Leonardo DaVinci Essay, Research Paper

Geniuses come few and far between in history. Hippocrates came in the late BC

period. Einstein came in the late 1800s-early 1900s. Leonardo came in between

the two of them, but is not recognized as well as they are. He was a brilliant

human being. He was a master in the fields of painting, designing, engineering,

and science. Most people know him merely as an artist, and some know him as an

inventor, but not too many people know him for what he really was. This is

because his life and his accomplishments are not taught, as in depth as they

should be. During the height of the renascence, a genius was born in 1452 in the

small town of Vinci, near Florence. He would become a great artist, engineer,

inventor, and a scientist. His name was Leonardo, a name that would soon be

associated with the word brilliant. He was born to Piero, the lawyer of the

town, and Catarina, who gave Leonardo to his father, and left them both for a

man of her social class. She is not mentioned in Leonardo’s notebooks, as he was

probably too young to remember her. Leonardo grew up feeling different from the

other children. He had a strange curiosity that was lacking in the other

children. He would buy birds from the markets, and set them free, because he

thought it was wrong to keep them locked up in cages. He also had a strange

curiosity about the world around him. He kept collections of "snakeskins,

odd stones polished by water, birds’ eggs, the skeletons of small animals,

insects stuck on pins, tadpoles, and strange plants," in his room because

they fascinated him. Leonardo would draw the things in his collection in a

notebook. When his father saw the notebook, he thought that there was a

possibility that Leonardo had a chance to become an artist. Piero went into

Florence once a month on business and one time he brought some of his son?s

work. He showed it to his friend Andrea del Verrocchio. ?He saw more than just

mere talent in Leonardo? and almost immediately, Leonardo moved to Florence as

Verrocchio apprentice. Leonardo never got married. From what is known, he did

not have any children, either. I find this tragic, for if he had any children,

they may have possibly continued in Leonardo?s footsteps, and become great

geniuses as well. Leonardo was so talented that after Leonardo painted two

angels in the corner of Verrocchio?s Baptism of Christ, Verrocchio never

painted again. Soon after that Leonardo went on to paint the Annunciation, which

was his first of only a few completed paintings. When Leonardo painted he

generally experimented with new techniques, and paints, so once he finished

perfecting the experiment he went on to another work. Leonardo?s paintings are

truly masterful. He made two copies of one of his first paintings, The Virgin on

the Rocks. The first one he painted in Florence. The second one he painted for

the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception. He was commissioned to paint for

them. He felt he was not being paid enough to create a new painting. Therefore,

rather than refusing to paint, or raising the price, Leonardo, smart as he was,

suggested that he copy of The Virgin on the Rocks for them. Although the

paintings are relatively the same, there are noticeable differences in the

details of the two of them. Leonardo?s version of The Last Supper is truly the

best version ever created. ?Artists before Leonardo had tried to recreate this

dramatic moment in Christ?s life, but no one had succeeded with such nobility

and force.? Leonardo depicted all the apostles with such personality and grace

that all of their emotions and feelings were masterfully revealed. The betrayal

is shown beautifully as well. Truly, no one has ever come close to surpassing

the true genius of DaVinci?s depiction of the Last Supper. Another great

painting by Leonardo DaVinci is the Mona Lisa. This is his most famous painting.

Mona Lisa was the daughter of a Florentine merchant. She is sitting with her

hands folded, with a particular grin, which is seen in many of Leonardo?s

paintings. Leonardo?s inventions were way ahead of his time. He created plans

for tanks, helicopters, submarines, and many other weapons of war and machinery.

He also experimented with flying, and although now one really knows for sure,

many people believe that he was unsuccessful at this. For every recreation of

his experiment has used materials that Leonardo didn?t have in his time

period. However, his plan for the submarine did work when it was recreated using

the recently developed materials. His plans for mutlibarrelled guns, tanks,

cannons, and many other weapons were created successfully by him. Another one of

Leonardo?s inventions was central heating, which he installed in a castle. He

designed many different types of bridges, and scientific instrument, which most

certainly changed the worlds of travel and especially science. He was a

brilliant scientist. He studied the fields of anatomy, and botany. He made many

findings, and broke a lot of new ground in both of these fields. He studied the

bodies of thirty corpses, to unlock the secrets of man. He studied the muscles,

organs, and tissues, to learn all that he could. He examined faces in depth, as

well as the brain cavity, and bones of the skull. He was searching for what he

called the ? ?vital force,? the soul, which gave life to the body?. He

found out by studying frogs that if the spinal cord is pierced we die instantly.

He realized that the heart was the center of all life, and that each beat sent a

wave of blood throughout the body. He drew many botanical drawings in the

interests of studying the plants. He created many of the backgrounds in his

paintings from these drawings, but not before using them to study plantlife. He

solved many engineering problems. He planned for an olden day freeway, to cut

down on traffic. He engineered many brutal warships, for ramming and slicing

into other ships. He engineered the first air conditioner for the d?Este

family. He engineered the first tanks, which were very successful in battle. He

engineered a double spiral staircase in towers so that in time of war soldiers

could be moving up and down at the same time. During his lifetime, Leonardo

lived in six different cities, making seven big moves. He was born in Vinci, and

from there, he went to Florence. After Florence, he moved to Milan, then Venice,

then to Rome, back to Florence, and back to Rome. Finally, he moved to France,

which is where he died in 1519. In his lifetime, Leonardo accomplished more in

terms of progress than anyone else in history. He had a gigantic effect on life

in those days, as he still does today. His great success and artistic excellence

has inspired many young men to start painting, and many others to give it up. He

pushed the progress of man further and faster than anyone else did during the

renascence. Many things that he designed were later created and improved by

nineteenth and twentieth century inventors. He painted many paintings that even

now puzzle, inspire, and intrigue many young people.