Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Leonardo Da Vinci a true Renaissance Man?



The all time famous Leonardo Da Vinci was not just an ordinary painter, but he was also a architect and an inventor. Leonardo Da Vinci can be characterized as a true Renaissance man for he could architect, invent and paint with perfection. He characterization was well known for his hard-core, ruthless, hard to get along with, perfectionist, and many more. The Renaissance was all about inquiry, new ideas, and exploring for themselves. Leonardo Da Vinci inquired himself and he thought of new ideas such as, his "Beastly Madness", where he created "new ideas" for a "new world". After working for Andrea del Verrochio at the age of 14, he was indulged in anatomical work. His 450+ pages of sketches and notes are in depth and mostly all of the sketches showed anatomical accuracy. After studying anatomical structures, he made the fantastic "proportional man", which shows anatomical accuracy and the proportions are just right. He was the first one to say that, when a human raises their arms, their muscle strengthens and then the arm goes bigger, and when they open their legs wider, they grow shorter. This sounds like common sense but back in the Renaissance, no one thought hard about it. This shows that Leonardo Da Vinci is a true Renaissance man. He thought of things more carefully and detailed whilst others just ignore it. Not just did he think more, in his paintings, he used many art techniques such as sfumato, not just did he used art techniques, he invented one himself! It is called chiaroscuro and it is when you can see the strong contrasts of light and dark. In his architects and inventions, he thought creatively, he didn't know if it would even work or not but he tried it anyways. I believe that he is an amazing man, a true Renaissance man.