Leonardo Da Vinci: Life, Art and Inventions

Leonardo Da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath whose areas of interest included invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography. He has been variously called the father of palaeontology, ichnology, and architecture, and is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time. Sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter and tank, he epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. He was known as the renaissance man back in his day and is also known as one of the most talented individuals who ever lived. Da Vinci received no formal education beyond basic reading, writing and math, but his father appreciated his artistic talent and apprenticed him at around age 15 to the noted sculptor and painter Andrea del Verrocchio, of Florence.

For about a decade, da Vinci refined his painting and sculpting techniques and trained in mechanical arts. When he was 20, in 1472, the painters’ guild of Florence offered da Vinci membership, but he remained with Verrocchio until he became an independent master in 1478. Around 1482, he began to paint his first commissioned work, The Adoration of the Magi, for Florence’s San Donato, a Scopeto monastery. Most of his interests is in his artwork. He is most famous for his “Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper” art.Leonardo Da Vinci had the mechanical expertise as his area. Leonardo created his robot to prove to himself that a human beings body could be imitated. He also built it to showcase it in working mode at parties for his patron Lodovico Sforz. Da Vinci’s robot would have been the highlight of the party with Leonardo at the helm cranking the robot to move. Leonardo used his initial studies of anatomy and kinaesthetics to design the robot. His creation was to show that the human body is a machine in structure and that it’s intricate movements could be imitated with the use of engineering machine parts such as levers and pulleys. He sketched the first parachute, first helicopter, first aeroplane, first tank, first repeating rifle, swinging bridge, paddle boat and first motor car. Da Vinci designed machines of war as well.

Leonardo had many concepts of the inventions. Some of these include the parachute, helicopter, machine gun, and the robotic knight. His natural genius crossed so many disciplines that he epitomized the term “Renaissance man.” Today he remains best known for his art, including two paintings that remain among the world's most famous and admired, Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Art, da Vinci believed, was indisputably connected with science and nature. It can be said that Leonardo Da Vinci was a man who thought well ahead of his time. With his numerous inventions, he had been able to create many firsts. Not just an artist known for his technique called sfumato, Da Vinci designed several contraptions, some of which are still used today Some include scissors, parachutes, diving gear, and the machine gun. Without Leonardo, the world wouldn’t have an artistic perspective.