Leonardo Da Vinci Biography
Leonardo Da Vinci was not only a great artist who had a huge impact on the history of art, he was also a scientist with a brilliant brain. He created many inventions that would be brought to life by his influence in much later, and more technologically advanced times. Being from Italy, he was already influenced by artistic and abstract ideas, so there is no surprise that he would be such a famous figure. He was one of the most substantial minds of the Italian Renaissance. I will tell you all about Leonardo’s life, his inventions, and the impact of his life on future generations.
Most of Leonardo’s early life was spent in Anchiano, Italy. He was born on April 15, 1452, and lived on the southern slopes of Monte Albano. Leonardo was born unto parents that were not married. His father, Ser Piero da Vinci, was a Florentine lawyer who was very well-known. His mother, Catherine, was not as well known as his father. She was a poor country girl. Shortly after he was born, he was parted from his mother, and his father’s family adopted him. It is not documented when his brilliance was discovered, but when he was fourteen, his father took him to an apprentice, Andrea Verrocchio, who was the most respected artists in Florence.
Florentine’s, fifteenth-century society, placed considerable importance on education. Due to his father, who recognized his excellence, he didn’t really receive any formal education. But Leonardo learned to read, write, and obtain basic knowledge of mathematics, and Latin grammar. His father made sure of that. When he was apprenticed, Andrea taught him lots of new techniques. Carpentry, drawing, metalworking, painting, sculpting, and leather arts, were just some of the new techniques he was taught.
Leonardo invented many interesting and complex contraptions throughout his life. Hydraulics and pulley systems were all apart of these devices, which he took great interest in. Although he dreamed of making his inventions come to life, they were too technologically advanced for his time. So, for the time being, all he had for his inventions was his pencil and paper, and a vision. He invented war weapons, various flying machines, a canal system, and much more. He had such a high interest in war. So interested in war, that most of his inventions were based on war weapons. One of his most famous ideas was a machine gun. It was a 33-barreled organ, which looked nothing like the machine guns we have today. The concept of the gun wasn’t to have rapid fire from one barrel, it was to have 11 individual guns all attached to three rows, that fired all at once. This invention wasn’t ever built, but da Vinci introduced the idea of the machine gun. Later on, in the 19th century, the machine gun was brought to the battlefield. Da Vinci also brought about the invention of the armored tank. Tanks weren’t used in war till around 1914, but the first model was made by Leonardo, 500 years before. The design of the armored vehicle was to be driven by men and had guns and cannons. Even though the armored tank seemed like a good invention to him, he purposely made a flaw in it, is what historians believe. His design showed that it was impossible to make the armored vehicle mobile. They believe da Vinci did this on purpose because he didn’t want this weapon to be assembled because he didn’t want it to fall into the enemy’s hands.
