Scientists have uncovered the secret of Leonardo da Vinci's genius. "the formation of a brilliant personality of a junior schoolchild on the example of the genius of the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci" You cannot call him an outstanding sculptor

Leonardo da Vinci - the future genius of the Renaissance, was born in 1452 and died in 1519. His father, Piero da Vinci, was a fairly wealthy landowner and notary, famous throughout Florence, but his mother, Caterina, was a simple peasant woman who became a fleeting whim of a wealthy lord.

In an official marriage, Piero had no children, and for this reason, Leonardo moved to his father and stepmother from the age of four, and his mother was hastily married to an ordinary peasant, giving her a decent dowry. The boy, being unusually handsome, had a rather friendly character and had an extraordinary mind. He immediately became a universal favorite and darling. His position in the family was greatly facilitated by the fact that the first two wives of Piero were childless, and the third wife, who came to the house of Leonardo's father, although she gave birth to her husband eleven children (nine boys and two girls), none of them shone "not with a sword , nor the mind.

When Leonardo da Vinci was 14 years old, he was accepted as an apprentice in the workshop of Verrocchio, and at the age of twenty he was already named a master. Leonardo greedily took on numerous subjects, but when he began to study them, he immediately stopped, including music: he skillfully played the lyre. However, most likely, he learned mostly from himself.

According to the memoirs of his contemporaries, Leonardo "sang his own improvisations absolutely divinely." And once he himself made a particularly beautiful lute, giving it a special shape in the form of a horse's head, decorated with silver. And when he began to play it, he surpassed even professional musicians at the court of the Duke of Sforza, "charming" the nobleman for life.

It seems that Leonardo was neither a Florentine nor an Italian, nor a child of his parents. Or maybe he was an unearthly person? Being the supergenius of the beginning of the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo was at the same time so strange that it arouses not even astonishment among scientists, but awe and confusion. Even a cursory glance at its capabilities brings a person into a state of shock: a mere mortal, even being especially talented, cannot be at the same time an artist, and a brilliant engineer, and a sculptor, and a chemist, and an inventor, and a physicist, and a scientist, and a philologist, and a visionary, and a musician, and an architect, and a swordsman, and a swimmer, and a rider, and many, many others. Leonardo's external data also do not leave indifferent: he was very tall, slender and so handsome from the face that he was nicknamed the "angel", while he was also very strong: being left-handed, he could easily crush the horseshoe with his right hand.

His mentality was very different from the level of his peers, contemporaries, and humanity in general. Leonardo almost did not express any emotions, which is inherent in ordinary people, he always kept absolute calm, completely in control of his feelings. On the contrary, he had a kind of cold insensibility. He was indifferent to human good and evil, did not show either love or hatred, to the beautiful and the ugly, studying all these features as something self-evident, external. For example, he did not hesitate to help the conquests of Caesar Borgia - this monster in the flesh.

And finally, Leonardo, according to eyewitnesses, was bisexual. Today it is already difficult to say why this beautiful young man, who first learned the secret of love with the most beautiful Florentine women, who went crazy from a tall handsome man, later preferred homosexuality. A certain denunciation document has survived to our time, in which Leonardo is accused of homosexuality, which was then considered forbidden. Who wishes to remain anonymous accuses da Vinci and three other men of active debauchery committed over 17-year-old Jacopo Saltarelli, who was the brother of a certain jeweler. All four were threatened with the death penalty - burning at the stake.

The first meeting of the court (held on April 9, 1476) at which evidence was required, yielded nothing for lack of such, so it was postponed to the seventh of July. On this day, the case was again investigated and a verdict of acquittal was delivered.

In the future, already being a master, da Vinci surrounded himself with students who were both smart and beautiful. And although, according to Freud, his love for his students was manifested only platonically, however, this does not always and not everyone seem plausible.

Who was Leonardo? Judging by his abilities and capabilities, he is definitely a superman. For example, the sketches of the flight of birds in his Diaries could only be done with slow motion. The diaries of Leonardo da Vinci amaze with their strange phrases: referring to himself as “you”, he gives himself orders and instructions as a slave or servant: “order yourself to show ...”, “you must show in your essay ...”.

It seems that two personalities coexisted in Leonardo at the same time: one of them was known to everyone for his friendliness, had some human weaknesses, and the other was very strange, secretive, unknown to anyone, and it was this second who controlled all his actions, giving orders.

One of da Vinci's abilities was the gift of foresight, which, quite possibly, was even stronger than that of Nostradamus. Not without interest is the fact that the frightening predictions of the future in the "Prophecies" by Leonardo da Vinci, which at first were just records, today have either already been the past, or this is our present. Da Vinci wrote: “People will be able to talk to each other from the most distant countries and cities, answer each other ...” - which is like not a telephone. “People will be able to walk without moving: to talk to those who are no longer there, and to hear those who cannot speak…” - sound reproduction, television. “People will personally and instantly be transported to various places, while not moving from their place ...” - a television image. “A person will see himself falling from great heights without any harm to him ...” - skydiving. “Numerous human lives will be ruined, and there will be countless holes on the ground…” - for sure, we are talking about explosions of bombs and shells. Leonardo da Vinci even predicted a flight into space: "Both water and land animals will rise to the stars ...".

“There will be many who will have their little children taken away and then quartered alive in the most cruel way!” - a distant indication that the children's organs are used in the donor bank.

Da Vinci used psychotechnical special exercises, which dated back to the esoteric practice of the Pythagoreans and modern concepts of neurolinguistics, to sharpen his perception of the world, developing his imagination and improving his memory.

One gets the impression that Leonardo knew perfectly well all the secrets of human consciousness, which is not yet fully realized even in modern people. For example, Leonardo slept not like all people for eight hours, but for fifteen minutes every 4 hours, i.e. reduced my sleep state to an hour and a half. So he could save 75% of his sleep time, which significantly lengthened his life from seventy to one hundred years! It was in the esoteric traditions that such methods were used, but they were always highly classified and, together with other mnemonic and psychotechniques, were never disclosed.

Almost all areas cover the discoveries and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci (and there are more than 50 of them!), fully foreseeing all the main stages in the development of modern civilization.

Here are some of them:

In 1499, for the arrival in Milan of the King of France, Louis XII, he designed and built a huge mechanical and wooden lion. The lion could take a few steps towards, and then his chest would swing open, and his insides would be shown, jam-packed "filled with lilies." Leonardo is credited with inventing flippers, the submarine, the steamboat, and the spacesuit. There is a manuscript in which he quite clearly proves the possibility of diving without a space suit to a sufficiently great depth using a special gas mixture, the secret of which he deliberately destroyed. To invent this mixture, one must be quite knowledgeable about the processes taking place in the human body, which at that time were completely unexplored, not to mention biochemistry in general!

