Leonardo da Vinci
History is littered with stories of geniuses who have contributed immensely to the developments that human beings are enjoying today. Most of the geniuses were motivated by the desire to do well and improve the lives of humankind. Leonardo da Vinci is one of the geniuses that the world cannot forget due to his significant contributions. Notably, Leonardo da Vinci is recognized in the field of science due to his desire to continuously learn. Leonardo da Vinci was also an artist who was involved in doing painting work, architect, as well as inventions. The works of Leonardo da Vinci are associated with his great success, and he was successful in using art and architecture to impact the lives of people.
Leonardo da Vinci lived in the late 15th and early 16th century having been born in the present day Italy. Leonardo da Vinci was a son to unmarried partners, an attorney father, and a peasant mother. In total, Leonardo da Vinci is said to have had about seventeen half-siblings since his parents had many other children with different partners (Garrard, 2018). Vinci has been described as a genius due to his contribution across several disciplines and the uniqueness of his works. The works of Leonardo da Vinci were contained in several notebooks, which Leonardo da Vinci kept as a secret in his initial stages ao working. The notebooks written by Leonardo da Vinci contained several procedures and inventions across several fields and these included aeronautics and architecture. Leonardo da Vinci has been criticized by several of his contemporaries who have been arguing that most of his works are complicated and cannot be understood. Scholars who have attempted to understand Leonardo da Vinci’s works have claimed that he must have been selfish since he did not consider making the work of those would come after him easier. Although Leonardo da Vinci’s works were left on paper, his inventions such as the bicycle and the helicopter were crucial in later scientific inventions.
The most famous works by Leonardo da Vinci are the ‘The Last Supper’ and the ‘Mona Lisa.’ Leonardo da Vinci was mainly involved in small output paintings; most of his paintings have faded with time. However, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa have stood out and remained among the most famous paintings in the world. The Last Supper is a religious painting representing the biblical last supper that Jesus Christ had with his disciples before being arrested and crucified. The painting particularly represents the moment when Jesus was addressing his disciples by telling them that, “one of you will betray me.” Leonardo da Vinci managed to paint the individual disciples with a clear representation of their facial expressions as Jesus, who is standing at the center of the group is addressing them. Painters have explicitly been inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s ability to create a real image of the scriptures and by the fact that the painting has been able to survive for several decades against the impacts of wear and tear. The Mona Lisa is thought to have been painted in a foreign land as Leonardo da Vinci had escaped an attack by the French and is believed to have been motivated by the impacts of the attack. The painting is made up of a woman who is portrayed while giving a little smile (Hutchings, 2016). The interpretation of the Mona Lisa painting has been receiving different interpretations by scholars, and no interpretation can be trusted since Leonardo da Vinci is the only person who would have interpreted his paintings.
Leonardo da Vinci was not the only existing artist of his time. Several other contemporaries are said to have been in existence either during his early or in his late years. The works done by Leonardo da Vinci’s contemporaries have all been associated with art and innovation since they lived during the great Italian Renaissance (Ackerman, 2018). Among the contemporaries to Leonardo da Vinci were Taccola and Francesco di Giorgio Martini who were also famous in their work of art. Leonardo da Vinci has been referred on several instances as the ‘renaissance man’ due to his significant contribution towards the renaissance of Italy. The early life of Leonardo da Vinci affected his painting career in that he accepted France’s offer of giving him residence where he was able to so his works from the royal residence. The fact that Leonardo da Vinci was not brought up in any family organization gave him enough time to concentrate on his painting works. Also, most of Leonardo da Vinci’s works are based on Christianity, and thus religion can be said to have impacted his painting career positively. Leonardo da Vinci was not only involved in art but also philosophical developments. For example, Leonardo da Vinci believed in the importance of sight in the life of a living being. Leonardo da Vinci used the philosophy that being able to see was an advantage and that he was able to do anything as long as he could see.
The life of Leonardo da Vinci is an inspiration to several artists, and his works have stayed unique with time. Right from his birth, Leonardo da Vinci has proved that one does not need to be born a strong family to be great. Leonardo da Vinci grew up under the care of parents married to different people, and he had to do most of his growing alone. A scholar would like to know what exactly was Leonardo da Vinci’s motivation towards the work of art despite the direction that his life was expected to take due to his family’s lack of union. Leonardo da Vinci would have been expected to get lost during the journey of life due to the lack of parental guidance but the fact that he was a genius and determined meant that he was able to live to the fullest of his life’s dreams.
An interested scholar would like to know the impact of Leonardo da Vinci’s contemporaries in the success of his works. Art is always a field flooded with individuals claiming to be talented and the uniqueness in the way that an artist presents their works plays a major role in bringing out the greatness in them. Religion is always a field that tends to be left out by artists due to the sacred beliefs associated with religious paintings and drawings. Several artists tend to distance themselves from paintings that would bring contradiction to religion. However, Leonardo da Vinci was able to incorporate Christianity in his painting works and was thus unique in his works. For example, Leonardo da Vinci painted a picture of Jesus’ baptism, creating an image that had been missing in the Christian literature for a long time. Also, the Last Supper was a Christian painting since it represented the image of the Passover celebration dinner, which was Jesus’ last physical supper with the disciples.
The interest of scholars could also be on the impact of Leonardo da Vinci’s work on the present artists. Famous people are known to leave behind disciples who are always impacted either positively or negatively by the works of their role models Leonardo da Vinci was a famous artist and must have left behind several disciples who could have improved his works or even created better versions of similar works. The fact that Leonardo da Vinci’s works are still available means that several people are interested in his works. Leonardo da Vinci is said to have lived in both Italy and France and thus is expected to have left followers in both countries as well as the whole world.
In sum, Leonardo da Vinci must have been motivated by several factors in his work of art. The impact of contemporary could have helped in shaping Leonardo da Vinci’s career including the criticisms done on his works. The followers left behind by Leonardo da Vinci are the most advantaged and in a position to explain more about the works of Leonardo da Vinci. Generally, the field of science has been at the receiving end of the positive impacts left behind by the works of Leonardo da Vinci and invention has been the most advantaged.
References
Ackerman, J. S. (2018). Leonardo da Vinci: Art in science. In Science in Culture (pp. 207-224). Routledge.
Da Vinci, L. (2015). Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci: Complete & Illustrated. eKitap Projesi & Cheapest Books.
Garrard, M. D. (2018). Leonardo da Vinci: female portraits, female nature. In The Expanding Discourse (pp. 58-85). Routledge.
Hutchings, I. M. (2016). Leonardo da Vinci׳ s studies of friction. Wear, 360, 51-66.