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Basic information

Chinese translation: Leonardo da Vinci (pronounced "Da Vinci" by Taiwanese)

English original name: Leonardo Di Ser Piero Da Vinci

Life time: April 15, 1452 - May 2, 1519

Note: Da Vinci is not a surname, but means Vinci The full name of Leonardo di Ser Piero da Vinci means Leonardo da Vinci, the son of Leonardo di Ser Piero.

Nationality: Italian

Constellation: Aries

IQ: 220

Habits: left-handed

Family status: Father: Di Ser Piero da Vinci

Mother: Caterina

Note: Leonardo da Vinci’s biological mother Catrina could not live with him because of her humble birth. Her father was married. Judging from the baptismal records after Leonardo was born, she married another man in the same village shortly after giving birth to Leonardo. Leonardo grew up in his grandfather's farm.

Marital status: Single

Personal profile

Leonardo da Vinci, an Italian Renaissance painter, is also one of the most famous painters in Europe. The most perfect representative of the Renaissance. He is a profound, knowledgeable and versatile painter, writer, sculptor, inventor, philosopher, musician, medical scientist, biologist, geographer, construction engineer and military engineer. "The Madonna of the Rocks" is his most famous masterpiece created during this period. He is a genius. On the one hand, he is enthusiastic about artistic creation and theoretical research, and on how to use lines and three-dimensional shapes to express various problems of the body. On the other hand, he also studies natural science. In order to create real and touching artistic images, he has done extensive research. Study optics, mathematics, geology, biology and other subjects related to painting. His artistic practice and scientific exploration spirit have had a significant and far-reaching impact on future generations. He is a symbol of human wisdom. His death is a harm to the whole world. His representative works include the murals "The Last Supper", "Battle of Angeli" and the portrait "Mona Lisa".

Personal Life

Genius Boy

Leonardo Da Vinci was born in the village of Anchiano near the town of Vinci, Italy, which is close to Florence. His father is a well-known local notary and his family is wealthy. Leonardo da Vinci was born out of wedlock and spent his childhood on his grandfather's farm. As a child, Leonardo da Vinci was smart, studious, and had a wide range of interests. He sang well and learned to play the lyre and flute early on. His improvisational singing, both in terms of lyrics and melody, is amazing. He especially loves painting and often paints for his neighbors. He is known as the "painting prodigy".

Piero was convinced that his son had a talent for painting, so he sent little Finch to Florence to study plastic arts systematically under the famous artist Verrocchio. Leonardo da Vinci was only 14 years old at this time. At that time, Piero was commissioned by a farmer to paint a shield painting. He heard that his son could draw and wanted to try his son's painting skills, so he gave the task to little Finch. Little Finch relied on his rich imagination and spent a month painting a terrifying monster Medusa. After the work was completed, little Finch invited his father to his room. He half-covered the window and set the easel where the light would fall on the monster. When Piero first entered the room, he saw this ferocious monster at a glance and screamed in fright. Little Finch smiled and said to his father: "Take the painting, this is the effect it should produce."

Verrocchio's workshop was a famous art center in Florence at that time, and there were often visitors Italian humanists met here to discuss academic issues. Leonardo da Vinci met a large number of well-known artists, scientists and humanists here, and began to receive the influence of humanism. Leonardo da Vinci already had high artistic attainments at the age of 20. He used paintbrushes and carving knives to express the truth, goodness and beauty of nature and real life, and enthusiastically praised the happiness of life and the beauty of nature.

Leonardo Da Vinci was not satisfied with these talents. He wanted to master all areas of human thought. He has a unique vision, is capable in doing things, and has an artistic soul. Once, he lost his way in the mountains and came to a dark cave. When he later recalled this experience, he said: "I suddenly had two emotions - fear and desire: I was afraid of the dark cave, and I wanted to see if there would be anything weird in it." He was fascinated by this all his life. He is bound by two emotions - he is afraid of the unknowability of life or the mystery that cannot be explored, but he also wants to expose this mysterious unknowability, study it, explain its meaning and describe its magnificence.