It was Leonardo who first proposed installing firearm batteries on armored ships, it was he who developed the idea of an armadillo, invented a bicycle, a helicopter, a parachute, a glider, a tank, poison gases, a machine gun, a smoke screen and a magnifying glass, ahead of Galileo by as much as a hundred years. The inventions of Leonardo da Vinci are looms, textile machines, cranes, needle-making machines, arched bridges, swamp drainage pipe systems, etc. He also created drawings of levers, gates and screws for lifting heavy weights, something that did not exist in his time. Particularly striking is the fact that da Vinci describes in detail all these mechanisms and machines, although their creation at that time was impossible: after all, then the existence of ball bearings was not suspected, but Leonardo knew about it: the corresponding drawing was preserved as proof.

Sometimes it seems that Leonardo was just in a hurry to find out more in this one, collecting information. But what did he do with her? Leonardo da Vinci did not leave behind an answer to this question. Over time, even painting becomes less significant for him. The whole world knows the masterpieces he created, but I want to talk about one drawing that is stored in Windsor: this drawing depicts some kind of not quite earthly creature, whose facial features have been somewhat damaged over time, but the amazing beauty of this face is still noticeable. Particularly striking in this figure are very widely spaced huge eyes. And this was done deliberately, there is no mistake - these eyes seem to paralyze the beholder. It is generally accepted that this is a portrait of Beatrice, the secret lover of the great Dante, but there are no anatomically so built women on earth ...

No less strange is the "Portrait of himself, made in old age", which is stored in the Royal Library of the city of Turin. There is no date on the portrait, but according to experts, it was painted somewhere in 1512. This portrait is no less strange than the portrait of Beatrice: from different angles, Leonardo’s features and facial expression appear to the viewer in different ways, even photographs taken with a slight deviation of the lens show a completely different Leonardo - sometimes melancholy, sometimes arrogant, sometimes wise, sometimes indecisive , then a decrepit old man, then a man full of life, etc.

Leonardo da Vinci is known to mankind primarily as the author of brilliant and immortal works of painting, but his close friend Fra Novellara Pietrodella said that mathematics greatly alienated Leonardo from painting: just the mere sight of a brush already infuriated him. Contemporaries said that Leonardo was also an excellent magician and magician. He could create flames from a boiling liquid by pouring wine into the liquid; could break a cane with one blow, without breaking the glasses on which this cane was placed; slobber the end of the pen and write on paper in black. Everything that da Vinci did impressed his contemporaries so much that they believed that he was serving "black magic", especially since there were constantly quite strange and dubious personalities around him, such as Giovanni Tomaso Masini, who called himself Zoroaster de Peretola, who was at the same time an adherent of the secret sciences, and a mechanic, and a jeweler.

Leonardo da Vinci was an active person, he traveled a lot, until his death. From 1513, for six years, he lived alternately in Rome, then in Pavia, then in Bologna, then in France. In France, he died in May 1519. According to his contemporaries, he died in the arms of the King of France, Francis I. Dying, he asked for forgiveness from both God and people for the fact that "he could not do for art all that he could still do."

Leonardo da Vinci is considered one of the talented artists of the Italian Renaissance, but the latter is by no means true: Leonardo da Vinci is unique! Never, neither before him, nor even after history has known such a versatile and brilliant person in everything! So who was the great Leonardo?

In his book The Brain of Leonardo, Leonard Shlein, MD, tries to understand the phenomenon of Leonardo da Vinci's exceptionalism and understand how he managed to achieve intellectual and creative development of such magnitude.

We are publishing a chapter in which the scientist compares the art of da Vinci with the works of the Impressionists, Abstractionists and contemporary artists.

The first to resurrect Leonardo's ideas after a period of almost 500 years, during which artists were subject to strict rules of perspective, composition and choice of subject and objects for the image, was Édouard Manet. Manet found himself at the forefront of a new generation of artists who gained their skills outside the influential French Academy of Fine Arts.

In 1859, the 27-year-old artist stood in front of his paintings and destroyed everything he had created up to that point. To his stunned friends, he declared: "From now on, I will belong to my time and work only with what I see." However, his new works were very poorly received. Most critics, with a few exceptions, spoke harshly of them, calling them ugly and clumsy.

In France at that time, the artist's success depended heavily on whether he managed to get from the hands of the venerable gray-bearded elders of the Academy, who were on the jury of the annual Paris Salon, the cherished opportunity to present his work at this long-awaited public event.

Change was already in the air, and many young artists openly criticized the selection process, suspecting that the jury was strongly opposed to them. In 1863, outraged by the constant rejections, a group of young artists defiantly organized their own exhibition, called the Salon of the Rejected.

Édouard Manet, Breakfast on the Grass

Manet presented several major works on it, but his painting "Breakfast on the Grass" took center stage. It was an extremely shocking canvas. Manet depicted his favorite model, Victorine Meran, sitting nonchalantly on a picnic blanket, completely naked, and staring shamelessly at the viewer. Beside her, two men in business suits are talking about something.

Moreover, they not only do not notice a naked woman nearby, but do not even look at each other. Critics smashed the picture to smithereens. People came and laughed at her. Despite this, "Breakfast on the Grass" attracted the most viewers and received a lot of reviews in the press. Critics reproached the picture that it was not picturesque and did not carry any moral, mythological, historical or religious idea.

Among other artistic sins, Manet noted the failure to follow the rules for constructing perspective. Given the perspective, it turned out that the growth of a bathing woman should have been about three meters. In addition, Manet was too loose with the direction of the light source and the position of the shadows. Critics attributed this to the lack of a classical education at the Academy of Fine Arts or to a lack of talent.

However, in fact, Manet was a skilled draftsman and knew perfectly well all the subtleties of the image of perspective. He deliberately did not use them to draw interest in the picture. The attitude to the distortion of perspective makes Manet related to Leonardo. Both artists were well aware that optical tricks can add drama to the picture. In this sense, both artists, each in their own time, marked the beginning and end of an era of perspective in Western art.

Art history books repeatedly describe the hype around Luncheon on the Grass, but few people know that Manet posted an equally outrageous work on the adjacent wall: Mademoiselle V. in a matador costume (1862). Visitors to the exhibition walked from one wall to another, and the juxtaposition of the same model in the nude and dressed in a man's suit, while the most macho of all conceivable, strengthened their impression. (As we shall see, Leonardo also exploited the device of sexual indeterminacy.)

This was not enough for Mana: he increased the confusion of the audience by depriving his matador of support under his feet. Judging by the background, she is in the bullring, but the picture does not show exactly where Mademoiselle is standing. It looks like she's almost floating in the air! In many paintings, Manet depicted a solitary figure - and also with minimal or inconsistent hints of perspective (Flute Player, Woman with a Parrot, and Dead Toreador). Just as in the case of a portrait of a female matador, looking at these canvases, the viewer cannot determine exactly what the relative position of the foreground and background figures is.

