Ji Young Chun
February 27, 2012
Artist Research
Leonardo Da Vinci
[Biography]
Leonardo Da Vinci was a renaissance polymath who was a painter, a
sculptor, an architect, a mathematician, a scientist, and an engineer at the
same time, and his talents typified an ideal renaissance man. He was born in April
15, 1452 in Vinci, Italy, and raised under his father with the typical
elementary education, which tells that Leonardo taught himself with his own
natural talents. While his mathematic studies
appeared later in his 30s, his artistic aptitude and investigation showed early
in his age. In 1467 at the age of 15, he
earned a position to be an apprentice to an artist named, Andrea del
Verrocchio. During his workshops as an apprentice, he received an education
that encompassed painting, sculpting and technical- mechanical arts. In 1472, Leonardo
was finally accepted into the painters’ guild of Florence, however, he
continued to work as an apprentice in his teacher’s workshop for five more
years. From then on, he worked as a painter in Florence until 1481, when he
produced most of his masterpieces of pen and pencil drawing work, which
includes pumps, military weapons and other machines. The next stage was when
Leonardo reached new highest of artistic and scientific achievements during his
17 years in Milan where he went to serve duke of Milan in 1482. Under the duke,
he had to be busy painting, sculpting, designing weapons, buildings and
machinery, and this period led him to produce a lot of advanced works of wide
range of studies including natures and machines. He started to produce his
superb recordings of studies in his notebooks in 1490 until 1495, and the
subjects ranged from painting, architecture, and mechanics to human anatomy,
which he drew so meticulously, and professionally. After this period, he
traveled to search for a new patron and during his retinue for each patron he
did his best to produce his best works, and in this period a number of
well-known masterpieces were produced including the most famous piece, Mona
Lisa. Leonardo died on May 2, 1519 in Cloux, France, leaving a huge achievement
in renaissance world.
[Vitruvian
Man]
My first choice of
Leonardo’s drawing is Vitruvian Man,
drawn with pen and ink with wash over metal point on paper in c.1487. Leonardo
first became to be sparked to have an interest in anatomical studies when he
was an apprentice in Verrocchio’s workshop in response to his master’s
interest. After practices of dissection in Milan, he first started with
studying skeletons and muscles. After several studies, he began to work with
the mathematician Luca Pacioli, and Leonardo considered the proportional
theories of Vitruvius, the 1st-century BC Roman architect. This drawing is how
he imposes the principles of geometry on the configuration of human body. The
man that looks so ideal is drawn so realistically, with great proportions of
his body. It seems that Leonardo tried to examine the science of ideal human
body, comparing it to the basis of mathematical geometry, a square and a
circle. He wrote down some notes around the sketch, and they show that it was a
part of his sketchbook that he used in order to study human body and nature.
The note may say, “when a man places his feet firmly on the ground and
stretches out his arms, he can be contained within the four lines of a square,
but when in a spread-eagle position, he can be inscribed in a circle.” I chose
this drawing because it is so interesting that he thought of the relation
between human body and simple geometric shapes. I am really interested in
studying human body by drawing sketches of it, because human body is just the
most beautiful creature on earth! By looking at Leonardo’s approach to decipher
human body, I was so inspired to study more of it trying to relate to anatomical
studies.
[Drawing
of Woman’s Torso]
After studying skeleton and muscles,
Leonardo’s next step was to study internal organs “inside the body”. This
overwhelming sketch of inside of human body is Drawing of Woman’s Torso that was drawn in c.1507, high Italian
renaissance period. Leonardo created this drawing with pencil and ink on paper
to study internal human body, and I believe that this drawing helped a lot to
form the basis in the field of anatomy in renaissance era, as Leonardo himself
proudly said that his drawings were superior to descriptive words. I can see so
meticulously drawn organs of a woman and so many little notes besides the body,
which probably explains what the organs are. To me, this drawing is amazing. The
organs and the body are perfectly realistically drawn, at the same time the
organs are so artistically striking, which tells me that the nature is always
beautiful. It is so surprising that he drew all the actual organs, back at the
renaissance era when the anatomical studies were not that developed because of
lack of technological advance. However, that during his lifetime, Leonardo’s
anatomical drawings remained private because he did not consider himself as a
professional in the anatomical science field, and did not publish his findings.
Even if I see this drawing in the era when the anatomical technology has been
greatly developed than back then, I love how accurate the organs are drawn. I
also love how he keeps questioning himself and earning the answers from his
everyday studies in his little notebook.
[Study for
the composition of the last supper]
[Study of Horses]
I chose this work since I know that Leonardo studied so hard with animals especially horses, not only human beings. This sketch was created in high renaissance in c.1504-06 with red chalk on paper to study the body of horse in depth. I truly like this drawing because it is interesting to see. Not so many people would have seen horse like this attentively. I like how Leonardo studied the muscles and following shapes of horses that normal people would not think of ever drawing. I also like this drawing because the shapes of horses’ legs and muscles are even more interesting than those of humans. I believe that his effort to a new trial of horse studies deserved compliments not only from decades of artists but also from scientists and anatomists.
[Reason to
choose Leonardo Da Vinci]
I chose Leonardo Da Vinci because I sincerely aspire to resemble
him in my career, not because Leonardo Da Vinci is just a simple, easy example
of someone’s favorite artist. I love science and fine art at the same time like
he did, and wish to become an expert for both fields. My ultimate goal is to be
an architect, who should be equipped with great sense and skills in science and
fine art, and I believe that no one could ever surpass Da Vinci in these fields
of scholars. He was not only the top in the field of fine arts, but also the top
for science and engineering, which is not easy to do for a normal person. I
know it is greed to catch two rabbits, but my idol, Leonardo Da Vinci, inspires
and supports me not to give up my huge dream. I acknowledge that he became
successful not only because he was naturally so talented but also because he
was hardworking throughout his life, so I believe that I also can achieve my
dream if I work as hard as he did!
Works
Cited
Anonymous. "Leonardo Da Vinci
Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television. Web. 20 Feb.
2012. <http://www.biography.com/people/leonardo-da-vinci-40396>.
Anonymous. "Leonardo Da
Vinci." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2009. Print.
Anonymous. "Leonardo Da Vinci."
Leonardo Biography. School of Mathematics and Statistics University of
St Andrews, Scotland, Dec. 1996. Web. 20 Feb. 2012.
<http://www.gap-system.org/~history/Biographies/Leonardo.html>.
Anonymous.
"Museum of Science, Boston." Leonardo Da Vinci. Museum of
Science. Web. 21 Feb. 2012. <http://www.mos.org/leonardo/bio.html>.
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