Scientific Giants

In the early Renaissance, people blindly accepted traditional ideas and worshiped ancient authorities and classical works. When people learn scientific knowledge, they only learn Aristotelian theories like the Bible, and they only believe in written records. Leonardo da Vinci opposed the scholastic philosophers who used past teachings and speeches as the basis of knowledge. He encouraged people to learn from nature and seek knowledge and truth in nature. He believes that knowledge originates from practice, and only starts from practice and explores the mysteries of science through practice. He said that "theory's separation from practice is the greatest misfortune" and "practice should be based on good theory."

Leonardo da Vinci proposed and mastered this advanced scientific method, used this scientific method to conduct scientific research, and made great contributions to natural science. The method he proposed was later developed by Galileo and theoretically summarized by the British philosopher Bacon, becoming the most basic method of modern natural science. Leonardo da Vinci was a firm believer in science. He was disgusted with religion and criticized Catholicism as "a shop selling deceit." He said: "There is only one truth, and it is not in religion, but in science." Leonardo da Vinci's experimental working methods were later used by Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Einstein, Newton and others. The inventions and creations opened the way.

1. Astronomy

Leonardo Da Vinci held a negative view on the traditional "Earth-centered Theory". He believes that the earth is not the center of the solar system, let alone the center of the universe, but is just a planet orbiting the sun, and the sun itself does not move. Leonardo da Vinci also believed that the moon itself does not emit light, it only reflects the light of the sun. These views he proposed were earlier than Copernicus's "heliocentric theory". Even at that time, Leonardo da Vinci fantasized about using solar energy.

2. Physics

Leonardo da Vinci rediscovered the concept of liquid pressure and proposed the principle of the connector. He pointed out: In the connector, the liquid level height of the same liquid is the same, and the liquid level height of different liquids is different. The height of the liquid is inversely proportional to the density. He discovered the principle of inertia, which was later proven by Galileo's experiments. He believed that a projectile initially rose along an inclined straight line, moved in a curve under the mixed action of gravity and impulse, and finally fell vertically under the action of gravity when the impulse was exhausted. His discovery shook Aristotle's theory of falling bodies. He developed the lever principle, and in addition to deriving the relationship between force and arm length, he also calculated the relationship between speed and arm length. He pointed out the impossibility of a "perpetual motion machine" as an energy source. Leonardo da Vinci also foreshadowed the atomic principle of matter and vividly described the power of atomic energy: "That thing will explode from the ground... causing people to die suddenly in a silent breath, and the castle will be completely destroyed. It seems to have powerful destructive power in the air."

3. Medicine

Leonardo Da Vinci also made great achievements in physiological anatomy and is considered to be the pioneer of modern physiology. The ancestor of anatomy. He mastered the knowledge of human anatomy and studied the structure of various parts of the human body starting from anatomy. He was the first to use wax to represent the internal structure of the human brain, and was the first to imagine using glass and ceramics to create hearts and eyes. He discovered the function of blood and believed that blood plays a metabolic role in the human body. He said that blood is constantly transforming the whole body, bringing nutrients to all parts of the body that are needed, and then taking away waste from the body. Leonardo da Vinci studied the heart. He discovered that the heart has four chambers and drew the heart valves. He believes that one of the causes of death in the elderly is arteriosclerosis, and the cause of arteriosclerosis is lack of exercise. Later, British scientist Harvey confirmed and developed these physiological and anatomical results of Leonardo da Vinci.

4. Architecture

In terms of architecture, Leonardo da Vinci also showed outstanding talent. He designed bridges, churches, city streets and urban buildings. In urban street design, he separated vehicular paths and sidewalks. When urban architecture was designed, the height of houses and the width of streets were specified. Milan's moat was designed and built by him.

5. Military

Leonardo da Vinci’s research and inventions also involved the military field. He invented spring guns, cluster bombs, three-barreled cannons, tanks, floating snowshoes, diving suits and submarines, double-hulled battleships, gliders, ornithopters and helicopters, rotating pontoons, and more. On April 26, 2008, in Payenne, a city in western Switzerland, 36-year-old Swiss Olivier Vietti-Tepa used a pyramid-shaped parachute designed by Leonardo da Vinci to fly from a helicopter 600 meters above the ground. Jump up and down successfully.

