Leonardo da Vinci - painter and inventor

Leonardo da Vinci was architect, sculptor, painter, inventor and engineer from Italian Renaissance. Born on 15. April 1452 in Italian Tuscany. He died in France, Cloux 2. May 1519.

He had many talents and we describe him as a genius. His are two masterpieces of art: world most famous painting Mona Lisa and Last supper.

He was inventing new things in the field of musical instruments. He invented hydraulic pump, reversible crank mechaniss, finned mortar shell, a steam cannon and many more.

Leonardo da Vinci has also researched human anatomy (Vitruvian man), astronomy and construction industry.

Nature never breaks her own laws.

A well-spent day brings happy sleep.

Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else.

Art is never finished, only abandoned.

He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year.

Mona Liza, also known as La Gioconda or La Joconde,  is Leonardo most famous painting. It is painted with oil paints on wood in the years between 1503 and 1507. Picture is showing a woman with "a mysterious smile".

Mona Liza is without doubt most famous painting in the history of art.

Leonardo da Vinci flying experiments were not only teoretical, but he also tested some variants practicaly. In first scetches he tried to copy animals movements and he designed the platform model. It was design in details and it looks like this could fly, bt it was way too heavy.

In the next design hi tried to copy birds gliding instead of difficult movements with wings up and down.

Last step was not imitating nature at all. He designed some models, where he has in mind only human body.

The Vitruvian Man is a drawing of Leonardo da Vinci. It was created in 1487 and  it shows a nude male figure in two positions with his arms and legs apart and simultaneously inscribedin a circle and square.

The picture is also known as Canon of Proportions. Now you can see the picture in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice (Italy).

This Leonardos drawing is based on some hints in Book III of the three books De Architectura, whis was written by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius, who described, that the principal source of proportion among the orders of architecture is the proportion of the human figure.

Leda was in Greek mithology the daughter King of Crete, Theseus and her man was King of Sparta, Tyndareus. One day, Zeus trasnformed himself into a swan and seduced Leda.

Leda ther bore two children of Zeus: Helen and Pollux. At the same time she was bearing two chidlren of her husband: Castor and Clytemnestra.

It is very interesting, that every Renaissance painter:  Michelangelo, Correggio, Titian, Veronese, Leonardo da Vinci, Rubens painted a motiv with Leda and the Swan.