INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, in a globalized world, acquiring and sharing knowledge

becomes as easy as the simple fact of accessing the Internet,
however, there is not a great advantage in relation to the past years,
where if anyone wanted to know about a phenomenon He had to
experiment, observe to complement or corroborate the information
that was within his reach.

In the interface between the average age and modern age, a place
in multidisciplinary capacity is considered by the encyclopedias as
the most extensive, which includes a list of professions among
which is: painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, physicist, Geometer,
biologist, geologist, astronomer, botanist, anatomist, musician,
linguist, philosopher, etc.

They emphasize their restlessness, their observer capacity, their

deep analysis, their constant experimentation, their perfectionism,
their youthful spirit until the end. Everything they do are highly
valued by their contemporaries. Today's scholars rate them as the
most complete genius of all times.

Without a doubt, Leonardo da Vinci is a model of the multifacts that

man can develop. This work tries to convey the essence of the
human being who was Da Vinci and to make known the influence
and relevance that his studies and inventions had in the present
since Most people only recognize the genius painter.
Synopsis

Leonardo throughout his 67 years of life becomes one of the most

curious and multifaceted personalities in history.

Leonardo's writings are estimated at 15,000 pages, of which about

7,000 are preserved.

Most of his folios are full of drawings and interesting comments

written specularly, which are interpreted as a consequence of his
greater ability with the left hand and his desire to protect against his
peers.

He reflects his ideas, observations and developments on the most

varied subjects, and his son testifies daily of the knowledge
available by the artisans of that time.

His restlessness brings the greeting quickly from one theme to

another, leaving many projects unfinished, although almost always
demonstrates its feasibility and originality. Today the following
products are shown for the novel machine, while the notebooks
focus on the smallest of the most varied systems: machine tools,
war machines, watches, musical instruments, automatisms, meters,
boats, flying machines and much others. The conceptual and
didactic perfection of the Codex Madrid I is the best proof.

At a time when the study of the human body was strictly forbidden,
permission permits, dissecting about thirty corpses and drawing in
great detail a large part of the organs of the body, with a clarity
never before achieved.

His current philosophical writings. His linguistic analyzes are

pioneers in the Italian language born. His incursions into
mathematics, which it considers fundamental to explain the
universe, is of great success.

Everything is the result of an unusual attitude and observer depth,

relating everything with a simplicity based on the analysis and
consequent extrapolation of nature. Very methodical and always
equipped with a notebook, he becomes the best notary of his time
and his reasoned conception of the whole universe.
On the other hand, Leonardo designs several mechanisms
predecessors of the electronics. Initially interested in machines as a
final solution to solve the most varied applications, he soon
discovers that the few elemental mechanisms are the basic
constituents of any complex machine.

Worker and tireless traveler, traveled thousands of miles throughout

his life, always at the service of the most outstanding lords and
surrounded by the most brilliant artists of the unrepeatable

Italian Renaissance. Recognized as creator in all kinds of subjects,

he was always surrounded by discs and servers of the most varied
backgrounds and professions, to whom he supervised, assigned
tasks and transmitted his skills.

His ideas are more revolutionary than those of others who ended up
in the inquisitorial bonfire, although perhaps his writing "on the left",
his sympathy and personal treatment, the mechanical protection and
his ability to do the difficult to save the stories.

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, in a farmhouse

nestled amid the undulating hills of Tuscany outside the village of
Anchiano in present-day Italy. Born out of wedlock to respected
Florentine notary Ser Piero and a young peasant woman named
Caterina, he was raised by his father and his stepmothers. At the
age of five, he moved to his father’s family estate in nearby Vinci,
the Tuscan town from which the surname associated with Leonardo
derives, and lived with his uncle and grandparents.

Young Leonardo received little formal education beyond basic

reading, writing and mathematics instruction, but his artistic talents
were evident from an early age. Around the age of 14, da Vinci
began a lengthy apprenticeship with the noted artist Andrea del
Verrocchio in Florence. He learned a wide breadth of technical skills
including metalworking, leather arts, carpentry, drawing, painting
and sculpting. His earliest known dated work—a pen-and-ink
drawing of a landscape in the Arno valley—was sketched in 1473.
At the age of 20, da Vinci qualified for membership as a master artist
in Florence’s Guild of Saint Luke and established his own workshop.
However, he continued to collaborate with his teacher for an
additional five years. It is thought that Verrocchio completed his
“Baptism of Christ” around 1475 with the help of his student, who
painted part of the background and the young angel holding the robe
of Jesus. According to Lives of the Most Excellent Painters,
Sculptors and Architects, written around 1550 by artist Giorgio
Vasari, Verrocchio was so humbled by the superior talent of his pupil
that he never picked up a paintbrush again. Most scholars, however,
dismiss Vasari’s account as apocryphal.

Florentine court records show that in 1476 da Vinci and four other
young men were charged with sodomy, a crime punishable by exile
or even death. Although da Vinci was acquitted, his whereabouts
went entirely undocumented for the following two years.

