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| One of Da Vinci's designs for an ornithopter. |
From what we can garner from the journals he left the world, Leonardo was fixated on flying. He created many designs to put man in flight including two very peculiar sketches that look surprisingly similar to modern helicopters.
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| A helicopter? |
However, such thought in the renaissance made Leonardo wary of plagiarists so from what we can tell, he deliberately encoded and left out parts to his models as a form of patent protection. As a result, we may never know the true extent of his knowledge of flight, but Leonardo didn't just stop at flight. In his life Leonardo Da Vinci invented prototypes to armored cars, parachutes, automobiles, machine guns, and even a human-shaped robot.
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| Work of a Genius |
So, one might be asking, how many of these things actually worked? Well, you might be asking the wrong questions, as while some of them are recreated from what we can see of the sketches, it's all about how a self-taught man in the dawn of the 16th century could think so far ahead as to be studied today.
This was definitely a fascinating scholar to be educted about in class! First off, I was truly unaware of his work as an inventor. It's rare to see someone specialize in two completely contrasting positions in society. In recognizing his paintings as exquisite pieces it's wonderful that the same individual can accomplish such amazing concepts, depicting flight especially. I loved the sketches utilized in this post, they portray a great deal of insight into his mind! I have always enjoyed his art however now, i can hardly comprehend the extent of his creativity!
ReplyDeleteJasmine Lee
It's hard to believe someone like Davinci conceptualizing things like manned flight hundreds of years before the first actual manned flight even occurred. It's unfortunate, however, that he was so concerned with plagiarism that he deliberately left out key pieces to many of these designs. For all we know he may have actually succeeded and was the first man to take flight. Would have been an amazing thing to see so long ago in such a primitive point in human history.
ReplyDeleteShywan Adamski
I am so glad you posted something on Leonardo da Vinci. No one can argue that he truly was a visionary and an incredible man that was centuries before his time; which is why I chose him as my topic for the Humanities Research Essay that we had assigned. And by doing so, I found out some interesting facts about Da Vinci that I never would have guessed about the artist.
ReplyDeleteLike for example that even though he was an amazing painter, his true passion was in engineering and inventing weapons for war. And in trying to get commissioned to do so, he always seemed to get pulled back into painting and sculpting. It seems that his talent for painting incredible works of art overshadowed his gift for design, and in his early years, only painted in order to “pay the bills”. It’s hard to believe from looking at his amazing sketches and innovative models, that he had a hard time transitioning his career from an artist to a designer.
Another interesting thing I learned about Da Vinci is the fact that he may have had attention deficit disorder. Recorded on a numerous of occasions, he had a hard time finishing commissioned work that he had been assigned, being unable to focus on one project at a time. Now some may say that he had ADD, but I think he was on such a higher level of genius, and being bombarded by some many new ideas, that it may have been tedious for him to finish a lot of his works. Coming up with a sketched design or an outline for a painting was enough for him, and that his ever-working mind had to move on to the next creation.
And the last little tidbit of information I found fascinating about Da Vinci, was the Mona Lisa; undoubtedly one of his major works of art that he is known for today. Interestingly enough he never painted it for anyone. It wasn’t a commissioned job. He painted it on his own and never once showed it or sold it. It was one of those unfinished creations he had, where he was always working on it and adding to it; which is why some may question the appearance of the painting. One can only imagine the difficulties of starting a portrait painting of someone, then by over the years, adding more and more to the artwork. After awhile, the painting might differ and may not look like the subject or person you started painting in the first place. In the end, the Mona Lisa was left among Da Vinci’s possessions when he died. Its funny how once again, his paintings have taken the limelight; especially one that he never meant to be seen in the first place.
Posted By James Youngs. Team 1
Hey I agree with you to the 100 % because Leonardo Da Vinci was really a genius, and a very interesting man. Is incredible the things he created, and how advanced of his time he was like you mentioned. I think something very impressing of his work is that when people look at his work it leaves people wondering what he meant or what was the purpose of it. For instance, an example of his work that leaves people wondering is the Mona Lisa which is one of the most famous paintings in the world and people till this date still wonder what was Leonardo Da Vinci thinking or feeling when he painted the amazing masterpiece.
ReplyDeleteBy Francisco Hernandez. Team 3