Who is Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo Da Vinci is one of the best painters the world has known till date. His paintings, ‘The Last Supper’ and ‘Monalisa’ are evidences for the quality of his work. Most people are unaware of the fact that in addition to painting, Leonardo possessed an inclination towards fields like sculpture, music, science, anatomy and architecture. Thus, one would not be wrong in terming him as a multi-talented personality. The unmatched talent that he possessed in a wide variety of fields made him one of the most respected people during his time. The models of the helicopter, detailed sketch of the rhombicoctahedron that he came up with in the 15th century, when technology was in its infancy, talks about the genius in him.
His complete name was Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, where Vinci stands for the village to which he belonged. He was born to a rich gentleman and a peasant woman in the year 1452. His inclination towards painting was nourished by the formal training that he received in this field, at the age of fourteen. Another great painting of Leonardo Da Vinci that is worth mentioning is of ‘The Vitruvian Man’, which talks about the proportions of the human body. Due to various reasons, most of his works in other fields like anatomy and optics were not given importance, thereby, leading to them not being published. Historians are of the opinion that many valuable discoveries and innovative ideas of his have gone unnoticed due to the lack of effective recording techniques.
However, much is not known about the personal life of Leonardo Da Vinci. It is said that he remained unmarried all his life and his association with women was very less. The records show that Leonardo and three friends of his were charged with sodomy with a male prostitute. But due to lack of evidences, he was acquitted in this case. This incident is said to have greatly marred the image of Leonardo and affected his career too. His thoughts and ideologies were opposed by the administration of the times.
Leonardo da Vinci had an unquenched thirst for machines that could fly and his sketch of the helicopter talks about this fact. One would be surprised to know that some of the sketches of his which were designed as per his ideas by the British Television; ‘Channel Four’ had proved to be a success. The sketch of a helicopter in the 15th century, when the normal man could not even think of flight; goes on to showcase the innovative mind that Leonardo da Vinci possessed. Leonardo da Vinci died at the age of 57, in Amboise, France.