Leonardo da Vinci - Biography, Achievements and Quotes

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519, Old Style) was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. His genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance Man, a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination".

He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived. According to art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, the man himself mysterious and remote".
Marco Rosci states that while there is much speculation about Leonardo, his vision of the world is essentially logical rather than mysterious, and that the empirical methods he employed were unusual for his time.

Born out of wedlock to a notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman, Caterina, at Vinci in the region of Florence, Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Florentine painter, Verrocchio. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan. He later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice, and he spent his last years in France at the home awarded him by Francis I.

Leonardo was and is renowned primarily as a painter. Among his works, the Mona Lisa is the most famous and most parodied portrait and The Last Supper the most reproduced religious painting of all time, with their fame approached only by Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam. Leonardo's drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also regarded as a cultural icon, being reproduced on items as varied as the euro, textbooks, and T-shirts. Perhaps fifteen of his paintings survive, the small number because of his constant, and frequently disastrous, experimentation with new techniques, and his chronic procrastination.

 Nevertheless, these few works, together with his notebooks, which contain drawings, scientific diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting, compose a contribution to later generations of artists rivalled only by that of his contemporary, Michelangelo.
Leonardo is revered[ for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualised a helicopter, a tank, concentrated solar power, a calculator, and the double hull, and he outlined a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or were even feasible during his lifetime, but some of his smaller inventions, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire, entered the world of manufacturing unheralded.

He made important discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, optics, and hydrodynamics, but he did not publish his findings and they had no direct influence on later science.

