Leonardo da Vinci was a unique talent that the world may never see again. His curious nature and desire to learn helped him create some of the most wonderful works humanity has ever seen. He was a painter, sculptor, architect and engineer, among others. Throughout his life, Leonardo contributed to humanity in so many different fields that many researchers and historians still refer to him today as a "universal genius." Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essay How we know him Many sources claim that Leonardo was a mysterious man and there are many things we don't know about him as a person, “…his mind and personality seem superhuman to us, while the man himself is mysterious and distant.” However, it appears that this myth has been debunked by overwhelming evidence. Robert Payne says in his book that "the only mystery is how he was able to accomplish so many works of genius in such a short time." Before his death, Leonardo left around ten thousand pages (around five thousand survive today) of manuscripts from his life. He was not an introverted person at all, he expressed his thoughts in his notes and declared that they should be preserved and published. As if that wasn't enough, he also explained exactly how he wanted them to be published. We have a very good idea of ​​where and what Leonardo did for most of his life, and there are also existing records from Florence, Rome, Milan, and many other places that help fill in these gaps missing. Further evidence comes from the works of Giorgio Vasari, a mid-16th century painter who took it upon himself to document the lives of Italy's greatest artists. Much of what we know today about Italian artists comes from his works. His works began to enjoy success in 1564, when he produced a second edition of the Lives in which the new version was larger with more illustrated portraits. Leonardo Man was a man driven by curiosity and a desire to succeed. in his works, "he accomplished what he set out to accomplish..." He lived what would have been considered a full life at the time, dying at the age of sixty-seven. He also traveled widely and rose to many high positions during his life as he passed through various cities. The first skill that Leonardo mastered was the art of painting. It is said that he started perhaps as early as 14 years old. He also loved animals, he loved them so much that he became a vegetarian and refused to eat them. His favorite animals were horses and he painted them better than any other man before him. He was a diverse man who expanded his knowledge in various fields including music, literature, history, anatomy, geology, astronomy and many other scientific fields. Leonardo also became self-taught in mathematics later in life, at the age of thirty. Mathematics was perhaps his most useful tool since he had to apply it to most of his works, including the Mona Lisa. Early life Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452 as a bastard in Anchiano, Tuscany. His father was a well-respected Florentine notary and his mother was a peasant woman. He was raised by his father and stepmothers until he moved to his father's family home in Vinci, where he was given the surname de Vinci (de Vinci) because he was not not even worthy of taking his father's name. We didn't expect him to be much, especially having been born outsidemarriage of a father who had several children. Most (if not all) of the inheritance would have passed to his brothers before they came to him. No one could have predicted that this child would become the mastermind who would redefine the Renaissance. Aside from basic instruction in reading, writing, and math, Leonardo didn't really receive much of an education because his family wasn't very well prepared to pay for his education. At fourteen, da Vinci began a long apprenticeship with Andrea del Verrocchio, a recognized artist from the city of Florence. Under his guidance, he acquired many skills that influenced his art such as metalwork, carpentry, casting, painting and drawing. At the age of twenty he became a member of the guild of Saint Luke of Florence and established his own workshop where he would later hire many apprentices and make some of them his pupils. Some of his positions In 1578, da Vinci received his first independent degree. commission to reside in a chapel of the Palazzo Vecchio. After three years, monks from the city asked him to paint “The Adoration of the Magi”. Leonardo started the painting but left town shortly after without ever finishing the painting and without leaving his commission behind. About a year later, after moving to Milan, Lorenzo de Medici (Florentine ruler) paid him to make a silver lyre and deliver it to Ludovico Sforza. He served as an engineer, court festival designer, sculptor, architect and painter for the Sforza clan until 1499, when they fled due to a French invasion. In 1502, around the summer, Cesare Borgia "...went on a rampage through the Romagna region of northern Italy, brutally seizing city after city in the name of his father, Pope Alexander VI." Cesare, with his greed for power and conquest, hired Leonardo as a military engineer because of his great abilities as an inventor (at the risk that Leonardo