Parabolas In Leonardo Da Vinci

903 Words2 Pages

Leonardo da Vinci was a famous painter, sculptor, and inventor that lived from 1452-1519. He was born in a small Italian town of Vinci and lived on a small estate that his father owned. Leonardo kept the name of the town that he was born in for his last name. Since his mother did not marry his father, he could not inherit his father’s land, nor did he have much going for him as a wealthy businessman. When people think of Leonardo da Vinci, they mostly associate him with art and paintings, such as his famous Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Leonardo believed that art was correlated to science and nature. Da Vinci was largely self-educated and he filled endless notebooks with examinations and suppositions about pursuits from aeronautics to anatomy. …show more content…

He specifically used parabolas in many of his paintings and drawings. In paintings such as the Mona Lisa, The Virgin of the Rocks, Child With Saint Anne, Lady With An Ermine, and many others, parabolas are seen. The parabolas in these art works can be seen often or scarcely depending on the painting or drawing. Parabolas are commonly seen on faces or body parts. In the Mona Lisa painting, the most noticeable feature of this painting can be the slight smile on the face. You can clearly see the parabola if you look closely. In the painting, The Virgin of the Rocks, the use of parabolas is very common. You can see parabolas were by Leonardo da Vinci to shape the faces of the people, to make the eyebrows, and lips. In the cut of the clothing of the Virgin, you can see a parabola as well. The other woman in the painting has a cloth hanging on her shoulder that is shaped in a parabolic form. Looking at the shape of the arm of the baby on the left is even shaped in a parabolic manner. Parabolas are also seen all throughout the background of this painting. You can see them on the rocks or pillar-like shapes. On the painting, Child With Saint Anne, parabolas can be seen on the faces to make the eyebrows on the woman in the back. This is also the case in her smile or grin. Throughout the clothing of the women, the use of parabolas are common. If you look closely at the knees of the women, you can see that Leonardo da Vinci used parabolas as a guide to paint and/or draw them. The painting, Lady With An Ermine, has many visible parabolas. The more obvious parabolas are on the neck and chest of the lady. Her necklace forms two perfect parabolas, one above the other. The general shape of the lady from her shoulders down is a wide parabola. Similar to many other da Vinci paintings, the face contains many parabolas. The eyebrows, chin, and hairline were clearly used by parabolas to make. As we

Open Document