Leonardo da Vinci

On April 15, 1452, Leonardo da Vinci was born in the town of Vinci near Florence, Italy. His father is a well-known local notary and his family is wealthy. Leonardo da Vinci showed talent for painting since he was a child. The small animals he painted were lifelike, so his father sent him to the studio of his friend, the famous painter and sculptor Phrogia, as an apprentice. .

After Leonardo da Vinci came to the studio, his teacher Florchia brought him an egg and asked him to draw it. Da Vinci quickly painted a few

But the teacher asked him to continue painting for several days. Leonardo da Vinci finally got impatient and thought that the teacher was looking down on him and asked him to draw such a simple egg. The teacher saw what he was thinking and said meaningfully: "This egg is not simple. There are no two identical eggs in the world. Even if it is the same egg, due to different viewing angles, the light will be different." , its shape is not the same either."

Da Vinci suddenly realized that the teacher was trying to cultivate his ability to observe things and grasp images. From then on,

he worked tirelessly to train the basic skills of painting and learn all kinds of art and scientific knowledge, which laid a solid foundation for his future achievements in painting and other fields. .

At that time, the subject selection and expression techniques of paintings were restricted by the feudal church, but Leonardo da Vinci's thoughts were not restricted by them

and advocated liberation and freedom. In 1476, Phrogia was responsible for the painting "The Baptism of Christ", and Leonardo da Vinci served as the teacher's assistant. However, the religious figures drawn by the teacher were rigid and lifeless. Leonardo da Vinci only painted a profile angel in one corner of the painting, but it is full of human spirituality, lively, lovely, vivid and natural. Comparing the two, the characters drawn by the teacher pale in comparison. On the one hand, the stubborn teacher was amazed by the student's talent, but on the other hand, he was ashamed of himself. From then on, he put down his painting and concentrated on sculpture.

Da Vinci pursued painting diligently throughout his life and left us many masterpieces that are famous throughout the ages. The most famous of them are

The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa.

"The Last Supper" is a mural painted by Leonardo da Vinci for the refectory of the Santa Maria Monastery in Milan. It is based on the "Bible"

The story of Jesus' betrayal by his disciple Judas .

In this work, Leonardo da Vinci brilliantly depicts how Jesus reacted when he said the words "One of you has betrayed me

at the supper." The momentary expressions of the 12 disciples. Through the different expressions of each person, you can gain insight into their personality and complex mentality. The layout of the picture highlights Jesus, and the disciples echo him from left to right. Jesus, who sits in the center, is solemn and solemn.

The bright windows in the background highlight his uprightness. The traitor Judas is in the darkest part of the picture, with a panicked look on his face, which indicates that his heart is dirty and ugly, which is in sharp contrast to Jesus.

In this painting, Leonardo da Vinci used realism to praise truth and justice, and lashed out at the traitors' behavior and evil forces.

To create this painting, Leonardo da Vinci put in an amazing amount of labor. In order to accurately portray the character of Judas, he went to various occasions

to observe criminals, gangsters and gamblers, repeatedly guessed their mentality, expression and appearance, and drew a large number of sketches until he finished the painting

His satisfied image. The great success of this painting caused no subsequent painters to dare to dabble in this subject again.

The prototype of the portrait "Mona Lisa" was the wife of Leonardo da Vinci's friend. In order to make this painting, Leonardo da Vinci first studied her psychology. In order to keep her happy, he specially invited harpists and singers to perform for her. Leonardo da Vinci extremely accurately

captured the charming smile of Mona Lisa in an instant, and used exquisite brushwork to depict her subtle psychological activities in detail.

When you look at this painting now, you can still feel the breathtaking power of her smile.

Leonardo Da Vinci was not only an accomplished artist, but also an accomplished scientist. He spent a lot of time and energy on scientific research and achieved great success. He made in-depth observations and studies of animals, plants, geology and even the human body itself. He also designed a flying machine that resembled an airplane, imitating the wings of a bird. He also designed many advanced spinning wheels, high-efficiency machine tools, and punches. He was the first to propose the concept of geology, and for the first time correctly and comprehensively described human bones and muscles.

In proportion to the human body. His scientific practice provided a source of ideas for future scientists.

Due to Leonardo da Vinci’s radical bourgeois humanist political outlook, he was persecuted by feudal religious forces for a long time. 1

In 517, at the age of 65, he was still forced to leave his motherland and live in France despite his illness. Two years later, this artistic giant passed away.

Leonardo da Vinci In the past few centuries, Leonardo's knowledge and learning have reached basically everyone in the West. He is probably the greatest example of versatility ever. Like Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci is humanity's trademark for "genius."

