LEONARDO DA VINCI - Born 1452,
Died 1519.
Leonardo da Vinci’s genius was unbounded by
time and technology. He was
the foremost thinker of his time, producing works and ideas that are
fascinating even today. He was one of the greatest scientists of
recorded history, as well as a great inventor and artist.
As a scientist, Da Vinci helped set an ignorant and superstitious world
on a course of scientific experimentation, reason, and learning. He
tried to find the “why” in
the way things worked so others could gain knowledge from his
findings. His curiosity led him to experiment in forbidden
areas,
such as human anatomy, so he sometimes wrote his notes backwards so
people could not read what he had been doing.
As an inventor, Leonardo designed various machines including a tank,
helicopter, parachute, catapult, machine gun, and many driven by
hydraulics. He believed that new and better machines could be built if
the designer understood the workings of all the parts that went
together to make the whole machine.
Da Vinci was probably best known as an artist. His paintings,
particularly the Mona Lisa, are known world wide. He defined and
developed linear perspective in paintings, making his paintings studies
in mathematical proportion as well as art. He experimented with new
techniques for making and applying paint. He used his artistic
abilities to explain his scientific
experiments and inventions, leaving many notebooks for us to
study. He
also created sculptures. His artworks helped define
the High
Renaissance style.
Da Vinci's analytic, visionary, and creative inventiveness has yet to
be matched. As a scientist, inventor, and artist, Leonardo da
Vinci
created ideas that we recognize and appreciate today.