Leonardo da Vinci, born on 15
April 1452, in Anchiano, near Vinci, Republic of Florence [Italy], was an Italian
painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose skill and
intelligence, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance
humanist ideal. His Last Supper (1495-98) and Mona Lisa (c. 1503-19) are among
the most widely popular and influential paintings of the Renaissance His
notebooks reveal a spirit of scientific inquiry and a mechanical inventiveness
that were centuries ahead of their time.
The
unique fame that Leonardo enjoyed in his lifetime and that, filtered by
historical criticism, has remained undimmed to the present day rests largely on
his unlimited desire for knowledge, which guided all his thinking and
behaviour. An artist by disposition and endowment, he considered
his eyes to be his main avenue to knowledge; to Leonardo, sight was man’s
highest sense because it alone conveyed the facts of experience immediately,
correctly, and with certainty. Hence, every phenomenon perceived became an
object of knowledge, and saper vedere (“knowing how to see”) became the great theme of his
studies. He applied his creativity to every realm in which graphic
representation is used: he was a painter, sculptor, architect, and engineer.
But he went even beyond that. He used his superb intellect, unusual powers of
observation, and mastery of the art of drawing to study nature itself, a line of inquiry that
allowed his dual pursuits of art and science to flourish.
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