“Renaissance Man” Emerges in Milan

After leaving Verrocchio’s studio, da Vinci received his first

independent commission in 1478 for an altarpiece to reside in a
chapel inside Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio. Three years later the
Augustinian monks of Florence’s San Donato a Scopeto tasked him
to paint “Adoration of the Magi.” The young artist, however, would
leave the city and abandon both commissions without ever
completing them.

In 1482, Florentine ruler Lorenzo de' Medici commissioned da Vinci

to create a silver lyre and bring it as a peace gesture to Ludovico
Sforza, who ruled Milan as its regent. After doing so, da Vinci
lobbied Ludovico for a job and sent the future Duke of Milan a letter
that barely mentioned his considerable talents as an artist and
instead touted his more marketable skills as a military engineer.
Using his inventive mind, da Vinci sketched war machines such as a
war chariot with scythe blades mounted on the sides, an armored
tank propelled by two men cranking a shaft and even an enormous
crossbow that required a small army of men to operate. The letter
worked, and Ludovico brought da Vinci to Milan for a tenure that
would last 17 years.

His ability to be employed by the Sforza clan as an architecture and

military engineering advisor as well as a painter and sculptor spoke
to da Vinci’s keen intellect and curiosity about a wide variety of
subjects. Like many leaders of Renaissance humanism, da Vinci did
not see a divide between science and art. He viewed the two as
intertwined disciplines rather than separate ones. He believed
studying science made him a better artist.

Leonardo thought sight was humankind’s most important sense and

eyes the most important organ. He stressed the importance of saper
vedere, “knowing how to see.” He believed in the accumulation of
direct knowledge and facts through observation.

“A good painter has two chief objects to paint—man and the

intention of his soul,” da Vinci wrote. “The former is easy, the latter
hard, for it must be expressed by gestures and the movement of the
limbs.” To more accurately depict those gestures and movements,
da Vinci began to seriously study anatomy and dissect human and
animal bodies during the 1480s. His drawings of a fetus in utero, the
heart and vascular system, sex organs and other bone and
muscular structures are some of the first on human record.

In addition to his anatomical investigations, da Vinci studied botany,

geology, zoology, hydraulics, aeronautics and physics. He sketched
his observations on loose sheets of papers and pads that he tucked
inside his belt. He placed the papers in notebooks and arranged
them around four broad themes—painting, architecture, mechanics
and human anatomy. He filled dozens of notebooks with finely
drawn illustrations and scientific observations. His ideas were mainly
theoretical explanations, laid out in exacting detail, but they were
rarely experimental.
Art and science intersected perfectly in his sketch of “Vitruvian Man,”
which depicted a male figure in two superimposed positions with his
arms and legs apart inside both a square and a circle. A man ahead
of his time, da Vinci appeared to prophesize the future with his
sketches of machines resembling a bicycle, helicopter and a flying
machine based on the physiology of a bat.

'The Last Supper' and Other Works

Leonardo was commissioned to work on numerous projects during

his time in Milan. His painting of the “Virgin of the Rocks,” begun in
1483, demonstrated his pioneering use of chiaroscuro—a stark
contrast between darkness and light that gave a three-
dimensionality to his figures—and sfumato—a technique in which
subtle gradations, rather than strict borders, infuse paintings with a
softer, smoky aura.

Around 1495, Ludovico commissioned da Vinci to paint “The Last

Supper” on the back wall of the dining hall inside the monastery of
Milan’s Santa Maria delle Grazie. The masterpiece, which took
approximately three years to complete, captures the drama of the
moment when Jesus informs the Twelve Apostles gathered for
Passover dinner that one of them would soon betray him. The range
of facial expressions and the body language of the figures around
the table bring the masterful composition to life. The decision by da
Vinci to paint with tempera and oil on dried plaster instead of
painting a fresco on fresh plaster led to the quick deterioration and
flaking of “The Last Supper.” Although an improper restoration
caused further damage to the mural, it has now been stabilized
using modern conservation techniques.

In addition to having da Vinci assist him with pageants and

designing a dome for Milan’s cathedral, the Duke of Milan tasked the
artist with sculpting a 16-foot-tall bronze equestrian statue of his
father and founder of the family dynasty, Francesco Sforza. With the
help of apprentices and students in his workshop, da Vinci worked
on the project on and off for more than a dozen years. Leonardo
sculpted a life-size clay model of the statue, but the project was put
on hold when war with France required bronze to be used for
casting cannons, not sculptures. After French forces overran Milan
in 1499—and shot the clay model to pieces—da Vinci fled the city
along with the duke and the Sforza family.

Return to Florence and “Mona Lisa”

After brief stays in Mantua and Venice, da Vinci returned to

Florence. In 1502 and 1503, he briefly worked as a military engineer
for Cesare Borgia, the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI and
commander of the papal army. He traveled outside of Florence to
survey military construction projects and sketch city plans and
topographical maps. He designed plans, possibly with noted
diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli, to divert the Arno River away from rival
Pisa in order to deny its wartime enemy access to the sea.