The last picture of Leonardo, John the Baptist (it will be discussed in detail in one of the following chapters), completely devoid of a background, does not at all allow us to determine where the saint stands. After Leonardo, before Manet, there were no artists who depicted figures without a background.

Edouard Manet, "Mademoiselle V. dressed as Espada"; Leonardo da Vinci, John the Baptist

In the early 1870s, the ability to carry paint with you and the invention of the folding easel led the French painter Claude Monet to abandon the studio and go into nature to paint his objects and landscapes en plein air (French: en plein air - "outdoors" ). This change in work environment was truly revolutionary.

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He understood that, depicting a mountain from only one angle, one cannot convey its beauty. From 1890 until his death in 1906, Cezanne created a series of views of the mountain from different angles. The impression of combining all these paintings was to allow the viewer to get a holistic view of the mountain.

None of the Western artists had previously tried to show different sides of the same object in this way. Nobody but one. Four centuries earlier, Leonardo had figured out a way to do this. In his anatomical drawing, he placed successive images of the same shoulder from different angles.

Paul Cezanne, Mount Sainte-Victoire

The artist Wassily Kandinsky, who was born in Russia and lived in Europe, proposed a new approach that became the leading one in the art of the 20th century. As is often the case in art and science, he owed his discovery to a happy accident, but the breakthrough that followed was prepared by the fact that people were already ready to look at the world in a new way.

In 1910, working alone in his studio, Kandinsky desperately tried to bring the image on canvas closer to the image that was in his head. Finally, frustrated, he decided to take a break and go for a walk. For no particular reason, before leaving, he laid the painting on its side.

Wassily Kandinsky, "Transverse Line"

Returning later, Kandinsky, immersed in thoughts on some extraneous topic, lingered at the door of the studio and, looking up, suddenly saw his unfinished work. For a moment he stood, puzzled, not recognizing the picture. Then he remembered that before leaving, he himself turned it 90 °.

On reflection, Kandinsky realized that he was fascinated by the state when he could not understand what was depicted in the picture. He experimented with the canvas, either placing it correctly or turning it sideways down. Finally, Kandinsky concluded that a picture becomes more interesting when a familiar image is not guessed in it. This is how abstract art was born.

Leonardo was also interested in the peculiarities of abstract drawing. In his treatise on painting, which was published only in 1651, he wrote about the method of "stimulating the mind of the painter to new inventions." He advised artists: this happens if you look at walls stained with different stains, or stones from a different mixture. If you need to invent some locality, you can see there the semblance of various landscapes, decorated with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, vast plains, valleys and hills in the most various ways; besides, you can see various battles there, quick movements of strange figures, facial expressions, clothes, and an infinite number of such things that you can reduce to a whole and good form; with walls and mixtures like this, the same thing happens as with the ringing of a bell - in its strokes you will find any name or word that you can imagine.

After World War II, a new type of abstract artist emerged in the United States. Jackson Pollock, the ideologue and one of the leading authors of abstract expressionism, set himself a daunting task: to capture on canvas the essence of the process of creating a picture. The process of painting involves an artist who holds a brush or something similar in his hand and methodically applies stroke after stroke to the surface. And how to reflect the essence of the movement on the canvas, which ultimately remains static? Pollock's solution was truly ingenious: he abandoned the use of brushes, and stretched the canvas on the floor. The artist made the usual neat movement of the brush and fingers sweeping: he sprayed, poured and threw paint on canvas. The result was a colored pattern, which, despite all its randomness, had some strange integrity and beauty.

Critics praised the revolutionary achievements of the abstractionists, noting that no Western artist had previously ventured into this area. But are they missing something important? Towards the end of his life, Leonardo began to experiment with art devoid of familiar images.

Being depressed due to numerous failures, health problems and other troubles, Leonardo began to think about what would happen when the end of the world came. He began a series of apocalyptic ink drawings depicting a great flood washing away all the evil that, according to Leonardo, is inextricably intertwined with humanity.

In these fantastic drawings, Leonardo blurs the line between objects and relief. The walls of falling water that flood the world in these drawings turn out to be surprisingly similar to Pollock's "Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)". Moreover, Leonardo advised other artists to throw a sponge soaked in paint at the wall, anticipating Pollock's method.

Jackson Pollock, "Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)"; Leonardo da Vinci, "The Flood"

Leonardo left behind a huge number of unfinished works. Art historians have many plausible hypotheses about this strange habit. One of these conjectures could not come to mind until the advent of the era of modern art. If the work on the canvas is incomplete, the viewer can invent it with the help of his imagination.

He seemed to know the evolutionary keys to the mysteries of the human psyche. So, one of the secrets of Leonardo da Vinci was a special sleep formula: he slept for 15 minutes every 4 hours, thus reducing his daily sleep from 8 to 1.5 hours. Thanks to this, the genius immediately saved 75 percent of his sleep time, which actually lengthened his life time from 70 to 100 years!

"The picture of the painter will be little perfect if he takes the pictures of others as an inspirer; if he learns from the objects of nature, then he will produce a good fruit ..."

Painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, scientist, all this is Leonardo da Vinci. Wherever such a person turns, his every action is so divine that, leaving behind him all other people, he is something given to us by God, and not acquired by human art. Leonardo da Vinci. Great, mysterious, attractive. So distant and so modern. Like a rainbow, bright, mosaic, multi-colored fate of the master. His life is full of wanderings, meetings with amazing people and events. How much has been written about him, how much has been published, but it will never be enough. The mystery of Leonardo begins with his birth, in 1452 on April 15 in a town west of Florence. He was the illegitimate son of a woman about whom almost nothing is known. We do not know her last name, age, or appearance, we do not know whether she was smart or stupid, whether she studied or not. Biographers call her a young peasant woman. Let it be so. Much more is known about Leonardo's father, Piero da Vinci, but also not enough. He was a notary and came from a family that settled in Vinci at least in the thirteenth century. Leonardo was brought up in his father's house. His education evidently was that of any boy from a good family who lives in a small town: reading, writing, beginning mathematics, Latin. His handwriting is amazing, He writes from right to left, the letters are reversed so that the text is easier to read with a mirror. In later years, he was fond of botany, geology, observing the flight of birds, the play of sunlight and shadow, the movement of water. All this testifies to his curiosity and also to the fact that in his youth he spent a lot of time in the fresh air, walking around the outskirts of the town. These neighborhoods, which have changed little over the past five hundred years, are now almost the most picturesque in Italy. The father noticed and taking into account the high flight of his son's talent in art, one fine day selected several of his drawings, took them to Andrea Verrocchio, who was his great friend, and urged him to say whether Leonardo would achieve any success by taking up drawing. . Struck by the huge inclinations that he saw in the drawings of the novice Leonardo, Andrea supported Ser Piero in his decision to devote him to this matter and immediately agreed with him that Leonardo enter his studio, which Leonardo did more than willingly and began to practice not only in one area, but in all those where the drawing enters.