In Leonardo da Vinci's time, it was not uncommon for people to dabble in a variety of knowledge or professional skills. Even so, there were no painters, sculptors, architects, or engineers at that time. Fight him. Furthermore, his exploration of nature was not just about understanding the process, but also the why. Therefore, it makes sense for Dan Brown to call him "an admirer of nature's ingenuity." While his contemporaries copied flowers, plants and trees from pictures in books, he sketched and painted directly in nature. The plants he chose to paint were symbolic. As Brown tells us in his chilling account, Leonardo did indeed perform autopsies: thirty in total, an average of two per year during his entire research period. This was illegal at the time, but whether he personally broke through the soil to retrieve the body is another matter. The Church believes that human bodies should be buried intact so that they can be reborn on the Day of Judgment. However, Leonardo clearly had the permission of the church to act in this way; there is no doubt that his drawing skills of showing the human body in various cross-sections won the praise of many powerful people. In other words, dissecting cadavers was prohibited, but no one bothered to deal with Leonardo's actions. (This blatant disregard for the law in some cases is reminiscent of the state of justice in Italy today.) Leonardo's thoughtful paintings made a great contribution to the modern medicine from which we all benefit. .

His many inventions reflect considerable foresight. He produced drawings of tanks, parachutes, cars and helicopters that would be built hundreds of years later. He even designed the telescope 100 years before Galileo. For Leonardo, the highest human sense is sight because of its function of accurate transmission. From this, he formed the philosophy of "knowledge and vision" - learning how to observe. Dan Brown said that Leonardo painted with Christian themes as a commercial means to maintain his luxurious and extravagant life. This is unfair to him. Leonardo brought unparalleled skill to everything he did and was born into wealth. What is true is that he never painted to illustrate the cross. It is difficult to justify the portrayal of him as the creator of a "huge number" of Christian paintings - several of the 17 paintings confirmed to be his work were never completed.

Art historians call him by his first name "Leonardo". "Leonardo Da Vinci" is not his last name, it only shows where he comes from, just like Alexander the Great's last name was not "The Great". However, the common usage of "Leonardo da Vinci" has made it unmistakable.

Leonardo was born in 1452, the illegitimate son of Ser Piero, a successful lawyer and landowner in Florence, Italy. His mother came from a Florentine farming family and later married a local worker. Leonardo grew up in his father's old Vinci house near Empoli, was treated as a true legitimate son, and received an education in reading, writing and arithmetic. Later, he studied Latin, advanced mathematics and geometry.

When he was nearly 16 years old, his father asked him to study with Verrozio, where he learned painting, sculpture and mechanical skills. During this period, he should have met another master of the Priory of Sion, Botticelli, because the latter was a student of Verrozio's at the same time.

Probably at that time, he learned anatomy from the studio in the neighboring street. He worked independently in Florence until 1481, and many works were completed during this period, including the "Service of the Magi".

In 1482, he joined Ludovico Sforza (Ludovico Sforza). Sforza's Latin meaning is "mighty power", and Atandoro, a hired warrior from a peasant family, adopted this surname. Beginning with his son Francesco, his descendants ruled Milan as dukes from 1450 to 1535. , the Duke of Milan, nicknamed "Ludovico the Moor". There his court title was "Painter and Engineer to the Duke". Sforza's close friend is René d'Anjou (Ren? d? Anjou) Anjou, a noble family in northwest France who has established three dynasties in Europe: Geoffrey IV of this family married the Norman King Henry Daughter of I, their son became Henry II in 1154 and founded the English "Plantagenet Dynasty" that replaced Norman rule; Charles, Count of Anjou, became the king of Naples and Sicily in 1266, and Sicily was later annexed by Spain. , his descendants ruled Naples until 1442; Charles Robert, a descendant of the Naples branch, became Charles I, King of Hungary, and the branch died out after 1395. ——Another master of the Priory of Sion. Leonardo spent 17 years there until Ludovico fell from power. In addition to painting, sculpting, and designing and decorating palace banquets, he was also a technical consultant on buildings, fortresses, and military projects, and even worked as a hydraulic and mechanical engineer. It was during this period that he most fully developed his all-encompassing genius.

During this period, he completed seven oil paintings, including "The Virgin of the Rocks" mentioned by Dan Brown. This is an altarpiece to be displayed in the Cathedral of San Francesco in Milan. The splendid work "The Last Supper" painted on the wall of the Monastery of Santa Maria was also painted during this period.

After that, Leonardo began to develop his "painting" concept. He determined that painters, using their extraordinary visual abilities, were the perfect intermediaries for the vivid transmission of knowledge. To this end, he used his paintbrush to teach. This is a particularly crucial point when trying to understand Leonardo's character in The Da Vinci Code. Leonardo not only created a beautiful mural "The Last Supper", but also used his method to tell us about a very important event. After hundreds of years, it has been handed down to us. Anyone who can get his password People will know the true meaning of the painting. In situations where both text and pictures are used, he will give priority to pictures. Pictures are not used to express the meaning of the text, but the function of words is only to explain the pictures.

Between 1490 and 1495, he wrote treatises on painting and architecture, as well as books on the basics of mechanics and human anatomy. He also continued research in various scientific fields. He kept detailed written and drawn records of everything he did, and many of the thousands of pages of notes he accumulated remain to this day.

