Essay, Research Paper: Contrasy Between Leonardo Da Vinci & Aristotle

LEONARDO DA VINCI AND ARISTOTLE
I believe that Aristotle and Leonardo da Vinci led similar lives. They both sought for knowledge and studied similar topics. I think that both were “renaissance men”, as it would be described in Leonardo’s day. This refers to the fact that both men studied a variety of subjects. I believe both men were ahead of their time, and I think both men made differences in our time. Both mean were very similar, but came from two different time periods. In my attempt to summarize these to fascinating lives, I hope you can depict some links both professionally and personally between them.
Aristotle was born in 384 BC in Stagira, the modern Starro on the northern cost of Aegean. (work cited book 1, pg.13)The new generation wanted to forget the past and strive for a better future. His father Nicomchus, was a doctor. Aristotle learned early first aid techniques. This training could have contributed to Aristotle’s special interest in biology. When Aristotle was ten his father died. His guardian then became Proxenus, his uncle. (w.c.b. 1, pg.14)
In 367, when Aristotle was 17, Proxenus sent him to the Academy of Plato in Athens to study. (w.c.b. 2, pg. 18&19) Plato became almost a father figure to Aristotle. Plato was an aristocrat with literary, political, and intellectual learning. Socartes influenced him. When Aristotle arrived at the Academy he was not the best looking man. He was bald, with small eyes and skinny legs. (w.c.b. 2, pg. 1) he made up for his looks with good dress. He wore a cloak, sandals, and rings on his fingers. The Academy was a training group for political politics. (w.c.b. 1, pg. 16) Aristotle was a brilliant student. At the Academy Plato nicknamed him “The Brain” and “The Reader”. (w.c.b.1, pg.20) Aristotle once during his time at the Academy, won recognition for one of Plato’s smartest students. Aristotle began to shift his ideas away from Plato’s. He became more interested in nature and it’s functions, rather than puzzling over the idea of how and why things and people existed.
In 347 Plato dies. Aristotle left the Academy after not being appointed the new head. Aristotle went to a Greek city called Atarneus (now Turkey). Hermias, the city’s ruler was a supporter of Plato’s Academy. He invited some of the Academy members (including Aristotle) to a school like the Academy. Hermias provided them with everything they needed for their studies. In that same year Aristotle married Hermias’ niece, Pythios. (w.c.b. 4, pg.75) Aristotle and Pythios later had a son and daughter. At this point in Aristotle’s life he was beginning to become more interested in animals. He observed animals and carefully recorded his observations. Today this collection of notes is called “Historia Animalium” which mean, “Researchers into Animals”.
In 344 BC, Hermias was overthrown. Aristotle moved to the near by island Lesbos, and he settled at Mytilene. (w.c.b. 4, pg.76) He continued his work on animals with the help of his student Theophrastus. Aristotle also worked on other writings including “Politics”, about the different systems of government. In 343 BC, Aristotle was asked to return to Macedonia to tutor Alexander the Great, who was thirteen. Aristotle was about forty-two years old. Aristotle produced a version of the “Iliad” for teaching purposes. (w.c.b 1, pg. 21) Aristotle did not seem to impact Alexander all that much. Alexander seemed to contradict some of Aristotle’s beliefs in government when he governed. Bye 339 BC Aristotle’s friends had become a group of followers. He left Macedonia and returned to Stagira. Theophrastus and others followed him.