would be known for not completing the tasks he was paid to do). This has created some (not much) controversy in religious discussions. Some believe that the image of Jesus Christ idolized today comes from Leonardo's images and is actually a depiction of Cesare. Since some considered Cesare the most beautiful man in the world, Leonardo used his face as a guideline to draw a beautiful Jesus (according to some). Although most of the sources that argue for or against this hypothesis do not seem very reliable, there are some interesting points to consider. But there doesn't seem to be much evidence to draw a solid conclusion on this topic. That doesn't sound very interesting either. After the French ruler Francis proposed giving Leonardo the title "First Painter, Engineer and Architect to the King" in 1516, he ultimately left Italy indefinitely. This offer gave Leonardo da Vinci the freedom to paint and draw as he pleased while living in a country mansion near Amboise, France. Melzi, a painter who had accompanied Leonardo on previous trips, accompanied him. It is said that Leonardo's final years were not happy ones due to the bitter tone found in some of his correspondence. This was his final destination before his death in 1519. Some of the works Mainly known as a painter in his time, two of Leonardo's most famous paintings are the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper. The Mona Lisa is believed to be a painting of the third wife of a merchant named Francesco di Bartolommeo, a wealthy man. She sits on a “marble chair, in this circle of fantastic rocks, as if in a faint light under the sea”. The original painting of this work of art still exists to this day, but it is notreally too modified, lest it suffer further damage. There are many images similar to the Mona Lisa, but one theory as to why this one gained popularity is that it may have been one of the few works by Leonardo that was actually completed and who managed to survive. The Last Supper, on the other hand, was a painting painted on the wall of a dining room in the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie. It depicts the last meal that Jesus had with his disciples before prophesying that one of them would betray him, Matthew 26:23. The painting has been retouched so many times that when you look at it, it is no longer the original painting. that Leonardo painted. Although this painting still survives, it is slowly deteriorating. Some of Leonardo's works also include dissections of human and animal bodies. He was curious about how the human body worked and was intrigued by the subject of death. One day, while working in a hospital, he was talking to an old man who was about to die. The man told Leonardo that he had never been sick in his life before. So, once he died, Leonardo immediately began cutting up the body to see what physical changes lead to death. However, Leonardo had a kind of sympathy in him. He drew a portrait of the old man as he was before his death, in homage to his living memory “while he was dismembering the body”. He had kept a journal of other bodies which he had also dissected. Leonardo believed that the eyes were the most useful tool available to humanity and that he used his eyes to draw everything he saw when dissecting corpses. Every detail. As an inventor, Leonardo had designed superb projects. Some models include tanks, bicycles, parachutes, helicopters, giant crossbows, self-propelled carts, diving equipment, swing bridges and much more. Much of his collection of works was lost for a while because (probably) Leonardo left everything to Melzi. Melzi later dies and leaves all of this to his son, who disposes of it by selling everything, including Leonardo's estate. Conclusion Despite the fact that Leonardo was a genius, his inventions and discoveries had very little effect on the scientific world since they were never published. Writing them left and upside down to the point where they can only be read on a mirror didn't help either (even though this tip seems pretty cool). Had he been born later, perhaps he could have had major influences in science that could have influenced the world today. The only thing that seems surprising is that with his very deep love for nature, he never realized the similarities between animals. Perhaps if he had had more access to travel, he could have preceded Darwin in discovering the theory of evolution. Or maybe he noticed it, but his works are lost and simply haven't been found yet. It should also be noted that Leonardo da Vinci was not a religious man at all. The most interesting thing about him was that at a time when religion had a great influence, he was still searching for the truth about how nature works. He “never believed for a moment that the universal flood of the Bible ever took place.” Despite his many portraits depicting Jesus and other religious icons, Vasari wrote in 1550 that Leonardo thought it was better to die a philosopher than to die a Christian. He did not like the idea of ​​a religion that chose to be symbolized by an act of human ferocity (the crucifixion) and therefore rejected this aspect of the fables. Instead, he tried to look for the most pleasant parts of it, believing that the..