Because he is left-handed, "writing backwards" is not too difficult for him. His text is not easy to read, and even more so with spelling errors and abbreviations. Nor does his annotation always follow a logical sequence. He wrote "backwards" when working, but correspondence with others shows that he was also fluent in regular writing. Leonardo's main biographer, Serge Branley, reviewed all of his remaining manuscripts and determined that he could write with both hands and in both directions.

Even if it is not the cause, it is one of the consequences - for people who write with their left hand, "writing backwards" will not cause ink stains. Of course, he may have secretly written it intentionally and did not want others to know his thoughts. In addition to the reason for secrecy, this may be due to his unusual concept of Christianity. As Dan Brown notes, left-handedness in Leonardo's day was associated with "leftism" and demonic forces. As a result, left-handedness was viewed with suspicion by the world; considering that back then, it would have been rare for someone like Leonardo to speak out about it. He wrote for publication, and in the corner of an anatomical sketch he wrote a message asking his followers to ensure that his works were published.

In early 1500, Leonardo left Milan and returned to Florence via Venice. The city-state council there asked him for advice on how to defend against an imminent Turkish attack on Friuli. Leonardo suggested flooding the area. Returning to Florence, he began sketching the Virgin and Child with Santa Anna and the Madonna with a Spool. Leonardo left Florence in 1503 to serve under Ciceli Borgia, Duke of Valentino.

The prince was Rodrigo Borgia, a priest of Pope Alexander VI, and Thessaly was his illegitimate son. Relying on his family's power, he enjoyed secular pleasures and bribed two-thirds of the votes to become the pope from 1492 to 1503. In 1493, he issued a decree dividing America between Spain and Portugal, and sent the first missionaries to the area. His direct relatives and blood were the most frightening to his subjects at that time. He was suspected of murdering his own brother, and what was beyond doubt his guilt was the murder of his brother-in-law, Duke Alfonso of Bisgli, the second husband of his notorious sister. Leonardo was fascinated by Borgia - the then 27-year-old Duke was half Leonardo's age.

During this time, Leonardo was involved in the production of city plans and regional maps. His methods formed the basis of modern cartography. In 1503, he returned to Florence and planned a canal from the city to the sea. The plan was never implemented, but there is now a motorway linking Florence to the seaside, in exactly the same way as Leonardo's plan.

From 1503 to 1506, Leonardo, who was painting murals in the Church of the Five Hundred Saints in Florence, began to create the "Mona Lisa". Before the painting was completed, he consulted the French prelate Charles d'Ambois, the governor of Milan and political dignitaries of the King of France. When Louis XII ascended the throne in 1498, he became cardinal archbishop and prime minister. In 1503, he led the French army to occupy Milan and served as the plenipotentiary envoy of the Holy See. Please come back to Milan. During his six years in Milan, he devoted himself to architecture and received an annual salary of 400 gold coins like a nobleman. During this period, he painted the second variation of "Madonna of the Rocks".

After the French were expelled from Milan in 1513, Leonardo moved to Rome. The Medici family, the brother of Pope Leo X, was the ducal family that ruled Florence from 1434 to 1737. Artists they supported and sponsored include Michelangelo and Botticelli. The family also produced two famous Renaissance popes: Leo X and Clement VII. , and gave him a room in his mansion. This palace is now part of the Vatican City - the Belvedere Palace. Compared with other colleagues, such as Michelangelo, who was busy with various architectural and art projects, he had little to do despite being paid.

Leonardo was sent to Monboncières and the earldom inherited by the eldest son of the Bourbon family from his marriage to the Monboncières family in the 14th century. By the time Charles had been promoted to duke, it was interrupted after his death. Charles's army. The French military director, Languedoc, the old southern province of France often mentioned below, took his name from langue d?oc - the Occitan language of southern France. It is located in the eastern part of the Pyrenees Mountains, along the Mediterranean Sea to the north bank of the Rhone River and near Lyon. The capital of the old department was Toulouse. The governor of Milan was a powerful official in France in the early 16th century. In 1519, he succeeded Leonardo as Grand Master of the Priory of Sion.

At the age of 65, Leonardo accepted an appointment from the young King Francis I of France to serve in his court. In the last three years of his life, he lived in a small house on the banks of the Lewa River next to the king's summer palace. His official title was "the king's chief painter, architect and mechanic". During this period, he was generally treated as a distinguished guest. The only oil painting he worked on was "John the Baptist", and the remaining works only included some sketches of palace banquets. He designed a garden palace for the king's mother, but due to the threat of epidemic malaria, all plans were abandoned.

On May 2, 1519, Leonardo da Vinci died in Croix and was buried in the Palace Church of St. Florentine. Who would have thought that this church was severely damaged during the French Revolution and was eventually demolished in the 19th century. The master's grave was nowhere to be found, and his estate was inherited by his most loyal disciple, Francesco Melchi.

Leonardo has always been described as one of the pioneers of Rosicrucianism, and a biographer named Vasari claimed that he had a "pagan mentality." This so-called evil thought included his belief that Jesus Christ had a twin brother, Thomas. In "The Last Supper", there are two almost identical images of Jesus. The second person from the left looks very similar to Jesus sitting in the center. People suspect that this image probably represents Thomas.