Picture Madonna in the grotto. 1483-86

In nature, everything is wisely thought out and arranged, everyone should mind their own business, and in this wisdom is the highest justice of life. Leonardo da Vinci

Painting Mona Lisa (La Gioconda). 1503-04

By 1514 - 1515 refers to the creation of the masterpiece of the great master - the painting of the Mona Lisa. Until recently, it was thought that this portrait was written much earlier, in Florence, around 1503. They believed the story of Vasari, who wrote: “Leonardo undertook to complete for Francesco del Gioconde a portrait of Monna Lisa, his wife, and after working on it for four years, left it incomplete. This work is now with the French king in Fontainebleau. By the way, Leonardo resorted to the following trick: since the Madonna Lisa was very beautiful, while writing a portrait, he kept people who played the lyre or sang, and here constantly there were jesters who kept her cheerful and removed the melancholy that painting usually imparts to portraits.

Where the spirit does not guide the hand of the artist, there is no art.

Picture Madonna with a flower (Madonna Benois). 1478

Thinking that I was learning to live, I learned to die.

Picture Madonna Litta. 1490

Painting "Madonna with pomegranate". 1469

Picture Madonna. 1510

Picture Lady with an ermine. 1483-90

Painting Portrait of Ginevra de Benci. 1474-76

Picture of the Annunciation. 1472-75

The Last Supper. 1498

Picture of John the Baptist. 1513-16

Woman's head. 1500?

"Vitruvian Man" 1487

Virgin Mary with child and St. Anna

Portrait of a musician

The greatest scientist of his time, Leonardo da Vinci enriched almost all areas of knowledge with insightful observations and conjectures. But how surprised a genius would be if he knew that many of his inventions were used even 555 years after his birth. Oddly enough, only one invention of da Vinci received recognition during his lifetime - a wheel lock for a pistol that was wound up with a key. At first, this mechanism was not very common, but by the middle of the 16th century it had gained popularity among the nobles, especially in the cavalry, which even affected the design of the armor: Maximilian armor for firing pistols began to be made with gloves instead of mittens. The wheel lock for a pistol, invented by Leonardo da Vinci, was so perfect that it continued to be found in the 19th century. But, as often happens, recognition of geniuses comes centuries later: many of his inventions were supplemented and modernized, and are now used in everyday life. For example, Leonardo da Vinci created a device capable of compressing air and driving it through pipes. This invention has a very wide range of applications: from kindling stoves to ... ventilation of rooms. He was educated at home, masterfully played the lyre, was the first to explain why the sky is blue and the moon is so bright, was ambidexterous and suffered from dyslexia. He masters several drawing techniques: Italian pencil, silver pencil, sanguine, pen. In 1472, Leonardo was accepted into the guild of painters - the guild of St. Luke, but remained to live in Verrocchio's house. He opened his own workshop in Florence between 1476 and 1478. On April 8, 1476, Leonardo da Vinci was accused of being a sadome by a denunciation and arrested along with three friends. At that time in Florence sadomea was a crime, and the highest punishment was burning at a stake. Judging by the records of that time, many doubted the guilt of Leonardo, neither the accuser nor the witnesses were ever found. The fact that among those arrested was the son of one of the nobles of Florence probably helped to avoid a harsh sentence: there was a trial, but the guilty were released after a slight flogging. In 1482, having received an invitation to the court of the ruler of Milan, Lodovico Sforza, Leonardo da Vinci unexpectedly left Florence. Lodovico Sforza was considered the most hated tyrant in Italy, but Leonardo decided that Sforza would be a better patron for him than the Medici, who ruled in Florence and disliked Leonardo. Initially, the duke took him as the organizer of court holidays, for which Leonardo invented not only masks and costumes, but also mechanical "miracles". Magnificent holidays worked to increase the glory of Duke Lodovico. For a salary less than that of a court dwarf, in the Duke's castle, Leonardo acted as a military engineer, hydraulic engineer, court painter, and later - an architect and engineer. At the same time, Leonardo "worked for himself", doing several areas of science and technology at the same time, but he was not paid for most of the work, since Sforza did not pay any attention to his inventions. In 1484-1485, about 50 thousand inhabitants of Milan died from the plague. Leonardo da Vinci, who considered the reason for this the overcrowding of the city and the dirt that reigned in the narrow streets, suggested that the duke build a new city. According to Leonardo's plan, the city was to consist of 10 districts of 30 thousand inhabitants each, each district had to have its own sewage system, the width of the narrowest streets had to be equal to the average height of a horse (a few centuries later, the London State Council recognized the proportions proposed by Leonardo as ideal and gave the order to follow them when laying out new streets). The design of the city, like many other technical ideas of Leonardo, was rejected by the duke. Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned to found an academy of arts in Milan. For teaching, he compiled treatises on painting, light, shadows, movement, theory and practice, perspective, movements of the human body, proportions of the human body. In Milan, the Lombard school, consisting of students of Leonardo, arises. In 1495, at the request of Lodovico Sforza, Leonardo began to paint his "Last Supper" on the wall of the refectory of the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. On July 22, 1490, Leonardo settled young Giacomo Caprotti in his house (later he began to call the boy Salai - "Demon"). Whatever the young man did, Leonardo forgave him everything. Relations with Salai were the most constant in the life of Leonardo da Vinci, who had no family (he did not want a wife or children), and after his death, Salai inherited many of Leonardo's paintings.
After the fall of Lodovik Sforza, Leonardo da Vinci left Milan. In different years he lived in Venice (1499, 1500), Florence (1500-1502, 1503-1506, 1507), Mantua (1500), Milan (1506, 1507-1513), Rome (1513-1516). In 1516 (1517) he accepted the invitation of Francis I and left for Paris. Leonardo da Vinci did not like to sleep for a long time, he was a vegetarian. According to some testimonies, Leonardo da Vinci was beautifully built, possessed great physical strength, had good knowledge in the arts of chivalry, horseback riding, dancing, fencing. In mathematics, he was attracted only by what can be seen, therefore, for him, it primarily consisted of geometry and the laws of proportion. Leonardo da Vinci tried to determine the coefficients of sliding friction, studied the resistance of materials, was engaged in hydraulics, modeling. The areas that Leonardo da Vinci was interested in were acoustics, anatomy, astronomy, aeronautics, botany, geology, hydraulics, cartography, mathematics, mechanics, optics, weapon design, civil and military construction, and city planning. Leonardo da Vinci died on May 2, 1519 at the Château de Cloux near Amboise (Touraine, France).

