Key dates in the life of Leonardo da Vinci. The genius Leonardo da Vinci

27.04.2019

Leonardo da Vinci (born April 15, 1452, the village of Anchiano, near the town of Vinci, near Florence - died May 2, 1519, Cloux Castle, near Amboise, Touraine, France) - a great Italian artist (painter, sculptor, architect) and scientist (anatomist, mathematician, physicist, natural scientist), a prominent representative of the type of “universal man” (lat. homo universale) - the ideal of the Italian Renaissance. Painter, engineer, mechanic, carpenter, musician, mathematician, pathologist, inventor - this is not a complete list of the facets of a universal genius. He was called a sorcerer, a servant of the devil, an Italian Faust and a divine spirit. He was ahead of his time by several centuries. Surrounded by legends during his lifetime, the great Leonardo is a symbol of the limitless aspirations of the human mind. Having revealed the ideal of the Renaissance “universal man,” Leonardo was interpreted in the subsequent tradition as the person who most clearly outlined the range of creative quests of the era. He was the founder of the art of the High Renaissance.

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in the village of Anchiano near Vinci: not far from Florence. His parents were 25-year-old notary Pierrot and his lover, peasant woman Katerina. Leonardo spent the first years of his life with his mother. His father soon married a rich and noble girl, but this marriage turned out to be childless, and Piero took his three-year-old son to be raised. Separated from his mother, Leonardo spent his whole life trying to recreate her image in his masterpieces. In Italy at that time, illegitimate children were treated almost as legal heirs. Many influential people of the city of Vinci took part in the further fate of Leonardo. When Leonardo was 13 years old, his stepmother died in childbirth. The father remarried - and again soon became a widower. He lived to be 78 years old, was married four times and had 12 children. The father tried to introduce Leonardo to the family profession, but to no avail: the son was not interested in the laws of society.

Don’t feed the slacker bread, but let him reason, and you won’t deny him the ability to denigrate others. He is always ready to find an excuse for his own worthlessness.

Da Vinci Leonardo

Leonardo did not have a surname in the modern sense; “da Vinci” simply means (from) the town of Vinci.” His full name is Italian. Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, that is, “Leonardo, son of Mr. Piero from Vinci.”

There is a legend about the beginning of the great artist’s journey. A peasant allegedly turned to Father Leonardo. He gave the notary a round shield made of fig wood and asked to find an artist who could paint this shield. Pierrot did not look for a specialist and entrusted the work to his son. Leonardo decided to depict something “terrible”. He brought into his room many "models", snakes and insects of a bizarre appearance, and painted a fantastic dragon on the shield. The stunned father then sent Leonardo to study with the best painter in Tuscany, Andrea del Verrocchio. So the young man found himself in the famous art workshop of that time.

In the 15th century, ideas about the revival of ancient ideals were in the air. At the Florence Academy, the best minds in Italy created the theory of new art. Creative youth spent time in lively discussions. Leonardo remained aloof from his busy social life and rarely left his studio. He had no time for theoretical disputes: he improved his skills. One day Verrocchio received an order for the painting “The Baptism of Christ” and commissioned Leonardo to paint one of the two angels. This was a common practice in art workshops of that time: the teacher created a picture together with student assistants. The most talented and diligent were entrusted with the execution of an entire fragment. Two Angels, painted by Leonardo and Verrocchio, clearly demonstrated the superiority of the student over the teacher. As Vasari writes, the amazed Verrocchio abandoned his brush and never returned to painting.

At the age of 24, Leonardo and three other young men were put on trial on false, anonymous charges of sodomy. They were acquitted. Very little is known about his life after this event, but he probably had his own workshop in Florence in 1476-1481.

In 1482, Leonardo, being, according to Vasari, a very talented musician, created a silver lyre in the shape of a horse's head. Lorenzo de' Medici sent him as a peacemaker to Lodovico Moro, and sent the lyre with him as a gift.

Leonardo had many friends and students. As for love relationships, there is no reliable information on this matter, since Leonardo carefully hid this side of his life. According to some versions, Leonardo had a relationship with Cecilia Gallerani, a favorite of Lodovico Moro, with whom he painted his famous painting “The Lady with an Ermine.”

The wine was consumed by a drunkard - and this wine took revenge on the drunkard. Wine takes revenge on the drunkard.

Da Vinci Leonardo

In France, Leonardo hardly painted. The master is speechless right hand, and he had difficulty moving without assistance. 68-year-old Leonardo spent the third year of his life in Amboise in bed. On April 23, 1519, he left a will, and on May 2, he died surrounded by his students and his masterpieces. Leonardo da Vinci was buried at Amboise Castle. The inscription was engraved on the tombstone: “Within the walls of this monastery lie the ashes of Leonardo of Vinci, the greatest artist, engineer and architect of the French kingdom.”

News and publications concerning Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (Italian: Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci). Born on April 15, 1452 in the village of Anchiano, near the town of Vinci, near Florence - died on May 2, 1519, Clos Luce castle, near Amboise, Touraine, France. Italian artist(painter, sculptor, architect) and scientist (anatomist, naturalist), inventor, writer, one of the largest representatives of the art of the High Renaissance.

Leonardo da Vinci is a vivid example of a “universal man” (lat. homo universalis).

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in the village of Anchiano near the small town of Vinci, not far from Florence at “three o’clock in the morning”, that is, at 22:30 according to modern time. A noteworthy entry in the diary of Leonardo’s grandfather, Antonio da Vinci (1372-1468) (literal translation): “On Saturday, at three o’clock in the morning on April 15, my grandson, the son of my son Piero, was born. The boy was named Leonardo. He was baptized by Father Piero di Bartolomeo."

His parents were the 25-year-old notary Pierrot (1427-1504) and his lover, the peasant woman Katerina. Leonardo spent the first years of his life with his mother. His father soon married a rich and noble girl, but this marriage turned out to be childless, and Piero took his three-year-old son to be raised. Separated from his mother, Leonardo spent his whole life trying to recreate her image in his masterpieces. At that time he lived with his grandfather. In Italy at that time, illegitimate children were treated almost as legal heirs. Many influential people of the city of Vinci took part in the further fate of Leonardo. When Leonardo was 13 years old, his stepmother died in childbirth. The father remarried - and again soon became a widower. He lived to be 77 years old, was married four times and had 12 children. The father tried to introduce Leonardo to the family profession, but to no avail: the son was not interested in the laws of society.

Leonardo did not have a surname in the modern sense; "da Vinci" simply means "(originally) from the town of Vinci." His full name is Italian. Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, that is, “Leonardo, son of Mr. Piero from Vinci.”

In his Lives of the Most Famous Painters, Sculptors and Architects, Vasari says that once a peasant he knew asked Father Leonardo to find an artist to paint a round wooden shield. Ser Pierrot gave the shield to his son. Leonardo decided to depict the head of the gorgon Medusa, and in order for the image of the monster to make the right impression on the audience, he used lizards, snakes, grasshoppers, caterpillars, bats and “other creatures” as subjects, “from a variety of which, combining them in different ways, he created the monster very disgusting and terrible, which poisoned with its breath and ignited the air.” The result exceeded his expectations: when Leonardo showed the finished work to his father, he was scared. The son told him: “This work serves the purpose for which it was made. So take it and give it away, for this is the effect that is expected from works of art.” Ser Piero did not give Leonardo's work to the peasant: he received another shield, bought from a junk dealer. Father Leonardo sold the shield of Medusa in Florence, receiving one hundred ducats for it. According to legend, this shield passed to the Medici family, and when it was lost, the sovereign owners of Florence were expelled from the city by the rebellious people. Many years later, Cardinal del Monte commissioned a painting of Caravaggio's Gorgon Medusa. The new talisman was presented to Ferdinand I de' Medici in honor of his son's marriage.

In 1466 Leonardo da Vinci entered Verrocchio's workshop as an apprentice artist. Verrocchio's workshop was located in the intellectual center of what was then Italy, the city of Florence, which allowed Leonardo to study the humanities, as well as acquire some technical skills. He studied drawing, chemistry, metallurgy, working with metal, plaster and leather. In addition, the young apprentice was engaged in drawing, sculpture and modeling. In addition to Leonardo, Perugino, Lorenzo di Credi, Agnolo di Polo studied in the workshop, Botticelli worked, and such famous masters as Ghirlandaio and others often visited. Subsequently, even when Leonardo’s father hires him to work in his workshop, he continues to collaborate with Verrocchio .

In 1473, at the age of 20, Leonardo da Vinci qualified as a master at the Guild of St. Luke.

In 1472-1477 Leonardo worked on: “The Baptism of Christ”, “The Annunciation”, “Madonna with a Vase”.

In the second half of the 70s, the “Madonna with a Flower” (“Benois Madonna”) was created.

At the age of 24, Leonardo and three other young men were put on trial on false, anonymous charges of sodomy. They were acquitted. Very little is known about his life after this event, but it is likely (there are documents) that he had his own workshop in Florence in 1476-1481.

In 1481, da Vinci completed the first large order in his life - the altar image “The Adoration of the Magi” (not completed) for the monastery of San Donato a Sisto, located near Florence. In the same year, work began on the painting “Saint Jerome”.

In 1482, Leonardo, being, according to Vasari, a very talented musician, created a silver lyre in the shape of a horse's head. Lorenzo de' Medici sent him to Milan as a peacemaker to Ludovico Moro, and sent the lyre with him as a gift. At the same time, work began on the equestrian monument to Francesco Sforza.

Leonardo had many friends and students. As for love relationships, there is no reliable information on this matter, since Leonardo carefully hid this side of his life. He was not married, and there is no reliable information about his affairs with women. According to some versions, Leonardo had a relationship with Cecilia Gallerani, a favorite of Lodovico Moro, with whom he painted his famous painting “The Lady with an Ermine.” A number of authors, following the words of Vasari, suggest intimate relationships with young men, including students (Salai), others believe that, despite the painter’s homosexuality, relationships with students were not intimate.

Leonardo was present at the meeting of King Francis I with Pope Leo X in Bologna on December 19, 1515. In 1513-1516 Leonardo lived in the Belvedere and worked on the painting “John the Baptist”.

Francis commissioned a master to construct a mechanical lion capable of walking, from whose chest a bouquet of lilies would appear. Perhaps this lion greeted the king in Lyon or was used during negotiations with the pope.

In 1516, Leonardo accepted the invitation of the French king and settled in his castle of Clos-Lucé, where Francis I spent his childhood, not far from the royal castle of Amboise. In his official capacity as the first royal artist, engineer and architect, Leonardo received an annual annuity of one thousand ecus. Never before in Italy did Leonardo have the title of engineer. Leonardo was not the first Italian master, who, by the grace of the French king, received “freedom to dream, think and create” - before him, a similar honor was shared by Andrea Solario and Fra Giovanni Giocondo.

In France, Leonardo almost did not draw, but was masterfully involved in organizing court festivities, planning a new palace in Romorantan with a planned change in the river bed, designing a canal between the Loire and the Saône, and the main two-way spiral staircase in the Chateau de Chambord. Two years before his death, the master’s right hand became numb, and he had difficulty moving without assistance. 67-year-old Leonardo spent the third year of his life in Amboise in bed. On April 23, 1519, he left a will, and on May 2, he died surrounded by his students and his masterpieces in Clos-Luce.

According to Vasari, da Vinci died in the arms of King Francis I, his close friend. This unreliable, but widespread legend in France is reflected in the paintings of Ingres, Angelika Kaufman and many other painters. Leonardo da Vinci was buried at Amboise Castle. The inscription was engraved on the tombstone: “Within the walls of this monastery lie the ashes of Leonardo da Vinci, the greatest artist, engineer and architect of the French kingdom.”

The main heir was Leonardo's student and friend Francesco Melzi, who for the next 50 years remained the main manager of the master's inheritance, which included, in addition to paintings, tools, a library and at least 50 thousand original documents on various topics, of which only a third has survived to this day. Another student of Salai and a servant each received half of Leonardo's vineyards.

Our contemporaries know Leonardo primarily as an artist. In addition, it is possible that da Vinci could also have been a sculptor: researchers from the University of Perugia - Giancarlo Gentilini and Carlo Sisi - claim that the terracotta head they found in 1990 is the only sculptural work of Leonardo da Vinci that has come down to us.

However, da Vinci himself, at different periods of his life, considered himself primarily an engineer or scientist. He did not devote much time to fine art and worked rather slowly. That's why artistic heritage Leonardo is not numerous in number, and a number of his works have been lost or severely damaged. However, his contribution to world artistic culture is extremely important even against the background of the cohort of geniuses that the Italian Renaissance produced. Thanks to his works, the art of painting moved to a qualitatively new stage of its development.

The Renaissance artists who preceded Leonardo decisively rejected many of the conventions of medieval art. This was a movement towards realism and much had already been achieved in the study of perspective, anatomy, and greater freedom in compositional solutions. But in terms of picturesqueness, working with paint, the artists were still quite conventional and constrained. The line in the picture clearly outlined the object, and the image had the appearance of a painted drawing.

The most conventional was the landscape, which played a secondary role. Leonardo realized and implemented a new painting technique. His line has the right to be blurry, because that’s how we see it. He realized the phenomenon of light scattering in the air and the appearance of sfumato - a haze between the viewer and the depicted object, which softens color contrasts and lines. As a result, realism in painting moved to a qualitatively new level.

His only invention that received recognition during his lifetime was a wheel lock for a pistol (started with a key). At the beginning, the wheeled pistol was not very widespread, but by the middle of the 16th century it had gained popularity among the nobles, especially among the cavalry, which was even reflected in the design of the armor, namely: Maximilian armor for the sake of firing pistols began to be made with gloves instead of mittens. The wheel lock for a pistol, invented by Leonardo da Vinci, was so perfect that it continued to be found in the 19th century.

At first, Leonardo developed the problem of flight using wings driven by human muscle power: the idea of the simplest apparatus of Daedalus and Icarus. But then he came up with the idea of building such an apparatus to which a person should not be attached, but should maintain complete freedom in order to control it; The apparatus must set itself in motion by its own force. This is essentially the idea of an airplane. Leonardo da Vinci worked on a vertical take-off and landing apparatus. Leonardo planned to place a system of retractable staircases on the vertical “ornitottero”. Nature served as an example for him: “look at the stone swift, which sat on the ground and cannot take off because of its short legs; and when he is in flight, pull out the ladder, as shown in the second image from above... this is how you take off from the plane; these stairs serve as legs...” Regarding landing, he wrote: “These hooks (concave wedges) which are attached to the base of the ladders serve the same purpose as the tips of the toes of the person who jumps on them, without his whole body being shaken by it, as if he was jumping on his heels.” Leonardo da Vinci proposed the first design of a telescope with two lenses (now known as the Kepler telescope). In the manuscript of the Codex Atlanticus, page 190a, there is an entry: “Make spectacle glasses (ochiali) for the eyes so that you can see the large Moon.”

Leonardo da Vinci may have first formulated the simplest form of the law of conservation of mass for the movement of fluids when describing the flow of a river, but due to vagueness of the wording and doubts about its authenticity, this statement has been criticized.

During his life, Leonardo da Vinci made thousands of notes and drawings on anatomy, but did not publish his work. While dissecting the bodies of people and animals, he accurately conveyed the structure of the skeleton and internal organs, including small details. According to clinical anatomy professor Peter Abrams, da Vinci's scientific work was 300 years ahead of its time and in many ways superior to the famous Gray's Anatomy.

Inventions of Leonardo da Vinci:

Parachute
Wheel lock
Bike
Tank
Lightweight portable bridges for the army
Spotlight
Catapult
Robot
Two-lens telescope.

The creator of “The Last Supper” and “La Gioconda” also showed himself as a thinker, early realizing the need for theoretical justification of artistic practice: “Those who devote themselves to practice without knowledge are like a sailor setting off on a journey without a rudder and compass... practice should always be based on good knowledge of theory."

Demanding from the artist an in-depth study of the objects depicted, Leonardo da Vinci recorded all his observations in a notebook, which he constantly carried with him. The result was a kind of intimate diary, the like of which is not found in all world literature. Drawings, drawings and sketches are accompanied here by brief notes on issues of perspective, architecture, music, natural science, military engineering and the like; all this is sprinkled with various sayings, philosophical reasoning, allegories, anecdotes, fables. Taken together, the entries in these 120 books provide materials for an extensive encyclopedia. However, he did not strive to publish his thoughts and even resorted to secret writing; a complete decipherment of his notes has not yet been completed.