Achievements & Facts about Leonardo da Vinci

• Da Vinci filled dozens of notebooks and sketchbooks with ideas and inventions that were far ahead of his time. 
• Some of his sketches illustrated a helicopter based on using a large screw for propulsion, an armored car, scissors, a cannon, machine gun, glider, moveable bridge, parachute, ladder, inflatable tube for floating in water and well water pump. He drew the human anatomy, maps of Europe and equestrian statues.
•  He invented the bicycle 300 years before a bicycle was built.
• As an engineer, da Vinci designed many of the structures and public works in Milan, Italy. His scientific studies included research and discoveries in the fields of dynamics, anatomy, physics, optics, biology, hydraulics and aeronautics.
• Leonardo was both a perfectionist and a procrastinator. How’s that for a terrible combination of personality traits? It’s said to be one of the reasons why he left so few paintings.
• There are no pieces of sculpture that can definitely be attributed to Leonardo, even though art historians know he learned sculpture when an art apprentice in Verrocchio’s studio. (So remember to sign your work!)
• Leonardo was born out of wedlock on 15 April 1452. But if he hadn’t been, he might not have been apprenticed to the artist Andrea del Verrocchio, as he would have more occupations open to him. As it was, being illegitimate, his options were limited. The only thing known for sure about his mother is that her name was Caterina; art historians believe she probably worked in the household of Leonardo’s father, Ser Piero da Vinci.
• Paper was far more expensive and harder to get hold of in Leonardo’s day than it is today. Which is why he made more intensive use of it, “filling” most of every page.
• Unusually for the era in which he lived, Leonardo was a vegetarian, for humanitarian reasons. (Not that this stopped him from dissecting humans to study anatomy and to map out where the human soul was, nor from taking a job as a designer of military weapons at one stage.)
• Leonardo was one of the first artists in Italy to use oil paints instead of egg tempera, enjoying the freedom it gave him to rework a painting. He even concocted his own recipe for oil paints.
• Leonardo’s great fresco, The Last Supper began to deteriorate almost immediately. This is because Leonardo didn’t follow traditional, tried-and-tested fresco techniques of water-based paints applied to wet plaster, but used oil-based paint on a surface that was a mixture of gesso, pitch, and mastic.
• In all of his notebooks and person writings, Leonardo wrote backwards. His writings could easily be read by placing the manuscripts in front of a mirror. It is recorded that da Vinci was left handed, which was unusual and frowned upon in his time because of superstitions against left-handed persons. 
• Some people believe he wrote from right to left because he did not want people to be able to read his notes and take his inventions and ideas from him. 
• Others believe he was hiding his scientific ideas from the Catholic faith, which might have frowned upon some of his teachings and findings. Another theory is that Leonardo wrote this way because he was left handed, and writing from left to right with the left hand would create smudges on the paper.
• It is believed that the Mona Lisa was named after Lisa del Giocondo, a woman from Florence that was married to a wealthy merchant in the area. 
• This was not discovered until 2005 when a librarian at the University of Heidelberg discovered a note written by Agostino Vespucci, identifying the woman in the painting as Lisa del Giocondo. After his death, Leonardo left the painting to his assistant.
•  It was never claimed by the family of Lisa del Giocondo, who originally commissioned the painting to hang in their new home. The painting now belongs to the French government and resides at the Louvre Museum
• Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in Italy. He was a major figure in the Italian Renaissance and is, perhaps, the person that the term Renaissance Man is named after. This term refers to someone that has well rounded skills in various areas and disciplines of education and performance. 
• In many ways, his actions and life's study and performance can be considered a great inspiration to all to this very day because he is a figure that shows what can be achieved through developing much knowledge in different disciplines.
• Most of all, Leonardo da Vinci was not someone that merely studied and memorized what he learned. He was innovative his education and built upon it. That is why a great many of his inventions had great impact in the development of many things that we take for granted in the modern era. 
• Did you know that da Vinci originally developed plans for a submarine? His plans were not workable but they set the foundation for those powerful undersea vessels we have today.
• While da Vinci was an intelligent man, he did not become such a renowned painter and inventor overnight. He spent many years studying his education formally and was also an apprentice to other painters and inventors for many years. In time, he developed his own unique skills and was able to put them to use in his own innovative ways.
• Once again, da Vinci's greatest claims to fame were his work as a painter. Two of his popular works are the Mona Lisa (above) and The Last Supper. These are two of the most famous painting in history and remain known to people all throughout the world even after many centuries have passed since they were finished. 
• Da Vinci also created a work known as the Creation of Adam which is considered a brilliant work that is common reproduced in modern churches all throughout the world. The Vitruvian Man was a famous drawing he produced which seems to have origins as a guide for those interested in medicine. However, the popular work has become ‘pop art' over the ages and is used in many science-fiction images.
• Sadly, much of da Vinci's work has been lost or destroyed over time. This same fate has befallen his ledgers and notes. 
• So, there may have been even greater works of art da Vinci produced that have become lost to time and history. Then again, who knows? The works may end up being discovered somewhere at some time in the future. We can always hope!
• The painting was commissioned by the Duke Ludovico Sforza and Beatrice d’Este for the family’s mausoleum. Leonardo painted it between 1495 and 1497. 
• It depicts the moment when Jesus tells the twelve apostles that one of them will betray him. Their reactions include surprise by Bartholomew, James and Andrew. Judas is shying away from Jesus, while Peter is angry, wielding a knife. John is sad and has a blank stare in his eyes.
•  Thomas, James the Greater and Philip are stunned and looking for an explanation, while Matthew, Jude Thaddeus and Simon the Zealot converse, looking for answers. The painting remains today at the dining hall of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy.
• Leonardo was the son of a wealthy man named Messer Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci who was a legal notary. In contrast, his mother, Caterina, was a peasant.
• Leonardo’s parents were not married when he was born.
• Leonardo’s surname,“da Vinci”, means “of Vinci” which is the town where he was born.
• Little is known about Leonardo’s early life which, of course, makes us all even more curious.
• Leonardo’s father married a sixteen-year-old girl named Albiera who died young.
• Leonardo was an apprentice to the artist Andrea di Cione in 1466. Andrea di Cione was known as Verrocchio and he had one of the best workshops in Florence.
• Verrocchio never painted again after collaborating with Leonardo da Vinci on The Baptism of Chirst painting. Da Vinci painted the young angel who held the robe of Jesus and his painting proved to be far superior to Verrocchio, the master.
• Da Vinci, under the tutelage of masters, learned in an environment that was both theoretical and technical. It included such things as drafting, drawing, plaster, sculpting, modelling, metallurgy, carpentry and painting.
• Leonardo is thought to have been the model for the bronze statue of David in the Bargello and the Archangel Raphael in Tobias and the Angel.
• In 1472, Leonardo qualified as a master in the prestigious guild of artists and doctors of medicine known as the Guild of St Luke. Even though his father provided him with a workshop of his own, he continued his collaboration with Verrocchio.
• Leonardo’s earliest known work dated August 5, 1473, is a drawing of the Arno valley in pen and ink.
• In 1478, Leonardo da Vinci left Verrocchio’s studio.
• Da Vinci’s first independent commission was to paint an altarpiece for the Chapel of St. Bernard in the Palazzo Vecchio in January 1478. This commission was not completed.
• Leonardo’s second independent commission was The Adoration of the Magi for the Monks of San Donato a Scopeto in March 1481. This commission was also not completed.
• His drawing of the Vitruvian Man illustrates several examples of da Vinci’s findings about the human body. He discovered that the palm is the width of four fingers and that the naval is located at the center point of the body. 
• He also determined that the length of a person’s wingspan is the same as his height, the distance from the hairline to the bottom of the chin is 10% the person’s height, the width from shoulder to shoulder equals 25% of a person’s height, the distance from the elbow to the armpit is 12.5% of a person’s height, the length of the foot is one sixth the person’s height and the length of the ear is one-third of the height of a person’s face.
• Born on April 15, 1452 in Anchiano Vinci, near Florence, Leonardo da Vinci was the son of Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci, a notary, and Caterina, a peasant woman. 
• He was raised by his father. Caterina and Leonardo’s father went on to marry other people, and together gave 17 half-siblings to Leonardo.
• As a child, da Vinci constantly produced drawings that caused his father to introduce Leonardo to a well-respected painter in the area called Andrea del Verrocchio. Leonardo was extremely successful as an apprentice and outgrew his surroundings after a number of years working with the artist.

