Leonardo Da Vinci
By Francine Taran

The artist, the sculptor, the architect, the engineer, the inventor, the anatomist, the Renaissance man. Leonardo da Vinci is best known for his paintings, such as The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, however he was not limited to paint. His research and observations topics ranged from astronomy to zoology. He drew military apparatuses, water pumps, under water breathing devices, churches, and visions that he had dissected. Leonardo believed that "all sciences are vain and full of error..." and thus rejected received wisdom and in response to this denial introduced a new wisdom.

Leonardo had a unique approach to studying various subjects. He was a gatherer, not a scientist. He collected information, but never arrived at a conclusion. Once having gather the data, Leonardo would look into the object to gain understanding of its structure and its functions. He viewed things with an X-ray eye. Leonardo illustrated his search for the meaning of objects through drawing, for he believed that drawing was a more accurate conveyor of knowledge.

Leonardo focused on the practical, how things work. In his notebooks (which are thousands of pages of his most intellectual work), Leonardo described the body as "this machine of ours" and utilized vocabulary such as lever and pulleys while describing it. He was also hypnotized by the flight of birds and the flow of water. Observations of these actions led Leonardo to design sketches of an airplane and a helicopter (300 years before they were successfully made) and a system that joined a canal from Florence to the sear.

Leonardo manipulated perspective to illustrate spatial relations. He placed three dimensional images on two dimension canvases by creating a checkerboard pattern on the ground which stretched toward the line of horizon. Examples of this can be seen in The Annunciation to the Virgin and In Andrea del Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ. Leonardo's representation of perspective was the first step in the modern scientific outlook.

Leonardo was obsessed with the practical and the realistic. His art and his sketches display Leonardo's ingenious desire to record and observe the exterior appearance and the inner functions of the world.