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Birth: name Leonardo di Ser Piero da Vinci Born: April 15, 1452; He was born and raised in Vinci, Italy Died: May 2, 1519 in Amboise, Indre-et-Loire, France Nationality: Italian Field: Many and diverse fields of arts and sciences Movement: High Renaissance Famous works: Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, The Vitruvian Man

In 1467 Leonardo was apprenticed to one of the most proficient artists of his day, Andrea di Cione, known as Verrocchio. The workshop of this famous master was at the centre of the intellectual currents of the day. Among those apprenticed or associated with the workshop were Perugino, Botticelli, and Lorenzo di Credi, assuring the young Leonardo of an advanced education in all branches of the humanities.

As an engineer, Leonardo conceived ideas vastly ahead of his own time, conceptually inventing a helicopter, a tank, the use of concentrated solar power, a calculator, a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics, the double hull, and many others. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or were feasible during his lifetime.[3] Some of his smaller inventions such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire entered the world of manufacturing unheralded.

In practice, he greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy, astronomy, civil engineering, optics, and the study of water (hydrodynamics). Of his works, only a few paintings survive, together with his notebooks (scattered among various collections) containing drawings, scientific diagrams, and notes.

Between 1482 and 1499, when Louis XII of France occupied Milan, much of Leonardo’s work was in that city. It was here that he was commissioned to paint two of his most famous works, the Virgin of the Rocks for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, and The Last Supper for the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie. While living in Milan between 1493 and 1495 Leonardo listed a woman called Caterina as among his dependants in his taxation documents. When she died in 1495, the detailed list of expenditure on her funeral suggests that she was his mother rather than a servant girl.

"GIANT CROSSBOW"

Leonardo’s project for a giant crossbow is found in a number of sheets in the Codex Atlanticus and Fol 149r shows the most well-defined and complete drawing.

The effort put into the design of the components indicates that he was striving to realise it as a workable weapon. The structure is huge; its dimensions can be judged when comparing the machine to the drawing of a man who is operating it.

The bow is made up of a number of flexible wooden pieces bound together by cords and held in place by pivoting pins. The bow has a span of about thirteen metres and it is stretched by a complex screw mechanism. Leonardo placed winches, which regulate the traction, at the rear sides of the bow. These also set in motion a second screw mechanism which was designed to reduce the force required to tighten the bow.

The cross bow is so big that the six wheels are set at a slight angle in order to increase its stability. Instead of arrows, the cross bow would fire heavy balls.

The weak point of the whole project is the bow, which even with its laminations would have struggled to cope with the extreme forces involved in firing such a device.

"FLYING MACHINE" 1488-89

Leonardo studied mechanical wings for a long time and this is a reconstruction of one of the many projects for a flying machine documented in Manuscript B.

In his fascination with flying, Leonardo attempts to combine the dynamic potential of the human body with an imitation of natural flight. In his notes, he cites the bats, the kite and other birds as models to imitate. He refers to his flying machine as the “great bird”.

In the drawing for this flying machine Leonardo does not include the wings, as this is mainly a study of the mechanism for the folding of the wings. This occurs thanks to a system of pulleys and rods which is activated by the feet of the pilot.

The pilot lies supine on a wooden surface and sets the mechanism in motion by pushing two pedals with his feet in an alternating motion. The movement of the wings imitates bird flight.

For safety reasons, Leonardo suggests that the machine should be tested over a lake and places a floatation device under the structure to keep the machine from sinking if it falls on water.

"The Vitruvian Man" c1490

This iconic drawing illustrates Leonardo’s own interpretation of Vitruvius’ written account of how the ideal proportions of man, with arms and legs outstretched, would fit into the geometric forms of the square and the circle. In order to achieve a coherent solution, Leonardo chose to adjust the relationship between the circle and the square - only the centre of the circle coincides with the navel, while the centre of the square is located somewhat lower.

In this drawing, he corrected inconsistencies in Vitruvius’ measurements of the human figure, guided by his own observations and deductions based on the study of life models. Through the precision of his own measurements, he created an image that is accepted as a true representation of Vitruvius’ findings, and a perfectly credible albeit constructed image of the ideal proportions of the human figure.

"MONA LISA" 1503-16

The picture was begun in Florence around 1503-04, where it was seen by Raphael amongst others, but was probably not finished until much later – possibly as late as 1516, by which time Leonardo was working and living in France.

Surprisingly little is known about this small panel painting, despite the fact that it is arguably the most famous painting in the world.

However, the sitter can be identified with some confidence as Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a prominent Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo (hence the painting is sometimes referred to as “La Gioconda”) who may have commissioned it to mark his setting up home and the birth of his son, Andrea.

The picture was begun in Florence around 1503-04, where it was seen by Raphael amongst others, but was probably not finished until much later – possibly as late as 1516, by which time Leonardo was working and living in France.