Leonardo+Davinci

**——the archetype of the Renaissance Man **
 * Leonardo Da Vinci **

l Life l Painting works l Inventions l Connections to Anthem - Intelligence - Background - Spirit l Relevant Links in Class l References l External links ||
 * < **Contents** l Brief introduction

**Who is Leonardo Da Vinci? **

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519), who was an Italian Renaissance polymath, showed his talent in a wide variety of fields such as painting, architecture, sculpture //,// mathematics, invention, geology, science, music etc. Among all these achievements, he was best known as a painter in the world. His representative works are //Mona Lisa//, //The Last Supper//and Virgin of the Rocks.


 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 21px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 21px;">Life of Da Vinci **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Leonardo Da Vinci was born in Vinci, Italy, near Florence in 1452. His father was a famous notary and his mother came from a poor family. Da Vinci was an illegitimate child. After he was born, his father left his mother behind and married high-class woman.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**A interesting story of Da Vinci**

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">It has been said that when Da Vinci first came to Verrocchio’s workshop, he was told to draw eggs. Day after day, Da Vinci was told to draw eggs all the time. One day, Da Vinci finally got tired of drawing eggs so that he came to his master Verrocchio for complaint. However, his master explained to him of profound significance “Drawing eggs is not a simple thing to do, even for the same egg, if you change the observation angle, the light will change as well, and you will find the different shape of it.” Da Vinci suddenly understood the purpose of his master. After then, Da Vinci accepted drawing eggs with an open mind which actually helped him built the fundation of further achievement.

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Mona Lisa is widely recognized and considered to be the most famous painting in the world. It is a half-length portrait and generally considered depicting a seated woman Lisa del Giocondo.
 * Well-known Painting Works **
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">**Mona Lisa**

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Through Leonardo Da Vinci’s meticulous observation and consummate painting skill, the demureness, beauty and status of the woman are perfectly demonstrated, especially the hands of the woman that are considered to be the most beautiful hands in the world. However, there are many different opinions about the identity of the portrait. For example, some people believe that the famous half-smile was a recovered memory of Leonardo's mother while others think it may be Leonardo himself.

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">The facial expression of the woman is frequently described as enigmatic, which is one of the elements that contribute to the continue fascination and study of this painting. The ambiguous smile of the woman seems to appear indistinctly. It has been said that the smile contains 83% happiness, 9% detestation, 6% fear and 2% anger.


 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">**The Last Supper**

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">The Last Supper is another well-known painting of Leonardo Da Vinci. It shows the last meal that Jesus shared with his Twelve Apostles before his crucifixion.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">The last supper painted by Leonardo Da Vinci is considered to be the most well-known one among all the paintings of this subject matter for its ingenious conception and excellent layout.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">The expression on faces like fear, anger, doubt and the gesture and the expression in eyes and the action of each person is depicted strikingly true to life. The consummate painting skill of Leonardo is clearly illustrated through this painitng.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Leonardo Da Vinci was not only famous as a painter but also a scrientist. He was rich in mechanical principles. He understood the principles governing momentum, centripetal force, friction and the aerofoil and applied these to his inventions.
 * <span class="mw-headline" style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 21px;">Practical inventions and projects **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">During his life, he had came up with a great deal of thoughts of inventions, like car, nuclear weapon, helicopter, tank and so on. With the knowledge of human's body, Da Vinci had even designed the first robort that looks like human in his manuscript. Unfortunately, many of Da Vinci's manuscript were not published until his death. As a result, Leonardo did not have many real inventions, but his creative idea and manuscript has shocked many scientists today. People amazingly find that the inventions painted by Leonardo on his manuscripts truly exist at present, which demonstrate Leonardo’s extraordinary superior consciousness.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 21px;">**C****onne****ctions to Anthem**

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">**Intelligence**

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Leonardo was apprenticed to the artist Andrea Del Verrocchio at the age of fourteen, and he started to stand out conspicuously while training in Verrocchio’s workshop.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">On the //Baptism of Christ//, the young angel on the left side was the only figure painted by Da Vinci but was so far superior to the other figures that are painted by his master, which led Verrocchio to never paint again.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Similarly, in //Anthem// written by Ayn Rand, learning is very easy to Equality since he is much smarter than his brothers and the teachers in the Home of the Students. However, Equality is not permitted to be superior to his brothers and the teachers in his society.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">**Background**

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">During the Middle Ages, people were all under the control of Christianity Church that everyone must see God as the absolute authority. Literature, art, philosophy and so on should all on the basis of the creed of Bible. No one could go against the God, otherwise the person would be imposed sanction by the court of church, even as death penalty.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">After the Middle Ages, there came the Renaissance. Leonardo Da Vinci and Galileo were the leading exponent of the Renaissance. Da Vinci kept striving for science all his life. His painting and manuscript that are great treasures left for the world.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Likewise, in Anthem, the society Equality lives in is absolutely under the control of different councils. People’s behaviour, words, feelings and even sexuality are restricted by a variety of rules and everyone should obey rules, otherwise they will receive punishments. Science and technology are at a standstill. (see council based society)

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Nevertheless, Equality breaks rules, does experiments, and gets new discovery and invention. What he does is like a revolution that is similar to the Renaissance. In the end, he establishes his own society and philosophy.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">**Spirit**

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Leonardo Da Vinci protested against the scholasticism which believed in the creeds and words from the past. He encouraged people to learn from the nature, to explore knowledge and truth from the nature. He believed that knowledge came from practice. Therefore, learning should be based on practice. We should explore the mysteries of science through practice.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Da Vinci strongly believed in science and abominated religion. He criticized Catholicism as “a shop that sells cheat and lie”. He said, there is only one truth, and it is not in the religion but in the science.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">In Anthem, Equality also demonstrates the same kind of idea. Equality loves science and likes doing experiments. He gets his discovery and invention through doing experiments.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Equality is also not resigned to councils. Although his invention is not recognized by the Council of scholars, he still insists on science and his idea.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">In addition, both Da Vinci and Equality have superior consciousness that they both think of things ahead of their society.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 21px;">**Relevant Links in Class**

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Ayn Rand -- The author of Anthem <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Science -- Introduction of science <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Gallileo -- Another person in the Renaissance <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Medieval European Society -- Further information about the Middle Ages <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Council Based Societies -- The society in Anthem


 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 21px;">References **

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<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 21px;">**<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 21px;">External Links **

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