Recognizing experience as the only criterion of truth and opposing the method of observation and induction to abstract speculation, Leonardo da Vinci not only in words, but in deeds deals a mortal blow to medieval scholasticism with its predilection for abstract logical formulas and deduction. For Leonardo da Vinci, speaking well means thinking correctly, that is, thinking independently, like the ancients, who did not recognize any authorities. So Leonardo da Vinci comes to deny not only scholasticism, this echo of feudal-medieval culture, but also humanism, a product of still fragile bourgeois thought, frozen in superstitious admiration for the authority of the ancients.

Denying book learning, declaring the task of science (as well as art) to be the knowledge of things, Leonardo da Vinci anticipates Montaigne's attacks on literary scholars and opens the era of a new science a hundred years before Galileo and Bacon.

The enormous literary heritage of Leonardo da Vinci has survived to this day in a chaotic form, in manuscripts written with his left hand. Although Leonardo da Vinci did not print a single line from them, in his notes he constantly addressed an imaginary reader and throughout the last years of his life he did not abandon the thought of publishing his works.

Living in the heyday of humanism, when the Italian language was considered secondary compared to Latin, Leonardo da Vinci delighted his contemporaries with the beauty and expressiveness of his speech (according to legend, he was a good improviser), but did not consider himself a writer and wrote as he spoke; his prose is therefore an example of the colloquial language of the 15th century intelligentsia, and this saved it in general from the artificiality and eloquence inherent in the prose of the humanists, although in some passages of the didactic writings of Leonardo da Vinci we find echoes of the pathos of the humanistic style.

Even in the least “poetic” fragments by design, Leonardo da Vinci’s style is distinguished by its vivid imagery; Thus, his “Treatise on Painting” is equipped with magnificent descriptions (for example, the famous description of the flood), amazing with the skill of verbal transmission of pictorial and plastic images. Along with descriptions in which one can feel the manner of an artist-painter, Leonardo da Vinci gives in his manuscripts many examples of narrative prose: fables, facets (joking stories), aphorisms, allegories, prophecies. In fables and facets, Leonardo stands on the level of the prose writers of the 14th century with their simple-minded practical morality; and some of its facets are indistinguishable from Sacchetti’s short stories.

Allegories and prophecies are more fantastic in nature: in the first, Leonardo da Vinci uses the techniques of medieval encyclopedias and bestiaries; the latter are in the nature of humorous riddles, distinguished by brightness and precision of phraseology and imbued with caustic, almost Voltairean irony, directed at the famous preacher Girolamo Savonarola. Finally, in the aphorisms of Leonardo da Vinci his philosophy of nature, his thoughts about the inner essence of things are expressed in epigrammatic form. Fiction had a purely utilitarian, auxiliary meaning for him.

To date, about 7,000 pages of Leonardo’s diaries have survived, located in various collections. At first, the priceless notes belonged to the master's favorite student, Francesco Melzi, but when he died, the manuscripts disappeared. Individual fragments began to “emerge” at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. At first they did not meet with enough interest. Numerous owners did not even suspect what kind of treasure fell into their hands. But when scientists established the authorship, it turned out that the barn books, art history essays, anatomical sketches, strange drawings, and research on geology, architecture, hydraulics, geometry, military fortifications, philosophy, optics, and drawing techniques were the work of one person. All entries in Leonardo's diaries are made in a mirror image.

The following students came out of Leonardo's workshop: "Leonardeschi"): Ambrogio de Predis, Giovanni Boltraffio, Francesco Melzi, Andrea Solario, Giampetrino, Bernardino Luini, Cesare da Sesto.

In 1485, after a terrible plague epidemic in Milan, Leonardo proposed a project to the authorities ideal city with certain parameters, layout and sewer system. The Duke of Milan, Lodovico Sforza, rejected the project. Centuries passed, and the authorities of London recognized Leonardo's plan as the perfect basis for the further development of the city. In modern Norway there is an active bridge designed by Leonardo da Vinci. Tests of parachutes and hang gliders made according to the master’s sketches confirmed that only the imperfection of materials did not allow him to take to the skies. At the Roman airport named after Leonardo da Vinci, there is a gigantic statue of a scientist with a model of a helicopter in his hands, stretching into the sky. “He who is directed towards a star does not turn around,” wrote Leonardo.

Leonardo, apparently, did not leave a single self-portrait that could be unambiguously attributed to him. Scientists have doubted that the famous self-portrait of Leonardo's sanguine (traditionally dated 1512-1515), depicting him in old age, is such. It is believed that perhaps this is just a study of the head of the apostle for the Last Supper. Doubts that this is a self-portrait of the artist have been expressed since the 19th century, the latest to be expressed recently by one of the leading experts on Leonardo, Professor Pietro Marani. But recently, Italian scientists announced a sensational discovery. They claim that an early self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci has been discovered. The discovery belongs to the journalist Piero Angela.

He played the lyre masterfully. When Leonardo's case was heard in the Milan court, he appeared there precisely as a musician, and not as an artist or inventor. Leonardo was the first to explain why the sky is blue. In the book “On Painting” he wrote: “The blueness of the sky is due to the thickness of illuminated air particles, which is located between the Earth and the blackness above.”

Leonardo was ambidextrous - he was equally good with his right and left hands. They even say that he could write at the same time different texts with different hands. However, he wrote most of his works with his left hand from right to left.

It is believed that da Vinci was a vegetarian (Andrea Corsali, in a letter to Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici, compares Leonardo to an Indian who did not eat meat).

The phrase often attributed to da Vinci: “If a person strives for freedom, why does he keep birds and animals in cages? .. man is truly the king of animals, because he cruelly exterminates them. We live by killing others. We are walking cemeteries! More in early age I gave up meat" taken from English translation novel by Dmitry Merezhkovsky “Resurrected Gods. Leonardo da Vinci."

Leonardo wrote in his famous diaries from right to left in mirror image. Many people think that in this way he wanted to make his research secret. Perhaps this is true. According to another version, mirror handwriting was his individual feature (there is even evidence that it was easier for him to write this way than in a normal way); There is even a concept of “Leonardo’s handwriting.”

Leonardo's hobbies even included cooking and the art of serving. In Milan, for 13 years he was the manager of court feasts. He invented several culinary devices to make the work of cooks easier. Leonardo's original dish - thinly sliced stewed meat with vegetables placed on top - was very popular at court feasts.

Painter, engineer, mechanic, carpenter, musician, mathematician, pathologist, inventor - this is not a complete list of facets of a universal genius. He was called a sorcerer, a servant of the devil, an Italian Faust and a divine spirit. He was ahead of his time by several centuries. Surrounded by legends during his lifetime, the great Leonardo is a symbol of the limitless aspirations of the human mind. Having revealed the ideal of the Renaissance “universal man,” Leonardo was interpreted in the subsequent tradition as the person who most clearly outlined the range of creative quests of the era. He was the founder of the art of the High Renaissance.

Biography

Childhood

The house where Leonardo lived as a child.

Defeated teacher

Verrocchio's painting "The Baptism of Christ". The angel on the left (lower left corner) is the creation of Leonardo.

Professional activity, 1476-1513

Personal life

End of life

In France, Leonardo hardly painted. The master's right hand was numb, and he could hardly move without assistance. 67-year-old Leonardo spent the third year of his life in Amboise in bed. On April 23, 1519, he left a will, and on May 2, he died surrounded by his students and his masterpieces. Leonardo da Vinci was buried at Amboise Castle. The inscription was engraved on the tombstone: “Within the walls of this monastery lie the ashes of Leonardo of Vinci, the greatest artist, engineer and architect of the French kingdom.”

Key dates

- Leonardo da Vinci enters Verrocchio's studio as an apprentice artist (Florence)
- Member of the Florence Guild of Artists
- - work on: “The Baptism of Christ”, “The Annunciation”, “Madonna with a Vase”
Second half of the 70s. “Madonna with a Flower” (“Benois Madonna”) was created
- Saltarelli scandal
- Leonardo opens his own workshop
- according to documents, this year Leonardo already had his own workshop
- the monastery of San Donato a Sisto commissions Leonardo to create a large altarpiece “The Adoration of the Magi” (not completed); work has begun on the painting “Saint Jerome”
- invited to the court of Lodovico Sforza in Milan. Work has begun on the equestrian monument of Francesco Sforza.
- work has begun on “Madonna in the Grotto”
Mid-80s - “Madonna Litta” was created
- “Portrait of a Musician” was created
- development of a flying machine - ornithopter, based on bird flight
- anatomical drawings of skulls
- painting “Portrait of a Musician”. A clay model of the monument to Francesco Sforza was made.
- The Vitruvian Man is a famous drawing that is sometimes called canonical proportions.
- - “Madonna in the Grotto” is finished
- - work on the fresco “The Last Supper” in the monastery of Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan
- Milan is captured by the French troops of Louis XII, Leonardo leaves Milan, the model of the Sforza monument is badly damaged
- enters the service of Cesare Borgia as an architect and military engineer
- cardboard for the fresco “Battle of Andjaria (at Anghiari)” and the painting “Mona Lisa”

House in France where Leonardo da Vinci died in 1519

- return to Milan and service with King Louis XII of France (who at that time controlled northern Italy, see Italian Wars)
- - work in Milan on the equestrian monument to Marshal Trivulzio
- painting in St. Anne's Cathedral
- “Self-portrait”
- moving to Rome under the patronage of Pope Leo X
- - work on the painting “John the Baptist”
- moving to France as a court artist, engineer, architect and mechanic

Achievements

Art

Our contemporaries know Leonardo primarily as an artist. In addition, it is possible that Da Vinci could also have been a sculptor: researchers from the University of Perugia - Giancarlo Gentilini and Carlo Sisi - claim that the terracotta head they found in 1990 is the only sculptural work of Leonardo da Vinci that has come down to us. However, Da Vinci himself, at different periods of his life, considered himself primarily an engineer or scientist. He did not devote much time to fine art and worked rather slowly. Therefore, Leonardo’s artistic heritage is not large in quantity, and a number of his works have been lost or severely damaged. However, his contribution to world artistic culture is extremely important even against the background of the cohort of geniuses that the Italian Renaissance produced. Thanks to his works, the art of painting moved to a qualitatively new stage of its development. The Renaissance artists who preceded Leonardo decisively rejected many of the conventions of medieval art. This was a movement towards realism and much had already been achieved in the study of perspective, anatomy, and greater freedom in compositional solutions. But in terms of picturesqueness, working with paint, the artists were still quite conventional and constrained. The line in the picture clearly outlined the object, and the image had the appearance of a painted drawing. The most conventional was the landscape, which played a secondary role. Leonardo realized and implemented a new painting technique. His line has the right to be blurry, because that’s how we see it. He realized the phenomenon of light scattering in the air and the appearance of sfumato - a haze between the viewer and the depicted object, which softens color contrasts and lines. As a result, realism in painting moved to a qualitatively new level.

List of paintings

Name	form	Year	Museum
Landscape of the Arno River Valley	Ink, pencil, paper	15 August 1473
Baptism of Christ	Oil and tempera on panel	1473-1475
Annunciation	Oil and tempera on panel	1473-1475	Uffizi
Adoration of the Magi		1472-1477
Portrait of Ginevra de Benci	Oil and tempera on panel	OK. 1475-1478
Madonna with a Flower (Benois Madonna)	Oil transferred from board to canvas	1478-1480	Hermitage
Madonna Litta		1478-1482	Hermitage
Madonna of the Rocks (Madonna of the Grotto)	Oil on panel	1483-1486
Lady with an ermine	Oil on panel	OK. 1488-1490	Czartoryski Museum
Portrait of a musician	Oil on panel	1485-1490
Last Supper	Oil and tempera on plaster	1494-1498
Mona Lisa (La Gioconda)	Oil on poplar panel	1503	Louvre
Battle of Anghiari	Wall painting	1503-1505
Leda with a swan	Oil on panel	1508-1514
John the Baptist	Oil on panel	1512	Louvre
Turin self-portrait		1514-1515

Science and Engineering

Leonardo da Vinci was interested in the problems of flight. In Milan, he made many drawings and studied the flight mechanism of birds of various breeds and bats. In addition to observations, he also conducted experiments, but they were all unsuccessful. Leonardo really wanted to build a flying machine. He said: “He who knows everything can do everything. If only you could find out, you’ll have wings!” At first, Leonardo developed the problem of flight using wings driven by human muscle power: the idea of the simplest apparatus of Daedalus and Icarus. But then he came up with the idea of building such an apparatus to which a person should not be attached, but should maintain complete freedom in order to control it; The apparatus must set itself in motion by its own force. This is essentially the idea of an airplane. In order to successfully build and practically use the device, Leonardo lacked only one thing: the idea of a motor with sufficient power. He got to everything else. Leonardo da Vinci worked on a vertical take-off and landing apparatus. Leonardo planned to place a system of retractable staircases on the vertical “ornitottero”. Nature served as an example for him: “look at the stone swift, which sat on the ground and cannot take off because of its short legs; and when he is in flight, pull out the ladder, as shown in the second image from above... this is how you take off from the plane; these stairs serve as legs...” Regarding landing, he wrote: “These hooks (concave wedges), which are attached to the base of the ladders, serve the same purposes as the tips of the toes of the person who jumps on them, and his whole body is not shaken by it, as if he I was jumping on my heels."

Inventions

Metal cart for transporting soldiers (tank prototype)
Lightweight portable bridges for the army.

Flying car design.

War machine.

Aircraft.

Automobile.

Rapid fire weapon.

Military drum.

Spotlight.

Anatomy

Thinker

...Those sciences are empty and full of errors that are not generated by experience, the father of all certainty, and do not culminate in visual experience...

No human research can be called true science unless it has gone through mathematical proof. And if you say that sciences that begin and end in thought have truth, then I cannot agree with you on this, ... because such purely mental reasoning does not involve experience, without which there is no certainty.

Literature

After the death of Leonardo da Vinci, his friend and student Francesco Melzi selected from them passages related to painting, from which the “Treatise on Painting” (Trattato della pittura, 1st ed.) was subsequently compiled. The handwritten legacy of Leonardo da Vinci was published in its entirety only in the 19th and 20th centuries. In addition to its enormous scientific and historical significance, it also has artistic value due to its concise, energetic style and unusually clear language. Living in the heyday of humanism, when the Italian language was considered secondary compared to Latin, Leonardo da Vinci delighted his contemporaries with the beauty and expressiveness of his speech (according to legend, he was a good improviser), but did not consider himself a writer and wrote as he spoke; his prose is therefore an example of the colloquial language of the 15th century intelligentsia, and this saved it in general from the artificiality and eloquence inherent in the prose of humanists, although in some passages of the didactic writings of Leonardo da Vinci we find echoes of the pathos of the humanistic style.

Even in the least “poetic” fragments by design, Leonardo da Vinci’s style is distinguished by its vivid imagery; Thus, his “Treatise on Painting” is equipped with magnificent descriptions (for example, the famous description of the flood), amazing with the skill of verbal transmission of pictorial and plastic images. Along with descriptions in which one can feel the manner of an artist-painter, Leonardo da Vinci gives in his manuscripts many examples of narrative prose: fables, facets (humorous stories), aphorisms, allegories, prophecies. In his fables and facets, Leonardo stands on the level of the prose writers of the 14th century with their simple-minded practical morality; and some of its facets are indistinguishable from Sacchetti's novellas.

Allegories and prophecies are more fantastic in nature: in the former, Leonardo da Vinci uses the techniques of medieval encyclopedias and bestiaries; the latter are in the nature of humorous riddles, distinguished by brightness and accuracy of phraseology and imbued with caustic, almost Voltairean irony, directed at the famous preacher Girolamo Savonarola. Finally, in the aphorisms of Leonardo da Vinci his philosophy of nature, his thoughts about the inner essence of things, are expressed in epigrammatic form. Fiction had a purely utilitarian, auxiliary meaning for him.

Leonardo's Diaries

To date, about 7,000 pages of Leonardo’s diaries have survived, located in various collections. At first, the priceless notes belonged to the master's favorite student, Francesco Melzi, but when he died, the manuscripts disappeared. Individual fragments began to “emerge” at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. At first they did not meet with enough interest. Numerous owners did not even suspect what a treasure fell into their hands! But when scientists established the authorship, it turned out that the barn books, art history essays, anatomical sketches, strange drawings, and research on geology, architecture, hydraulics, geometry, military fortifications, philosophy, optics, and drawing techniques were the work of one person. All entries in Leonardo's diaries are made in a mirror image.

