Leonardo da Vinci: The quintessential Renaissance man

By 50Minutes

Keen to learn but short on time? Find out everything you need to know about the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci in just 50 minutes with this straightforward and engaging guide!

Leonardo da Vinci was an artist, inventor and engineer who was renowned as one of the leading figures of the Italian Renaissance. During his lifetime he attracted the attention of a variety of wealthy patrons who commissioned him both to make unique art pieces and to carry out tasks in other fields, such as reinforcing city fortifications. His most famous works are The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa, the latter of which was the subject of centuries of speculation regarding the subject of the portrait. He also developed innovative new painting techniques such as sfumato, pyramidal composition and atmospheric perspective, all of which influenced the emergence of new artistic styles in the following centuries.

In this book, you will learn about:

• The artistic and historical context of 15th-century Italy
• Da Vinci’s main works, including his famous masterpiece the Mona Lisa
• His influence on future generations of artists, scientists and inventors

ABOUT 50MINUTES.COM | Art & Literature

The Art & Literature series from the 50Minutes collection aims to introduce readers to the figures and movements that have shaped our culture over the centuries. Our guides are written by experts in their field and each feature a full biography, an introduction to the relevant social, political and historical context, and a thorough discussion and analysis of the key works of each artist, writer or movement, making them the ideal starting point for busy readers looking for a quick way to broaden their cultural horizons.

• Language: English
• Publisher: 50Minutes.com
• Release date: Nov 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9782808011082

Book preview

LEONARDO DA VINCI

Name: Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci.

Born: 15 April 1452 in Vinci, Tuscany (Italy).

Died: 2 May 1519 in Clos Lucé, near Amboise (France).

Context: the Italian Renaissance.

Notable works:

Annunciation (1472-1475)

Adoration of the Magi (1481-1482)

Virgin of the Rocks (1483-1486)

The Last Supper (1494-1498)

Mona Lisa (1503-1505)

The Virgin and Child with St.Anne (c. 1510)

Although many famous polymaths were active during the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci stands above the rest due to the sheer quantity of disciplines he worked in and mastered over the course of his life, including painting, sculpture, architecture, hydraulics, optics, mathematics, botany, military engineering, anatomy and physics. He was a true genius, and produced stunning artwork, incredible sketches and all kinds of inventions, some of which were so ahead of his time that they were never actually built until the modern era. He kept track of his work in notebooks which numbered over 7000 pages in total, although many of them have been lost over the years and the remainder have been scattered across the world.

Da Vinci travelled a great deal over the course of his life, particularly in northern and central Italy and in France, which allowed him to meet many of the most influential figures of the era: the Italian artists Donato Bramante (1444-1514), Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494), Michelangelo (1475-1564) and Raphael (1483-1520); the writer Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527); Pope Leo X (1475-1521); the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo de’ Medici (1449-1492); the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza (1452-1508); the Italian nobleman Cesare Borgia (1475-1507); and the French King Francis I (1494-1547).

His work had such a tremendous influence on the society he lived in that there is a clear distinction between the periods before and after da Vinci in the fields of art and engineering. This is particularly true of the field of painting, as da Vinci is credited with developing a number of new techniques, such as sfumato and atmospheric perspective. But even though da Vinci was the driving force behind artistic innovation in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, he also encountered a number of difficulties: he never enjoyed an easy relationship with any of his artistic patrons, who even included the French King Francis I, as he was generally unable to strike a balance between complying with their demands and fulfilling his own artistic vision. This is undoubtedly the reason