Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance painter:

Achieved much in many different fields

by Amal HEWAVISSENTI

It is a cardinal error to deliberately ignore the fact that this outstanding personality designed bridges, highways, weapons, costumes and scientific instruments, besides being an eminent architect painter and a sculptor. To be no less definite, no one in history achieved so much in so many different fields as did Leonardo da Vinci. He made dramatic discoveries about the confusing structure of human body following his invention of the diving bell and most important, the `flying machine' though they were impossible to be built with the available materials of the time.

Da Vinci's notebooks provide evidence that he went beyond the bounds of convention and he approached science and art in an equal methodical manner in which he made many sketches to facilitate a successful resolution after he studied a certain problematic thing. He did not note an abyss between painting his forte and planning a machine and he became a wonderful expert in every field that fascinated him. Leonardo spent an impressive childhood on the family farm with his father, a successful government official and his mother, a girl from a peasant family. He was born in 1452 in the town of Vinci, Italy. The early events of his childhood took place against the backdrop of pastoral joys and his childhood seems to have provided ample freedom for him to explore the fields and streams.

This blithe experience brought him in love with outdoor life and his undisguised admiration for natural phenomena shaped his `artistic' outlook in life. He set off a relentless passion to observe how things work. Most often he bought caged birds in the market place and set them free - a habit which revealed he could not resist to see birds encaged and showed that he wanted to study precisely the flight mechanism of birds.

Landmark

The year 1469 was a memorable landmark for him in which he moved with his father to Florence, where the young man was brought in apprenticeship to the painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrochio. During the seven years Leonardo spent in Verrochio's studio he was so deeply inspired by his teacher's imaginative sculptor that by 1472, Leonardo became a master of the Painter's Association. It is rumoured that a few years later, Leonardo's vivid portrayal of an angel drove his master Verrochio non plussed and he is said to have given up painting for good.After this, Leonardo's expertise as a painter drastically emerged and his painting of the "Adoration of the Kings" for the monks of Scopetto created an international revolutionized image for him. The `Adoration' a pictorial representation of Virgin Mary in a large landscape with three kings had a massive imprint on the contemporary younger painters simply because of Leonardo's use of contrasts of light and dark. To bring this work of art to perfection Leonardo made many drawings and what we see today is only the first stage of the painting by reason that he left the painting unfinished. Leonardo had an exceptional tendency to abandon his works of art with no thought whatsoever of the state of completion because after he had puzzled out a particular problem he switched over to some other project that fascinated him.

Later on, he left Florence to enter the house of the Duke of Milan where he was entrusted with the responsibility of painting court portraits and where he designed costumes, supervised pageants built machines of war and even installed central heating in the palace itself. Meanwhile his potential flair for music was beginning to go unchallenged and he presumably played the musical instruments to entertain the Duke and his trail who were kept mesmerised by his music. While in Milan, Leonardo set about to work on his imposing masterpiece, "The Last Supper", but because of his dawdling work Leonardo chose to paint in oil on a damp wall rather than employing the fresco technique (use of water colours on wet plaster).

He did not live long enough to witness that this experimental project would prove unsuccessful as the painting began to peel immediately after his death. Even if this painting of irrefutable value bear all the signs of dilapidation it is still an extraordinary picture by which Leonardo emphasised the drama of the event by cutting out all the unnecessary details.

One of the themes central to his personal interest was the study of the functions and outward contours of human body and like the contemporary artistes of his time (15th century), he made critical studies of the outward appearance of the human body. Moreover, his curiosity and fascination for the functioning of the inner structure of the human body fell beyond his control and he went into the extent of dissecting corpses to find out for himself the inner mechanism of the body.

New findings

Leonardo's classic studies of the structure of the heart were absolutely advanced and the data of his own research baffled the experts of human organs during his period.

A close scrutiny into his research career reveals that his preliminary studies of the human body and animal life later branched out to study of plants and many exciting discoveries about plant growth were brought to light as a result.

Frequently these new findings about the plant growth were beset by a bombardment of negative criticisms because Leonardo had adopted a totally alien attitude or approach in his study of flora. Immediately after he arrived in Milan, he embarked on a new project, that is to say, writing about things which had particular appeal for him and his personal notebooks, unveil the surprising variety and originality of his scientific observations.

He seemed to have taken particular care to form theories about the posture or movement of any object in a creative and inventive way and often he illustrated his newly formed theories with captivating and exact drawing. Leonardo was never fastidious about his drawn sketches but a systematic study of his drawings of machines has enabled the twentieth century engineers, with modern materials and superb technology, to build models that work perfectly well. It is interesting too, to note that his notebooks are hard to read because he employed the technique of mirror writing to call a halt to any misuse or exploitation of his ideas.

However, Leonardo's tranquil life in the court of Milan was abruptly disrupted by the invasion of the French Army and Leonardo with no second thoughts, decided to escape to Venice while Lodovice, his patron was taken prisoner. The next year, he moved out to Florence still a proliferating centre for art and was offered a commission to paint an altarpiece for a church. It is recorded that when his full-scale painting of the Virgin and Child was erected on public view, a battery of people flocked there for two days and appreciated it enthusiastically.

Painting career

After 1503, his life began to be characterised by a very few productive years but the most outstanding and only perfected painting of this period is his nonpareil portrait of a Florentine lady the Mona Lisa. Nothing in recent history has been subjected to so much controversy as this unique pictorial depiction of melancholia on a smiling woman's face.

The strong appeal of this Renaissance portrait springs from the delicately painted features of the woman's face and the mysteriously rich `smoky' effects of the mountainous landscape in the blurred background. Leonardo achieved a historic breakthrough in his painting career when he was given an assignment to paint a battle scene on a wall of the Great Hall of the Palazzo Vechchio. For the first time in his life, Leonardo experimented with wax paint but the artwork began to melt away at the final stage of completion of the painting. But he was triumphantly resolute to go ahead with tougher measures and his slight disappointment only hardened his soul. This bitter reality covered him with a blanket of depression and disappointment but his experience as a renowned artist and a scientist made him accept the fact that people must expect failure of experiments in order to achieve otherwise resounding success.

Leonardo took advantage of a favourable situation to further upgrade his experiments when a brother of Pope Leo made a formal invitation to him to come to Rome. In Rome, Leonardo laid a sound basis for his artistic thinking and triumphantly proceeded with his fresh experiments. Somewhere in 1516 Leonardo had to leave Italy to formally accept the duties of chief painter and royal engineer in the court of the king of France King Francis who bestowed him a Chateau where he managed to resume his experiments. Suddenly Leonardo was afflicted with partial paralysis and so he had to discontinue his career as a painter but he did not fell prey to a perilous mental breakdown. His mind remained alive and vivacious, contrary to popular belief.

Leonardo da Vinci, who set impossibly high goals for himself and who felt the pulse of people of Renaissance breathed his last in his French chateau on May 2, 1519. Even though he knew his fate hanged in the balance during his last years he did not become an emotional wreck and the multitude of people who were paying the last tribute to him got the rare opportunity to hear the brilliant ideas of their art master.