If you happened to fly, then henceforth you will walk the earth, turning your eyes to the sky, because there you were and you will always strive to go there.

Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo da Vinci is a genius whose inventions belong undividedly to both the past, present and future of mankind. He lived ahead of his time, and if at least a small part of what he invented was brought to life, then the history of Europe, and possibly the world, would be different: already in the 15th century we would have been driving cars and crossing the seas on submarines. Leonardo da Vinci enriched almost all areas of knowledge with insightful observations and conjectures. But how surprised a genius would be if he knew that many of his inventions are used even centuries after his birth.

I present to your attention a couple of inventions of Leonard da Vinci: Military equipment, Aircraft, Hydraulics, Various mechanisms.

The most daring dream of Leonardo the inventor, without a doubt, was the flight of man. One of the very first (and most famous) sketches on this topic is a diagram of the device, which in our time is considered to be the prototype of a helicopter. Leonardo proposed to make a propeller with a diameter of 5 meters from thin flax soaked in starch. It was supposed to be driven by four people rotating levers in a circle. Modern experts argue that the muscular strength of four people would not be enough to lift this device into the air (especially since even if it were lifted, this structure would begin to rotate around its axis), but if, for example, a powerful spring were used as an "engine" , such a "helicopter" would be capable of flying - albeit a short one.

After a long and careful study of bird flight, which he began during his stay in Milan, Leonardo designed in 1490, and possibly built the first model of an aircraft. This model had wings like a bat, and with its help, using the muscular efforts of the arms and legs, a person had to fly. Now we know that in such a formulation the problem is unsolvable, because the muscular energy of a person is not enough for flight.

The drawing of the device turned out to be prophetic, which Leonardo himself described as follows: "If you have enough linen fabric sewn into a pyramid with a base of 12 yards (about 7 m 20 cm), then you can jump from any height without any harm to your body" .

The figure shows an underwater breathing apparatus with details of the air intake and exhaust valves.

Swimming webbed gloves. To speed up swimming, the scientist developed a scheme of webbed gloves, which eventually turned into well-known flippers.

Diving suit. The project of Leonardo's diving suit was connected with the problem of finding a person underwater. The suit was made from waterproof leather. It was supposed to have a large breast pocket that was filled with air to increase its volume, which made it easier for the diver to get to the surface. The diver at Leonardo was equipped with a flexible breathing tube.

Life buoy. One of the most necessary things for teaching a person to swim is a life buoy. This invention of Leonardo remained practically unchanged.

Water walking system Leonardo's water walking system included swimming boots and poles.

Optics was popular in Leonardo's time and even had a philosophical connotation. Here are several machines for making mirrors and lenses. The second one from the top is for making concave mirrors, the third one is for polishing them, the fourth one is for the production of flat mirrors. The first and last machines make it possible to grind mirrors and lenses, making their surface smooth, at the same time converting rotational motion into alternating. Also known is the project (performed by Leonardo between 1513 and 1516 during his stay in Rome) of a large parabolic mirror with many facets. It was conceived to heat laundry boilers by concentrating solar energy.

It is better to be motionless than tired of being useful.

Leonardo da Vinci.

Milan's Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology is the largest in Europe. Leonardo da Vinci is famous for creating the ideal image of a person and expressing the ideal of female beauty in his painting "Mona Lisa" painted in 1503. Leonardo da Vinci, more often known only as an artist, was a genius who made numerous discoveries, developed innovative projects, and conducted research in the field of exact and natural sciences, including mathematics and mechanics. Leonardo handwritten more than 7 thousand sheets in the process of developing his projects. Leonardo da Vinci made discoveries and guesses in almost all areas of knowledge, and his notes and sketches are considered as sheets from a natural-philosophical encyclopedia. He became the founder of a new natural science, which made conclusions on the basis of experiments. Leonardo's favorite subject was mechanics, which he called "the paradise of the mathematical sciences." Leonardo believed that by unraveling the laws of mechanics, one can learn the secrets of the universe. Having devoted a lot of time to the study of bird flight, he became the designer and creator of some aircraft and parachutes. Once in the Leonardo da Vinci Museum, you will plunge into the world of interesting discoveries that will make you think about the infinity and ingenuity of the human mind.

What was Leonardo not fond of! Incredibly, even cooking and table setting were among his interests. In Milan for 13 years he was the manager of court feasts. Leonardo invented several culinary devices that make life easier for cooks. This is a device for chopping nuts, a bread slicer, a corkscrew for left-handers, as well as a mechanical garlic crusher "Leonardo", which Italian chefs still use to this day. In addition, he invented an automatic spit for frying meat, a kind of propeller was attached to the spit, which was supposed to rotate under the action of heated air streams going up from the fire. A rotor was attached to a number of drives with a long rope, the forces were transmitted to the skewer using belts or metal spokes. The hotter the oven heated, the faster the spit rotated, which protected the meat from burning. The original dish "from Leonardo" - thinly sliced meat stewed with vegetables laid on top - was very popular at court feasts.
Leonardo da Vinci is a brilliant artist, a wonderful experimenter and an outstanding scientist who embodied in his work all the most progressive trends of the Renaissance. Everything in him is amazing: the absolutely extraordinary versatility, and the power of thought, and scientific inquisitiveness, and the practical mindset, and technical ingenuity, and the richness of artistic imagination, and the outstanding skill of the painter, draftsman and sculptor. Having reflected in his work the most progressive aspects of the Renaissance, he became that great, truly folk artist, whose historical significance far outgrew the boundaries of his era. He looked not to the past, but to the future.

Leonardo da Vinci belongs to those people who are rightfully called the titans of the Renaissance. The diversity of his interests and talents is amazing. Striving for excellence in painting, he studied anatomy; trying to achieve success in engineering, he proposed many inventions that were ahead of their time by several centuries, drawing material for them in wildlife. For the construction of bridges and statues, he used mathematics, which he also believed in music. Leonardo seemed to be a living embodiment of the idea of a universal human ideal of the Italian Renaissance. He was called the servant of the devil and the divine spirit, the Italian Faust and the sorcerer. So who was he?

The full name of the genius sounds like this: Leonardo, son of Mr. Piero of Vinci. But he was born, perhaps not in this Florentine town itself, but nearby, in the village of Anchiano on April 15, 1452. His parents, the young notary Piero and the peasant woman Catarina, were not married, and soon entered into marriage alliances with other people. For several years the boy was raised by his mother, and then the father took his son to his family. It is believed that Leonardo tried all his life to recreate the image of his mother in his paintings. His father tried to introduce Leonardo to jurisprudence, but soon realized that the boy had a different fate, and gave him as an apprentice to the famous Florentine artist Verrocchio. In 1480, Leonardo already had his own workshop. Two years later he was invited to Milan, to the court of Lodovico Sforza.

