, have an interior wisdom, an artistic wisdom that has no pictorial rival.
This unrivalled quality meant that few artists actually show Leonardo's influence: it is as if he seemed to be in a world apart from them. Indeed he did move apart, accepting the French King François I's summons to live in France. Those who did imitate him, like Bernardini Luini of Milan (c.1485-1532) caught only the outer manner, the half-smile, the mistiness.
The shadow of a great genius is a peculiar thing. Under Rembrandt's shadow, painters flourished to the extent that we can no longer distinguish their work from his own. But Leonardo's was a chilling shadow, too deep, too dark, too overpowering."
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"This image of St John the Baptist was the last painting that Leonardo produced, and it was in his possession when he died. It is one of only a few that we can be absolutely certain the master painted.Leonardo's version is strikingly different to other paintings of the Saint, who is normally portrayed as gaunt, and scraping a living in the desert on locusts and honey. It captures four recurring themes of Leonardo's figures; an enigmatic smile, flowing curly hair, and a finger pointing to heaven, all defined by dense shadows.Many copies of this painting have been made, particularly by Leonardo's pupils.Look For - The figure is wearing animal skins, and holding a reed cross. Experts believe these were added by a later painter."
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"The Mona Lisa was one of Leonardo's favourite paintings, and he carried it with him until he died. Today, it is regarded as the most famous painting in the world, and is visited by many thousands of people every year.Who is this familiar figure? Many suggestions have been made, but the most likely candidate is Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine silk merchant. Another more unlikely - but popular - theory is that the painting was a self portrait. There are certainly similarities between the facial features of the Mona Lisa and of the artist's self portrait painted many years later. Could this be why Leonardo gave the subject such an enigmatic smile?Today, the Mona Lisa looks rather sombre, in dull shades of brown and yellow. This is due to a layer of varnish covering the paint, which has yellowed over the years. It is possible that the painting was once brighter and more colourful than it is now.The Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, by a former employee who believed the painting belonged in Italy. The thief walked out of the gallery with the picture underneath his painter's smock. He was apprehended by police two years later, and the painting was safely returned.
Leonardo has used a technique known as Sfumato - the blurring of sharp edges by blending colours - to leave the corners of the eyes and the mouth in shadow. It is this technique that makes the Mona Lisa's expression ambiguous. The background of the painting has been made to look more hazy, with fewer distinct outlines than the foreground. This technique is known as aerial perspective, and Leonardo was one of the first painters to use it to give his paintings more depth."
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"The Last Supper was painted onto the walls of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie near Milan. Leonardo spent three years painting the work, and much of that time was spent searching the streets of Milan for models of Christ and Judas. It is said that only Leonardo's threats to paint the Prior of the convent as Judas bought him the time he needed to finish.Although it was common to paint directly onto the walls of building, Leonardo was not trained in this 'fresco' technique, and made a poor choice of materials. This, along with the humid conditions in the convent, meant that the painting began deteriorating while Leonardo was still alive. The refectory has also been flooded and used as a stable - but the painting's luckiest escape came during the Second World War, when the refectory was hit by a bomb. Only some carefully placed sandbags saved this masterpiece from destruction. There have been many attempts to restore The Last Supper, most of which have done more harm than good. A full restoration was recently completed. It took twenty years - five times longer than Leonardo took to complete the original. However, virtually none of the original paint remains, and critics claim we can no longer regard this as a Leonardo painting.
The perspective focuses on the figure of Christ in the centre. The window behind his head looks like a halo. Judas is the only figure in the painting who is leaning away from Christ, and the only figure who is in shadow. In traditional paintings, Judas's halo was black.Leonardo also played tricks with the perspective in this painting. We can see the table top, even though we shouldn't be able to from where we stand. And why are so many people crowded round a table when there wouldn't be room for them all to sit?"
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There has never been an artist who was more fittingly, and without qualification, described as a genius. Like Shakespeare, Leonardo came from an insignificant background and rose to universal acclaim. Leonardo was the illegitimate son of a local lawyer in the small town of Vinci in the Tuscan region. His father acknowledged him and paid for his training, but we may wonder whether the strangely self-sufficient tone of Leonardo's mind was not perhaps affected by his early ambiguity of status. The definitive polymath, he had almost too many gifts, including superlative male beauty, a splendid singing voice, magnificent physique, mathematical excellence, scientific daring... the list is endless. This overabundance of talents caused him to treat his artistry lightly, seldom finishing a picture, and sometimes making rash technical experiments. The Last Supper, in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, for example, has almost vanished, so inadequate were his innovations in fresco preparation.
"Like many paintings thought to be by Leonardo, controversy surrounds this picture. Some question whether it was painted by Leonardo at all. Art historians also disagree over who the subject of the portrait was. One theory suggests it shows a young lady named Cecilia Gallerani, who would have been just seventeen when when this picture was painted. Cecilia was the mistress of Ludovico Sforza - the Duke of Milan - until Ludovico settled down and married another woman. If the model was Cecilia, then the Ermine in the picture may have had a special meaning. The Greek for Ermine is Galee - a pun on the model's name. Parts of this picture have been painted over at some point in its history. The background has been darkened, and X-rays show a door has been removed. The original painting showed a woman wearing a transparent veil, but this has been retouched to look like hair. The bottom two fingers have also been altered, and look less realistic than the other two.
