The Life Of Da Vinci

First Part

Da Vinci's Works

In his paintings, the artist perfected the use of shading (sfumato) and, in sculpture, he used perspective to model objects on two-dimensional and three-dimensional surfaces.

In the plastic arts, Da Vinci was one of the first Italians to use the oil on canvas technique. His paintings generally depicted faces and religious themes.

He produced just over 30 works. Not all have been completed, such as The Adoration of the Magi, St. Jerome in the desert and the Battle of Anghiari. He left hundreds of drawings, sketches and pages of notes.

See below the main works of Leonardo da Vinci:

Annunciation: 1475-1480

Adoration of the Magi: 1481

The Last Supper: 1498

Mona Lisa or La Gioconda: 1503-1505

The Virgin and Child with Santa Ana: 1510

St. John the Baptist: 1514

In addition to writing in his notebooks, Da Vinci also drew on them. One of his notes showed concave mirrors that would concentrate rays of light from different angles, which helped in the study of Optics, a branch of Physics. Another contribution to this discipline was to have developed initial theorems of inertia, action / reaction and force.

The artist was fascinated by nature: he loved to observe, admire and study it to gain knowledge. He appreciated the infinite works and the harmonies of the patterns. He said that a good artist should also be a good scientist to better understand and describe nature.

Curious, Da Vinci liked to investigate events such as the operation of the mills, the flights of birds, among others. In 1498, he made the first attempt at a flying machine for men.

Leonardo da Vinci had a special interest in human anatomy. He spent whole nights in hospitals to understand how the body works. He made several drawings to illustrate his studies, such as embryos, eyes, muscles and tissues.

Another of his famous works is The Vitruvian Man (1492), a drawing of a human figure with perfect proportions and with his arms and legs spread out in a circle and a square. This work is based on a famous passage by the Roman architect Vitruvius.