6. Hydraulic conservancy

Leonardo da Vinci’s research on hydraulics was a century earlier than that of the Italian scholar Kestieri. In order to remove the sediment, he made a construction plan to dredge the Arno River. He designed and personally presided over the construction of the canal irrigation project from Milan to Pavia. Some of the reservoirs, sluices, and dams built by him facilitated farmland irrigation and promoted the development of agricultural production. Some water conservancy facilities are still functioning today.

7. Geology

Da Vinci inferred that the earth's crust had changed based on the fact that there were fossils of marine animals on the mountains, and pointed out that the traces of floods on the earth were proof of changes in the sea and land. This The idea is quite similar to Hutton's geological discoveries 300 years later. And before Magellan circumnavigated the world, he calculated that the diameter of the Earth was more than 7,000 miles.

8. The Da Vinci cryptex

Those who have read "The Da Vinci Code" probably know the Da Vinci cryptex. In fact, in the society at that time, people paid more and more attention to the confidentiality of documents. The cryptex designed by Leonardo da Vinci has a classical shape, contains Renaissance characteristics, and is elegant in design, in line with Leonardo da Vinci's wise style. According to the storyline, the cryptex contains papyri about the greatest secret of the Priory of Sion and even Christianity as a whole. The cryptex designed by Leonardo da Vinci contained a container filled with vinegar. If the cryptex was smashed by force, the vinegar would flow out and dissolve the papyrus.

To open the cryptex, you must unlock a 5-digit password. There are 5 dials on the cryptex, each with 26 letters. There are as many as 11,881,376 possible combinations of passwords.

9. Designing a rudimentary robot

The most amazing thing is that Leonardo da Vinci also designed a method to perform heart repair surgery.

Leonardo Da Vinci once said that he had no education in books and that nature was his real teacher. In order to understand nature and himself, this Renaissance genius spared no effort to explore. In order to understand human beings, Leonardo da Vinci personally dissected dozens of corpses and accurately understood and mapped human bones, muscles, joints and internal organs.

What is surprising is that Leonardo da Vinci did not even have a concept of the working mechanism of the human circulatory system. What's even more amazing is that in 2005, a British surgeon used the method designed by Leonardo da Vinci to perform heart repair surgery. However, the study of anatomy did not bring fame to Leonardo da Vinci at the time, but suffered countless slanders.

However, it was with this in-depth understanding of the human body that Leonardo da Vinci drew the first humanoid robot in Western civilization in his manuscript.

Leonardo da Vinci gave the robot a shell of wood, leather and metal. But how to make the robot move was a big headache for Leonardo da Vinci. He thought of using the lower gear as a driving device, so that the gears of the two mechanical rods engage with a disc gear on the chest, so that the robot's arms can be waved and the robot can sit or stand. What's even more amazing is that, connected to the head through a transmission rod, the head can rotate and even open and close the jaw. And once equipped with an automatic drum device, the robot can even make sounds.

It turns out that more than 500 years ago, the prototype of robots already existed.

10. Ignite the fire that inspired the invention of modern automobiles

Leonardo da Vinci’s more than 10,000-page manuscript (approximately 5,000 existing pages) is still influencing scientific research today. He was a prophet of the modern world, and his manuscript has been called a true encyclopedia of science and technology in the 15th century.

Very early on, Leonardo da Vinci was dissatisfied with the four-wheeled carriages at that time. In his scientific world, cars have long been present. In fact, it was this "Da Vinci car" that ignited the fire that inspired the invention of the modern automobile.

Since it is a car, power issues must be considered. Leonardo da Vinci installed two springs in the middle of the car to solve this problem. Human power turns the rear wheel of the car so that the gears mesh with each other, and the spring is tightened to generate force, which is then transmitted to the wheel through leverage.

So how to control the speed of the car? Da Vinci also thought of it. He installed a disk device on the body of the car. There were many square wooden blocks on the surface of the disk. The other end of the iron rod connected to each wheel was connected to the disk. This was the device used to control the speed of the vehicle. The greater the number of wooden blocks placed on the disc, the greater the friction with the iron rod and the greater the resistance. The slower the wheel runs and the longer the distance it travels.

Of course, Leonardo da Vinci also thought of the braking device. There is a wooden block between the gears. Pull the rope to trap the wooden block between the gears, and the car can stop. However, the car could not carry people because it could not travel very long distances on the power of springs alone.