This painting is based on curved lines, which lead the eye. From the model's face, the gaze is drawn down the sleeve, across the back of the Ermine, and then up the other arm.The head of the Ermine in this picture is particularly lifelike. Leonardo placed emphasis on natural accuracy, and may have studied the anatomy of the creature before beginning the painting."
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"This painting was not by Leonardo, but by his tutor Verrocchio. However, it was common at the time for a master to leave details of a painting to his apprentices.We believe that the angel on the left, and much of the background above it, were painted by a young Leonardo. Most of the painting is done in egg tempera, but Leonardo's angel is painted with oil paints, which were just being introduced to Italy. X-rays show that this part of the painting differs significantly from Verrocchio's original sketches.It is said that Verrocchio was so impressed by Leonardo's work in this picture, that he vowed never to paint again. The more subtle use of colour in Leonardo's figure. His angel also has flowing curly hair, a characteristic which Leonardo used in many of his later paintings."
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Friday, January 28, 2005
"The Annunciation depicts the moment when the angel Gabriel appears before Mary. The enclosed garden symbolises her virginity.Two versions of this painting exist. The one in the Uffizi gallery is more likely to be Leonardo's own. A second version, which hangs in the Louvre could well be the work of Lorenzo di Credi, who, like Leonardo was also an apprentice of Verrocchio. However, the Louvre version also contains elements - such as realistic wings on the angel - which we associate with Leonardo's style.
This painting contains technical flaws which we would not expect from a Leonardo work. However, it was painted when Leonardo was still young. These errors may be because he was still learning his craft."
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"The Adoration of the Magi was commissioned for the altar of the monastery of San Donato a Scopeto, near Florence. Leonardo agreed to paint it within two-and-a-half years, on the understanding that he would receive nothing if the work was delivered late.However, he abandoned the project in 1482, tempted away by the Duke of Milan and the promise of a regular income. Although the painting is unfinished, it is considered one of Leonardo's most important early works.The subject of the painting - the worship of the infant Christ by the three wise men (or Magi)- was a popular one in the early Renaissance. The ruins and the sparring knights in the background signify the decline of pagan culture in the face of a new Christian era. In the bottom right of the drawing, facing away from the crowd, is a young shepherd boy. It is believed this may have been a self portrait.The Madonna and Child are arranged in a pyramid shape, and the gaze of the central characters is focussed on the pyramid's side. Leonardo used this composition technique in many of his later paintings."
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"Around the year 1500, Leonardo decided to leave Milan and head back to Florence where his good reputation had him readily received by the city. By 1502 Da Vinci had entered the service of Cesare Borgia, the much-feared son of Pope Alexander the VI, as senior military architect and general engineer. This position had him travelling and surveying the surrounding lands, at which time Leonardo had sketched some city plans and early maps.
Leonardo Da Vinci returned to Florence once more in 1503, at which time he was commissioned to paint a mural in the council hall in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio. The wall across was commissioned to Leonardo's rival, Michelangelo, who never completed his piece. Leonardo's work, entitled The Battle of Anghiari, which was never completed either, would have measured 23 x 56 feet, double the size of The Last Supper. While working on this piece, the French governor of Milan hired Leonardo, and once again Da Vinci abandoned his project to begin employment elsewhere.
Before leaving, Leonardo accepted a commission from a wealthy Florentine merchant who wanted a portrait of his wife, Mona Lisa. From 1503-1506 Leonardo Da Vinci completed one of the most renowned works of all time, The Mona Lisa. Many scholars doubt the story of the merchant and the commission, and there are several conflicting stories about who the woman in the painting really may have been. However, the mystery behind the painting is shadowed by the genius of the work that is now seen by thousands of tourists each day at the Louvre in Paris. The painting is available today as a popular Da Vinci poster and has also been transformed into numerous novelty items.
Second Milanese PeriodIn 1506 Leonardo traveled back to Milan to work for the French governor of Milan, Charles d'Amboise. During his time there, Leonardo Da Vinci created few paintings, and acted mainly as an architect. Some of his sketches from this period have survived and are sold alongside the many other Da Vinci posters.
Besides his work for the governor, during this time Da Vinci underwent extensive research on the human anatomy.
Final YearsIn 1513 the French were expelled from Milan, forcing Leonardo to seek work outside the city. Da Vinci headed to Rome where his friend, Giuliano de'Medici, the brother of the Pope Leo X, offered him living space in his residence in the Vatican.
For about three years, Leonardo stayed in Rome, and did not receive any commissions, while his rivals, Michelangelo and Raphael, where hard at work.
By 1516 the king of France, Francis I, requested that Leonardo join his service. At this time, Leonardo chose to leave Italy, his native country, where he would never return again. He bore the title of "First painter, architect, and engineer to the King," and he lived in the small town of Cloux, near the king's palace.
