Essay, Research Paper: Da Vinci

I chose Leonardo Da Vinci as the greatest renissance personality. I chose Da Vinci because he made many contributions to the time period. Da Vinci was an artist, a scientist, and a philosopher. A lot of the famous artists and thinkers of the time weren’t recognized as being great for many years after their death. The kings and other important people of the time recognized Da Vinci as a great artist. This is why I chose Da Vinci as the greatest renissance personality.
Leonardo Da Vinci was born in 1452 on his father’s estate in Vinci, Italy. At 15 his father had noticed Leonardo’s potential and had decided to send him to be an apprentice to the artist Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence. This was also when he first developed an interest in anatomy. In 1482, Leonardo was hired by the duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, to be artist and engineer. He stayed in Milan for seventeen years. There he completed five paintings: two portraits of the 'Last Supper', two versions of 'The Virgin of the Rocks', and a decorative ceiling painting in the Castello Sforzesco.
In Florence, he was commissioned to do a number of paintings, but other interests and tasks kept him from finishing them. The most well known piece to survive from this time period was the famous "Mona Lisa". During the years 1513 to 1516, Leonardo was in Rome at the invitation of Cardinal Giuliano de' Medici, brother of Pope Leo X.
His work in painting and sculpture over the next seven years remained mostly in the planning stage. But his scientific work flourished. He continued his notebooks with observations and drawings of human anatomy, optics, mechanics, and botanical studies.

In 1516, at the age of 65, he accepted an invitation from Francis I, king of France, to leave Italy and work for him. Leonardo spent the last three years of his life in the palace of Cloux, near the king's residence at Amboise, near Tours. He was given the title of "first painter, architect, and mechanic of the King" and given freedom of action in what he wanted to do.
No matter where you go in the world, everyone knows of the "Mona Lisa". The picture is on stamps, shirts, posters, and just about anything else you can think of. It one of the most well renowned paintings in the world. This piece is unusual because of the mystery of the painting. To this day no one knows whether the woman in the painting was a real person, or whether it was Leonardo’s vision of himself as a women.
Leonardo Da Vinci had a very strong influence over the world, artistically and scientifically. Leonardo devised plans for prototypes of an airplane and a helicopter. His extensive studies of human anatomy were shown in anatomical drawings, were among the most significant achievements of Renaissance Science. Due to Leonardo’s remarkable illustrations, European artists began to study the model of nature more closely and to paint with the goal of great realism. They learned to create lifelike people and animals, and they became skilled at creating the illusion of depth and distance on flat walls and canvases by using the techniques of perspective. He is deservedly considered one of the greatest painters of all time. This is why I think he is the greatest renissance personality.