At the same time, Leonardo da Vinci also cleverly used springs in clock design. Later, the principle used in large clocks came from Leonardo da Vinci's idea. Only in this idea, the elastic force of the spring is replaced by the gravity of the object. The downward gravity of the object is evenly transmitted through the engagement of many gears, so that the clock can maintain uniform motion.

In addition, musical instruments, alarm clocks, bicycles, cameras, thermometers, barbecue machines, textile machines, cranes, excavators... Leonardo da Vinci had countless inventions and designs, and if these inventions and designs were popular at the time Publishing enough can advance the process of scientific civilization in our world by 100 years.

11. Fascinated with the mechanical world

Underwater breathing device, pulling device, clockwork transmission device, ball device, reverse spiral, differential spiral, anemometer and gyroscope ...Da Vinci presented his countless fantastic ideas to the world. The beginning of the story has to talk about Leonardo da Vinci's experience when he first came to Florence to study painting. In fact, this experience opened the door to Leonardo da Vinci as an artist, and also opened the door to Leonardo da Vinci as a scientist.

In 1460, Leonardo da Vinci came to Florence with his father and began his apprenticeship. At the same time, he began to study painting. Leonardo da Vinci, who studied painting, participated in the installation of the giant copper ball on the dome lighthouse of the Cathedral of Santa Maria in Florence, where he came into contact with and felt the magic of various mechanical systems.

The Cathedral of Santa Maria Maggiore in Florence is the beginning of Renaissance architecture. When Leonardo da Vinci was installing the giant copper ball on the dome lighthouse, he witnessed the efficiency of mechanical devices such as the three-speed elevator and was deeply impressed by its magic.

Thus, Brunelleschi’s mechanical system design concept had a great influence on Leonardo da Vinci. A group of Siena engineers at that time also had an important impact on Leonardo da Vinci's scientific world. Engineers in Siena designed a river silt dredge that looks like a boat to remove gravel and silt from shallow water mouths, and a paddle boat that can increase the load and travel faster.

The inventions of these Siena engineers gave Leonardo da Vinci a great interest in the magic of machinery.

From then on, Leonardo da Vinci was obsessed with the mechanical world.

Art Masters

When it comes to artistic creation, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael achieved the highest achievements during the Renaissance. Their artistic achievements reached the second peak of Western plastic arts after ancient Greece. In terms of painting alone, they reached the first peak in Europe. Among them, Leonardo da Vinci is the most prominent. Engels called him a giant among giants. In terms of artistic creation, Leonardo da Vinci solved major problems in the three fields of plastic arts - architecture, sculpture, and painting:

1. Solved the design of monumental central dome buildings and the ideal city Planning issues;

2. Solve the problem of equestrian monument statues that sculptors have been deeply troubled by since the 15th century;

3. Solve two important areas in painting at that time - The problem of monumental frescoes and altarpieces.

Leonardo da Vinci's works of art not only reflect things like a mirror, but also guide creation with thinking, observing and selecting beautiful parts from nature to express. The murals "The Last Supper", "The Battle of Angeli" and the portrait "Mona Lisa" are the three masterpieces of his life. These three works are the treasures among the treasures left by Leonardo da Vinci for the world's art treasure house, and are the keystones of European art.

Leonardo da Vinci is most familiar to the world for his superb painting art. His most famous works include: "Mona Lisa", "The Last Supper", "Madonna of the Rocks", "Virgin and Child" and Santa Anna" etc.

The painting of "Mona Lisa" took four years. It is said that the model was a Florentine who had just lost her baby. In order to relieve her pain and show her natural smile, Leonardo asked someone to play music for her. Her smile is a topic of conversation. Sometimes it seems serious and sometimes gentle, sometimes slightly sad and sometimes sarcastic. Mona Lisa's right hand is even called "the most beautiful hand in the history of art."

The Last Supper is painted on the wall of the dining room of Gretchen Abbey. Leonardo da Vinci changed the layout of the "Last Supper" that his predecessors drew around the table, making all the characters sit in a row facing the audience, with Jesus Christ sitting in the middle.