At the age of 67, in 1519, while living in France, Leonardo Da Vinci died and was buried in the church of Saint-Florentin. The church was ruined during the French Revolution, and completely torn down during the 19th Century. Today, there are no markings to identify Leonardo's gravesite. The Renaissance Master, as he is often referred to, continues to live on through his surviving paintings, his many notebooks and through the extensive selection of Da Vinci posters and prints that have been produced over the years."
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"Leonardo Da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in the small Tucson town of Anchiano, near Florence. His parents, Ser Piero, a notary, and Caterina, a peasant woman, were unmarried, and the illegitimate Leonardo was raised by his father. Some experts claim that due to his illegitimacy Leonardo was unworthy of a proper education, and that this is the reason that he did not follow in his father's footsteps to become a notary, or why he did not study to become a doctor. Meanwhile, other Da Vinci sources claim that the young Leonardo was treated as a legitimate child, and was offered the same education as other children of that day.
Apprenticeship and First Florentine PeriodAt the age of 15 Leonardo had already mastered skills in the fine arts and the young man was sent to Florence to work as an apprentice in the renowned workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio.
Leonardo worked with del Verrocchio until 1477, during which time del Verrocchio had been commissioned for a painting that would be The Baptism of Christ, and the painter had Leonardo aid him with the work by having his pupil paint the kneeling angel in the painting. Leonardo's angel was so outstanding that it shadowed del Verrocchio's portion of the work, and Leonardo is quoted to have later stated that "poor is a pupil that does not surpass his master." It is also said that Andrea del Verrocchio gave up his career as a painter, having suffered such humiliation by being out-painted by his own student.
In 1472, while still working with del Verrocchio, Leonardo Da Vinci was honored as he was accepted into the painter's guild of Florence.
After leaving Verrocchio's studio, Leonardo remained in Florence where he worked independently until 1481. In his final years in Florence, Leonardo Da Vinci received two substantial commissions. The first was for the painting The Adoration of the Magi for the monastery of San Donato a Scopeto; and the second was for a painting that was to be completed in the Altar of St. Bernard Chapel in the Palazzo della Signoria. The first painting was never completed and the second, Leonardo never even began, abandoning the projects to move to Milan.
While Leonardo's career seemed to be taking flight, his reputation was damaged in 1481 when he was charged with sodomy. Though the charges were later dropped, the public humiliation may have played a role in Da Vinci's abandonment of these commissions. His humiliation was even more so accentuated when Leonardo was not chosen amongst those commissioned to paint the Sistine Chapel.
First Milanese Period In 1482, Leonardo Da Vinci moved to Milan where he had been hired by the city's duke, Duke Ludovico Sforza, and had been given the title of "painter and engineer of the duke." He worked as a painter, sculptor, served as an architect, and he aided in the design of fortifications and military conceptions. Da Vinci would remain in Milan for 17 years, leaving his position with the falling out of power of the Duke with the entry of the French into Milan.
During this first Milanese period Leonardo completed at least six works. Among these works are, from 1483-1486, The Virgin of the Rocks, (which now has a home in the Louvre in Paris) and the monumental The Last Supper between 1495-1498. The extremely difficult to visit painting remains on the walls at the refectory of the Santa Maria delle Grazie, and is one of the most widely sold Da Vinci Posters of all time. "
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"A painter, a sculptor, an architect and an engineer, Leonardo Da Vinci's numerous skills have earned him the title of renaissance master. Da Vinci's fascination with science and his in-depth study of human anatomy aided him in mastering the realist art form. While Leonardo's counterparts were known to create static figures in their works, Leonardo always tried to incorporate movement and expression into his own paintings. All the personages in his works are painted with great accuracy and detail that it is sometimes said that Da Vinci painted from the bones outward.
Having lived until the age of 67, Leonardo experienced a very long career that was filled with times during which the painter was celebrated, but at times he was also humiliated and cast away. His life experiences all influenced his works and often, his paintings never left the sketchpad, or were only partially completed, as Leonardo often abandoned his commissions in order to flee from social situations.
Today, there are records of only few Da Vinci paintings, and 20 notebooks. Thankfully, these works have been preserved over the hundreds of years since Leonardo's time, and while his works are scattered in different areas of the globe, everyone can enjoy Da Vinci through the numerous books detailing his life, or through any of the many Da Vinci posters that have been printed.
A well known master in the history of art, Leonard Da Vinci is renown by people all over the map, and those of us who cannot travel to view the true works that the genius created can at least bring home a piece of him when we buy Da Vinci posters or prints. His most famous paintings, and the most popular Da Vinci posters around, are those of The Last Supper, The Mona Lisa and Vitruvian Man: The Proportions of the Human Figure. These works, displayed in Milan and Paris respectively, are among the most influential works ever created."
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Thursday, January 27, 2005
I hope this blog can storadge all the amount of information that I intend to post about Leonardo's Da Vinci Life & Work.
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