Here he began work on the equestrian monument of Francesco Sforza. In 1495-1498. created the famous fresco "The Last Supper" in the monastery of Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan.
Times were turbulent, due to dynastic strife, the country turned out to be a battlefield for many years. In 1499, Milan was captured by French troops, and the model of the Sforza monument
was badly damaged. In 1502, Leonardo offered his services as an architect and military engineer to Cardinal Cesare Borgia, but a year later he returned to Milan to serve the French king Louis XII, who controlled northern Italy at that time.

In 1512 Leonardo moved to Rome, under the auspices of Pope Leo X. And in 151 b, he accepted the invitation of the new king of France, Francis I, and moved to France, where he died three years later.
years later. He was buried in the castle of Amboise. An inscription was embossed on his tombstone: “In the walls of this monastery lies the ashes of Leonardo of Vinci, the greatest artist, engineer and architect of the French kingdom.”

So France considered the genius her own. Thanks to this move, it was in France that perhaps the most mysterious painting by Leonardo, Mona Lisa, or La Gioconda, turned out to be. The artist Jogio Vasari reports that in 1503 the Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo commissioned Leonardo to paint a portrait of his wife, Lisa Gherardini. For some unknown reason, Leonardo did not give the painting to the customer, but took it with him to France. They try to explain this act by the fact that the painting does not depict the Mona Lisa at all. They think that this is Catherine Sforza, the daughter of the Duke of Milan, the Marquis of Mantua Isabella d'Este, or the Duchess of Costanza d'Avalos, the beloved of Giuliano de' Medici, who, after his marriage to Filiberta of Savoy, gave the portrait back to Leonardo. They also think that the artist generally depicted an ideal woman in order to embody his ideas expressed in a treatise on painting. A friend of the very common version of Gioconda is a self-portrait of Leonardo himself. However, most likely, he nevertheless painted the Mona Lisa, because today people belonging to the same genus are alive, very similar to her.

But in any case, this picture, like other works of the great artist, testifies to his invaluable contribution to art. Leonardo realized and implemented a new painting technique, including the reproduction of a sfumato haze between the viewer and the depicted object, softening color contrasts and lines. However, this was only one of the facets of his talent. Leonardo himself considered himself first and foremost an engineer. True, only one of his inventions was recognized during his lifetime - a wheel lock for a pistol. The old design led to the appearance of open fire. This unmasked the shooter. Leonardo invented a trigger with a clamped piece of flint, a wheel was located under the trigger. A spring was started with a special key, after pressing the hook, the wheel was set in motion, the trigger fell on it, and a spark appeared as a result of friction.

Leonardo da Vinci was also interested in the problems of flight. At first, Leonardo hoped to develop the design of wings driven by human muscle power.

However, the experiments were unsuccessful. Then he came to the idea of building an airplane, where a person would have more freedom of action. Leonardo lacked only one thing: the idea of a motor with sufficient power. Leonardo da Vinci worked on a vertical takeoff and landing apparatus. On the vertical "ornithopter" Leonardo planned to place a system of retractable ladders. Nature served as an example. He wrote: “look at the stone swift, which sat down on the ground and cannot take off because of its short
legs; and when he is in flight, pull out the ladder, as shown in the second image from the top ... that one must take off from the plane; these ladders serve as legs ... To see flying with four wings, go to the ditches of the Milan fortress, and you will see black dragonflies.

But not only this occupied a genius. In 1485, after a terrible plague in Milan, Leonardo proposed to the authorities a project of an ideal city. The city was to consist of 10 districts of 30 thousand inhabitants, each district was to have its own sewage system, the width of the narrowest streets was to be equal to the average height of a horse. Lodovico Sforza rejected the project. But after several centuries, the authorities of London recognized the proportions proposed by Leonardo as ideal and gave the order to follow them when laying out new streets. And not so long ago, a bridge was built in Norway according to the project of Leonardo, which he offered to the Turkish Sultan Bayazet in 1501.

These are just a few examples from Leonardo's vast legacy. He did not publish his work himself. He left numerous sketches, drawings, notes on painting, engineering, natural science, philosophical reasoning. After the death of the master, his friend and student Francesco Melydi chose passages related to painting, from which the “Treatise on Painting” was subsequently compiled. After the death of Francesco Melzi, the manuscripts disappeared. A few centuries later, scattered fragments began to appear here and there. And not immediately the descendants realized that all these notes on different fields of knowledge belong to one person. To date, more than 9 thousand pages are known, written by Leonardo's hand. Is its versatility an unsolvable mystery?

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Quotes: 1. Happiness goes to those who work hard. 2. Simplicity is the hardest thing in the world; this is the extreme limit of experience and the last effort of genius. 3. There are three kinds of people: those who see; those who see when they are shown; and those who do not see. 4. If you stock up on patience and show diligence, then the seeds of knowledge sown will certainly give good shoots. The root of learning is bitter, but the fruit is sweet. 5. Where the spirit does not guide the hand of the artist, there is no art. Where the thought does not work together with the hand, there is no artist. 6. When criticizing, criticize the opinion, not its author. 7. Iron rusts without finding a use for itself, stagnant water rots or freezes in the cold, and the mind of a person, not finding a use for itself, withers. 8. Painting is poetry that is seen, and poetry is painting that is felt. 9. Who can go to the source, should not go to the jug. 10. The eye is less mistaken than the mind.

Achievements:

