Considering Leonardo da Vinci’s
humble beginnings in which he received little formal education beyond the basic
reading, writing, and mathematics, his evolution into the ultimate Renaissance
man is a thing of wonder. Leonardo’s infinite curiosity paired with his power
of invention had led him to become a scientist, mathematician, engineer,
inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician, and
writer, easily making him one of the most diversely talented person that every
lived (and me incredibly jealous of this talents).
Born
on April 15, 1452, Leonardo was the illegitimate son of a notary, Piero da
Vinci, and a peasant girl, Caterina in Vinci, Italy, thus procuring the name
Leonardo da Vinci. In 1466, at the young age of fourteen, Leonardo began his
apprenticeship with one of the most successful artists of his time, Andrea del
Verrocchio. This apprenticeship provided young Leonardo with a breadth of
technical skills including metalworking, leather arts, carpentry, drawing,
painting, and sculpting. By 20, Leonardo had qualified himself for membership
as a master artist in Florence’s Guild of Saint Luke and had established his
own workshop.
Leonardo’s
transcendence from artistry into a military engineer came about in 1482 when
Leonardo wrote a leader to Ludovico Sforza, convincing him of his engineering
talents. In the letter, Leonardo used his inventive mind to sketch never before
thought of war machines. This creativity convinced Ludovico, who brought da
Vinci to Milan for a collaboration that would last the next 17 years and expand
into a variety of jobs including planning river system diversions for the city
wich would eventually peak his interests within the sciences.
In
the eyes of Leonardo da Vinci, there existed no clear divide between science
and art. Rather than being separate disciplines, Leonardo saw the two as
intertwined and believed that studying science, only made him a better artist. During
that time, the only way a scientist obtained information was either through the
Bible or through writings from previous scientists. Leonardo’s brilliance stems
from the fact that he was the first to see clearly that knowledge of science
would have to come from repeated experimentation and direct observation. In
1489, he began a notebook on human anatomy, studying and making sketches of all
parts of the body from eye sockets to the entire skeletal system. Leonardo’s
notebooks demonstrate his complete admiration for the human body. Besides his
drawing of the heart, he wrote “Marvelous instrument invented by the Supreme
Master.” His studies of the human body, only fueled his curiosity. In addition
to anatomy, Leonardo studied botany and geology, his notebooks contained
numerous intricate drawings of trees and flowering plants. He studied aeronautics
and flight tirelessly, imagining inventive ways to make man fly, thoroughly
calculated the amount of muscle and its distribution around the body comparing
it to the wingspans and weight of birds.
The
merging of art and science is clear throughout Leonardo’s work. In his studies
of the human body, he injected organs with max to make plaster casts. The use
of physics and perspective are evident in many of his paintings and sketches.
His constant scientific experimentation led him to try painting with tempura
and oil and dried plaster (as seen in the Last Supper) instead of the generic
fresco of the time. It is from this interdisciplinary approach, along with many
of his inventive ketches of machines that we were inspired for our second
project. Our machine utilized a system of pulleys along with a crank to hoist
four balloons containing oil paints towards a set of nails. The nails burst the
balloons, splattering the oils paints into a tray of water. Because oil is
nonpolar and water is polar, the oil paints floated on top of the water. A rake
was entwined with the crank and was set to come down once the balloons were
burst to create a design with the oil paint. A paper was then placed into the
tray of water and the oil paint design was transferred onto the paper. While
the crank and pulley were inspired by Leonardo’s machine designs, the art it
created was inspired by marble paper that can be found here in Florence.
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