Leonardo Da Vinci
1452-1519
Biography
Leonardo was born in 1452 near the Tuscan town of Vinci in the Lower Valley of Arno Rive in Florence. He had no formal training beyond basic reading, writing, and math. He began to study under Andrea Del Verrocchio. Da Vinci created many sculptures, paintings. For about 40 years of his life he spent his time moving between Florence and Milan creating some of the best pieces of art. He was an illegitimate born lawyer and was credited to be one of the most brilliant men of the High Renaissance. His active mind prevented him from making a large number of paintings. In fact, he only finished six paintings in him life time. Some of him patrons included his teacher Andrea Del Verrocchio and his father.
Mona Lisa
The Mona Lisa was created over a time of 1503 to 1506. It is located at the Musee de Louvre. This piece of art is significant because of how the women has an enigmatic smile and a certain gaze that some say follows you, also her hypnotic eyes make you just stare into her beauty. Some new techniques used by Leonardo Da Vinci was something called sfumato which translates to mean vanish or evaporate. I found this piece to be very interesting because of all the details and time and patients it took Da Vinci to make the Mona Lisa. It also interests me of how exquisite her face looks and how you can see all of the individual cracks in the painting. The artist exemplifies humanism by embracing the women's beauty and basing the painting on hey values and that problems can be solved using reason.
Works Cited
http://library.artstor.org/library/secure/ViewImages?id=%2FThWdC8hIywtPygxFTx5TnQkVn0tfA%3D%3D
"Leonardo da Vinci." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998.Biography in Context. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
"Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)."ThinkQuest. Oracle Foundation, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
"Leonardo Masterful Technique." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.