Leonardo Da Vinci :: essays research papers

da Vinci Da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, and naturalist. He was born in Vinci, Tuscany and was the son of a notary. He studied icon with Verrocchio in Florence. He worked at Ludovico Sforzas court in Milan as an architect, military engineer, inventor, theatrical designer, sculptor, musician, scientist, art theorist, and painter.Leonardo wanted his paintings to express the laws of nimbleness and space and of sciences like anatomy, botany, and geology. He often accompanied condemned criminals to their execution to field of force the expressions on their faces and he dissected thirty cadavers to perfect his knowledge of anatomy. He was fascinated with the dynamic movework forcet to be found in nature. He was considered a genius and a very handsome man and is subdued thought of as on e of the most gifted men in the humane race.One of the things that fascinated every sensation about him was the enticing smile he painted on the faces of som e women. It was called more divine than human and seemed to move before our eyes. The mystery of the smile is most often associated with the Mona Lisa, one of the worlds most famous images, but it first appeargond 20 years before in the angel from The Madonna of the Rocks. There are several theories as to whose smile cast such a good turn on Leonardo. One of them is Cecilia Gallerani, who was celebrated for her beauty and was painted by Leonardo when she was seventeen. However, no one knows where that portrait is. It is said that he painted her once again as Lady with an Ermine and then as the angel in The Madonna of the Rocks. He seems to have loved the painting of the angel so much that he kept it for himself and painted another one.Another supposition is that, previous to Leonardo, painters outlined their figures, so that they stood away from the background in stiff, fast poses. He deliberately omitted outlines, blurred and softened the corners of the eyes and mouth, blending arc into shadow, giving life to his figures.Lastly, during the Renaissance, well-born maidens were carefully schooled to charm. Women were advised to close their mouths from m to time at the right corner with a suave movement, and pay it slightly at the left as if you were smiling secretly and possibly Leonardo was just painting the way a thousand well-born ladies smiled in his day.