Leonardo Da Vinci and Plant Forms in Painting
Leonardo Da Vinci was an artist as well as a scientist. He devoted his time to gaining knowledge through his studies of the natural world. For Leonardo, understanding the world meant experimenting and observing in a cause-and-effect manner. He believed that nature followed a set of laws and they could be uncovered by intensive studies. This eagerness to understand the natural world through examination set him aside from his contemporaries. Through these observations he created a vast number of scientific manuscripts that helped him understand the natural world he celebrated in his paintings.
Leonardo devoted great effort to observing and experimenting natural phenomena. Leonardo believed that natural laws governed the shape and form of all things. He believed in the oneness of nature that it was the fundamental, creative force in all life. This experimentation led Leonardo to a very modern and functional theory of life. Leonardo noted, “Every smallest detail has a function and must be rigorously explained in functional terms that are in accord with nature as opposed to the postulates of the ancients. Human ingenuity...will never discover any inventions more beautiful, more appropriate or more direct than nature, because in her inventions nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous” (Emboden10-190). Nature will always be moving forward never pushing itself backwards. Leonardo studied the inter-workings of plant forms and their systems. When he studied plant forms he realized that there was a relationship between our internal systems with those of plants and to even a great extent of how water flows over the Earth. As Leonardo furthered his investigation of nature he began to noti...
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These paintings are famous for a variety of qualities which have been much imitated by students and discussed at great length by aficionados and critics (“Leonardo Da Vinci.” Biography Online.) Among the qualities that make Leonardo's work unique are the innovative techniques which he used in laying on the paint, and his detailed knowledge of anatomy, light, botany and geology. These combined with his interest in physiognomy and the way in which humans register emotion in expression and gesture and his innovative use of the human form in figurative composition, blend with subtle gradation of tone (“Simplifying a Genius.”). All these techniques are evident his most famous painted works: the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper and the Virgin of the Rocks (“The Secret Revealed: How to Look at Italian Renaissance Painting.”
2. Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 1452 and died on May 1519. Leonardo da Vinci, a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer, was an italian polymath. His style of art the he produced influenced later artists such as Michelangelo and Raphael by his innovative use of human form and the way he registered human emotion in expression and gesture. Not only was he influential in art, but also in natural science with his observations in human anatomy, botany, geology, hydrodynamics, and astronomy. Da Vinci deserves to be on our list because his inventions and scientific theories that were centuries ahead of his time period are now used today as reference to future projects.
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Nineteenth century British biologist T.H. Huxley famously said, “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something (Quotes by…). This statement is reflective of the idea of a polymath, or the Renaissance man, that is, one whose expertise spans a significant variety of subjects and fields (Oxford Dictionaries). Leonardo da Vinci not only encapsulated this ideal but also ultimately was the model of the Renaissance man for centuries to follow. As many already know, Leonardo da Vinci was most famously as an artist, whose paintings have remained some of the most recognized and iconic images for over 500 years, but his genius did not end in the arts. He was also a brilliant architect, engineer, scientist, mathematic, writer, and more. There is little that Leonardo da Vinci did not do over the course of his amazing lifetime. Over the next few pages, I will briefly share the life of this extraordinary man.
Leonardo Da Vinci was a man who discovered things before their discovery was even possible. He had a mind that invented things that others could only dream of. He wrote, drew, experimented and challenged what others could never imagine possible until at least 300 years after his death. He has been considered throughout history to be the most brilliant man who ever lived. He mastered many fields that included sculpting, painting, drawing, anatomy, geometry, geology, science and medicine. He was always questioning even when there were no answers to be had. Some people say that due to his mastery of many different fields, that he was indeed a genius even more brilliant than Newton and Einstein who were masters of only a few fields.
contributions. Leonardo’s curiosity and insatiable hunger for knowledge never left him. He was constantly observing, experimenting, and inventing, and drawing was, for him, a tool for recording his investigation of nature. Although completed works by Leonardo are few, he left a large body of drawings
Ludwig Heinrich, Heydenreich. "Leonardo Da Vinci." Britannica Biographies (2012): 1. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
His knowledge made it possible for Leonardo da Vinci to notice things around him that could be manipulated into a very beneficial tool. Da Vinci was able to fabricate the blueprints of the first self propelled vehicle. It was a wooden cart with three wheels, that could cover the distance of 40 meters on it’s own. The automobile had the capabilities to go straight or turn to the right at a predetermined angle. The cart turned due to the fact of the springs in the tambours. Without his knowledge of angles and springs he wouldn’t be able to make the car turn, because he wouldn’t think to add
Most people do not realize that a parachute and the Mona Lisa have one common factor—Leonardo da Vinci. His techniques of self-teaching are very impressive and unique from anyone else’s during the Renaissance era. This Renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci, generously impacted the art and science world by creating new-world inventions, perfecting newly found art techniques, and creating the most famous pieces of art in history.
Kleiner, F.S., Mamiya, C.J., Tansey, R.G. (2001) Gardeners Art Through the Ages. Eleventh Edition, Harcourt College Publishers, Orlando, USA.
Leonardo Da Vinci is a famed artist today due to his renowned painting of the ‘Mona Lisa’. In the 14th century, people of Venice would have known him as an engineer, people of Milan would have known him for his Last Supper, but only the people of Florence would have seen his whole character. Da Vinci is known as the archetypal Renaissance man, a man of “unquenchable curiosity” and “feverishly inventive imagination”. Da Vinci created many technologies and new innovations which were so advanced for his time and age that many scholars did not believe him. He contributed to civilisation through three main areas: art, science and engineering.
It is said that the academics of Leonardo’s time did not take into consideration his work in any other field than painting, because he did not have a formal education. Instead he had developed an important attitude at a young age towards his critics, where he wrote “I cannot quote from eminent authors as they can, these trumpeters and reciters of the works of others. I know that all knowledge is vain and full of error when it is not born of experience, and so experience will be my mistress”. Leonardo da Vinci was a mysterious man who most definitely left his impact on the world, his time and modern time. A lot of people say Leonardo was a genius others say he was a complete mastermind who was ahead of his time, one thing for sure is that he was very talented.
As a writer, Leonardo often recorded his reflections on various subject matters. And it is through some of his words that survived till today that we have a glimpse of how his great mind worked.