Leonardo da Vinci :: History Biography

Leonardo da VinciPainter, sculptor, inventor. Born April 15, 1452 near the village of Vinci, Italy. He was the outlawed intelligence of Ser Piero da Vinci, a prominent notary of Florence, who had no other children until oftentimes later. Ser Piero raised his son himself, a common practice at the time, arrange for Leonardos scram to marry a villager. When Leonardo was 15, his father apprenticed him to Andrea del Verrocchio, the leading artist of Florence and a characteristic talent of the early Renaissance. A sculptor, painter, and goldsmith, Verrocchio was a peculiar craftsman, and his salient skill and passionate concern for quality of execution, as well as his interest in expressing the vital mobility of the human figure, were important elements in Leonardos fastidious formation. Indeed, much in Leonardos approach to art was evolutionary from tradition rather than revolutionary against it, although the opposite is often true of his results.After completing his apprenticeshi p, Leonardo stayed on as an assistant in Verrocchios shop, and his earliest known painting is a product of his collaboration with the master. In Verrocchios Baptism of Christ (ca. 1475), Leonardo executed one of the ii angels, a fact already recorded in the 16th century, as well as the distant landscape, and he added the final touches to the figure of Christ, determining the metric grain of the flesh. coaction on a major project by a master and his assistant was standard procedure in the Italian Renaissance. What is exceptional is that Leonardos reckon is not, as was usual, a slightly less(prenominal) skilled version of Verrocchios manner of painting still an original approach altering it. It completely possesses all the complete qualities of Leonardos hop on style and implies a criticism of the early Renaissance. By changing hard metallic surface effects to soft yielding ones, making edges less cutting, and increase the slight modulations of light and shade, Leonardo evoked a new flexibility within the figures. This soft union, as Giorgio Vasari called it, is also present in the special firing off and is emphatically developed in the spiral turn of the angels head and body and the vast depth of the landscape.Apparently Leonardo had painted one living work, the resolve in Florence, before this. It is much nearer to Verrocchio in the stability of the two figures shown in profile, the clean precision of the decorative details, and the large simple shapes of the trees, but it already differs in the creamier modeling of the faces.Leonardo da Vinci History BiographyLeonardo da VinciPainter, sculptor, inventor. Born April 15, 1452 near the village of Vinci, Italy. He was the illegitimate son of Ser Piero da Vinci, a prominent notary of Florence, who had no other children until much later. Ser Piero raised his son himself, a common practice at the time, arranging for Leonardos mother to marry a villager. When Leonardo was 15, his father apprenticed him to Andrea del Verrocchio, the leading artist of Florence and a characteristic talent of the early Renaissance. A sculptor, painter, and goldsmith, Verrocchio was a remarkable craftsman, and his great skill and passionate concern for quality of execution, as well as his interest in expressing the vital mobility of the human figure, were important elements in Leonardos artistic formation. Indeed, much in Leonardos approach to art was evolutionary from tradition rather than revolutionary against it, although the opposite is often true of his results.After completing his apprenticeship, Leonardo stayed on as an assistant in Verrocchios shop, and his earliest known painting is a product of his collaboration with the master. In Verrocchios Baptism of Christ (ca. 1475), Leonardo executed one of the two angels, a fact already recorded in the 16th century, as well as the distant landscape, and he added the final touches to the figure of Christ, determining the texture of the flesh. Collabora tion on a major project by a master and his assistant was standard procedure in the Italian Renaissance. What is special is that Leonardos work is not, as was usual, a slightly less skilled version of Verrocchios manner of painting but an original approach altering it. It completely possesses all the fundamental qualities of Leonardos mature style and implies a criticism of the early Renaissance. By changing hard metallic surface effects to soft yielding ones, making edges less cutting, and increasing the slight modulations of light and shade, Leonardo evoked a new flexibility within the figures. This soft union, as Giorgio Vasari called it, is also present in the special lighting and is emphatically developed in the spiral turn of the angels head and body and the vast depth of the landscape.Apparently Leonardo had painted one extant work, the Annunciation in Florence, before this. It is much nearer to Verrocchio in the stability of the two figures shown in profile, the clean precis ion of the decorative details, and the large simple shapes of the trees, but it already differs in the creamier modeling of the faces.