Sudden death

Leonardo da Vinci was invited to France by King Fran?ois I of France in his later years. Fran?ois I gave him the highest reception and placed him in Angola. at the Chateau de Bois, and consulted from time to time. Later, the old Leonardo da Vinci died of illness. It is said that he breathed his last in the arms of Francois I who came over.

Creative process

The image of Leonardo we are more familiar with now basically comes from his famous self-portrait, so when we mention Leonardo, we always think of one A wise elder like a philosopher. In fact, when Leonardo da Vinci was young, he was a famous handsome man in Florence, Tuscany, Italy! The extraordinary and handsome bronze statue of David sculpted by his teacher Verrocchio is said to be based on the young Leonardo da Vinci. The most successful period of Leonardo da Vinci's artistic career was in Milan from 1482 to 1499. Leonardo da Vinci played the lyre well, and he first became famous in Milan as a musician rather than as a painter or inventor. During this period, he produced few paintings, but his unparalleled talent attracted the attention of Ludovico Sforza, the Archduke of Milan. In 1499, to escape the war, Leonardo da Vinci traveled to Mantua and Venice and conducted some scientific research. In 1500, Leonardo da Vinci returned to Florence and began working on the Mona Lisa. After this, Leonardo went to Milan again and continued to serve the Milan court. Moving to Rome in 1513, Rome was not a very pleasant place for Leonardo. He stayed there briefly and met Michelangelo and other artists who were in Rome at the time, but did not reveal any artistic genius on his part. There he basically studied some tricks similar to magic, so that the Romans regarded him as a wizard. Leonardo da Vinci moved to France in 1515 and finally settled in Amboise. He rarely painted in his later years and devoted himself to scientific research. When he died, he left behind a large number of notes and manuscripts, covering almost everything from physics and mathematics to biological anatomy. He did not complete many paintings in his lifetime, but all of them are immortal works. His works have an obvious personal style and are good at combining artistic creation with scientific discussion, which is unique in the history of world art. Academic circles generally divide his creative activities into two stages: early stage and peak stage.

Early Creation

When he was learning art in his workshop, he showed extraordinary painting talent. When he assisted Verrocchio in painting "The Baptism of Christ" around 1470, although he only painted an angel kneeling beside Christ, his demeanor, expression and soft tones had clearly surpassed Verrocchio's. . It is said that Verrocchio stopped painting for this reason. His earliest extant work, "Information of Conception", was a work completed by Leonardo da Vinci independently without the guidance of a teacher. Except for a little free conception, the scenes in this painting were conceived by Leonardo Da Vinci following the general perspective painting method. The work was later ordered by the Monastery of San Bartolomeo on Mount Olivet. "Ginevra Benche", created later, went against the 15th-century art tradition of pursuing clear lines, and used the tones of backlit sunset to render the perspective effect he advocated.

"The Doctor Comes to Worship" (also translated as "The Three Kings Come to Worship"), created in 1481, is a work that marks the maturity of his artistic style. Although the painting was not completed because he left for Milan, it can be seen from the original manuscript that its composition and image creation showed artistic innovation that greatly surpassed his teachers and peers: the triangle formed by the Virgin Child and the three wise men The stable composition, the architectural ruins and the galloping horses and other backgrounds painted according to precise perspective show that he no longer simply lists the relevant characters from a narrative perspective, but completely transforms the traditional themes. The dark-toned painting method he used made the figures stand out from the shadows, breaking through the clear and revealing characteristics of traditional paintings and heralding the arrival of the Renaissance.