Students

From Leonardo's workshop came such students ("Leonardeschi") as:

Ambrogio de Predis
Giampetrino

The renowned master summarized his many years of experience in educating young painters in a number of practical recommendations. The student must first master perspective, examine the shapes of objects, then copy the master’s drawings, draw from life, study the works of different painters, and only after that begin his own creation. “Learn diligence before speed,” advises Leonardo. The master recommends developing memory and especially imagination, encouraging one to peer into the unclear contours of the flame and find new, amazing forms in them. Leonardo encourages the painter to explore nature, so as not to become like a mirror that reflects objects without having knowledge about them. The teacher created “recipes” for images of faces, figures, clothes, animals, trees, sky, rain. In addition to the aesthetic principles of the great master, his notes contain wise worldly advice to young artists.

After Leonardo

In 1485, after a terrible plague epidemic in Milan, Leonardo proposed to the authorities a project for an ideal city with certain parameters, layout and sewer system. The Duke of Milan, Lodovico Sforza, rejected the project. Centuries passed, and the authorities of London recognized Leonardo's plan as the perfect basis for the further development of the city. In modern Norway there is an active bridge designed by Leonardo da Vinci. Tests of parachutes and hang gliders made according to the master’s sketches confirmed that only the imperfection of materials did not allow him to take to the skies. With the advent of aviation, the most cherished dream of the great Florentine became a reality. At the Roman airport named after Leonardo da Vinci, there is a gigantic statue of a scientist with a model of a helicopter in his hands, stretching into the sky. “Do not turn around, he who is directed towards the star,” wrote the divine Leonardo.

Leonardo, apparently, did not leave a single self-portrait that could be unambiguously attributed to him. Scientists have doubted that the famous self-portrait of Leonardo's sanguine (traditionally dated to -1515), depicting him in old age, is such. It is believed that perhaps this is just a study of the head of the apostle for the Last Supper. Doubts that this is a self-portrait of the artist have been expressed since the 19th century, the latest to be expressed recently by one of the leading experts on Leonardo, Professor Pietro Marani.

One day Leonardo's teacher, Verrocchio, received an order for the painting “The Baptism of Christ” and instructed Leonardo to paint one of the two angels. This was a common practice in art workshops of that time: the teacher created a picture together with student assistants. The most talented and diligent were entrusted with the execution of an entire fragment. Two Angels, painted by Leonardo and Verrochio, clearly demonstrated the superiority of the student over the teacher. As Vasari writes, the amazed Verrocchio abandoned his brush and never returned to painting.

He played the lyre masterfully. When Leonardo's case was heard in the Milan court, he appeared there precisely as a musician, and not as an artist or inventor.

Leonardo was the first to explain why the sky is blue. In the book “On Painting” he wrote: “The blueness of the sky is due to the thickness of illuminated air particles, which is located between the Earth and the blackness above.”

Leonardo was ambidextrous - he was equally good with his right and left hands. They even say that he could write different texts with different hands at the same time. However, he wrote most of his works with his left hand from right to left.

Was a vegetarian. He wrote the words “If a person strives for freedom, why does he keep birds and animals in cages? .. man is truly the king of animals, because he cruelly exterminates them. We live by killing others. We are walking cemeteries! I gave up meat at an early age.”

Leonardo wrote in his famous diaries from right to left in mirror image. Many people think that in this way he wanted to make his research secret. Perhaps this is true. According to another version, mirror handwriting was his individual feature (there is even evidence that it was easier for him to write this way than in a normal way); There is even a concept of “Leonardo’s handwriting.”

Leonardo's hobbies even included cooking and the art of serving. In Milan, for 13 years he was the manager of court feasts. He invented several culinary devices to make the work of cooks easier. Leonardo's original dish - thinly sliced meat stewed with vegetables placed on top - was very popular at court feasts.

Bibliography

Essays

Natural science essays and works on aesthetics. ().

About him

Leonardo da Vinci. Selected natural science works. M. 1955.
Monuments of world aesthetic thought, vol. I, M. 1962.
I. Les manuscrits de Leonard de Vinci, de la Bibliothèque de l’Institut, 1881-1891.
Leonardo da Vinci: Traité de la peinture, 1910.
Il Codice di Leonardo da Vinci, nella Biblioteca del principe Trivulzio, Milano, 1891.
Il Codice Atlantico di Leonardo da Vinci, nella Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milano, 1894-1904.
Volynsky A.L., Leonardo da Vinci, St. Petersburg, 1900; 2nd ed., St. Petersburg, 1909.
General history of art. T.3, M. “Art”, 1962.
Gukovsky M. A. Mechanics of Leonardo da Vinci. - M.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1947. - 815 p.
Zubov V.P. Leonardo da Vinci. M.: Publishing house. USSR Academy of Sciences, 1962.
Pater V. Renaissance, M., 1912.
Seil G. Leonardo da Vinci as an artist and scientist. Experience in psychological biography, St. Petersburg, 1898.
Sumtsov N. F. Leonardo da Vinci, 2nd ed., Kharkov, 1900.
Florentine readings: Leonardo da Vinci (collection of articles by E. Solmi, B. Croce, I. del Lungo, J. Paladina, etc.), M., 1914.
Geymüller H. Les manuscrits de Leonardo de Vinci, extr. de la "Gazette des Beaux-Arts", 1894.
Grothe H., Leonardo da Vinci als Ingenieur und Philosopher, 1880.
Herzfeld M., Das Traktat von der Malerei. Jena, 1909.
Leonardo da Vinci, der Denker, Forscher und Poet, Auswahl, Uebersetzung und Einleitung, Jena, 1906.
Müntz E., Leonardo da Vinci, 1899.
Péladan, Leonardo da Vinci. Textes choisis, 1907.
Richter J. P., The literary works of L. da Vinci, London, 1883.
Ravaisson-Mollien Ch., Les écrits de Leonardo de Vinci, 1881.

Gallery

Human embryo drawings

Leonardo da Vinci. 04/15/1452, Vinci – 05/02/1519, Clue

The unprecedented attention now being paid by historians and fiction writers to the personality of Leonardo da Vinci is evidence of a turning point in relation to the culture of the Renaissance, a revaluation of the spiritual content of the “greatest progressive revolution” that underlies modern European civilization. In Leonardo they see a kind of quintessence of the emerging era, emphasizing and highlighting in his work either the connection with the worldview of the previous time, or the radical demarcation from it. Mysticism and rationalism coexist in the assessment of his personality in an incomprehensible balance, and even the huge written heritage of the master, which has come down to our time, is not able to shake him. Leonardo da Vinci is among the greatest scientists, although very few of his projects were realized. He is also one of the greatest artists, despite the fact that he created very few paintings (and not all of them have survived) and even fewer sculptures (not at all preserved). What makes Leonardo great is not the number of ideas he implemented, but the change in the method of both scientific and artistic activity. Figuratively speaking, he sought to “understand the organism of each object separately and the organism of the entire universe” (A. Benoit).

Leonardo da Vinci. Self-portrait, ca. 1510-1515

Leonardo's childhood and adolescence are very little documented. His father, Piero da Vinci, was a hereditary notary; Already in the year of his son’s birth, he practiced in Florence and soon took a prominent position there. All that is known about the mother is that her name was Caterina, she came from a peasant family and, soon after the birth of Leonardo, she was married to a wealthy farmer, a certain Accatabridge di Piero del Vaccia. Leonardo was taken into his father's house and raised by his childless stepmother Albiera Amadori. What and how he was taught, what his first experiences in drawing were, is unknown. What is indisputable is that the formation of a boy’s personality has a large, if not decisive influence provided by his uncle Francesco, with whom Leonardo da Vinci maintained the warmest relationship throughout his life. Since Leonardo was an illegitimate son, he could not inherit his father's profession. Vasari reports that Pierrot was friends with Andrea Verrocchio and one day showed him his son’s drawings, after which Andrea took Leonardo to his workshop. Piero and his family moved to Florence in 1466, therefore, Leonardo da Vinci ended up in the workshop (bottega) of Verrocchio at the age of fourteen.

The largest works carried out by Verrocchio during the period of Leonardo’s studies with him were the statue “David” (Florence, Bargello), commissioned by the family Medici(it is believed that the young Leonardo da Vinci posed for her), and the completion of the dome of the Florence Cathedral with a golden ball with a cross (the city’s order was received on September 10, 1468 and completed in May 1472). In Andrea's workshop, the best in Florence, Leonardo da Vinci had the opportunity to study all types of fine arts, architecture, the theory of perspective, and partly familiarize himself with the natural and human sciences. His development as a painter was apparently influenced not so much by Verrocchio himself as by Botticelli and Botticelli, who studied with him in the same years. Perugino.

In 1469 Piero da Vinci received the position of notary of the Florentine Republic, and then of a number of the largest monasteries and families. By this time he was widowed. Having finally moved to Florence, Piero remarried and took Leonardo into his home. Leonardo continued his studies with Verrocchio and also studied science on his own. Already during these years he met Paolo Toscanelli (mathematician, doctor, astronomer and geographer) and Leon Battista Alberti. In 1472, he joined the guild of painters and, as evidenced by the entry in the guild book, paid a fee for the organization of the feast of St. Luke. That same year he returned to Andrea's workshop, since his father was widowed for the second time and married for the third time. In 1480 Leonardo da Vinci had his own workshop. The first painting by Leonardo, known today, is the image of an angel in the painting “The Baptism of Christ” (Florence, Uffizi). Until recently, the painting was considered (based on a report Vasari) by Verrocchio, who supposedly, having seen how much his student surpassed him in skill, abandoned painting.

Baptism of Christ. A painting by Verrocchio, painted by him and his students. The right one of the two angels is the work of Leonardo da Vinci. 1472-1475

However, an analysis carried out by Uffizi staff showed that the work was carried out collectively by three or even four artists in accordance with the traditions of medieval workshops. Obviously, Botticelli played the main role among them. The origin of the figure of the left angel by Leonardo is beyond doubt. He also painted part of the landscape - behind the angel at the edge of the composition.

The lack of documentary evidence, signatures and dates on the paintings makes their attribution very difficult. Two “Annunciations” date back to the early 1470s, which, judging by their horizontal format, are altar predella. Those of them that are kept in the Uffizi collection are included in a number of the few early works of Leonardo da Vinci. His dry execution and the types of faces of Mary and the angel are reminiscent of the works of Lorenzo di Credi, Leonardo's comrade in Verrocchio's workshop.

Painting by Leonardo da Vinci "The Annunciation", 1472-1475. Uffizi Gallery

The Annunciation from the Louvre, rendered in a more generalized manner, is currently attributed to the works of Lorenzo.

Leonardo da Vinci. Annunciation, 1478-1482. Louvre Museum

The first dated work by Leonardo da Vinci is a pen drawing representing a landscape with a river valley and rocks, possibly a view along the road from Vinci to Pistoia (Florence, Uffizi). In the upper left corner of the sheet there is an inscription: “On the day of St. Mary of the Snows, August 5, 1473.” This inscription - the first known example of Leonardo da Vinci's handwriting - was made with the left hand, from right to left, as if in a mirror image.

Leonardo da Vinci. Landscape with a river valley and rocks, executed on the day of St. Mary of the Snows, August 5, 1473

Numerous drawings of a technical nature also date back to the 1470s - images of military vehicles, hydraulic structures, spinning machines and for finishing cloth. Perhaps it was Leonardo da Vinci’s technical projects that he carried out for Lorenzo de’ Medici, to whom, as stated in the master’s biography (written by an unknown author, apparently shortly after Leonardo’s death), he was close for some time.

Leonardo da Vinci received his first large order for a painting thanks to his father’s petition. December 24, 1477 Piero Pollaiolo was commissioned to paint a new altarpiece (instead of the work by Bernardo Daddi) for the Chapel of St. Bernard in the Palazzo Vecchio. But a week later, a decree of the Signoria appeared (dated January 1, 1478), according to which the work was transferred “in cancellation of any other order made up to now in any way, in any way and to anyone, Leonardo , son of Ser [notary] Piero da Vinci, painter.” Apparently, Leonardo needed money, and already on March 16, 1478 he turned to the Florentine government with a request for an advance. He was paid 25 gold florins. The work, however, moved so slowly that it was not completed by the time Leonardo da Vinci left for Milan (1482) and was transferred to another master the following year. The plot of this work is unknown. The second order that Leonardo Ser Piero provided was the execution of an altar image for the church of the monastery of San Donato a Scopeto. On March 18, 1481, he entered into an agreement with his son, precisely specifying the deadline for completing the work (in twenty-four, at most thirty months) and indicating that Leonardo would not receive an advance, and if he did not meet the deadline, then everything that would be done by him would be will become the property of the monastery. However, history repeated itself, and in July 1481 the artist turned to the monks with a request for an advance, received it, and then twice more (in August and September) took money as collateral for the future work. The large composition “Adoration of the Magi” (Florence, Uffizi) remained unfinished, but even in this form it is one of “those works on which the entire further development of European painting is based” (M. A. Gukovsky). Numerous drawings for it are kept in the collections of the Uffizi, Louvre and the British Museum. In 1496, the order for the altar was transferred to Filippino Lippi, and he painted a painting on the same subject (Florence, Uffizi).

Leonardo da Vinci. Adoration of the Magi, 1481-1482

“St. Jerome" (Rome, Pinacoteca Vatican), which is an underpainting in which the figure of the penitent saint is worked out with exceptional anatomical precision, and some minor details, for example the lion in the foreground, are only outlined.

A special place among early works the masters occupy two completed works - “Portrait of Ginevra d'Amerigo Benci” (Washington, National Gallery) and “Madonna with a Flower” (St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum). The seriousness and peculiar hermeticism of Ginevra’s image, which speaks of her complex spiritual life, mark the first manifestations of a psychological portrait in European art. The painting has not been completely preserved: its lower part with the image of hands has been cut off. Apparently, the position of the figure was reminiscent of the Mona Lisa.

Leonardo da Vinci. Portrait of Ginevra de Benci, 1474-1478

The dating of the “Madonna of the Flower, or Madonna of Benois” (1478-1480) is accepted on the basis of a note on one of the sheets from the Cabinet of Drawings in the Uffizi: “...bre 1478 inchomincial le due Vergini Marie.” The composition of this picture is recognizable in the drawing with pen and bistrome, stored in the British Museum (No. 1860. 6. 16. 100v.). Made in a new technique for Italy oil painting, the picture is distinguished by the transparent lightness of the shadows and the richness of color shades with an overall restrained color scheme. The transmission of the air environment begins to play an extremely important role in creating a holistic impression, connecting characters with their environment. Melting chiaroscuro, sfumato, makes the boundaries of objects subtly unsteady, expressing the material unity of the visible world.

Leonardo da Vinci. Madonna with a Flower (Benois Madonna). OK. 1478

Another early work of Leonardo da Vinci is considered to be “Madonna of the Carnation” (Munich, Alte Pinakothek). Perhaps this work preceded the appearance of the Benois Madonna.

Vasari reports that in his youth Leonardo da Vinci made from clay “several heads of laughing women,” from which plaster casts were still made in his time, as well as several children’s heads. He also mentions how Leonardo depicted a monster on a wooden shield, “very disgusting and terrible, which poisoned with its breath and ignited the air.” The description of the process of its creation reveals the system of work of Leonardo da Vinci - a method in which the basis of creativity is the observation of nature, but not with the goal of copying it, but in order to create something new based on it. Leonardo did the same thing later, when painting “The Head of Medusa” (not preserved). Executed in oil on canvas, it remained unfinished in the middle of the 16th century. was in the collection of Duke Cosimo de' Medici.

In the so-called “Codex Atlantica” (Milan, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana), the largest collection of Leonardo da Vinci’s records on various fields of knowledge, on page 204 there is a draft letter from the artist to the ruler of Milan, Lodovico Sforza ( Lodovico Moro). Leonardo offers his services as a military engineer, hydraulic engineer, and sculptor. In the latter case, we are talking about the creation of a grandiose equestrian monument to Francesco Sforza, the father of Lodovico. Since Moro visited Florence in April 1478, there is an assumption that even then he met Leonardo da Vinci and negotiated about working on “The Horse.” In 1482, with the permission of Lorenzo Medici, the master left for Milan. A list of things that he took with him has been preserved - among them many drawings and two paintings are mentioned: “The Finished Madonna. The other is almost in profile.” Obviously, they meant “Madonna Litta” (St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum). It is believed that the master finished it already in Milan around 1490. An excellent preparatory drawing for it - an image of a woman's head - is kept in the collection of the Louvre (No. 2376). Active interest in this work on the part of researchers arose after its acquisition Imperial Hermitage(1865) from the collection of Duke Antonio Litta in Milan. The authorship of Leonardo da Vinci has been repeatedly denied, but now, after research and exhibition of the painting in Rome and Venice (2003-2004), it has become generally accepted.