Upon his return to Florence in 1503, da Vinci started work on the

“Battle of Anghiari,” a mural commissioned for the council hall in the
Palazzo Vecchio that was to be twice as large as “The Last Supper.”
However, he abandoned the project after two years when the mural
began to deteriorate before he had a chance to finish it.

At the same time he began the “Battle of Anghiari,” da Vinci started

working in 1503 on what would become his most well known
painting—and arguably the most famous painting in the world—the
“Mona Lisa.” The privately commissioned work is characterized by
the enigmatic smile of the woman in the half-portrait, which derives
from da Vinci’s sfumato technique.

Adding to the allure of the “Mona Lisa” is the mystery surrounding

the identity of the subject. Princess Isabella of Naples, an unnamed
courtesan and da Vinci’s own mother have been put forth as
potential sitters for the masterpiece. It has even been speculated
that the subject wasn’t a female at all but da Vinci’s longtime
apprentice Salai dressed in women’s clothing. Based on accounts
from an early biographer, however, the "Mona Lisa" is a picture of
Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of a wealthy Florentine silk merchant.
The painting’s original Italian name—“La Gioconda”—supports the
theory, but it’s far from certain. Some art historians believe the
merchant commissioned the portrait to celebrate the pending birth of
the couple’s next child, which means the subject could have been
pregnant at the time of the painting.

If the Giocondo family did indeed commission the painting, they

never received it. For da Vinci, the "Mona Lisa" was forever a work
in progress, as it was his attempt at perfection. Leonardo never
parted with the painting. Today, the "Mona Lisa" hangs in the Louvre
Museum in Paris, France, secured behind bulletproof glass and
regarded as a priceless national treasure seen by millions of visitors
each year.

Final Years

Leonardo returned to Milan in 1506 to work for the very French

rulers who had overtaken the city seven years earlier and forced him
to flee. Among the students who joined his studio was young
Milanese aristocrat Francesco Melzi, who would become da Vinci’s
closest companion for the rest of his life. He did little painting during
his second stint in Milan, however, and most of his time was instead
dedicated to scientific studies.

Ironically, Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, who had led the French forces
who conquered Ludovico in 1499, followed in his foe’s footsteps and
commissioned da Vinci to sculpt a grand equestrian statue, one that
could be mounted on his tomb. After years of work and numerous
sketches by da Vinci, Trivulzio decided to scale back the size of the
statue, which was ultimately never finished.

Amid political strife and the temporary expulsion of the French from
Milan, da Vinci left the city and moved to Rome in 1513 along with
Salai, Melzi and two studio assistants. Giuliano de’ Medici, brother
of newly installed Pope Leo X and son of his former patron, gave da
Vinci a monthly stipend along with a suite of rooms at his residence
inside the Vatican. His new patron, however, also gave da Vinci little
work. Lacking large commissions, he devoted most of his time in
Rome to mathematical studies and scientific exploration.

After being present at a 1515 meeting between France’s King

Francis I and Pope Leo X in Bologna, the new French monarch
offered da Vinci the title “Premier Painter and Engineer and Architect
to the King.” Along with Melzi, the Tuscan native departed for
France, never to return. He lived in the Chateau de Cloux (now Clos
Luce) near the king’s summer palace along the Loire River in
Amboise. As in Rome, da Vinci did little painting during his time in
France. One of his last commissioned works was a mechanical lion
that could walk and open its chest to reveal a bouquet of lilies. He
continued work on his scientific studies until his death at the age of
67 on May 2, 1519. Da Vinci's assistant, Melzi, became the principal
heir and executor of his estate. The “Mona Lisa” was bequeathed to
Salai.

Although da Vinci is known for his artistic abilities, fewer than two-
dozen paintings attributed to him exist. One reason is that his
interests were so varied that he wasn’t a prolific painter. For
centuries afterward, however, thousands of pages from his private
journals with notes, drawings, observations and scientific theories
have surfaced and provided a fuller measure of a true “Renaissance
man.”
CONCLUSIONS

• Leonardo Da Vinci was a person of great importance in the

different scientific fields that he developed.

• He was the most representative man of the Renaissance due to his

contributions earning the appellation "Man of the Renaissance".

• His works are at the time of essential importance and served as

inspiration for some inventions today.

• It owns several of the most valuable paintings in the world and the
most famous painting in the world "La Gioconda".
BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

 Fernando Torres Leza, Catedrático de Ingeniería de

Fabricación. Universidad de Zaragoza - LEONARDO DA
VINCI: UN MODELO MULTIDISCIPLINAR ABIERTO AL
MUNDO DE HOY.

http://www.encuentros-
multidisciplinares.org/Revistan%BA17/Fernando%20Torres%2
0Leza.pdf

 https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci