From artistry to anatomy; a closer look at the famous works of Leonardo Da Vinci.
Words by Megan Bulmer
Leonardo Da Vinci, creator of some of the world’s most famous artistic masterpieces, such as Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, was much more than a talented Italian painter; his pursuit for scientific knowledge and his work in the fields of architecture, sculpting and engineering, have shaped our modern-day perspective on the Italian Renaissance.
Portrait of Leonardo Da Vinci
Born in the beautiful Italian city of Florence to humble beginnings as the illegitimate son of a landlord and a peasant woman, none could have predicted the vibrant and historic life he would go on to lead. Despite his access to an elementary education, Leonardo’s passion for geometry and arithmetic did not develop until much later in his life, yet it is clear from his employment as an apprentice to Andrea del Verrocchio at the ripe young age of 15, that his artistic ability was not so late-blooming; from this point on he continued to work for talented artists, gaining as he did so a knowledge of painting, sculpting, and the technical arts.
At each point throughout his life, Leonardo was producing the beautiful works which today are so well-known by society, yet it was his appointment as ‘pictor et ingeniarius ducalis’ (painter and engineer to the duke) in Milan in 1482 that truly marked the beginning of his remarkable and pivotal career. His reputation at the glittering Milanese court, as an elegant and reserved man of notable talent, gained him numerous commissions as a painter and sculptor. Yet most interestingly, and often most overlooked, was his work as a technical advisor in the areas of architecture, engineering, and even weaponry and fortifications.
It was during these 17 years in Milan that Leonardo painted one of his most famous pieces; The Last Supper:
The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci
This acclaimed work depicts the well-known moment in the bible when Christ gathers his twelve disciples the night before his crucifixion, to reveal that one of them would betray him before sunrise. To great effect, Leonardo chose to portray the disciples as they would have responded moments after this news, with confusion, alarm, and outrage. More interestingly, this was Leonardo’s first time working with the medium affresco: a technique for creating murals through applying dry-powder pigment to wet lime plaster, to achieve a beautiful image which, as the wet plaster sets, becomes integral to the wall. However, with no experience using this medium, Leonardo applied the pigments directly onto dry plaster, resulting in a painting which would not stand the tests of time as well as a true affresco mural. In fact, Leonardo often had to repair the original artwork, and after his death it suffered through vandalizations and bombings, so that today the piece known as one of Leonardo’s most famous works, hardly contains any of his original artistry at all.
Perhaps the most famous of Leonardo’s works, surrounded by intrigue and curiosity, is the Mona Lisa:
Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci
Arguably the world’s most famous painting, the Mona Lisa hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris, where people flock to get a glimpse of the face of Lisa Gherardini, whom the portrait supposedly depicts. In addition to the evident artistic talent of Leonardo, this portrait is popular for the mysteries it invokes; the not entirely confirmed identity of the painting’s subject, and the inexplicable existence of the enigmatic smile playing at her lips. Leonardo’s talent as a painter is apparent in every inch of this portrait, from the exquisite detail of the subject’s clothing to the beautiful soft shading of her face, yet what likely goes unnoticed by most who view it is the subtle evidence of Leonardo’s passion for anatomy; his detailed sculpting of the structures of her face demonstrates his extensive understanding of the formations of the skull and the facial muscles.
This fascination with anatomy is also evident in some of the far lesser-known works of Leonardo Da Vinci, for example his intricate sketches on the human body:
Leonardo Da Vinci's sketching of the human body
Leonardo Da Vinci's sketching on the anatomy of the arm
These drawings, among the many hundreds which he sketched throughout his life, serve to prove the extent of Leonardo’s curiosity and skill in anatomy; although renowned throughout the world as the embodiment of the artistic feats of the Renaissance, it is clear that his ‘dabbling’ in the fields of science were more than mere amateur interests. Intriguingly, these sketches remained hidden in the shadow of Leonardo’s more famous works for almost half a century after his death, despite offering fascinating insight into the scientific exploits of such an acclaimed historical figure. The remarkable detail and accuracy portrayed by these illustrations is a testimony to the time Leonardo spent in the morgues of Florence, dissecting corpse after corpse in his attempt to understand the inner workings of the human body. His greatest passion, within the field of anatomy, was to comprehend the workings of the human heart; through his experiments he came close to unearthing the system of blood circulation, more than one hundred years prior to scientists achieving such understanding.
It is clear, therefore, that Leonardo Da Vinci’s reputation as the most remarkable figure of the Renaissance is very much deserved, with works of art that will undoubtedly survive throughout human history as testimonies to the vibrant culture of the historic period. Furthermore, it is equally important that the advanced developments made by Leonardo in the fields of science are remembered throughout history, so as to not diminish the outstanding legacy of a man so ahead of his time.