Leonardo da Vinci. Madonna Litta. OK. 1491-91

There are several more portraits, executed with the elegance characteristic of Leonardo, but compositionally they are solved more simply and do not have the spiritual mobility that makes the image of Cecilia fascinating. These are the “Portrait of a Lady” in profile (Milan, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana), “Portrait of a Musician” (1485, ibid.) - perhaps Franchino Gaffurio, regent of the Milan Cathedral and composer - and the so-called “Bella Feroniera” (portrait of Lucrezia Crivelli?) from the collection of the Louvre.

Leonardo da Vinci. Portrait of a Musician, 1485-1490

On behalf of Lodovico Moro, Leonardo da Vinci performed for Emperor Maximilian the painting “The Nativity,” about which an anonymous biographer writes that it was “revered by connoisseurs as a masterpiece of one-of-a-kind and amazing art.” Her fate is unknown.

Leonardo da Vinci. Bella Ferroniera (Beautiful Ferroniera). OK. 1490

Leonardo's largest painting created in Milan was the famous "Last Supper", painted on the end wall of the refectory of the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Leonardo da Vinci began the actual execution of the composition in 1496. This was preceded by a long period of deliberation. The collections of Windsor and the Venetian Academy contain numerous drawings, sketches, sketches related to this work, among which the heads of the apostles especially stand out for their expressiveness. It is not known exactly when the master completed the work. It is generally believed that this happened in the winter of 1497, but a note sent by Moro to his secretary Marchesino Stange and referring to this year says: “Demand that Leonardo finish his work in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie.” Luca Pacioli reports that Leonardo completed the painting in 1498. As soon as the painting saw the light, a pilgrimage of painters began, who more or less successfully copied it. “There are paintings, frescoes, graphic, mosaic versions, as well as carpets that repeat the composition of Leonardo da Vinci” (T. K. Kustodieva). The earliest of them are kept in the collections of the Louvre (Marco d'Odzhono?) and the Hermitage (No. 2036).

Leonardo da Vinci. Last Supper, 1498

The composition of “The Last Supper” in its “airy volume” seems to be a continuation of the refectory hall. The master was able to achieve such an effect due to his excellent knowledge of perspective. The Gospel scene appears here “close to the viewer, humanly understandable and at the same time not losing either its high solemnity or its deep drama” (M. A. Gukovsky). The glory of the great work, however, could not protect “The Last Supper” either from the destruction of time or from the barbaric attitude of people. Due to the dampness of the walls, the paints began to fade during Leonardo da Vinci’s lifetime, and in 1560 Lomazzo reported in his “Treatise on Painting,” albeit somewhat exaggerating, that the painting was “completely destroyed.” In 1652, the monks enlarged the door of the refectory and destroyed the image of the feet of Christ and the apostles next to Him. Artists also contributed their share of destruction. So, in 1726, a certain Belotti, “who claimed to have the secret of bringing colors to life” (G. Sayle), rewrote the entire picture. In 1796, when Napoleon's troops entered Milan, a stable was built in the refectory, and the soldiers amused themselves by throwing fragments of bricks at the heads of the apostles. In the 19th century “The Last Supper” was reconstructed several more times, and during the Second World War, during the bombing of Milan by British aircraft, the side wall of the refectory collapsed. Restoration work, which began after the war and consisted of strengthening and partially clearing the paintings, was completed in 1954. More than twenty years later (1978), restorers began a grandiose effort to remove later layers, which was completed only in 1999. Several centuries later, you can again see the bright and clean paints of a genuine master's painting.

Obviously, immediately after arriving in Milan, Leonardo da Vinci turned to the design of the monument to Francesco Sforza. Numerous sketches indicate changes in the master’s plan, who initially wanted to present the horse rearing (in all equestrian monuments that existed at that time, the horse was shown calmly walking). Such a composition, given the huge size of the sculpture (about 6 m high; according to other sources - about 8 m), created almost insurmountable difficulties during casting. The solution to the problem was delayed, and Moro instructed the Florentine ambassador in Milan to order another sculptor from Florence, which he reported Lorenzo Medici in a letter dated July 22, 1489. Leonardo had to work closely on “The Horse.” However, in the summer of 1490, work on the monument was interrupted by the trip of Leonardo and Francesco di Giorgio Martini to Pavia to advise on the construction of the cathedral. In early September, preparations began for Lodovico’s wedding, and then the master carried out numerous assignments for the new ruler, Beatrice. At the beginning of 1493, Lodovico ordered Leonardo to speed up the work in order to show the statue during the next wedding celebrations: Emperor Maximilian was marrying Moreau's niece, Bianca Maria. The clay model of the statue - “The Great Colossus” - was completed on time, by November 1493. The master abandoned the original idea and showed the horse walking calmly. Only a few sketches give an idea of this final version of the monument. It was technically impossible to cast the entire sculpture at once, so the master began experimental work. In addition, about eighty tons of bronze were required, which was collected only by 1497. All of it was used for cannons: Milan was expecting an invasion by the troops of the French king Louis XII. In 1498, when the political position of the duchy temporarily improved, Lodovico commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint the hall in the Castello Sforzesco - Sala delle Acce, and on April 26, 1499 he signed a deed of gift for a vineyard in the vicinity of Milan. This was the last favor shown by the Duke to the artist. On August 10, 1499, French troops entered the territory of the Duchy of Milan, on August 31, Lodovico fled from the city, and on September 3, Milan surrendered. The Gascon marksmen of Louis XII destroyed a clay statue while competing in crossbow shooting. Apparently, even after this, the monument made a strong impression, since two years later, Duke of Ferrara Ercole I d'Este negotiated its acquisition. The further fate of the monument is unknown.

For some time Leonardo da Vinci remained in the occupied city, and then, together with Luca Pacioli, he left for Mantua to the court of Isabella Gonzaga. For political reasons (Isabella was the sister of Beatrice, Moreau’s wife, who had died by that time - in 1497), the margravess did not want to provide patronage to the artist. However, she wanted Leonardo da Vinci to paint her portrait. Without stopping in Mantua, Leonardo and Pacioli went to Venice. In March 1500, the master of musical instruments, Lorenzo Gusnasco da Pavia, wrote to Isabella in a letter: “Here in Venice is Leonardo Vinci, who showed me an outline portrait of Your Lordship, which is as well executed according to nature as possible.” Obviously, we were talking about a drawing currently kept in the Louvre. The master never completed a picturesque portrait. In April 1500 Leonardo and Pacioli were already in Florence. During this short – just over two years – quiet period of Leonardo da Vinci’s life, he was mainly engaged in technical research (in particular, the design of an aircraft) and, at the request of the Florentine government, took part in an examination to identify the reasons for the subsidence of the Church of San Salvatore on the hill of San Miniato. According to Vasari, at that time Filippino Lippi received an order for an altarpiece for the Church of Santissima Annunziata. Leonardo “declared that he would be willing to do such work,” and Filippino kindly gave him the order. The idea for the painting “Saint Anne” apparently came to Leonardo da Vinci while still in Milan. There are numerous drawings of this composition, as well as a magnificent cardboard (London, National Gallery), but it did not form the basis of the final decision. Exhibited by the master after Easter in 1501 for public viewing, the cardboard did not survive, but, judging by the documents that have survived to this day, it was its composition that was repeated by the master in the well-known painting from the Louvre. Thus, on April 3, 1501, the Vicar General of the Carmelites, Pietro da Nuvolario, who was in correspondence with Isabella Gonzaga, informed her, describing in detail the composition of the cardboard, that, in his opinion, the image of St. Anna embodies the Church, which does not want “His sufferings to be turned away from Christ.” It is unclear when exactly the altar painting was completed. Perhaps the master finished it in Italy, where it was acquired by Francis I, as Paolo Giovio reports, without indicating, however, when or from whom. In any case, the customers did not receive it and in 1503 they again turned to Filippino, but he did not satisfy their wishes.

At the end of July 1502 Leonardo da Vinci entered the service of Cesare Borgia, son Pope AlexanderVI, who by this time, trying to create his own possessions, had captured almost all of Central Italy. As chief military engineer, Leonardo traveled around Umbria, Tuscany, Romagna, drawing up plans for fortresses and consulting local engineers on improving the defense system, and created maps for military needs. However, already in March 1503 he was again in Florence.

By the beginning of the first decade of the 16th century. refers to the creation of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous work - the portrait of Mona Lisa - “La Gioconda” (Paris, Louvre), a painting that has no equal in the number of interpretations and controversies it provoked. The portrait of the wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo combines the amazing concreteness of reality with such spiritual ambiguity and generality of the universal that it outgrows the boundaries of the genre and ceases to be a portrait in the proper sense of the word. “This is not a mysterious woman, this is a mysterious being” (Leonardo. M. Batkin). The very first description of the painting given by Vasari is contradictory, who assures that Leonardo da Vinci worked on it for four years and did not finish it, but immediately writes admiringly that the portrait “reproduces all the smallest details that the subtlety of painting can convey.”

Leonardo da Vinci. Mona Lisa (La Gioconda), c. 1503-1505

Another painting created by Leonardo da Vinci during these years, “Madonna with a Spindle,” is described in detail by Pietro da Nuvolario in a letter to Isabella Gonzaga dated April 4, 1503. The vicar reports that the artist painted it for the secretary of Louis XII. The fate of the painting is unknown. A good copy of the 16th century gives an idea of it. (collection of the Duke of Buccleuch in Scotland).

During the same period, Leonardo returned to his anatomy studies, which he began in Milan in the building of the Grand Hospital. In Florence, doctors and university students, with special permission from the government, worked on the premises of Santa Croce. The treatise on anatomy that the master was going to compile was not carried out.

In the fall of 1503, through the permanent gonfalonier Pietro Soderini, Leonardo da Vinci received an order for a large painting - painting one of the walls of the new hall - the Council Hall, added in 1496 to the Palazzo della Signoria. On October 24, the artist was given the keys to the so-called Papal Hall of the Monastery of Santa Maria Novella, where he began work on the cardboard. By decree of the Signoria he received 53 gold florins in advance and permission to receive small sums “from time to time.” The completion date for the work was February 1505. The theme of the future work was the Battle of Anghiari (June 29, 1440) between the Florentines and Milanese. In August 1504, Michelangelo received an order for the second painting for the Council Hall - “The Battle of Cascina”. Both craftsmen completed the work on time, and the cardboards were displayed to the public in the Council Chamber. They made a tremendous impression; artists immediately began to copy them, but it was impossible to determine the winner in this unique competition. Both cardboards have not survived. The central part of Leonardo da Vinci's composition was the scene of the battle for the banner. Only about it can one currently get some idea thanks to a drawing by Raphael (Oxford, Christ Church Library), executed by him in 1505-1506, as well as from a copy of Rubens (Paris, Louvre). However, it is unknown where exactly Rubens, who lived in Italy in 1600-1608, made his copy from. An anonymous biographer of Leonardo da Vinci reports that after the death of the master, most of the cardboard “Battle of Anghiari” could be seen in the hospital of Santa Maria Novella, and “the group of horsemen remaining in the palazzo” also belonged to it. In 1558 Benvenuto Cellini in his “Biography” he writes that the cardboards hung in the Papal Hall and “while they were intact, they were a school for the whole world.” From this we can conclude that in the 1550s Leonardo's cardboard, at least as a whole, no longer existed.

Leonardo da Vinci. Battle of Anghiari, 1503-1505 (detail)

Contrary to custom, Leonardo completed the painting on the wall of the Council Chamber quickly. As the anonymous author reports, he worked on a new soil of his own invention and used the heat of a brazier to dry it as quickly as possible. However, the wall dried unevenly, its upper part did not hold the paint, and the painting turned out to be hopelessly damaged. Soderini demanded completion of the work or return of the money. The situation was temporarily resolved by leaving for Milan, at the invitation of his viceroy, Charles d'Amboise, Marquis de Chaumont. The artist entered into an agreement with the Signoria, according to which he undertook to return in three months, and in case of violation of the obligation, to pay a penalty of 150 gold florins. June 1 1506 Leonardo da Vinci went to Milan. In a letter dated August 18, Charles d'Amboise asks the Florentine government to keep the artist at his disposal for some time. In the response letter (dated August 28), consent was given, but with the condition of repaying the debt. Since the money was not sent, Soderini again appealed to the governor on October 9, demanding compliance with the agreement. Finally, on January 12, 1507, the Florentine ambassador to the French court informed the members of the Signoria that Louis XII wanted to leave Leonardo in Milan until his arrival. Two days later, the king personally signed a letter with the same content. In April 1507, Leonardo received his vineyard back and at the beginning of May he was able to pay 150 florins. The king arrived in Milan on May 24: Leonardo da Vinci took an active part in organizing processions and performances for this occasion. Thanks to the intervention of Louis, on August 24, the long-term process over the “Madonna of the Rocks” ended. The painting remained at the master’s disposal, but he, together with Ambrogio de Predis (Evangelista had died by this time), had to paint another one on the same subject within two years (London, National Gallery).

From September 1507 to September 1508 Leonardo da Vinci was in Florence: it was necessary to conduct litigation over an inheritance. The elderly Ser Piero, Leonardo's father, died back in 1504 at the age of ninety, leaving ten sons and two daughters.

Saint Anne with the Madonna and Child Christ. Painting by Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1510

In Milan, Leonardo da Vinci finished “Saint Anne” and painted several more paintings, the most famous of which is “John the Baptist” (Paris, Louvre). Currently, the “Bacchus” stored there is also recognized as the work of Leonardo.

Leonardo da Vinci. John the Baptist, 1513-1516

Leda was also in the French royal collection. The last time this painting was mentioned in the inventory of Fontainebleau was in 1694. According to legend, it was destroyed at the request of Madame de Maintenon, the last favorite of Louis XIV. An idea of its composition is given by several drawings by the master and several repetitions that differ in detail (the best is attributed to Cesare da Sesto and is kept in the Uffizi).

Leda. Work tentatively attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, 1508-1515

In addition to paintings, Leonardo da Vinci was engaged in Milan in designing a monument to Marshal Trivulzio, who was in French service. A small bronze model in the collection of the Budapest Museum is believed to be associated with this project. If this is so, then Leonardo da Vinci again returned to the idea of a dynamic composition with a galloping horse.

In 1511 troops Pope JuliaII in alliance with the Venetian Republic and Spain, they expelled the French. During 1511-1512 Leonardo lived for a long time with his friend, the nobleman Girolamo Melzi, on his estate in Vaprio. Girolamo's son, Francesco, became a student and passionate admirer of the aging master. In 1513, Leo X de' Medici was elected to the papal throne, with whose brother, Giuliano, who was interested in alchemy, Leonardo da Vinci was friendly. On September 14, 1513 Leonardo left for Rome. Giuliano assigned him a salary and allocated premises for work. In Rome, the master drew up projects for the refurbishment of the papal mint and the drainage of the Pontic swamps. Vasari noted that for the papal datarius (chief of the chancellery) Baldassare Turini of Pescia, Leonardo da Vinci completed two paintings - “Madonna” and an image of “a child of amazing beauty and grace” (not traced).