Superb Quotes by Leonardo da Vinci

• Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose.
• I know that many will call this useless work.
• Those men who are inventors and interpreters between Nature and Man, as compared with boasters and declaimers of the works of others, must be regarded and not otherwise esteemed than as the object in front of a mirror, when compared with its image seen in the mirror. For the first is something in itself, and the other nothingness.— Folks little indebted to Nature, since it is only by chance that they wear the human form and without it I might class them with the herds of beasts.
• Many will think they may reasonably blame me by alleging that my proofs are opposed to the authority of certain men held in the highest reverence by their inexperienced judgments; not considering that my works are the issue of pure and simple experience, who is the one true mistress. These rules are sufficient to enable you to know the true from the false— and this aids men to look only for things that are possible and with due moderation— and not to wrap yourself in ignorance, a thing which can have no good result, so that in despair you would give yourself up to melancholy.
• A point is not part of a line.
• The smallest natural point is larger than all mathematical points, and this is proved because the natural point has continuity, and any thing that is continuous is infinitely divisible; but the mathematical point is indivisible because it has no size.
• Nothing is that which fills no space. If one single point placed in a circle may be the starting point of an infinite number of lines, and the termination of an infinite number of lines, there must be an infinite number of points separable from this point, and these when reunited become one again; whence it follows that the part may be equal to the whole.
• The point, being indivisible, occupies no space. That which occupies no space is nothing. The limiting surface of one thing is the beginning of another.
• That which has no limitations, has no form. The limitations of two conterminous bodies are interchangeably the surface of each. All the surfaces of a body are not parts of that body.
• The line has in itself neither matter nor substance and may rather be called an imaginary idea than a real object; and this being its nature it occupies no space. Therefore an infinite number of lines may be conceived of as intersecting each other at a point, which has no dimensions and is only of the thickness (if thickness it may be called) of one single line.
• The boundaries of bodies are the least of all things. The proposition is proved to be true, because the boundary of a thing is a surface, which is not part of the body contained within that surface; nor is it part of the air surrounding that body, but is the medium interposted between the air and the body, as is proved in its place.
• Drawing is based upon perspective, which is nothing else than a thorough knowledge of the function of the eye. And this function simply consists in receiving in a pyramid the forms and colours of all the objects placed before it. I say in a pyramid, because there is no object so small that it will not be larger than the spot where these pyramids are received into the eye. Therefore, if you extend the lines from the edges of each body as they converge you will bring them to a single point, and necessarily the said lines must form a pyramid.
• Perspective is nothing more than a rational demonstration applied to the consideration of how objects in front of the eye transmit their image to it, by means of a pyramid of lines. The Pyramid is the name I apply to the lines which, starting from the surface and edges of each object, converge from a distance and meet in a single point.
• All objects transmit their image to the eye in pyramids, and the nearer to the eye these pyramids are intersected the smaller will the image appear of the objects which cause them.
• The instant the atmosphere is illuminated it will be filled with an infinite number of images which are produced by the various bodies and colours assembled in it. And the eye is the target, a lodestone, of these images.