A Brief Look At Leonardo Da Vinci & His Contribution To Art And Science
Leonardo da Vinci is known not only as an outstanding artist and creator of a number of new principles in painting but also as a scholar scientist engineer and inventor. many people associated the famous phrase renaissance man primarily with the name of leonardo. at the time none of his contemporaries even the most brilliant and versatile ones could not compare to his genius. a simple list of his scientific and practical interests sounds incredible: anatomy botany cartography geology mathematics aeronautics optics mechanics astronomy hydraulics acoustics civil engineering designing weapons urban planning and much more.
Leonardo da Vinci was born in the florentine republic on april 15th 1452. he was born near the town of vinci his name literally means from vinci. leonardo was an illegitimate child; his mother was a peasant woman named katherine and his father a hereditary notary piero da vinci who took in leonardo to be raised to him. in italy illegitimate children of that time had virtually the same rights as those who were born in wedlock. leonardos father was married four times and had 12 children in total. the beginning of leonardos life was dedicated to art and painting in particular. there is no doubt that he was an outstanding painter as well as irresponsible or that is how his customers would describe him because he would often fail to meet his deadlines and not even finish the work he started.
Leonardo lived in his own measured rhythm and always cared about the quality of his paintings completely ignoring the time it takes to accomplish the task. leonardo developed a huge passion for science and mechanics in the second half of his life. unfortunately none of his creations of machines and structures survived to this day however many engineering designs are preserved in pictures and drawings.
Leonardo da Vinci paid special attention to mechanics and studied the motion of bodies friction and slip resistance of materials and hydraulics. while developing projects of canals and irrigation systems he studied the conditions of fluids equilibrium. a tank robots flashlights parachutes bicycles and machines for lifting and transportation of soils the prototype of the modern excavators were all ideas that leonardo thought about. the passion for modeling led him to some constructive genius ideas which were far ahead of his era. the proof of this can be seen in his outlines of metallurgical furnaces and rolling mills looms printing woodworking machines and even a submarine.
Today in the museums of italy you can contemplate the working models of leonardos machines like a truck driven by a spring or the layout of the helicopter. a swiss scientist has created a model of the bridge based on da vincis drawings the project turned out to be perfect and it could have been carried out even in the medieval era. people have mixed feelings when it comes to the genius of leonardo da vinci. on the one hand astonishment and respect for the man who was in the full sense of the word the most talented and versatile genius and laid the foundations of many sciences and human activities of today. on the other hand theres a slight sadness because each one of us deep down inside knows that despite the burden of modern knowledge we will not be able to repeat even one hundredth of leonardos achievements.