On December 31, 1514, Louis XII died, and Francis I, who succeeded him, recaptured Milan in September 1515. It is believed that Leonardo met with the king in Bologna, where the pope negotiated with him. But perhaps the artist had met him earlier - in Pavia, at the celebrations in honor of his entry into the city, and then he made the famous mechanical lion, from whose opening chest lilies poured out. In this case, in Bologna, Leonardo da Vinci was in the retinue of Francis, and not Leo X. Having received an offer to go to the king’s service, the master left for France in the fall of 1516 with Francesco Melzi. Recent years Leonardo da Vinci's life was spent in the small castle of Cloux, near Amboise. He was given a pension of 700 ecus. In the spring of 1517, in Amboise, where the king loved to be, they celebrated the baptism of the Dauphin, and then the wedding of the Duke of Urbino Lorenzo de' Medici and the daughter of the Duke of Bourbon. The celebrations were designed by Leonardo. In addition, he was involved in the design of canals and locks to improve the area, and created architectural projects, in particular the project for the reconstruction of the Romorantin castle. Perhaps the ideas of Leonardo da Vinci served as the basis for the construction of Chambord (begun in 1519). On October 18, 1516, Leonardo was visited by the secretary of Cardinal Louis of Aragon. According to him, due to the paralysis of his right hand, the artist “can no longer write with his usual tenderness... but he can still make drawings and teach others.” On April 23, 1519, the artist drew up a will, according to which manuscripts, drawings and paintings became the property of Melzi. The master died on May 2, 1519, according to legend - in the arms of the King of France. Melzi transported Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts to Italy and kept them on his estate in Vaprio until the end of his days. The now widely known “Treatise on Painting”, which had a huge influence on european art, compiled by Melzi based on the teacher's notes. About seven thousand sheets of Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts have survived. Their largest collections are in the collection of the Institute of France in Paris; in Milan - in the Ambrosian Library (Codex Atlanticus) and in the Castello Sforzesco (Codex Trivulzio); in Turin (Bird Flight Code); Windsor and Madrid. Their publication began in the 19th century. and still one of the best critical editions of Leonardo's manuscripts are two volumes of texts with commentaries published by Richter in 1883 (Richter J.P. The literary works of Leonardo da Vinci. London, 1883. Vol. 1-2). Supplemented and commented by K. Pedretti, they were published a second time in Los Angeles in 1977.

Literature:Leonardo da Vinci. A book about painting. M., 1934; Leonardo da Vinci. Selected works. L., 1935; Leonardo da Vinci. Anatomy. Ideas and drawings. M., 1965; Vasari 2001. T. 3; Seail G. Leonardo da Vinci as an artist and scientist. St. Petersburg, 1898; Volynsky A. Life of Leonardo da Vinci. St. Petersburg, 1900 (republished: St. Petersburg, 1997); Benoit A. N. History of painting of all times and peoples. St. Petersburg, 1912; Wrangel N."Benois Madonna" by Leonardo da Vinci. St. Petersburg, 1914; Lipgart E.K. Leonardo and his school. L., 1928; Dzhivelegov A.K. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1935 (republished: M., 1969); Lazarev V. N. Leonardo da Vinci. L., 1936; Ainalov D. V. Sketches about Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1939; Gukovsky M. A. Mechanics of Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1947; Lazarev V. N. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1952; Alpatov M. V. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1952; Gabrichevsky A. G. Leonardo the Architect // Soviet Architecture. M., 1952. Issue. 3; Zhdanov D. A. Leonardo da Vinci - anatomist. L., 1955; Gukovsky M. A. Leonardo da Vinci: Creative biography. M.; L., 1958; Gukovsky M. A. Madonna Litta: Painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Hermitage. L.; M., 1959; Guber A. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1960; Zubov V. P. Leonardo da Vinci. 1452-1519. M., 1961; Gukovsky M. A. Columbine. L., 1963; Rutenburg V. I. Titans of the Renaissance. L., 1976; Vipper 1977. T. 2; Nardini B. Life of Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1978; Kustodieva T.K."Benois Madonna" by Leonardo da Vinci. L., 1979; Rzepinska M. What do we know about the “Lady with an Ermine” from the Czartoryski Museum. Krakow, 1980; Gastev A. A. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1982; Codex Leonardo from the private collection of Armand Hammer: Ext. L., 1984; Pedretti K. Leonardo. M., 1986; Smirnova I. A. Monumental painting Italian Renaissance. M., 1987; Batkin L. M. Leonardo da Vinci and the features of Renaissance creative thinking. M., 1990; Santi B. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1995; Wallace R. World of Leonardo, 1452-1519. M., 1997; Kustodieva 1998; Chunky M. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1998; Sonina T.V.“Madonna Benois” by Leonardo da Vinci // Italian collection. St. Petersburg, 1999. Issue. 3; Sonina T.V.“Madonna of the Rocks” by Leonardo da Vinci: Semantics of the image // Decree. op. St. Petersburg, 2003. Issue. 7; Leonardo da Vinci and the culture of the Renaissance: Sat. Art. M., 2004; Herzfeld M. About one sheet of Leonardo's sketches. Contribution to the characterization of the master’s image // Italian collection. St. Petersburg, 2006. Issue. 9; Clark K. Leonardo da Vinci: Creative biography. St. Petersburg, 2009.

Richter J.P. (ed.) The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci: In 2 vols. London, 1883 (rev.: 1970); Beltrami L.(ed.) Il codice di Leonardo da Vinci della Biblioteca del Principe Trivulzio in Milano. Milano, 1891; Sabachnikoff T., Piumati G., Ravaisson-Mollien C. (eds.) I manoscritti di Leonardo da Vinci: Codice sul volo degli uccelli e varie altre materie. Paris, 1893; Piumati G. (ed.) Il Codice Atlantico di Leonardo da Vinci nella Biblioteca Ambrosiana di Milano: 35 voi. Milano, 1894-1904; Fonahn D.C.L., Hopstock H. (eds.) Quaderni d'anatomia: 6 voi. Kristiania, 1911-1916; II Codice Forster I, etc. // Reale Commissione Vinciana: 5 voi. Roma, 1930-1936; I manoscritti e i disegni di Leonardo da Vinci: II Codice A. / / Reale Commissione Vinciana. Rome, 1938; MacCurdy E. (ed.) The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci: 2 vols. London, 1938; I manoscritti e i disegni di Leonardo da Vinci: II Codice B. // Reale Commissione Vinciana. Rome, 1941; Brizio A. M. (ed.) Scritti scelti di Leonardo da Vinci. Torino, 1952; Courbeau A., De Toni N.(ed.) The Manuscripts in the Bibliotheque de l'Institut de France, Paris. Firenze, 1972; Reti L. (ed.) The Madrid Codices: 5 vols. New York, 1974.

Pacioli L. De divina proportione. Venezia, 1509; Alberimi E Memoriale di molte statue e picture che sono nella inclyta cipta di Florentia. Firenze, 1510; Giovio P. Elogia virorum illustrum (MS.; e. 1527) // Gli elogi degli uomini illustri / Ed. R. Meregazzi. Rome, 1972; II Codice Magliabechiano (MS.; e. 1540) / Ed. C. Frey. Berlin, 1892. Amoretti C. Memorie storiche su la vita, gli studi e le opere di Leonardo da Vinci. Milano, 1804; Pater W. Leonardo da Vinci (1869) // Studies in this History of this Renaissance. London, 1873; HerzfeldM. Leonardo da Vinci. Der Denker, Forscher und Poet. Jena, 1906; Solmi E. Le fonti dei manoscritti di Leonardo da Vinci. Torino, 1908; Malaguzzi Valeri E La corte di Ludovico il Moro. Milano, 1915. Voi. II: Bramante e Leonardo; Beltrami L. Documenti e memorie riguardanti la vita e le opere di Leonardo da Vinci. Milano, 1919; Calvi G. I manoscritti di Leonardo da Vinci del punto di visto cronologico, storico e biografico. Bologna, 1925; Heydenreich L. Leonardo da Vinci: 2 vols. Basel, 1954; Pomilio M., Della Chiesa A. O. L "Opera pittorica completa di Leonardo. Milano, 1967; Gould C. Leonardo: The Artist and Non-artist. London, 1975; Wasserman J. Leonardo da Vinci. New York, 1975; Chastel A. The Genius of Leonardo da Vinci: Leonardo da Vinci and their Art of the Artist. New York, 1981; Kemp M. Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvelous Works of Nature and Man. London, 1981; MaraniP. Leonardo: Cat. compi. Firenze, 1989; Turner A.R. Inventing Leonardo. New York, 1993; Lo sguardo degli angeli: Verrocchio, Leonardo e il Battesimo di Cristo / A cura di A. Natali. Firenze, 1998; Kustodieva T, PaolucciA., Pedretti C., Strinati C. Leonardo. La Madonna Litta dall "Ermitage di San Pietroburgo. Roma, 2003; Kemp M. Leonardo da Vinci. Experience, Experiment and Design. London, 2006.

COURSE WORK

in the discipline "Culturology"

on topic: "Leonardo Da Vinci"

1. Life path of Leonardo da Vinci

2.2.1 "La Gioconda"

2.2.2 "Last Supper"

Literature

Application

Introduction

The Renaissance was rich in outstanding personalities. But Leonardo, born in the town of Vinci near Florence on April 15, 1452, stands out even from the general background of other famous people of the Renaissance.

This supergenius of the beginning of the Italian Renaissance is so strange that it causes scientists not just amazement, but almost awe, mixed with confusion. Even a general overview of its capabilities plunges researchers into shock: well, a person, even if he has seven spans in his forehead, cannot be at once a brilliant engineer, artist, sculptor, inventor, mechanic, chemist, philologist, scientist, seer, one of the best of his time singer, swimmer, creator of musical instruments, cantatas, equestrian, fencer, architect, fashion designer, etc. His external characteristics are also striking: Leonardo is tall, slender and so beautiful in face that he was called an “angel”, and at the same time superhumanly strong (with his right hand - being left-handed! - he could crush a horseshoe).

Leonardo da Vinci has been written about more than once. But the theme of his life and work, both as a scientist and as a man of art, is still relevant today. The purpose of this work is to tell in detail about Leonardo da Vinci. This goal is achieved by solving the following tasks:

consider the biography of Leonardo da Vinci;

analyze the main periods of his work;

describe his most famous works;

talk about his activities as a scientist and inventor;

give examples of Leonardo da Vinci's predictions.

The structure of the work is as follows. The work consists of three chapters or five paragraphs, an introduction, a conclusion, a list of references and illustrations in the appendix.

The first chapter is devoted to the biography of the great Florentine.

The second chapter examines the main periods of his work: early, mature and late. It tells in detail about such masterpieces of Leonardo as "La Gioconda (Mona Lisa)" and "The Last Supper".

The third chapter describes in full scientific activity Leonardo da Vinci. Particular attention is paid to da Vinci's work in the field of mechanics, as well as his flying machines.

In conclusion, conclusions are drawn on the topic of the work.

1. Life path of Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 and died in 1519. The father of the future genius, Piero da Vinci, a wealthy notary and landowner, was famous person in Florence, but mother Katerina is a simple peasant girl, a fleeting whim of an influential lord. There were no children in Pierrot's official family, so from the age of 4-5 the boy was raised by his father and stepmother, while his own mother, as was customary, was hastened to marry off with a dowry to a peasant. The handsome boy, who was distinguished by his extraordinary intelligence and affable character, immediately became everyone’s darling and favorite in his father’s house. This was partly facilitated by the fact that Leonardo's first two stepmothers were childless. Piero's third wife, Margarita, entered the house of Leonardo's father when her famous stepson was already 24 years old. From his third wife, Senor Pierrot had nine sons and two daughters, but none of them shone “neither in mind nor in sword.”

Possessing broad knowledge and mastering the basics of science, Leonardo da Vinci would have achieved great advantages if he had not been so changeable and fickle. In fact, he began to study many subjects, but, having started, then abandoned them. So, in mathematics, in the few months that he studied it, he made such progress that, constantly putting forward all sorts of doubts and difficulties to the teacher with whom he studied, he more than once baffled him. He also spent some effort on learning the science of music, but soon decided to learn only to play the lyre. As a man naturally endowed with a sublime spirit and full of charm, he sang divinely, improvising to her accompaniment. Yet, despite his various activities, he never gave up drawing and modeling, as the things that attracted his imagination more than anything else.

In 1466, at the age of 14, Leonardo da Vinci entered Verrocchio's workshop as an apprentice. It happened this way: Ser Piero, Leonardo’s father, one fine day selected several of his drawings, took them to Andrea Verrocchio, who was his great friend, and urgently asked him to say whether Leonardo, having taken up drawing, would achieve any success. Struck by the enormous potential that he saw in the drawings of the novice Leonardo, Andrea supported Ser Piero in his decision to devote him to this work and immediately agreed with him that Leonardo would enter his workshop, which Leonardo did more than willingly and began to practice not in just one area, but in all those areas where the drawing is included. At this time, he also showed himself in sculpture, sculpting several heads of laughing women from clay, and in architecture, drawing many plans and other views of various buildings. He was the first who, while still a young man, discussed the question of how to divert the Arno River through a canal connecting Pisa with Florence. He also made drawings of mills, fulling machines and other machines that could be set in motion by water power.

In Verrocchio's painting: "The Baptism of the Lord", one of the angels is painted by Leonardo da Vinci; According to the legend conveyed by Vasari, the old master, seeing himself surpassed by the work of his student, allegedly gave up painting. Be that as it may, around 1472 Leonardo, who was then about twenty years old, left Verrocchio’s workshop and began to work independently.

Leonardo da Vinci was handsome, beautifully built, possessed enormous physical strength, and was knowledgeable in the arts of chivalry, horse riding, dancing, fencing, etc. Leonardo's contemporaries note that he was so pleasant to talk to that he attracted the souls of people. He loved animals very much - especially horses. Walking through the places where birds were sold, he took them out of the cage with his own hands and, having paid the seller the price he demanded, released them into the wild, returning them their lost freedom.

There are many legends and stories about Leonardo da Vinci. They say that one day, when Ser Piero of Vinci was on his estate, one of his peasants, who had carved with his own hands a round shield from a fig tree that he had cut down on his master's land, simply asked him to have this shield painted for him in Florence, to which he very readily agreed, since this peasant was a very experienced bird catcher and knew very well the places where fish were caught, and Ser Pierrot widely used his services in hunting and fishing. And so, having transported the shield to Florence, but without telling Leonardo where it came from, Ser Piero asked him to write something on it. Leonardo, when one fine day this shield fell into his hands and when he saw that the shield was crooked, poorly processed and unsightly, he straightened it on the fire and, giving it to the turner, from warped and unsightly, made it smooth and even, and then, Having weeded it and processed it in his own way, he began to think about what to write on it that would frighten everyone who came across it, producing the same impression that the head of Medusa once made. And for this purpose, Leonardo released into one of the rooms, into which no one except him entered, various lizards, crickets, snakes, butterflies, grasshoppers, bats and other strange types of similar creatures, from a variety of which, combining them in different ways. In various ways, he created a very disgusting and terrible monster, which poisoned with its breath and ignited the air. He depicted it crawling out of a dark cleft in the rock and emitting poison from its open mouth, flames from its eyes and smoke from its nostrils, and it was so unusual that it actually seemed something monstrous and frightening. And he worked on it for so long that there was a cruel and unbearable stench in the room from dead animals, which, however, Leonardo did not notice because of the great love he had for art. Having finished this work, about which neither the peasant nor the father asked any more, Leonardo told the latter that he could, whenever he wanted, send for the shield, since he had done his job for his part. And so, one morning, when Ser Piero entered his room for a shield and knocked on the door, Leonardo opened it, but asked him to wait and, returning to the room, placed the shield on the lectern and in the light, but adjusted the window so that it gave a muted lighting. Ser Piero, who had not thought about it, shuddered in surprise at first glance, not believing that this was the same shield, and especially since the image he saw was a painting, and when he backed away, Leonardo, supporting him, said: “This is the work serves what it was made for. So take it and give it away, for this is the effect that is expected from works of art." This thing seemed more than wonderful to Ser Pierrot, and he awarded Leonardo’s bold words with the greatest praise. And then, slowly buying from the shopkeeper another shield, on which was written his heart, pierced by an arrow, he gave it to a peasant, who remained grateful to him for this all his life. Later, Ser Piero in Florence secretly sold the shield painted by Leonardo to some merchants for a hundred ducats, and soon this shield fell into the hands of the Milanese. to the Duke, to whom the same merchants resold it for three hundred ducats.

Around 1480, Leonardo was summoned to Milan to the court of Duke Louis Sforza, as a musician and improviser. He was, however, commissioned to found an art academy in Milan. To teach at this academy, Leonardo da Vinci compiled treatises on painting, on light, on shadows, on movement, on theory and practice, on the movements of the human body, on the proportions of the human body.

