Leonardo da Vinci: A Biography

Author: Cheng Huang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: He was a profound thinker, erudite, versatile, and a master of art, science, literary theory, philosophy, poetry, music, engineering, and invention. He made significant contributions in almost every field. Later scholars called him the perfect representative of the Renaissance, a leading scholar, and a once-in-a-generation genius. All praise was well-deserved for him.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was the symbol of human wisdom, with divine-like boundless ideals, attempting to recreate the beauty of the world, measure its vastness, and explain its mysteries. Yet, he only possessed the life and strength of an ordinary person. His ambition was to discover everything, study everything, and create everything. His life was an unfinished journey, strewn with fragments of noble unfinished works. Before his death, he sorrowfully said, "I have never completed a single work in my life."
Leonardo was born in the town of Vinci near Florence, hence his name. At the age of five, he could draw his mother's portrait from memory on the sand, while also composing and performing songs on the spot, to the astonishment of those present. His father, Antonio, a lawyer, recognized his son's talent in painting and decided to send him to the workshop of the Florentine artist Verrocchio. There, he not only received education in painting, sculpture, and architectural arts but was also influenced by other sciences.
At the workshop of Verrocchio, da Vinci studied the relationship between light and shadow in eggs and discovered the technique of chiaroscuro. He spent six years there, growing into an exemplar of modern scientific thought and fearless exploration. Da Vinci found it impossible to realize his talents in Florence and yearned to bring his art and wisdom into the real world, making it shine. At the age of 31, he wrote to Duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan, listing his various talents, and later offered to sculpt a monumental equestrian statue of the duke's father, a feat never before seen in the world. At the age of 41, he completed the clay model of this masterpiece, but it was never realized due to insufficient copper for casting. It was destroyed in 1499 during the French invasion, otherwise it would have been one of the world's greatest wonders.
The Duke's reward for his genius and hard work was not gold but flattering words, which made da Vinci uneasy. To console him, the Duke invited him to paint a fresco for the refectory of the Grècchetto monastery in Milan, which became the Last Supper. If the Last Supper is the world's most famous religious painting, then the Mona Lisa, painted when da Vinci returned to Florence from Milan at the age of 51, is undoubtedly the world's most famous and greatest portrait. These two globally celebrated works immortalized the name of da Vinci.
Da Vinci's unique artistic language was the use of chiaroscuro to create the illusion of depth on a flat surface. He once said, "The greatest miracle of painting is to make a flat surface appear three-dimensional." He applied the principle of light changes on a sphere to pioneer the technique of sfumato (atmospheric perspective), where the transition from light to shadow is continuous, like smoke, without abrupt boundaries. The Mona Lisa is a masterpiece of this technique. Vasari considered this chiaroscuro method a turning point in the art of painting.
Da Vinci's life was dedicated to exploring the noble essence of art, finding satisfaction only in the creation of beauty. The science and intellect, as well as the pursuit and creation of beauty in 15th-century Italy, reached their peak through da Vinci. However, his talents were not recognized or appreciated in his later years, and the indifference of the Pope deeply wounded him. In 1515, when King Francis I of France recaptured Milan, he invited the master to settle in France at Chateau de Chambord, appointing him as the court painter. Da Vinci died in exile in 1519 at the age of 67. His student, Francesco Melzi, said, "Da Vinci's death was a loss to everyone, for no one could ever replace him."