Leonardo the Renaissance Man Essay Example for Free

Leonardo the Renaissance Man Essay During the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci became a legend. He is noted as one of the greatest artists of his time as well as one of the greatest artists that ever lived. Throughout his life he accomplished many things and did them with astounding ability. Today people refer to someone who appears to have excelled in countless things as a â€Å"Renaissance Man†. Leonardo da Vinci is one of the best examples of this classification. Through always searching for more knowledge, he became well versed in many areas. Leonardo excelled in painting, scientific studies, mathematics, and countless other fields. Leonardo da Vinci is the best example of a true Renaissance Man. Although Leonardo was accomplished in many areas, his true talent was in his artwork. â€Å"Leonardo da Vinci excelled as a painter and was a pioneer of many painting techniques† (Leonardo Da Vinci: High Renaissance Artist, â€Å"Leonardo Da Vinci†). His skill in art came naturally. At a young age, it was discovered that Leonardo was talented at it. He loved to draw and was eventually admitted into an apprenticeship with one of the best known artists at the time, Andrea del Verrochio. Here he learned many techniques for painting which included oil painting, sfumato, tempera, and chiaroscuro. He used these techniques to paint many of his famous works. Some of which include the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, Madonna of the Rocks, and countless more. Leonardo was a member of the Compagnia di San Luca, a guild for talented artists. He was always sought after by commissioners and was paid highly for his work in the guild. Some say the reason why Leonardo was so highly adored was because he had a way of making the painting seam real and because he sought perfection in everything he did. Before starting a painting, Leonardo would sketch and do studies in his notebook in order to practice that perfection. If he started the final and it wasn’t good enough, he would abandon his work. Leonardo painted throughout his lifetime and had a very successful art career, painting over 25 successful pieces. Today he’s thought of as one of the best artists in history. â€Å"Leonardo was obsessed with unlocking the secrets of science†¦He believed by studying it carefully, it could be accurately reproduced† (Arwen, Leonardo da Vinci- the Genius). Throughout his life, Leonardo was fascinated by nature and all of its sciences. As a child he would sit outside and reproduce images of birds and flowers in his notebooks. This admiration for science continued into his adulthood when he started constructing drawings of the human body. Leonardo was so intrigued by this concept that he dissected human bodies in an attempt to learn all he could about them. All together, Leonardo performed nearly 30 dissections. While performing these studies, he drew his findings. He completed detailed sketches of the heart, skull, fetus, muscles, and bones which are still used today. Although natural curiosity kept Leonardo studying the human body, he started his obsession because he believed he would be able to better depict people in his paintings. Leonardo had a theory that artists possessed a unique skill of observation and they could accurately reproduce images if they studied what made them up. Anatomy was just one branch of Leonardo’s sci entific studies. He also studied aerodynamics, optics, geology, and mechanics. Leonardo eventually applied his findings by creating countless inventions such as a flying machine, a parachute, tanks, underwater equipment, and a number of weapons. Leonardo was very interested in mathematics and he had some success in this area as well. A friend of Leonardo said, â€Å"In his early forties this obsession with mathematics overtook him, and his notebooks began to fill up with geometrical sketches and diagrams† (Geometry in Art and Architecture, Unit 14). Just as Leonardo believed science was important in art, he also believed math was. He thought math was the basis of all things and it needed to be understood for painting purposes. Leonardo was interested especially in geometry. He discovered the proof for the Pythagorean Theorem and illustrated a book with one of the leading mathematicians at the time, Luca Pacioli. Leonardo also applied math in many of his architectural designs as well as his inventions. He used math to calculate the volume of his horse statue, in order to figure out how much bronze would be needed to complete it. It can be seen in his notebooks how infatuated Leonardo was in the study of math. For on numerous pages he drew and examined different geometrical shapes. Overall, it can be seen that Leonardo was well versed and successful in many areas. He was an accomplished painter, completing over 25 well known pieces. Also, Leonardo achieved advancements in science by dissecting over 30 bodies and drawing images of his findings which are still used today. He was knowledgeable in math and even illustrated a book with a leading mathematician. Leonardo da Vinci became a legend in his time and still is one to this day. He mastered many areas of study, obtaining the classification of a universal genius. There is no doubt that Leonardo da Vinci is the best example of a true Renaissance Man.