As an architect, Leonardo built buildings, especially in Milan, and composed many architectural projects and drawings, specially studying anatomy, mathematics, perspective, mechanics; he abandoned extensive projects, such as the project to connect Florence and Pisa by means of a canal; His plan for raising the ancient baptistery of S. Giovanni in Florence was extremely bold, in order to raise the foundation beneath it and thus give the building a more majestic appearance. For the sake of studying the expressions of feelings and passions in man. He visited the most crowded places where human activity was in full swing, and recorded everything that he came across in an album; he escorted the criminals to the place of execution, capturing in his memory the expression of agony and extreme despair; he invited peasants to his house, to whom he told the most amusing things, wanting to study the comic expression on their faces. With such realism, Leonardo was at the same time endowed with the highest degree of deep subjective feeling, tender, partly sentimental dreaminess. In some of his works, first one or the other element predominates, but in the main, best works, both elements are balanced by beautiful harmony, so that, thanks to his ingenious design and sense of beauty, they occupy that high level, which certainly consolidates his one of the first places among the great masters of modern art.

Leonardo started a lot, but never finished anything, because it seemed to him that in the things that he had conceived, his hand was not capable of achieving artistic perfection, since in his plan he created for himself various difficulties, so subtle and amazing that even could never be expressed by the most skillful hands.

Of the enterprises carried out by da Vinci on behalf of Louis Sforza, the colossal equestrian statue in memory of Francesca Sforza, cast in bronze, is especially remarkable. The first model of this monument accidentally broke. Leonardo da Vinci sculpted another, but the statue was not cast due to lack of money. When the French captured Milan in 1499, the model served as a target for the Gascon archers. Leonardo also created the famous Last Supper in Milan.

After the expulsion of Lodovico Sforza from Milan by the French in 1499, Leonardo left for Venice, visiting Mantua along the way, where he participated in the construction of defensive structures, and then returned to Florence; it is reported that he was so absorbed in mathematics that he did not even want to think about picking up a brush. For twelve years, Leonardo moved constantly from city to city, working for the famous Cesare Borgia in Romagna, designing fortifications (never built) for Piombino. In Florence he entered into rivalry with Michelangelo; This rivalry culminated in the enormous battle compositions that the two artists painted for the Palazzo della Signoria (also Palazzo Vecchio). Leonardo then conceived a second equestrian monument, which, like the first, was never created. All these years he continued to fill his notebooks with a variety of ideas on subjects as varied as the theory and practice of painting, anatomy, mathematics and the flight of birds. But in 1513, as in 1499, his patrons were expelled from Milan.

Leonardo went to Rome, where he spent three years under the patronage of the Medici. Depressed and upset by the lack of material for anatomical research, Leonardo tinkered with experiments and ideas that led nowhere.

The French, first Louis XII and then Francis I, admired the works of the Italian Renaissance, especially Leonardo's Last Supper. It is therefore not surprising that in 1516 Francis I, well aware of Leonardo's varied talents, invited him to the court, which was then located at the castle of Amboise in the Loire Valley. Although Leonardo worked on hydraulic projects and plans for the new royal palace, it is clear from the writings of the sculptor Benvenuto Cellini that his main occupation was the honorary position of court sage and advisor. On May 2, 1519, Leonardo dies in the arms of King Francis I, asking forgiveness from God and people for “not doing everything he could have done for art.” Thus, we examined a short biography of the great Italian painter of the Renaissance - Leonard da Vinci. The next chapter will examine the work of Leonard da Vinci as a painter.

2. The work of Leonardo da Vinci

2.1 Main periods in the painting of Leonardo da Vinci

The work of the great Italian painter can be divided into early, mature and late periods .

The first dated work (1473, Uffizi) is a small sketch of a river valley visible from a gorge; on one side there is a castle, on the other there is a wooded hillside. This sketch, made with quick strokes of the pen, testifies to the artist’s constant interest in atmospheric phenomena, about which he later wrote extensively in his notes. Landscape depicted from a high vantage point overlooking the floodplain was a common device in Florentine art in the 1460s (although it always served only as a background to the paintings). Silver pencil drawing of an ancient warrior in profile (mid 1470s, British Museum) demonstrates Leonardo's full maturity as a draftsman; it skillfully combines weak, flaccid and tense, elastic lines and attention to surfaces gradually modeled by light and shadow, creating a living, vibrant image.

The undated painting of the Annunciation (mid-1470s, Uffizi) was attributed to Leonardo only in the 19th century; perhaps it would be more correct to consider it as the result of a collaboration between Leonardo and Verrocchio. There are several weak points in it, for example, the perspective reduction of the building on the left is too sharp or the scale relationship between the figure of the Mother of God and the music stand is poorly developed in perspective. However, in other respects, especially in the subtle and soft modeling, as well as in the interpretation of the foggy landscape with a mountain vaguely looming in the background, the painting belongs to the hand of Leonardo; this can be inferred from a study of his later works. The question of whether the compositional idea belongs to him remains open. The colors, muted in comparison with the works of his contemporaries, anticipate the coloring of the artist’s later works.

Verrocchio's painting of the Baptism (Uffizi) is also undated, although it can presumably be placed in the first half of the 1470s. As noted in the first chapter, Giorgio Vasari, one of the first biographers of Leonardo, claims that he painted the figure of the left of the two angels, turned in profile. The angel's head is delicately modeled in light and shadow, with a soft and careful depiction of surface texture, contrasting with the more linear treatment of the angel on the right. It seems that Leonardo's involvement in this painting extended to include the misty river landscape and some parts of the figure of Christ, which are painted in oil, although tempera is used in other parts of the painting. This difference in technique suggests that Leonardo most likely completed the painting that Verrocchio did not finish; It is unlikely that the artists worked on it at the same time.

Portrait of Ginevra dei Benci (circa 1478, Washington, National Gallery) is perhaps the first painting by Leonardo himself. The board was cut about 20 cm from the bottom, so that the crossed arms of the young woman disappeared (this is known from a comparison with surviving imitations of this painting). In this portrait, Leonardo does not seek to penetrate into the inner world of the model, however, as a demonstration of excellent mastery of soft, almost monochrome cut-off modeling, this picture has no equal. Behind you can see juniper branches (in Italian - ginevra) and a landscape shrouded in damp haze.

The Portrait of Ginevra dei Benci and Benoit's Madonna (St. Petersburg, Hermitage), preceded by a series of tiny sketches of the Madonna and Child, are probably the last paintings completed in Florence. The unfinished St. Jerome, very close in style to the Adoration of the Magi, can also be dated to around 1480. These paintings are contemporaneous with the first surviving sketches of military mechanisms. Having been trained as an artist, but striving to be a military engineer, Leonardo abandoned work on the Adoration of the Magi and set out in search of new tasks and a new life in Milan, where the mature period of his work began.

Despite the fact that Leonardo went to Milan in the hope of a career as an engineer, the first order he received in 1483 was the production of part of the altar image for the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception - Madonna in the Grotto (Louvre; attribution of Leonardo's brush to a later version from the London National Gallery disputed). A kneeling Mary looks at the Christ Child and baby John the Baptist, while an angel pointing at John looks at the viewer. The figures are arranged in a triangle in the foreground. It seems that the figures are separated from the viewer by a slight haze, the so-called sfumato (blurred and indistinct contours, soft shadow), which from now on becomes a characteristic feature of Leonardo’s painting . Behind them, in the semi-darkness of the cave, stalactites and stalagmites and slowly flowing waters shrouded in fog are visible. The landscape seems fantastic, but we should remember Leonardo's statement that painting is a science. As can be seen from the drawings contemporaneous with the painting, it was based on careful observations of geological phenomena. This also applies to the depiction of plants: you can not only identify them with a certain species, but also see that Leonardo knew about the property of plants to turn towards the sun.

In the mid-1480s, Leonardo painted Lady with an Ermine (Cracow Museum), which may be a portrait of Lodovico Sforza's favorite Cecilia Gallerani. The contours of the figure of a woman with an animal are outlined by curved lines that are repeated throughout the composition, and this, combined with muted colors and delicate skin tones, creates the impression of ideal grace and beauty. The beauty of the Lady with an Ermine contrasts strikingly with the grotesque sketches of freaks in which Leonardo explored the extremes of anomalies in the facial structure.

In Milan, Leonardo began to take notes; around 1490 he focused on two disciplines: architecture and anatomy. He sketched several options for the design of a central-domed temple (an equal-pointed cross, the central part of which is covered by a dome) - a type of architectural structure that Alberti had previously recommended for the reason that it reflects one of the ancient types of temples and is based on the most perfect form - circle. Leonardo drew a plan and perspective views of the entire structure, which outlined the distribution of masses and the configuration of the internal space. Around this time, he obtained the skull and made a cross-section, opening the sinuses of the skull for the first time. The notes around the drawings indicate that he was primarily interested in the nature and structure of the brain. Of course, these drawings were intended for purely research purposes, but they are striking in their beauty and similarity to sketches of architectural projects in that both of them depict partitions separating parts of the internal space.

Two great paintings, “La Gioconda (Mona Lisa)” and “The Last Supper,” belong to Leonardo da Vinci’s mature period.

The Mona Lisa was created at a time when Leonardo was so absorbed in studying the structure of the female body, anatomy and problems associated with childbirth that it was almost impossible to separate his artistic and scientific interests. During these years, he sketched a human embryo in the uterus and created the last of several versions of Leda's painting on the plot of the ancient myth about the birth of Castor and Pollux from the union of the mortal girl Leda and Zeus, who took the form of a swan. Leonardo studied comparative anatomy and was interested in analogies between all organic forms.

Of all the sciences, Leonardo was most interested in anatomy and military affairs.

The most important of Leonardo's public orders was also related to war. In 1503, perhaps at the insistence of Niccolo Machiavelli, he received a commission for a fresco measuring approximately 6 by 15 m depicting the Battle of Anghiari for the Great Council Hall in the Palazzo della Signoria in Florence. In addition to this fresco, the Battle of Cascina, commissioned by Michelangelo, was to be depicted; both plots are heroic victories of Florence. This commission allowed the two artists to continue the intense rivalry that began in 1501. Neither fresco was completed, as both artists soon left Florence, Leonardo back to Milan and Michelangelo to Rome; the preparatory cardboards have not survived. In the center of Leonardo's composition (known from his sketches and copies of the central part, which was obviously completed by that time), there was an episode with the battle for the banner, where horsemen fiercely fight with swords, and fallen warriors lie under the feet of their horses. Judging by other sketches, the composition was supposed to consist of three parts, with the battle for the banner in the center. Since there is no clear evidence, surviving paintings by Leonardo and fragments of his notes suggest that the battle was depicted against the backdrop of a flat landscape with a mountain range on the horizon.

The late period of Leonardo da Vinci's work includes, first of all, several sketches for the plot of the Madonna and Child and St. Anna; This idea first arose in Florence. Perhaps around 1505 the cardboard was created (London, National Gallery), and in 1508 or a little later the painting, now in the Louvre, was created. Madonna sits on the lap of St. Anna and stretches out his hands to the Christ Child holding a lamb; free, rounded shapes of the figures, outlined by smooth lines, form a single composition.

John the Baptist (Louvre) depicts a man with a gentle smiling face that emerges from the semi-darkness of the background; he addresses the viewer with a prophecy about the coming of Christ.

The later series of drawings, the Flood (Windsor, Royal Library), depicts cataclysms, the power of tons of water, hurricane winds, rocks and trees turning into splinters in a whirlwind of a storm. The notes contain many passages about the Flood, some of them poetic, others dispassionately descriptive, others scientific research, in the sense that they treat such problems as the vortex movement of water in a whirlpool, its power and trajectory.

For Leonardo art and research activities were complementary aspects of the constant urge to observe and record appearance and the internal structure of the world. It can definitely be said that he was the first among scientists whose research was complemented by art.

Some seven thousand pages of Leonardo da Vinci's surviving manuscripts contain his thoughts on various issues of art, science and technology. From these notes the “Treatise on Painting” was later compiled. In particular, it sets out the doctrine of perspective, both linear and aerial. Leonardo writes: "... take a mirror, reflect a living object in it and compare the reflected object with your picture... you will see that a picture executed on a plane shows objects so that they seem convex, and a mirror on a plane makes the same thing; a picture is just a surface, and a mirror is the same; surrounded by shadow and light; both seem very far away on the other side of the surface. There is another perspective, which I call aerial, because due to the change in air, you can recognize different distances to different buildings, limited from below by a single (straight) line. . Make the first building... your color, make the more distant one more... blue, the one you want to be just as far back, make it just as much bluer..."

Unfortunately, many observations concerning the influence of transparent and translucent media on perceived color could not yet find a proper physical and mathematical explanation from Leonardo. However, valuable are the first experimental attempts made by the scientist to determine the intensity of light depending on the distance, to study the laws of binocular vision, seeing in them a condition for the perception of relief.

The Treatise on Painting also provides information about proportions. During the Renaissance mathematical concept - golden ratio was elevated to the rank of the main aesthetic principle. Leonardo da Vinci called it Sectio aurea, which is where the term “golden ratio” came from. According to Leonardo's artistic canons, the golden proportion corresponds not only to the division of the body into two unequal parts by the waist line (the ratio of the larger part to the smaller is equal to the ratio of the whole to the larger part, this ratio is approximately equal to 1.618). The height of the face (to the roots of the hair) refers to the vertical distance between the arches of the eyebrows and the bottom of the chin, just as the distance between the bottom of the nose and the bottom of the chin refers to the distance between the corners of the lips and the bottom of the chin, this distance is equal to the golden ratio. Developing rules for depicting the human figure, Leonardo da Vinci tried to restore the so-called “square of the ancients” on the basis of literary information from antiquity. He made a drawing that shows that the span of a person’s outstretched arms is approximately equal to his height, as a result of which the human figure fits into a square and a circle.

2.2 The greatest works - "La Gioconda" and "The Last Supper"

2.2.1 "La Gioconda"

In Milan, Leonardo da Vinci began work on his famous painting"La Gioconda (Mona Lisa)". The background story of La Gioconda is as follows.

Francesco di Bartolomeo del Giocondo commissioned the great artist to paint a portrait of his third wife, 24-year-old Mona Lisa. The painting, measuring 97x53 cm, was completed in 1503 and immediately gained fame. The great artist wrote it for four years (he generally created his works for a long time). Evidence of this may be the use of various solvents during the writing period. Thus, the face of Mona Lisa, unlike her hands, is covered with a network of cracks. Francesco del Giocondo, for unknown reasons, did not buy this painting, and Leonardo did not part with it until the end of his life. The last years of his life, as noted above, the great artist spent the last years of his life in Paris at the invitation of the King of France Francis I. After his death on May 2, 1519, the king himself bought this painting.

When creating his masterpiece, the artist used a secret known to many portrait painters: the vertical axis of the canvas passes through the pupil of the left eye, which should cause a feeling of excitement in the viewer. The portrait (it is in the Louvre) is a further development of the type that appeared earlier in Leonardo: the model is depicted from the waist up, in a slight turn, the face is turned towards the viewer, folded hands limit the composition from below. The inspired hands of Mona Lisa are as beautiful as the light smile on her face and the primordial rocky landscape in the foggy distance.

Gioconda is known as the image of a mysterious, even femme fatale, but this interpretation belongs to the 19th century.

The picture gives rise to various speculations. So in 1986, American artist and researcher Lillian Schwartz compared the image of the Mona Lisa with a self-portrait of Leonardo. Using an inverted image of a self-portrait, she used a computer to bring the paintings to the same scale so that the distance between the pupils became the same. It is believed that in doing so she obtained a striking resemblance, although this version seems quite controversial.

There is an opinion that the artist encrypted something in his painting and in particular in the famous smile of Gioconda. A barely noticeable movement of the lips and eyes fits into the correct circle, which is not in the paintings of Raphael, Michelangelo, or Botticelli - other geniuses of the Renaissance. The background of the “Madonnas” is just a dark wall with one and two window slots, respectively. In these paintings everything is clear: a mother looks at her child with love.

It is likely that for Leonardo this painting was the most complex and successful exercise in the use of sfumato, and the background of the painting is the result of his research in the field of geology. Regardless of whether the subject was secular or religious, landscapes that expose the “bones of the earth” are a recurring theme in Leonardo’s work. The artist embodied the secrets of Nature that constantly tormented the great Leonardo da Vinci in the all-penetrating gaze of Mona Lisa, directed as if from the depths of a dark cave. In confirmation of this are the words of Leonardo himself: “Submiting my greedy attraction, wanting to see the great variety of diverse and strange forms produced by skillful nature, wandering among the dark rocks, I approached the entrance to a large cave. For a moment I stopped in front of it, amazed... I I leaned forward to see what was happening there, in the depths, but the great darkness prevented me. So I stayed for some time. Suddenly two feelings awoke in me: fear and desire; something wonderful in its depths."