Period of Creation

In 1482, Leonardo da Vinci came to Milan and was invited by the Church of St. Francesco to paint the altarpiece "Virgin of the Rocks". This painting is now in the Louvre. "The Last Supper" is his most famous work during this period. This fresco depicting the final farewell scene of Christ and his disciples before his arrest was painted in the dining room of the Grecian Abbey in Milan. Its ingenious composition and original layout closely connect the hall in the picture with the dining room in life, making the viewer feel as if the scene in the painting is happening right in front of them. In terms of the layout of the characters, Christ is independent of the center of the picture, contrary to the form of being arranged flat on the dining table. The other disciples express emotions of fear, anger, doubt, confession and panic through their different expressions and gestures. This depiction of a typical character highlights the theme of the painting, which complements the unified effect of the composition. It can be called the most perfect example in the history of art. Leonardo da Vinci returned to Florence in 1500. With the restoration of democracy and the system, the cultural atmosphere was once active, and outstanding figures such as Michelangelo and Raphael appeared in the painting world. Leonardo da Vinci began to create "The Virgin and Child with Saint Anna and Saint John" for the main altar of the Lanzetta Cathedral. He exhibited a carefully conceived sketch of "The Virgin and Child with Saint Anna and Saint John" to the public. , immediately caused a sensation, and its composition principles and painting methods had a great impact on the art world. Michelangelo and Raphael were also inspired by it. In 1503, while he was painting the mural "Battle of Angeli" for the city hall, he was creating the "Mona Lisa" and "The Virgin and Child with Saint Anna and Saint John" (later became "The Virgin and Child with Saint Anna"). Two of his most cherished works were always with him, even when he moved to France in his later years. They were finally left in Paris.

In Leonardo da Vinci’s artistic legacy, a large number of sketches are also worthy of attention. Like his formal works, these sketches have also reached a very high level and are known as models of sketch art. . His characteristics are: careful observation, strong and soft lines, especially good at using diagonal lines with different density to express subtle changes of light and shadow. Each of his works is based on sketch. His artistic theory is scattered in his more than 5,000 pages of manuscripts and the unfinished "On Painting", which is also a major achievement of theoretical research in the Renaissance era.

Leonardo da Vinci’s life was an unfinished road, littered with fragments of unfinished works. Before his death, he said sadly: “I have never completed a single work in my life. "When he was 31 years old, he wrote to Ludovico Sforza, the Archduke of Milan, in which he listed his various talents. Finally, he offered to build a bronze equestrian statue for the Archduke's father. Become the largest statue the world has ever seen. The earthen statue that Leonardo da Vinci completed when he was 41 years old was unfinished because all the bronze he raised was used by the army for war. It was destroyed when the French invaded in 1499, otherwise it would have become the world's most famous sculpture. A great miracle. The Grand Duke's reward for his genius and hard work was not gold coins, but golden words. This made Leonardo very uneasy. In order to comfort him, the Grand Duke asked him to paint a painting for the dining room of Gretchi Monastery in Milan. This is "The Last Supper" . If The Last Supper is the most famous religious painting in the world, then the Mona Lisa, which Leonardo da Vinci painted when he returned to Florence from Milan at the age of 51, is worthy of being the most famous and greatest portrait in the world. . These two world-famous works have immortalized Leonardo da Vinci's name in history. Leonardo da Vinci's unique artistic language is the use of light and shade to create a three-dimensional sense of two-dimensional images. He once said: "The greatest miracle of painting is to make a flat picture appear concave and convex." He used the principle of the change of light received by a sphere and pioneered the gradual light and dark method, that is, the transition from light to dark in the image is continuous. Like smoke, there is no clear boundary. "Mona Lisa" is an example of this painting method. Vasari considered this method of chiaroscuro a turning point in the art of painting. Leonardo da Vinci has always been exploring the noble temperament of art throughout his life. Only in the creation of beauty can he feel satisfied. However, Leonardo da Vinci's talent was not taken seriously and appreciated in his later years. Because he had been devoted to the study of anatomy, he destroyed the basic teachings of Catholicism and angered the Pope of Rome at that time. The Pope's incomprehension and indifference to him made Leonardo very sad. When King Francois I of France reoccupied Milan in 1515, he invited Leonardo da Vinci to France and applied for him as a court painter. Leonardo da Vinci died in a foreign country in 1519 at the age of 67.

His student Francesco Merz (Merz was Leonardo's favorite student, he was an aristocratic young man born in Lombardy, Italy. Before his death, Leonardo entrusted all his paintings and a large number of manuscripts to He) said: "The death of Leonardo da Vinci is a loss to everyone. The creator is unable to create another genius like him."

"God sometimes sends beauty, elegance, talent A body given to a man makes everything he does extraordinary, showing that his genius comes from heaven and not from human power. This was true of Leonardo, whose grace and grace were unparalleled, and whose intellect was so high that it made everything possible. The problem is solved." This is the praise of Leonardo da Vinci by the Renaissance biographer Vasari.