Leonardo Da Vinci's Accomplishments

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Artist, inventor, scientist, this was Leonardo da Vinci. World renowned even to this day, Leonardo has influenced much of the world of science and art together. Leonardo da Vinci was the very man that painted the Mona Lisa, arguably the most famous painting in the world. Leonardo grew up in Anchiano, Tuscany (now Italy) in the mid 15th Century. He grew up in a time at which the world was being expanded from the new lands by great explorers like Christopher Columbus. In Leonardo’s day, views on religion, politics, art and science were constantly being questioned. Ideas of the great thinkers from Greece were also being rediscovered. According to Peter Lafferty, “This period became known as the ‘Renaissance’, or the ‘rebirth’.” Leonardo da vinci …show more content…

Over the course of his years, he made a number of devices, all to better man’s life. Leonardo spent a great deal of his time making guns and flying machines. Guns interested him because it enabled him to study how objects could move at a high speed, not for military purposes. Leonardo constructed many flying machines due to his ambition to emulate bird flight. Leonardo would study many things before composing his design. He would analyze the distribution of a bird’s weight and measure the span and area of their wings in relation to its height. He would even compute the quantity of muscles a person would need to flap their “wings” to fly. He also realized how important a bird’s tail is when it comes to balance and steering. Leonardo drawings of his designs show a gradual development from trial-and-error to a scientific …show more content…

Many could say that Leonardo contributed the most to art. He opened a new pathway to the world of art. Two of his most acclaimed paintings include The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. Both paintings show intricate detail and even reflect nature. The Mona Lisa is a half portrait of a woman with a distant landscape as a backdrop. Its landscape shows that Leonardo had a complete understanding of scientific processes such as erosion. He was also one of the first to understand geological time is revealed in rock layers. (World New Book page 201) However, the woman in the picture is equally if not more intriguing. The woman’s hair and clothing created through fine shading are echoed through the mountains and river in the background. “The sense of overall harmony achieved in this painting-especially apparent in the sitter’s faint smile-reflects Leonardo’s idea of cosmic link connecting humanity and nature, making this painting and enduring record of Leonardo’s

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