2.2.2 "Last Supper"

Leonardo's thoughts on space, linear perspective and the expression of various emotions in painting resulted in the creation of the fresco "The Last Supper", painted in an experimental technique on the far end wall of the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan in 1495-1497.

In connection with The Last Supper, Vasari cites in his life story of Leonardo a funny episode that perfectly characterizes the artist’s style of work and his sharp tongue. Dissatisfied with Leonardo's slowness, the prior of the monastery insistently demanded that he finish his work as soon as possible. “It seemed strange to him to see that Leonardo stood immersed in thought for the whole half of the day. He wanted the artist not to let go of his brushes, just as one does not stop working in the garden. Not limiting himself to this, he complained to the Duke and so began to pester him, that he was forced to send for Leonardo and in a delicate manner ask him to take up the work, while making it clear in every possible way that he was doing all this at the insistence of the prior.” Having started a conversation with the Duke on general artistic topics, Leonardo then pointed out to him that he was close to finishing the painting and that he only had two heads left to paint - Christ and the traitor Judas. “He would like to look for this last head, but in the end, if he does not find anything better, he is ready to use the head of this same prior, so intrusive and immodest.” This remark made the Duke laugh very much, who told him that he was right a thousand times. Thus, the poor embarrassed prior continued to push on with the work in the garden and left Leonardo alone, who completed the head of Judas, which turned out to be the true embodiment of betrayal and inhumanity."

Leonardo prepared carefully and for a long time for the Milan painting. He completed many sketches in which he studied the poses and gestures of individual figures. “The Last Supper” attracted him not for its dogmatic content, but for the opportunity to unfold a great human drama before the viewer, show different characters, reveal the spiritual world of a person and accurately and clearly describe his experiences. He perceived the Last Supper as a scene of betrayal and set himself the goal of introducing into this traditional image that dramatic element, thanks to which it would acquire a completely new emotional sound.

While pondering the concept of “The Last Supper,” Leonardo not only made sketches, but also wrote down his thoughts about the actions of individual participants in this scene: “The one who drank and put the cup in its place turns his head to the speaker, the other connects the fingers of both hands and with frowning eyebrows looks at his companion, the other shows the palms of his hands, raises his shoulders to his ears and expresses surprise with his mouth..." The record does not indicate the names of the apostles, but Leonardo, apparently, clearly imagined the actions of each of them and the place to which each was called occupy in the overall composition. Refining poses and gestures in his drawings, he looked for forms of expression that would draw all the figures into a single whirlpool of passions. He wanted to capture living people in the images of the apostles, each of whom responds to the event in their own way.

"The Last Supper" is Leonardo's most mature and complete work. In this painting, the master avoids everything that could obscure the main course of the action he depicts; he achieves a rare convincingness of the compositional solution. In the center he places the figure of Christ, highlighting it with the opening of the door. He deliberately moves the apostles away from Christ in order to further emphasize his place in the composition. Finally, for the same purpose, he forces all perspective lines to converge at a point directly above the head of Christ. Leonardo divides his students into four symmetrical groups, full of life and movement. He makes the table small, and the refectory - strict and simple. This gives him the opportunity to focus the viewer’s attention on figures with enormous plastic power. All these techniques reflect the deep purposefulness of the creative plan, in which everything is weighed and taken into account.

The main task that Leonardo set himself in The Last Supper was to realistically convey the most complex mental reactions to the words of Christ: “One of you will betray me.” Giving complete human characters and temperaments in the images of the apostles, Leonardo forces each of them to react in their own way to the words spoken by Christ. It was this subtle psychological differentiation, based on the diversity of faces and gestures, that most amazed Leonardo’s contemporaries, especially when comparing his painting with earlier Florentine images on the same theme by Tadeo Gaddi, Andrea del Castagno, Cosimo Rosselli and Domenico Ghirlandaio. In all these masters, the apostles sit calmly, like extras, at the table, remaining completely indifferent to everything that happens. Not having sufficiently strong means in their arsenal to psychologically characterize Judas, Leonardo’s predecessors singled him out from the general group of apostles and placed him in the form of a completely isolated figure in front of the table. Thus, Judas was artificially opposed to the entire congregation as an outcast and a villain. Leonardo boldly breaks this tradition. His artistic language is rich enough not to resort to such purely external effects. He unites Judas into one group with all the other apostles, but gives him such features that allow an attentive viewer to immediately recognize him among the twelve disciples of Christ.

Leonardo treats each of his students individually. Like a stone thrown into water, generating ever more divergent circles on the surface, the words of Christ, falling in the midst of dead silence, cause the greatest movement in the assembly, which a minute before was in a state of complete peace. Those three apostles who sit on his left hand respond especially impulsively to Christ’s words. They form an inextricable group, imbued with a single will and a single movement. Young Philip jumped up from his seat, addressing Christ with a bewildered question, James the elder spread his arms in indignation and leaned back a little, Thomas raised his hand up, as if trying to understand what was happening. The group on the other side of Christ is imbued with a completely different spirit. Separated from the central figure by a significant interval, she is distinguished by incomparably greater restraint of gestures. Presented in a sharp turn, Judas convulsively clutches a purse of silver and looks at Christ with fear; his shadowed, ugly, rough profile is contrasted with the brightly lit, beautiful face of John, who limply lowered his head onto his shoulder and calmly folded his hands on the table. Peter's head is wedged between Judas and John; leaning towards John and leaning his left hand on his shoulder, he whispers something in his ear, while his right hand decisively grabbed the sword with which he wants to protect his teacher. The three other apostles sitting near Peter are turned in profile. Looking intently at Christ, they seem to ask him about the culprit of the betrayal. At the opposite end of the table is presented last group of three figures. Matthew, with his hands stretched out towards Christ, indignantly turns to the elderly Thaddeus, as if wanting to get an explanation from him of everything that is happening. However, the latter’s bewildered gesture clearly shows that he, too, remains in the dark.

It is not by chance that Leonardo depicted both extreme figures, sitting at the edges of the table, in pure profile. They close on both sides the movement coming from the center, fulfilling here the same role that belonged in the “Adoration of the Magi” to the figures of the old man and the young man, placed at the very edges of the picture. But if Leonardo’s psychological means of expression did not rise above the traditional level in this work of the early Florentine era, then in “The Last Supper” they achieve such perfection and depth, equal to which it would be in vain to look for in all Italian art of the 15th century. And this was perfectly understood by the master’s contemporaries, who perceived Leonardo’s “Last Supper” as a new word in art.

The method of painting with oil paints turned out to be very short-lived. Just two years later, Leonardo was horrified to see his work changed so much. And ten years later, he and his students try to carry out the first restoration work. A total of eight restorations were made over the course of 300 years. In connection with these attempts, new layers of paint were repeatedly applied to the painting, significantly distorting the original. In addition, by the beginning of the 20th century, the feet of Jesus Christ were completely erased, since the constantly opening door of the dining room was in contact with this very place. The door was cut by monks to provide access to the dining room, but since it was made in the 1600s, it is a historical hole and there is no way to wall it up.

Milan is rightly proud of this masterpiece, which is the only Renaissance work of this magnitude. To no avail, two French kings dreamed of transporting the painting along with the wall to Paris. Napoleon also did not remain indifferent to this idea. But to great joy Milanese and all of Italy, this unique work of the great genius remained in its place. During World War II, when British aircraft bombed Milan, the roof and three walls of the famous building were completely demolished. And only the one on which Leonardo painted his painting remained standing. It was a real miracle!

For a long time, this brilliant work was under restoration. To reconstruct the work, the latest technologies were used, which made it possible to gradually remove layer by layer. In this way, centuries of hardened dust, mold and all sorts of other foreign materials were removed. Moreover, let’s face it, 1/3 or even half of the original colors were lost over the course of 500 years. But the general appearance of the painting has changed significantly. She seemed to come to life, sparkling with cheerful, lively colors that the great master had given her. And finally, in the spring of May 26, 1999, after a restoration that lasted 21 years, the work of Leonardo da Vinci was again open to public viewing. On this occasion, a big celebration was held in the city, and a concert was held in the church.

To protect this delicate work from damage, a constant temperature and humidity are maintained in the building through special filtering devices. Entry is limited to 25 people every 15 minutes.

Thus, in this chapter we examined Leonardo da Vinci as a creator - painter, sculptor, architect. The next chapter will examine him as a scientist and inventor.

3. Leonardo da Vinci - scientist and inventor

3.1 Leonardo da Vinci's contributions to science

Da Vinci made his greatest contribution to the field of mechanics. Leonardo Da Vinci is the author of studies on the fall of a body on an inclined plane, on the centers of gravity of pyramids, on the impact of bodies, on the movement of sand on sounding records; about the laws of friction. Leonardo also wrote essays on hydraulics.

Some historians whose research dates back to the Renaissance have expressed the opinion that although Leonardo da Vinci was talented in many fields, he nevertheless did not make significant contributions to such an exact science as theoretical mechanics. However, a careful analysis of his recently discovered manuscripts and especially the drawings contained in them convinces us of the opposite. Leonardo da Vinci's work on the effects of various types of weapons, in particular the crossbow, appears to have been one of the reasons for his interest in mechanics. The subjects of his interest in this area, in modern terms, were the laws of addition of velocities and addition of forces, the concept of a neutral plane and the position of the center of gravity during body movement.

Leonardo da Vinci's contribution to theoretical mechanics can be appreciated to a greater extent by a more careful study of his drawings, rather than the texts of the manuscripts and the mathematical calculations contained in them.

Let's start with an example reflecting Leonardo da Vinci's persistent attempts to solve problems related to improving the design of weapons (never completely solved), which aroused his interest in the laws of addition of velocities and addition of forces. Despite the rapid development of gunpowder weapons during the life of Leonardo da Vinci, the bow, crossbow and spear continued to be common types of weapons. Leonardo da Vinci paid especially much attention to such ancient weapons as the crossbow. It often happens that the design of a particular system reaches perfection only after descendants become interested in it, and the process of improving this system can lead to fundamental scientific results.

Fruitful experimental work to improve crossbows had been carried out earlier, before Leonardo da Vinci. For example, shortened arrows began to be used in crossbows, which had approximately 2 times better aerodynamic characteristics than conventional bow arrows. In addition, a beginning was made to study the basic principles underlying crossbow shooting.

In an effort not to be limited by traditional design solutions, Leonardo da Vinci considered a crossbow design that would allow only the tip of the arrow to be fired, leaving its shaft motionless. Apparently, he understood that by reducing the mass of the projectile it was possible to increase its initial speed.

In some of his crossbow designs, he proposed the use of several arcs, acting either simultaneously or sequentially. In the latter case, the largest and most massive arc would activate a smaller and lighter arc, and that in turn would drive an even smaller one, etc. The arrow would be fired on the last arc. It is obvious that Leonardo da Vinci considered this process from the point of view of adding speeds. For example, he notes that the firing range of a crossbow will be maximum if you fire a shot while galloping from a galloping horse and lean forward at the moment of the shot. This would not actually result in a significant increase in arrow speed. However, Leonardo da Vinci's ideas were directly relevant to the growing debate over whether an infinite increase in speed was possible. Later, scientists began to incline to the conclusion that this process has no limit. This point of view existed until Einstein put forward his postulate, from which it followed that no body can move at a speed exceeding the speed of light. However, at speeds much lower than the speed of light, the law of addition of speeds (based on Galileo’s principle of relativity) remains valid.

The law of addition of forces, or parallelogram of forces, was discovered after Leonardo da Vinci. This law is discussed in the branch of mechanics that helps answer the question of what happens when two or more forces interact at different angles.

When making a crossbow, it is important to achieve symmetry of the forces occurring in each wing. Otherwise, the arrow may move out of its groove when fired, and the shooting accuracy will be impaired. Usually, crossbowmen, preparing their weapons for shooting, checked whether the bend of the wings of its arc was the same. Today all bows and crossbows are tested in this way. The weapon is hung on the wall so that its string is horizontal and the arc with the convex part is facing upward. Various weights are suspended from the middle of the bowstring. Each weight causes a certain bend in the arc, which allows you to check the symmetry of the action of the wings. The easiest way to do this is to observe whether, as the load increases, the center of the string drops vertically or moves away from it.

This method may have given Leonardo da Vinci the idea of using diagrams (found in the Madrid Manuscripts) in which the displacement of the ends of the arc (taking into account the position of the center of the bowstring) is represented as a function of the size of the suspended weight. He understood that the force required for the arc to begin to bend was small at first and increased with increasing mixing of the ends of the arc. (This phenomenon is based on a law formulated much later by Robert Hooke: the absolute amount of mixing as a result of deformation of a body is proportional to the applied force).

Leonardo da Vinci called the relationship between the displacement of the ends of the crossbow's arc and the size of the load suspended from the bowstring "pyramidal", since, just as in a pyramid, the opposite sides diverge as they move away from the intersection point, so this dependence becomes more and more noticeable as the ends of the arc are displaced. Noting the change in the position of the bowstring depending on the size of the load, he, however, noticed nonlinearities. One of them was that, although the displacement of the ends of the arc depended linearly on the size of the load, there was no linear relationship between the displacement of the bowstring and the size of the load. Based on this observation, Leonardo da Vinci apparently tried to find an explanation for the fact that in some crossbows the bowstring, when released after applying a certain amount of force to it, initially moves faster than when approaching its original position.

Such nonlinearity may have been observed when using crossbows with poorly made arcs. It is likely that Leonardo da Vinci's conclusions were based on faulty reasoning rather than calculations, although he did resort to calculations on occasion. However, this task sparked his deep interest in analyzing crossbow design. Is it true that an arrow that quickly picks up speed at the beginning of the shot begins to move faster than the string and breaks away from it before the string returns to its original position?

Without a clear understanding of such concepts as inertia, force and acceleration, Leonardo da Vinci naturally could not find a definitive answer to this question. On the pages of his manuscript there are arguments of the opposite nature: in some of them he is inclined to answer this question positively, in others - negatively. Leonardo da Vinci's interest in this problem led him to further attempts to improve the design of the crossbow. This suggests that he intuitively guessed the existence of a law, which later became known as the “law of addition of forces.”

Leonardo da Vinci did not limit himself only to the problem of the speed of movement of the arrow and the action of tension forces in the crossbow. For example, he was also interested in whether the range of an arrow would double if the weight of the crossbow arc was doubled. If we measure the total weight of all arrows placed one after another end to end and forming a continuous line, the length of which is equal to the maximum flight distance, will this weight be equal to the force with which the bowstring acts on the arrow? Sometimes Leonardo da Vinci really looked deeply, for example, in search of an answer to the question, does the vibration of the bowstring immediately after the shot indicate a loss of energy in the arc?

As a result, in the Madrid Manuscript, regarding the relationship between the force on the arc and the displacement of the bowstring, Leonardo da Vinci states: “The force that forces the crossbow string to move increases as the angle at the center of the bowstring decreases.” The fact that this statement does not appear anywhere else in his notes may mean that this conclusion was reached by him definitively. Undoubtedly, he used it in repeated attempts to improve the design of the crossbow with the so-called block arches.

Block arches, in which the bowstring is passed through blocks, are known to modern archers. These arcs allow the arrow to fly at high speeds. The laws underlying their operation are now well known. Leonardo da Vinci did not have the same complete understanding of the action of block bows, but he invented crossbows in which the bowstring was passed through blocks. In his crossbows, the blocks usually had a rigid mount: they did not move with the ends of the arc, as in modern crossbows and bows. Therefore, the arc in the design of Leonardo da Vinci's crossbow did not have the same effect as in modern block arcs. One way or another, Leonardo da Vinci apparently intended to make an arc, the design of which would solve the “string-angle” problem, i.e. an increase in the force acting on the arrow would be achieved by reducing the angle at the center of the bowstring. In addition, he tried to reduce energy loss when firing a crossbow.

In the basic design of Leonardo da Vinci's crossbow, a very flexible arc was mounted on a frame. Some drawings show that with the maximum tension on the bowstring, the arc bent almost into a circle. From the ends of the arc, the string on each side was passed through a pair of blocks mounted in front of the frame next to the arrow guide groove, and then went to the release device.