In 335 BC Aristotle opened his own school. It was located at the temple of Apollo. The school was called “the Lyceum”. Most of his biology was done during his years of travel between 347 and 335 BC. (w.c.b. 2, pg.18) In 323 BC after Alexander’s death, Aristotle left the university. He left Theophrostus to carry it on. Aristotle believed that happiness could not be pursued of everything was determined for us. (w.c.b. 3, pg.92)
In the spring of 322 BC Aristotle moved to Chalkis, on the island of Euboea, where his mother’s family was from. Aristotle died in the autumn of 322 BC. He was sixty-two years old. His scientific and government ideas were amazing, and these are only two of the many, many subjects he studied. He was teacher who inspired, is inspiring, and will continue to inspire for generations. (w.c.b. 2, pg.1)
Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452. One year before the Byzantine Empire was shattered, and forty years before Columbus discovered America. His grandfather Ser Antonio da Vinci recorded his birth. (work cited car 2, pg. 29) Leonardo’s father was Ser Piero da Vinci. He took Leonardo from his mother, and they lived in his grandparent’s house. Leonardo’s mother was considered an embarrassment to Leonardo’s father’s family. Little is known about her, but legend says she was a poor peasant girl named Caterina. In the same year of Leonardo’s birth, his father married a sixteen-year-old girl named Albera di Giovanni Amadori. (w.c.b. 1, pg.5&6)
In 1456 when Leonardo was four years old, it was “the Year of the Great Comet”. In this year kings, courts, and common people all sought out for international intelligence. (w.c.b. 2, pg.14) Leonardo spent the early years of his life in his quiet village in the backwaters. He attended church and was given the best education in Florence. Leonardo’s uncle, Francesco was sixteen years older than him, and devoted a lot of time towards him. (w.c.b. 3, pg.1)
About the year 1466 Leonardo was apprenticed to a studio boy named Andrea del Verrocchio. Andrea was the leading Florentine painter and sculptor of his day. Leonardo even modeled for one of his sculptures “David”. (w.c.b. 2, pg.36) On April 8,1476 he was accused of having sexual relations with a seventeen year old youth name Jacopo Saltarelli. During this time the accusations suffered him great humiliation. His step mother also died as a result of the stress. Some people think Leonardo may have been homo-sexual, becaues of his all male models and no mention of any girlfriend. (w.c.b. 2, pg.39) In 1478 Leonardo became an independent master. His first large painting “The Adoration of Magi” was left unfinished. In 1481 this painting was ordered for a monastery.
About 1482 Leonardo entered the Service of the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, as principal engineer and architect. At this time he also assisted the mathematician, Luca Pacioli. Leonardo wrote many texts, compiled as “Treatise on Painting”. During this period the most important of his painting was “The Virgin on the rocks”. (w.c.b. 3, pg.2) From 1495 until 1497 Leonardo labored on “The Last Supper”. At this time he also did many other paintings, drawings, (which were lost) theatre design, and architectural drawings (w.c.b. 1) In 1500 he returned to Florence, where he later entered the service of Cesare Borgia, Duke of Romagna. During this period Leonardo painted many portraits, the only surviving though was “the Mona Lisa”. (w.c.b. 3, pg.3) Leonardo also developed two painting techniques, sfumato and chiaroscuro.
In 1506 Leonardo returned to Milan, where he was named court painter to King Louis XII of France. Leonardo lived in Rome under the patronage of Pope Leo X, from 1514 until 1516. At this time he came up with many scientific theories. His writings are not easily read though, because he wrote backwards. In 1516 Leonardo traveled to France. Here he entered the service of king Frances I. He went to Chateau de Clox, near Amboise. He spent his last few years here until he died at the age of 67 in 1519. He influenced the Italian art more than a century after his death. He also had an impact on modern science developments, along with anatomy, optics, and hydraulics. Many of the other subjects and sketches that he studied and made have now been discovered. He was truly ahead of his time.
I think that in my research I have come o the conclusion that Aristotle and Leonardo da Vinci are very similar. They studied similar if not some of the same topics. Aristotle’s topics included: logic, language arts, ethics, political law, constitutional history, intellectual history, psychology, physiology, natural history, zoology, biology, botany, chemistry, astronomy, mechanics, mathematics, philosophy, the science of motion, the theory of knowledge and many more. Leonardo da Vinci’s topics ranged from: anatomy, zoology, botany, biology, optic, aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, the science of motion, language arts, the study of the human body, at, and many more.
Aristotle was brought up by his uncle, and Leonardo was practically brought up by his uncle who was sixteen years older than him. Both were interested in the sciences rather than the religious aspects of life. Aristotle and Leonardo kept pages of private notes. In both cases though, more than half have been lost. Both Aristotle and Leonardo has someone who influenced him. Leonardo was an apprentice and Aristotle had a tutor. Both were affected deeply by the guidance by others. Neither men were close to their parents. Nature influenced both men. There was no real mention of a mother in either life. Each time period was a time when everyone wanted to learn and become more intelligent. In both Aristotle and Leonardo, there is not a lot of information of a personal life. These men have impacted us greatly in a varied of different subjects, yet we know very little facts about them. I find that amazing that we can know all work they studied and schools they attended yet not know what happened to the two children Aristotle had, or what Leonardo’s sexual preference was. Either way I think that these men have many links to their lives, but the most import one is that they made a lasting effect on the world and will continue to throughout generations.


Word Count: 1647