I'd like to share my Leonardo da Vinci essay. I wrote it while I was studying the famous painter. This is supposed to go with my Powerpoint presentation. Here you go:
The hillside is a beautiful place. Being above the other towns, the many many birds flying around. The rocky terrain all around is a great place to sit and enjoy nature. There are a great many olive trees growing everywhere. It must have been very easy for young Leonardo Da Vinci to be inspired by the many sights surrounding his birthplace of Vinci. The artist would often skip school to sit on the rocky hillside surrounding Vinci and paint. He loved nature and anything in it. It was in Vinci the most ingenious and talented man in the history of the world was born. Son of Ser Piero and Catarina, a wealthy lord and a peasant girl, Leonardo (or Lionardo) was practically without business options. He couldn't be a lawyer or a doctor, not a businessman like Ser Piero. He couldn't attend a university. All because his parents never married.
Regardless, he still became though he became the most talented artist in the history of the world. Just look at his painting, the Last Supper, the Annunciation, the Mona Lisa. These are only a small portion of his works. At the age of twelve he began studying under the famous painter Verrocchio. And soon was even a better painter than the master himself. He created expert level paintings while growing up in Vinci, and while in Florence with Verrocchio, was the best painter in his guild. He made the angel in Verrocchio's the Baptism of Christ. Just by looking at the painting you can tell which one he did. The angel looking up at Christ, the one that understands the weight of what's going on. He made the Annunciation. His painting the Mona Lisa is currently the world's most famous work of art. In his twenties, Leonardo Da Vinci was already becoming a famous painter. Better than his old master and pretty much the most talented painter in Florence. His passion for painting was so strong, that he even turned to science to improve his work. He'd dissect human bodies to get a better idea of muscle placement among other things. He used scientific methods over a hundred years beyond his time to increase his understanding of our world so as to capture it on paper. "All in all, Leonardo believed that the artist must know not just the rules of perspective, but all the laws of nature. The eye, he believed, was the perfect instrument for learning these laws, and the artist the perfect person to illustrate them." -MOS.org
He didn't only use science for painting, however. In 1505, Leonardo moved to Milan. He began his scientific studies. Unlike the others of his time, he didn't base all of his theories around the Bible. Rather, his life as a scientist was in part his search for the truth. He'd observe nature, asking simple questions such as, "How do birds fly?" Then he'd record the answers as sketches. Much of his work had a preternatural, even spooky determination. Paulo Giovo (Leonardo's first biographer) wrote: "In medical faculty he learned to dissect the cadavers of criminals under inhuman, disgusting conditions . . . because he wanted to draw [and examine] the different deflections and reflections of limbs and their dependence upon the nerves and the joints. This is why he paid attention to the forms of even very small organs, capillaries and hidden parts of the skeleton." Even with science, Leonardo was passionate. Leonardo's interest in science is obvious, as he wrote a large amount of books and notes on many different sciences, some of the most notable being those on flight.
Since his adolescence, Leonardo was interested in flight. He'd often study birds and bats, occasionally dissecting them. And because of his interest in flight, he created many plans for flying machines. From gliders to helicopters, from feathered wings to webbed wings, from propellers to wings. These were some of his inventions. He created many others, some of the most notable include an eight barreled (machine) gun, the first armored tank, a bicycle (hundreds of years before bikes were made), a steam powered cannon and many many others. One of his main interests when it came to inventing was water. He made plans for shoes that allow you to walk on water, devices that sink ships from underwater, an unsinkable ship, and a life preserver among others. Yes Leonardo planned for inventions as wild as these, and they probably would have worked. He was truly the most brilliant man in history. A few of his many inventions were bridges. One idea was to bridge the Gulf of Istanbul, connecting the Golden Horn and the Bosporus. But sadly, the project was never carried out. Other engineers of the time believed the bridge would be too big, although modern engineers have looked over and dubbed them feasible, the bridge would be safe and sound. Another idea was a bridge that could be carried, lightweight but sturdy, so as for a quick escape from, or capture of, an enemy. He also had plans for a bridge that was fireproof and could not be destroyed by an enemy assault. His other ideas to help in war were a movable dike to defend Venice, and a way to altar the course of the Arno river so as to flood Persia.
Yes, Leonardo was a genius. The most brilliant person in a time of brilliant people. He stood out among painters like Michelangelo and Raphael, he was the best inventor of his time, and probably tha brightest inventor ever, he was an advanced scientist, creating and discovering formulas that were proven true hundreds of years later. He designed buildings and bridges people laughed at, but those ideas and designs are used by modern architects. Leonardo da Vinci was truly an amazing man.
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