Leonardo da Vinci apparently did not give an explanation of his design anywhere, but its diagram appears repeatedly in his drawings along with the image of a crossbow (also with a strongly curved arc), in which the stretched bowstring running from the ends of the arc to the trigger device has a V -shape.

It seems most likely that Leonardo da Vinci sought to minimize the angle at the center of the bowstring so that the arrow would receive greater acceleration when fired. It is possible that he also used blocks to ensure that the angle between the bowstring and the wings of the crossbow remained close to 90° for as long as possible. An intuitive understanding of the law of addition of forces helped him radically change the time-tested design of a crossbow based on the quantitative relationship between the energy “stored” in the arc of the crossbow and the speed of the arrow. He undoubtedly had an idea of the mechanical efficiency of his design and tried to improve it further.

Leonardo da Vinci's block bow was apparently impractical, since the sudden tension of the bowstring caused it to bend significantly. Only composite arches made in a special way could withstand such significant deformation.

Compound arcs were used during Leonardo da Vinci's lifetime and may have sparked his interest in the problem that led him to the idea of what is called the neutral plane. The study of this problem was also associated with a more in-depth study of the behavior of materials under mechanical stress.

In a typical compound bow used during the era of Leonardo da Vinci, the outer and inner sides of the crossbow wings were made of different materials. The inner side, which experienced compression, was usually made of horn, and the outer side, which experienced tension, was usually made of tendons. Each of these materials is stronger than wood. Between external and internal sides arches, a layer of wood was used that was strong enough to give rigidity to the wings. The wings of such an arc could be bent more than 180°. Leonardo da Vinci had some idea of how such an arc was made, and the problem of choosing materials that could withstand high tension and compression may have led him to a deep understanding of how stresses were generated in a given structure.

In two small drawings (discovered in the Madrid Manuscript) he depicted a flat spring in two states - deformed and undeformed. In the center of the deformed spring, he drew two parallel lines, symmetrical about the central point. When the spring is bent, these lines diverge on the convex side and converge on the concave side.

These drawings are accompanied by a caption in which Leonardo da Vinci notes that when a spring is bent, the convex part becomes thicker and the concave part becomes thinner. "This modification is pyramidal and therefore will never change at the center of the spring." In other words, the distance between the initially parallel lines will increase at the top as it decreases at the bottom. The central part of the spring serves as a kind of balance between the two sides and represents the zone where the tension is zero, i.e. neutral plane. Leonardo da Vinci also understood that both tension and compression increase in proportion to the distance to the neutral zone.

From the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci it is clear that the idea of a neutral plane arose in him when studying the action of a crossbow. An example is his drawing of a giant rock-shooting catapult. The arc of this weapon was bent using a screw gate; the stone flew out of a pocket located in the center of the double bowstring. Both the collar and the stone pocket are drawn (to a larger scale) the same as in the crossbow drawings. However, Leonardo da Vinci apparently realized that increasing the size of the arc would lead to complex problems. Judging by Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of the neutral zone, he knew that (for a given angle of flexion) the stresses in the arch increased in proportion to its thickness. To prevent stresses from reaching a critical value, he changed the design of the giant arc. The front (front) part of it, which was in tension, according to his ideas, should be made of a solid log, and its rear part (rear), which was in compression, should be made of separate blocks fixed behind the front part. The shape of these blocks was such that they could come into contact with each other only when the arc was bent at its maximum. This design, as well as others, shows that Leonardo da Vinci believed that tensile and compressive forces should be considered separately from each other. In the manuscript of his Treatise on the Flight of Birds and his other writings, Leonardo da Vinci notes that the stability of a bird's flight is achieved only when its center of gravity is in front of the center of resistance (the point at which the pressure in front and behind is equal). This functional principle, used by Leonardo da Vinci in the theory of bird flight, is still important in the theory of flight of airplanes and rockets.

3.2 Leonardo da Vinci's inventions

The inventions and discoveries made by da Vinci cover all areas of knowledge (there are more than 50 of them), completely anticipating the main directions of development of modern civilization. Let's talk about just a few of them. In 1499, Leonardo, for a meeting in Milan with the French king Louis XII, designed a wooden mechanical lion, which, after taking a few steps, opened its chest and showed its insides “filled with lilies.” The scientist is the inventor of a spacesuit, a submarine, a steamship, and flippers. He has a manuscript that shows the possibility of diving to great depths without a spacesuit thanks to the use of a special gas mixture (the secret of which he deliberately destroyed). To invent it, it was necessary to have a good understanding of the biochemical processes of the human body, which were completely unknown at that time! It was he who first proposed installing batteries of firearms on armored ships (he gave the idea of a battleship!), invented a helicopter, a bicycle, a glider, a parachute, a tank, a machine gun, poisonous gases, a smoke screen for troops, a magnifying glass (100 years before Galileo!). Da Vinci invented textile machines, weaving machines, machines for making needles, powerful cranes, systems for draining swamps through pipes, and arched bridges. He creates drawings of gates, levers and screws designed to lift enormous weights - mechanisms that did not exist in his time. It is amazing that Leonardo describes these machines and mechanisms in detail, although they were impossible to make at that time due to the fact that ball bearings were not known at that time (but Leonardo himself knew this - the corresponding drawing has been preserved).

Leonardo da Vinci invented the dynamometer, odometer, some blacksmith tools, and a lamp with double air flow.

In astronomy, the most significant are the advanced cosmological ideas of Leonardo da Vinci: the principle of the physical homogeneity of the Universe, the denial of the central position of the Earth in space, for the first time he correctly explained the ashen color of the Moon.

Aircraft stand out as a separate line in this series of inventions.

In front of the entrance to Rome's Fiumicino International Airport, named after Leonardo da Vinci, stands a huge bronze statue. It depicts a great scientist with a model of a rotorcraft - the prototype of a helicopter. But this is not the only aviation invention that Leonardo gave to the world. In the margins of the previously mentioned “Treatise on the Flight of Birds” from da Vinci’s collection of scientific works “Codex Madrid” there is a strange author’s drawing, which only relatively recently attracted the close attention of researchers. It turned out that this is a sketch of a drawing of another “flying machine” that Leonardo dreamed of 500 years ago. Moreover, as experts were convinced, this is the only device of all the devices conceived by the genius of the Renaissance that was truly capable of lifting a person into the air. “Feather,” that’s what Leonardo called his device.

The famous Italian athlete and traveler Angelo D'Arrigo, a 42-year-old champion in free flight, saw with an experienced eye a real prototype of a modern hang glider in Leonardo da Vinci's drawing and decided not only to recreate it, but also to test it. Angelo himself has been studying the life and routes of migratory aircraft for many years birds, often accompanies them on a sports hang glider, turning into their companion, into a semblance of a “bird man”, that is, he implements in practice cherished dream Leonardo and many generations of naturalists.

Last year, for example, he made a 4,000 km flight with Siberian cranes, and this coming spring he plans to fly a hang glider over Everest, following the route of Tibetan eagles. It took D'Arrigo two years of hard work to, together with professional engineers and technicians, realize the “artificial wings” in material, first on a scale of 1:5, and then in life-size, thus reproducing Leonardo’s idea. An elegant structure was built, consisting of thin, ultra-light and durable aluminum tubes and synthetic Dacron fabric in the form of a sail. The result is a trapezoid-shaped structure, very reminiscent of the open wings invented by specialists of the American space agency NASA in the 60s for a smooth return from orbit of the Gemini descent capsules. Angelo first checked all the calculations on a computer flight simulator and on a stand, and then he himself tested the new device in the wind tunnel of the FIAT aircraft manufacturing workshops in Orbassano (15 km from Turin, Piedmont region) At a conventional speed of 35 km per hour “Feather”. Leonardo smoothly lifted off the floor and soared in the air with his pilot-passenger for two hours. “I realized that I had proven the teacher right,” the pilot admits in shock. So, the great Florentine’s brilliant intuition did not deceive him. Who knows, if the maestro had used lighter materials (and not just wood and homespun canvas), humanity might have celebrated this year not the centenary of aeronautics, but its five hundredth anniversary. And it is not known how civilization on Earth would have developed if “homo sapiens” could have seen his small and fragile cradle from a bird’s eye view five thousand years earlier.

From now on, the current model "Feather" will take pride of place in the history of aircraft section of the National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan, not far from the monastery and temple of Santa Maria delle Grazie, where Leonardo da Vinci's fresco "The Last Supper" is kept.

In the skies over Surrey (Great Britain), prototypes of a modern hang glider, assembled exactly according to the drawings of the brilliant painter, scientist and engineer of the Renaissance, were successfully tested.

Test flights from the Surrey hills were carried out by two-time world hang gliding champion Judy Liden. She managed to lift da Vinci's "proto-hang glider" to a maximum height of 10 m and stay in the air for 17 seconds. This was enough to prove that the device actually worked. The flights were carried out as part of an experimental television project. The device was recreated based on drawings familiar to the whole world by 42-year-old mechanic from Bedfordshire, Steve Roberts. A medieval hang glider resembles the skeleton of a bird from above. It is made from Italian poplar, cane, animal tendon and flax, treated with a glaze derived from beetle secretions. The flying machine itself was far from perfect. “It was almost impossible to control it. I was flying where the wind was blowing, and I couldn’t do anything about it. The tester of the first car in history probably felt the same way,” Judy said.

The second hang glider, built for Channel 4, used several designs from the great Leonardo: a control wheel and trapeze, which Leonardo later invented, were added to the 1487 drawing. "My first reaction was surprise. His beauty simply amazed me," says Judy Liden. The hang glider flew a distance of 30 meters at a height of 15 meters.

Before Liden flew the hang glider, it was placed on a test bench at the University of Liverpool. “The main problem is stability,” says Professor Gareth Padfield. “They did the right thing by carrying out bench tests. Our pilot fell several times. This device is very difficult to control.”

According to BBC science series producer Michael Mosley, the reason the hang glider cannot fly flawlessly is because Leonardo did not want his inventions to be used for military purposes. “By building the machines he designed and discovering the errors, we felt they were made for a reason. Our hypothesis is that Leonardo, a pacifist who had to work for the military leaders of that era, deliberately introduced erroneous information into his designs.” As evidence, there is a note on the back of a drawing of a diving respirator: “By knowing how the human heart works, they can learn to kill people under water.”

3.3 Leonardo Da Vinci's predictions

Leonardo da Vinci practiced special psychotechnical exercises, dating back to the esoteric practices of the Pythagoreans and... modern neurolinguistics, in order to sharpen his perception of the world, improve memory and develop imagination. He seemed to know the evolutionary keys to the secrets of the human psyche, which was still far from being realized in modern man. Thus, one of Leonardo da Vinci’s secrets was a special sleep formula: he slept for 15 minutes every 4 hours, thus reducing his daily sleep from 8 to 1.5 hours. Thanks to this, the genius immediately saved 75 percent of his sleep time, which actually extended his lifespan from 70 to 100 years! In the esoteric tradition, similar techniques have been known since time immemorial, but they have always been considered so secret that, like other psychic and mnemonic techniques, they have never been made public.

And he was also an excellent magician (contemporaries spoke more frankly - a magician). Leonardo could create a multicolored flame from a boiling liquid by pouring wine into it; easily turns white wine into red; with one blow he breaks a cane, the ends of which are placed on two glasses, without breaking either of them; puts a little of his saliva on the end of the pen - and the inscription on the paper turns black. The miracles that Leonardo shows so impress his contemporaries that he is seriously suspected of serving “black magic.” In addition, near the genius there are always strange, dubious personalities, like Tomaso Giovanni Masini, known under the pseudonym Zoroaster de Peretola, a good mechanic, jeweler and at the same time an adept of the secret sciences.

Leonardo kept a very strange diary, addressing himself as “you” in it, giving instructions and orders to himself as a servant or slave: “order me to show you...”, “you must show in your essay...”, “order make two travel bags..." One gets the impression that there were two personalities living in da Vinci: one - well-known, friendly, not without some human weaknesses, and the other - incredibly strange, secretive, unknown to anyone, who commanded him and controlled his actions.

Da Vinci had the ability to foresee the future, which, apparently, even surpassed the prophetic gift of Nostradamus. His famous "Prophecies" (originally a series of notes made in Milan in 1494) paint frightening pictures of the future, many of which were either already our past or are now our present. “People will talk to each other from the most distant countries and answer each other” - we are undoubtedly talking about the telephone. “People will walk and not move, they will talk to someone who is not there, they will hear someone who does not speak” - television, tape recording, sound reproduction. “People... will instantly scatter to different parts of the world without moving from their place” - broadcast of a television image.

“You will see yourself falling from great heights without any harm to you” - obviously skydiving. “Countless lives will be destroyed, and countless holes will be made in the ground” - here, most likely, the seer is talking about craters from aerial bombs and shells, which actually destroyed countless lives. Leonardo even foresees travel into space: “And many land and water animals will rise between the stars...” - the launch of living beings into space. “Many will be those from whom their little children will be taken away, who will be skinned and quartered in the most cruel way!” - a clear indication of the children whose body parts are used in the organ bank.

Thus, the personality of Leonardo da Vinci is unique and multifaceted. He was not only a man of art, but also a man of science.

Conclusion

Most people know Leonardo da Vinci as the creator of immortals. artistic masterpieces. But for Leonardo, art and exploration were complementary aspects of a constant quest to observe and record the external appearance and internal workings of the world. It can definitely be said that he was the first among scientists whose research was complemented by art.

Leonardo worked very hard. Now it seems to us that everything was easy for him. But no, his fate was filled with eternal doubts and routine. He worked all his life and could not imagine any other state. Rest for him was a change of activity and a four-hour sleep. He created always and everywhere. “If everything seems easy, this unmistakably proves that the worker is very little skilled and that the work is beyond his understanding,” Leonardo repeatedly repeated to his students.

If you look around the vast space of areas of science and human knowledge touched by Leonardo’s thought, it will become clear that huge amount discoveries and not even the fact that many of them were years ahead of their time, making him immortal. The main thing in his work remains that his genius in science is the birth of the era of experience.

Leonardo da Vinci is the brightest representative of the new, experimentally based natural science. “Simple and pure experience is the true teacher,” the scientist wrote. He studies not only the machines that existed in his time, but also turns to the mechanics of the ancients. He persistently and carefully examines individual parts of machines, carefully measures and records everything in search of the best shape, both parts and the whole. He is convinced that ancient scientists were just approaching an understanding of the basic laws of mechanics. He sharply criticizes the scholastic sciences, contrasting them with the harmonious combination of experiment and theory: “I know well that some proud people, because I am not well-read, will think that they have the right to blame me, citing the fact that I am a person without a book education. Stupid people !. I could answer them like this, saying: “You, who have adorned yourself with the works of others, you do not want to recognize my rights to my own”... They do not know that my objects are drawn from more than from other people’s words. experience, which was the mentor of those who wrote well; so I take him as my mentor and will refer to him in all cases.” As a practical scientist, Leonardo da Vinci enriched almost all branches of knowledge with deep observations and insightful guesses.

This is the biggest mystery. As is known, answering this question, some modern researchers consider Leonardo a message from alien civilizations, others as a time traveler from the distant future, and still others as a resident of a parallel world more developed than ours. It seems that the last assumption is the most plausible: da Vinci knew too well the worldly affairs and the future that awaited humanity, about which he himself was little concerned...

Literature

1. Batkin L.M. Leonardo da Vinci and the features of Renaissance creative thinking. M., 1990.

2. Vasari G. Biography of Leonardo da Vinci, Florentine painter and sculptor. M., 1989.

3. Gastev A.L. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1984.

4. Gelb, M. J. Learn to think and draw like Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1961.

5. Gukovsky M.A., Leonardo da Vinci, L. - M., 1967.

6. Zubov V.P., Leonardo da Vinci, M. - L., 1961.

8. Lazarev V.N. Leonardo da Vinci. L. - M., 1952.

9. Foley W. Werner S. The contribution of Leonardo da Vinci to theoretical mechanics. // Science and life. 1986-№11.

10. The mechanical investigations of Leonardo da Vinci, Berk. -Los Ang., 1963.

11. Heydenreich L. H., Leonardo architetto. Firenze, 1963.

Application

Leonardo da Vinci - self-portrait

Last Supper

Gioconda (Mona Lisa)

Lady with an ermine

Baby in the womb - anatomical drawing

Leonardo da Vinci - Anatomical drawings:

Human heart - anatomical drawing

Hang glider "Feather"

flying car