Leonardo Da Vinci
Born in (1452-1519), Leonard Da Vinci was an essential figure in the late Renaissance. He is an inventor and an academic, but being a painter of many Renaissance Art masterpieces made him famous. During his time, the Italian Renaissance gained popularity through the peninsula, and as a great artist, Da Vinci became among the foremost figures. However, because of great artists like Verrocchio and Botticelli, Da Vinci raised his artistic work to new heights to become as influential as they were. Although his completed works are few, they inspired artists and scientists and used Da Vinci’s ideas to continue the work after his death. Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, Virgin and Child with St. Anne, Virgin of the Rocks, and the Vitruvian Man are paintings that show his great skills and abilities. Through his works and ideas, Leonardo da Vinci has influenced various artists to adopt a more naturalistic approach and influenced the Italian Renaissance and continue to inspire through his revolutionary work.
Da Vinci was fascinated by mechanics and science and was intrigued by the human body. He would use the fascination and imagination of the human body to make anatomical drawings. Da Vinci’s work was realistic and expressive as he used his anatomical studies to create images of people that were dynamic and highly realistic. Unlike other artists, Da Vinci expressed emotions in a naturalistic manner, influencing other artists to follow a path such as Raphael’s through the Virgin Mary painting, and great Florentine, Michelangelo (Anderson). Da Vinci was a master of painting techniques, especially the chiaroscuro, which many people believed he invented.
Da Vince had an interest in anatomy, and even today, he is regarded as having an essential contribution to science. His art notably, The Vitruvian Man and interest in the human body, changed the perspective of art, science, and anatomy. This painting nods to Renaissance Humanism, where the artists linked a man to nature. Da Vinci drew the Vitruvian Man in 1490, representing his desire to relate man to nature and study proportion. The painting shows the mathematical human body study highlighting the nature of balance. This specific drawing combines Da Vinci’s comprehension of science with his great experience in art. Da Vinci used the Vitruvius designs and his anatomical studies for inspiration (Müntz, 115). He placed the man in the center to show the relation or link he has to nature. The idea of relative proportion influenced other artists in the Renaissance era, such as William Blake, who drew Glad Day or The Dance of Albion. Today, there is Nat Krate with the drawing Vitruvian Woman following the same technique.
Da Vinci’s Last Supper (ca. 1492/94-1498) is one of the most renowned and reproduced art of the High Renaissance as it reminds most people of religious values. The painting captured the moment during the Last Supper when Christ told His apostles would betray him. In this work, Da Vinci took a traditional subject matter and completely re-invented it into a painting. Before this painting, all artists would follow the same visual representation of the Last Supper. They would place Judas on the opposite side of the take such that it was easier for the viewer to identify the betrayer. However, Da Vinci brought a twist to the Last Supper by placing Judas and all Apostles on the same side. This representation shows that Da Vinci infused psychology into the work. The Apostles are seen showing different reactions to the news, some looking annoyed, upset, and alarmed as they tried to determine who would betray Jesus. The viewer has to look closely and analyze the painting to decide who among them is Judas. Although this masterpiece of the Renaissance was celebrated, the new technique that Da Vinci was introducing was not successful. He had tried incorporating the tempera painting technique to bring the subtle effects of the oil painting but became flaky (Anderson). However, the painting produced many contributions to society and added value to the Renaissance art in different ways.
Notably, in the present era, Mona Lisa’s painting is one of the most famous paintings by Da Vinci in the world. Some of the characteristics found in this work have been renowned and came to become famous in the art world. This particular artwork introduced the new method called the sfumato technique, where an artist blends glazes of an individual to give an almost realistic look. Da Vinci subtly shadowed the eyes and the corners of the mouth on the woman’s face so that it is difficult to determine the exact nature of her smile (Atalay, 113). The portrait of this woman follows the viewer with her eyes, but the most striking feature is that her arms, head, and torso all can twist in any direction. After this painting, portraits of women with the shadowy quality became common in the Renaissance and were seen as modest. Da Vinci innovated a type of painting where one would apply subtle layers of translucent paint such that there is no visible transaction between colouring and tones.
Also, quite similar to Mona Lisa, Da Vinci painted Virgin and Child with St. Anne showing the theme of figures in a landscape. Various artists adopted this painting’s composition in Renaissance art, such as the Venetian painters Veronese and Tintoretto. Virgin of the Rocks also used the sfumato style in the colouring and toning of the picture to intensify the naturalist feel and give the three-dimensionality spacing. This pyramidal arrangement became familiar with most High Renaissance artists. They copied the anatomical movement perfection developed by Da Vinci, showing a realistic motion of the figures in the painting. Da Vinci drew the gestures and glances of the people to create a dynamic unity that was innovative during the early Renaissance period because it gave the real-life feeling of the piece which was lacking before. Some of the paintings derived from the sfumato style were Holy Family and St. John by Bernardino Luini, and other artists such as Quentin Matsys copied the art.
Beyond Da Vinci’s fame as an artist, he designed many inventions in the art world, making him one of the influential men of the Renaissance. His most significant contribution to art was the invention of the sfumato technique, which is still common today. The methods and styles that Da Vinci developed were revolutionary and influenced greatly by other artists and architects. He was a remarkable man with extraordinary insights that he directed to his work. Although some of Da Vinci’s ideas were impractical, his inventions undoubtedly impacted the Renaissance. He changed the intellectual and traditional environment of the Renaissance, giving it a modern outlook.
Works Cited
Müntz, Eugène. Leonardo Da Vinci: Artist, Thinker and Man of Science. Vol. 2. W. Heinemann, 1898.
Anderson, Maxine. Amazing Leonardo Da Vinci Inventions: You Can Build Yourself. Nomad Press, 2006.
Atalay, Bulent. Math and the Mona Lisa: The art and science of Leonardo da Vinci. Smithsonian Institution, 2011.