Professional, social position: Leonardo is a great Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, engineer and scientist, inventor, anatomist, botanist, musician, writer, philosopher and polymath.
Main contribution (what is known): Leonardo is the most multi-talented person who has ever lived on earth and is universally recognized as the most versatile genius of all time. His wide range of interests and abilities make him an archetype of the Renaissance man. He was the founder of the High Renaissance style and had a huge impact on both his contemporaries and contemporary artists. Author of the Mona Lisa (Gioconda) and the Last Supper.
Contributions:
Artist and sculptor. Leonardo was, and is currently known, primarily as an artist. At the same time, he is unanimously recognized as one of the greatest artists of all time.
One of Leonardo's early works was a portrait of Ginevra de Benci (1474-1478), which was painted in a Florentine workshop during his apprenticeship with Andrea Verrocchio. In 1478 Leonardo became an independent master. His first work was an altarpiece for the chapel of the Palazzo Vecchio, in the Florentine town hall, which was never completed. Among his early works were the Annunciation (1475-80), the so-called Benois Madonna (1478). His first large painting, The Adoration of the Magi, which he began in 1481, was also left unfinished because he moved to Milan the following year.
Working in Milan during the period (1482-1499), Leonardo produced some of his most famous works. He was commissioned to paint the Madonna in the Grotto for the Brotherhood of the Immaculate Conception. There are two different paintings with almost the same subject, one of which is now in the Louvre, was painted in 1483-1486 and the other in the National Gallery in London (1495-1508). In 1485, Leonardo created the "Vitruvian Man", which today is regarded as a cultural icon. In the years 1488-1490, Leonardo da Vinci painted his most famous paintings - the Lady with an Ermine and the Madonna Litta. Leonardo's famous fresco The Last Supper for the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan was begun in 1495 and completed in 1498.
When Leonardo returned to Florence in 1500, he created some of his most outstanding masterpieces. In his works of these years, he focused on the depiction of human life force, such as in the painting Leda and the Swan (1502). His great work is Mona Lisa (c. 1503 - 1506), representing a portrait of the wife of a Florentine merchant. The mysterious and ambiguous half-smile of the Mona Lisa is one of the distinguishing features of the picture.
This work, along with The Last Supper, is regarded as the most famous and outstanding masterpiece of all time.
Among the paintings he produced during this period were the Madonna and Child with Saint Anne (1508-1509) and Bacchus (1513-1515). These works are an example of Leonardo's new misty-sfumato style, representing subtle transitions of tones. In 1513 he created an enigmatic painting of the young St. John the Baptist, as well as one of his most famous drawings, Self-portrait (c. 1510-13).
Although only about fifteen of his completed paintings survive, they are all considered world masterpieces. These few surviving works, together with his diaries, which contained drawings, scientific diagrams, and thoughts on the nature of painting, influenced subsequent generations of artists. His works on art approved the ideals of representation and expression in painting, laid down the standards of three-dimensional art, the rules for creating a drawing and working with space, depicting landscapes, as well as light and shadow.
Unfortunately, none of his sculptural projects was completed and actually realized in the form in which he was conceived.
He is world famous for his paintings. The Last Supper» and especially "Mona Lisa" (La Gioconda).
Leonardo was very fond of this work and took it with him on all his travels. The Mona Lisa, like many of his paintings, included landscape and the use of aerial perspective. Leonardo was one of the first artists to introduce aerial perspective into art.
There is a story about the writing of The Last Supper. Leonardo was the first to draw Jesus. A few years later, Leonardo found a degraded criminal as a model for Judas, not realizing that it was the same person. But there is no evidence that Leonardo actually used the same sitter.
Architect. Leonardo created the project "Ideal City" (1484), two-level bridges across the river, an arched bridge, a project for a church with a central dome.
Inventor. Leonardo is known for his unique talent as an inventor. He created a large number of ingenious inventions, including: a submarine, a tank, a bicycle, a robot, a searchlight, a magnifying glass, devices for concentrating solar energy, a calculator, a mechanical grill, mobile homes, a spacesuit and fins.
Some of his sketches were anticipations of modern inventions such as the helicopter, glider, hang glider, airplane, and parachute. His aircraft embodied the rational principles of aerodynamics, which he developed after carefully studying the flight of birds.
In the field of mechanics, he created projects, rolling machines, metallurgical furnaces, a printing press, a crane, woodworking equipment, looms.
Few of his projects were possible during his lifetime, but some of his smaller inventions, such as automated coil winders and wire tensile testing machines, were created.
Scientist. Leonardo pursued scientific research throughout his life and as a result greatly enriched the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy, geology, botany, architecture, mechanics, optics, mathematics and fluid dynamics.
In anatomy, he studied blood circulation and the action of the eye. He made detailed drawings of the structure of the human body, which are highly valued today. Leonardo described many of the properties of vision, such as "irradiation", which is when light objects appear larger than dark ones.
He made discoveries in the field of meteorology and geology, described the influence of the moon on the tides, outlined the basic tectonic theory of plates, laid the foundations for the modern understanding of the formation of continents, and revealed the nature of fossil shells.
He was one of the originators of the science of hydraulics and probably developed the hydrometer, and his innovative designs for canals and irrigation systems are still in use today. His numerous experiments in hydraulic engineering allowed him to accurately describe the equilibrium of fluids in communicating vessels. In botany, he proposed a description of the laws of phyllotaxy, heliotropism and geotropism, a description of the method for determining the age of plants by the structure of stems, and trees by annual rings.
Philosopher. Leonardo was also a genius and idiosyncratic philosopher and mystic. Leonardo's paintings are full of philosophical and spiritual reflections, and some of his canvases and notes contain mysterious riddles. So, to sharpen the perception of the world and develop the imagination, Leonardo created riddles and predictions: “People will talk to each other from the most distant countries and answer each other” (Internet, telephone). Invisible money will go to many who will spend it on a celebration. (Electronic money transfers). Leonardo also suggested an original method for activating the imagination: “In order to excite the mind, contemplate the walls covered with shapeless spots. Try to find mountain landscapes, trees, battles and faces in them." His scientific theories, like his artistic innovations, were based on careful scientific observation. He believed that the power of perception and the ability to sketch the observations received are the universal key to the secrets of nature.
Main works: Portrait of Ginevra de Benci (1474-1478), Annunciation (1475-1480), Benois Madonna (Madonna with a Carnation) (1478-1480), Adoration of the Magi (1481), Madonna in the Grotto (Louvre) (1483-1486), Vitruvian Man (1485), Lady with an Ermine (1488-1490), Madonna Litta (1490), Last Supper (1498), Leda and the Swan (1502), Mona Lisa (1503-07), Madonna of the Rocks (1505-08), Madonna and baby with St. Anne (1508-1509), Bacchus (1513-1515), St. John the Baptist (1513-16), Self-portrait (1514 - 1516).

Life:

