Leonardo da Vinci's Use of Scientific Observation in His Art

Introduction

Leonardo came from Vinci, near Florence, and was the illegitimate son of a notary. As a boy, Leonardo was placed in the workshop of Andrea Verrocchio, where he obtained a predominantly technical education. The paintings from his early years in Florence include the Annunciation and the incomplete Adoration of the Magi. In 1482, Leonardo moved to the court of Ludovico Sforza (Il Moro) in Milan, where he hoped to erect a huge equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza and to work as an engineer. He remained in Milan until 1499, painting as well as studying the human body through relentless dissections. He also participated in the life of the court, contriving marvelous machines for courtly entertainment, all the while adding observations, drawings, and questions to the voluminous notebooks he wrote backwards in order to conceal his thoughts from others. During this period, he completed the Virgin of the Rocks and the fresco of the Last Supper in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. His dream of completing the enormous equestrian statue in bronze was never realized, however, because of Ludovico's urgent need to use his casting metal for making cannon to defend the duchy.

After Ludovico's fall, Leonardo left Milan and traveled throughout Italy for several years, living in Mantua, Venice, and then Florence. He served Cesare Borgia for a time as a military engineer and then returned to Florence, where he met Machiavelli and entered into a contest with Michelangelo, painting an interpretation of the battle of Anghiari opposite Michelangelo's version of the battle of Cascina in the Palazzo Vecchio. This work was marred by the failure to prepare the support properly. In 1506, he returned to Milan at the invitation of Charles d'Amboise, the French king's representative, and remained there until 1513. After a brief sojourn in Rome, Leonardo moved to France in 1517, where Francis I valued his work most highly. He died at one of the royal residences in 1519, attended by his faithful friend Francesco Melzi (Popham, 110-147).

Leonardo's contributions to painting and science are far more decisive than his contribution to Italian literature, primarily because the manuscript tradition of his notebooks and manuscripts prevented any true appreciation of his ideas during a period when his major works of art were available for consultation (and imitation) by the major artists of his times. Yet the enigma of Leonardo that has attracted generations of scholars is perhaps best revealed by the curious notebooks, which treat a myriad of topics and put forward an impressive number of heuristic ideas. As Sigmund Freud, one of his most original and controversial interpreters, remarked, “He was like a man who awoke too early in the darkness, while the others were still asleep.” A single letter he addressed to Ludovico Sforza, detailing his countless talents, is perhaps the best example we have of the self-conscious universal man, the model of excellence in many complicated sciences and arts that made Leonardo the envy of both his ...