LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Leonardo Da Vinci: Artists
built 390 days ago
Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, near the village of Vinci about 25 miles west of Florence. He was the illegitimate son of Ser Piero da Vinci, a prominent notary of Florence, who had no other children until much later. Ser Piero raised his son himself, a common practice at the time, arranging for Leonardo's mother to marry a villager. When Leonardo was 15, his father apprenticed him to Andrea del Verrocchio, the leading artist of Florence and a characteristic talent of the early Renaissance.
Source:
Leonardo da Vinci was much more than an artist. He was an astronomer, sculptor, geologist, mathematician, botanist, inventor, engineer, architect and even a musician. He was fascinated with the idea of free-flight and conceived wondrous designs including the ornithopter, the helicopter, the parachute, the propeller and a prone position glider. It is said that an impatient apprentice tried to fly a glider off a tower before it or he was ready and hit the dust big time. Da Vinci then canceled all further flight plans and ceased all flying experiments. Wonder if his dreams, so vivid and realistic, ceased as well.
Source:
Leonardo da Vinci developed a new painting style. Artists of his time usually used a white background to paint pictures. Yet he used a dark background. This could bring out a three-dimensional effect in the main object. He was ... known for making his paintings in a dark style, in which there were many shadows.
Source:
Da Vinci was an architect, musician, engineer, scientist and inventor. He sketched the first parachute, first helicopter, first aeroplane, first tank, first repeating rifle, swinging bridge, paddle boat and first motor car. Da Vinci designed machines of war as well. He was one of the first artists to sketch outdoor portraits. Da Vinci was a sculptor and designer of costumes. He was ... a mathematician and a botanist.
Source:
Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance. He was an inventor and scientist as well as an artist. His paintings are known for their subtle naturalism and expressive gestures. This painting, The Annunciation, shows the angel coming to tell the Virgin Mary that she is to be the mother of Jesus Christ.
Source:
Among his many scientific achievements were da Vinci's discoveries in anatomy. Besides artistic talent, he possessed the "stomach" to dissect of both humans and animals. Dissections weren't common in da Vinci's day, but probably weren't illegal, either. Though his understanding of the respiratory system added little to medieval knowledge, his studies of skeletal and muscle tissue, brain anatomy, and digestive and reproductive systems advanced human anatomical understanding to a new level. Interestingly, he felt that the similar appearance of branching bood vessels, branching stems, and mingling tributaries weren't just coincidence; the actually were fundamentally the same. In that same spirit of unified microcosm/macrocosm, he investigated geology.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Artists