Origin: Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452, in the Tuscan town of Vinci, located in the lower part of the Arno valley, about 25 miles west of Florence. He was the illegitimate son of Messer Piero di Fruosino Antonio da Vinci, a Florentine notary, and Caterina, a beautiful peasant girl. Leonardo did not have a surname in the modern sense of the word, "da Vinci" simply means hailing from "Vinci": His full name at birth was "Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci". He spent his first five years in the village of Anciano, then lived in the house of his father, grandfather, grandmother and uncle Francesco, in the small town of Vinci. His father married a sixteen-year-old girl named Albiera, who loved little Leonardo but died young. When Leonardo was sixteen, his father remarried twenty-year-old Francesca Lanfredini.
Education: Leonardo received an informal education during which he studied Latin geometry and mathematics. In 1466, his father gave his studies in artistic craft to the famous artist Andrea Verrocchio (1435-1488).
Influenced: Andrea Verrocchio
The main stages of professional activity:
1. Florentine period (1466-1482). In 1466, at the age of fourteen, Leonardo was apprenticed to the artist Andrea di Cione, known as Verrocchio, whose studio was considered one of the best in Florence. There he learned the art of painting, sculpture and various crafts.
By 1472, at the age of twenty, Leonardo qualified as a master of the Guild of Saint Luke, a community of artists and doctors (1466-1478).
In January 1478 he received his first independent commission to create an altarpiece for the chapel of St. Bernard in the Palazzo Vecchio. In the same year he left Verrocchio's studio and never again lived in his father's house. In 1480 he moved to the Medici Palace and worked in the garden near Saint Mark's Square in Florence.
2. Milan period (1482-1499). In 1482 he entered the service of the Duke of Milan Lodovik Sforza as a painter and engineer. In Milan, his artistic and creative genius unfolded to its fullest. In addition, in 1490 he began his project of writing treatises on the "science of painting", on architecture, mechanics and anatomy.
While living in Milan between 1493 and 1495, Leonardo listed a woman named Caterina among his dependents in tax documents. She died in 1495, and the list of funeral expenses given suggests that this woman was his mother.
3. The period of wanderings (1499-1519). When the French invaded Milan in 1499, Leonardo left the city and began a nomadic life, which he devoted mainly to his scientific studies. In 1499, in search of work, Leonardo moved to Mantua and then to Venice.
Second Florentine period (1500 -1508). On his return to Florence in 1500, he resided with the monks in the monastery of Santissima Annunziata.
In 1502, Leonardo entered the service of Cesare Borgia, Duke of Romagna and son of Pope Alexander VI, as a military engineer and architect. In order to win over the duke, Leonardo created a map of the fortress of Cesare Borgia, and a plan of the city of Imola. In this way he laid the foundations of modern cartography. Acting as a military engineer, he oversaw the construction of fortresses in the Papal States in central Italy and traveled extensively in Italy with his patron.
However, he did not stay in Milan and returned to Florence in 1503. There, on October 18, 1503, Leonardo returned to the Guild of St. Luke and served there in the commission of artists.
Florence was at war with Pisa and Leonardo served the city-state as a military engineer while continuing his scientific research.
In 1504 his father died, and Leonardo had to settle the inheritance problems with his brothers.
Leonardo began work on a large fresco of the Battle of Anghiari for the Signoria, dedicated to the memory of the Battle of Anghiari, in which Florence defeated Pisa. He devoted two years to designing the painting and in 1505 produced a full size sketch, but never completed it in wall painting.
Second Milanese period (1508-1513). After five years of painting and research in Florence, in 1508 he returned to Milan. There he lived and carried out fruitful scientific research at his own home in Porta Oriental in Santa Babila County.
Roman period (1513-1516). From September 1513 to 1516, Leonardo spent most of his time at the Belvedere in the Vatican in Rome, where Raphael and Michelangelo lived at the same time. Later he worked briefly in Bologna and Venice.
French period (1516-1519). In 1516 he entered the service of King Francis I of France and never returned to Italy.
In France, he lived near the residence of the king in the royal castle of Amboise, in his own house, donated by Francis I.
It was here that he spent the last three years of his life, in the company of his friend and student, Count Francesco Melzi, receiving a payment of 10,000 ecu from the king.
Universal genius. Leonardo more than anyone deserves the title of Homo Universalis, the universal man. He was a perfect creator in all kinds of art, a pioneer in most branches of science, and an outstanding inventor in the field of technology. He was almost equally talented and successful in architecture, sculpture, mechanical engineering, geology, hydraulics, and military technology.
The main stages of personal life: Two childhood events influenced the rest of his life. Little Leonardo saw how the kite fell from the sky, hovered over his cradle and opened his mouth with his tail.
He later regarded this event as an omen. In addition, while walking in the mountains, he discovered a cave and he became afraid when he imagined that a large monster was hiding there, and at the same time he felt an irresistible desire to find out what was inside. In 1490, da Vinci established guardianship over ten-year-old Gian Giacomo Caprotti. Later, the boy was nicknamed Salai or Salaino ("little devil"). He was described by Giorgio Vasari as "a graceful and handsome young man with curly hair, who greatly pleased Leonardo." However, a year later, Leonardo made a list of the boy's misdeeds, calling him "a thief, a liar, a stubborn and a glutton." Salaino remained his comrade, servant and assistant for the next thirty years.
Leonardo met with Niccolò Machiavelli, with whom relations later developed into a close friendship. Also among his friends was Isabella d'Este, who was his closest female friend.
Leonardo died at Clos Luce on May 2, 1519. Francis I became a close friend and, according to Vasari, Leonardo died in the king's arms. Leonardo was buried in the chapel of Saint Hubert in Château Amboise, France).
His main heir was Melzi, who also received money, Leonardo's paintings, his tools, a library and personal belongings. Salaino was also not forgotten, and received half of Leonardo's vineyards and the Mona Lisa painting.

Personality. Leonardo was an artist endowed with outstanding physical beauty, superhuman powers, and mysterious strength. He possessed a gigantic curiosity about the physical world and an unrestricted desire for knowledge, and the scope and depth of his interests were unprecedented.
In addition, he was a handsome, tall, cheerful and friendly man, a pleasant conversationalist and a talented speaker, a good athlete, an excellent musician and improviser.
Giorgio Vasari, in his book "The Life of Artists" wrote about him: "the only person amazingly endowed by heaven with beauty, grace and talent in such abundance that he had no equal in the history of mankind."
Leonardo was left-handed from birth and wrote his diaries in mirror writing, from right to left. This special technique, which requires a mirror to read, helped him keep many of his notes secret.
Zest: A surge of public interest in his life took place in 2003, in connection with the publication of Dan Brown's best-selling thriller, The Da Vinci Code. There are hidden messages in his paintings, which can be called "Pictures in Pictures". He was the first person in history to conduct sufficiently accurate studies of human anatomy, and made accurate drawings of the human body. In part, he did this in the process of secretly dissecting and examining corpses. Leonardo worked for the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, for nearly eighteen years (1482-99). Leonardo was a strict vegetarian. Sigmund Freud in his essay written in 1910 he tried to solve the mystery of Leonardo da Vinci. He analyzed the complex childhood of Leonardo, his subconscious and driving motives. So he concluded that the image of the Virgin Mary and St. Anne (1508) is a defensive reaction to the presence of his two mothers. According to Freud, the partial completion of the Madonna and the presence of many other unfinished works by Leonardo are symbolic and an unconscious expression of the experience of being deprived of his mother. Experts argue that hermaphroditism and eroticism appear in a number of Leonardo's works, such as Mona Lisa and St. John the Baptist. Some Italian anthropologists and experts have found that the fingerprints of Leonardo's mother indicate that she was of "Oriental origin" and probably Arab. Sigmund Freud said of him: "Leonardo da Vinci was a man who woke up early in the dark while others were still asleep."