Italian High Renaissance Painter and Inventor, 1452-1519 Italian High Renaissance Painter and Inventor, 1452-1519 Florentine Renaissance man, genius, artist in all media, architect, military engineer. Possibly the most brilliantly creative man in European history, he advertised himself, first of all, as a military engineer. In a famous letter dated about 1481 to Ludovico Sforza, of which a copy survives in the Codice Atlantico in Milan, Leonardo asks for employment in that capacity. He had plans for bridges, very light and strong, and plans for destroying those of the enemy. He knew how to cut off water to besieged fortifications, and how to construct bridges, mantlets, scaling ladders, and other instruments. He designed cannon, very convenient and easy of transport, designed to fire small stones, almost in the manner of hail??grape- or case-shot (see ammunition, artillery). He offered cannon of very beautiful and useful shapes, quite different from those in common use and, where it is not possible to employ cannon ?? catapults, mangonels and trabocchi and other engines of wonderful efficacy not in general use. And he said he made armoured cars, safe and unassailable, which will enter the serried ranks of the enemy with their artillery ?? and behind them the infantry will be able to follow quite unharmed, and without any opposition. He also offered to design ships which can resist the fire of all the heaviest cannon, and powder and smoke. The large number of surviving drawings and notes on military art show that Leonardo claims were not without foundation, although most date from after the Sforza letter. Most of the drawings, including giant crossbows (see bows), appear to be improvements on existing machines rather than new inventions. One exception is the drawing of a tank dating from 1485-8 now in the British Museum??a flattened cone, propelled from inside by crankshafts, firing guns. Another design in the British Museum, for a machine with scythes revolving in the horizontal plane, dismembering bodies as it goes, is gruesomely fanciful. Most of the other drawings are in the Codice Atlantico in Milan but some are in the Royal Libraries at Windsor and Turin, in Venice, or the Louvre and the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. Two ingenious machines for continuously firing arrows, machine-gun style, powered by a treadmill are shown in the Codice Atlantico. A number of other sketches of bridges, water pumps, and canals could be for military or civil purposes: dual use technology. Leonardo lived at a time when the first artillery fortifications were appearing and the Codice Atlantico contains sketches of ingenious fortifications combining bastions, round towers, and truncated cones. Models constructed from the drawings and photographed in Calvi works reveal forts which would have looked strikingly modern in the 19th century, and might even feature in science fiction films today. On 18 August 1502 Cesare Borgia appointed Leonardo as his Military Engineer General, although no known building by Leonardo exists. Leonardo was also fascinated by flight. Thirteen pages with drawings for man-powered aeroplanes survive and there is one design for a helicoidal helicopter. Leonardo later realized the inadequacy of the power a man could generate and turned his attention to aerofoils. Had his enormous abilities been concentrated on one thing, he might have invented the modern glider.   Related Paintings of LEONARDO da Vinci :. | Virgin of the Rocks | Study fur the head of a Madchens | Mona Lisa | The adoration of the Konige | Madonna of the Yarnwinder |
Related Artists:
MURILLO, Bartolome Esteban
Spanish Baroque Era Painter, ca.1617-1682 Spanish religious and portrait painter. He was born in Seville, where most of his life was spent. There, c.1645, he painted a series of 11 pictures of the history of the Franciscan order for a monastery. These brought him immediate fame, and for the remainder of his life he was the favorite painter of the wealthy and pious Andalusian capital. His early works show the influence of Zurbarn in the dramatic use of light and shadow. Murillo adapted several compositions from northern and Italian prints. Notable works of his early years include St. Leander, St. Isidore, Vision of St. Anthony (all: cathedral, Seville), Birth of the Virgin (Louvre), and his series for the Church of Santa Maria la Blanca. In 1660 he was instrumental in founding the Seville Academy, of which he shared the presidency with the younger Francisco de Herrera. From 1670 to 1682, Murillo painted many of his major religious works, including those for the Charity Hospital and for the Capuchin convent (Seville Mus.). These religious works, particularly the Madonnas, are noted for their sweetness of mood. In 1682, while working on the Marriage of St. Catherine for the Capuchin church of Cediz, Murillo fell from a scaffold and died as a result of his injuries. Murillo's greatest works include his fine portraits, Don Andres de Andrade y la Col (Metropolitan Mus.) and Knight of the Collar (Prado) and his naturalistic genre paintings, such as Girl and Her Duenna (National Gall., Washington, D.C.) and Peasant Boy (National Gall., London).
georg engelhardt schroder
Georg Engelhard Schröder, född den 31 maj 1684 i Stockholm, gift 1727 med Anna Brigitta Spöring, död den 17 maj 1750; konstnär, porträtt- och historiemålare. Georg Engelhard Schröders far, Veit Engelhard, hade omkring år 1670 kommit från N??rnberg och bosatt sig i Stockholm där Georg Engelhard föddes 1684. Han blev tidigt elev hos konstnären och målaren David von Krafft (1655-1724) men lämnade honom 1703 för utlandsstudier. Under 21 år for Georg Engelhard runt i Europa. Han vistades först en tid i Nordtyskland, innan färden gick vidare till Italien. I Venezia förblev han under fem år och kopierade gamla mästare, sysslade med vedutamåleri och hade kontakt med pastellmålarinnan Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757). I Roma tog han intryck av barockmålarna Carlo Dolci (1616-1686), Carlo Maratta (1625-1713), Francesko Trevisani (1656-1746) m.fl. och tillägnade sig det raska men ytliga framställningssätt, som tillhörde den tidens italienska konst. I Paris samlade han impulser hos den franske målaren Noel Nicolas Coypel (1690-1734). Reminiscenser av den italienska och franska konsten kan man påträffa flerstädes i hans kompositioner. I London stannade han i sju år och tog starka intryck av Godfrey Knellers (1646-1723) och Dahls porträttkonst. När Daniel von Krafft avled 1724 kallades Georg Engelhard Schröder hem till Sverige och efterträdde i december sin gamle läromästare som kunglig hovkonterfejare. Som sådan uppbar han lön. Konung Fredrik I satte stort värde på sin konterfejare, och lät honom måla otaliga porträtt av sig och sin drottning Ulrika Eleonora. År 1745 utnämndes han till hovintendent. Georg Engelhard anlitades mycket och samlade ihop en betydande förmögenhet. På 1740-talet nåddes Sverige av den nya franska smaken, i främsta rummet via konstnären Gustaf Lundberg (1695-1786), varvid Georg Engelhard kom att skjutas åt sidan. Han representerade i Sveriges 1700-talsmåleri sista skedet i det italienska inflytandet. Långt ifrån den förnämste, var dock Georg Engelhard en av sin tids mest uppburne målare. Han arbetade inom ett vitt fält: utförde kyrktavlor, allegorier, historiska motiv och porträtt. Hans arbeten har ej sällan någonting vacklande och obestämt, vilket i förening med mycken ojämnhet i utförandet gör många av dem mindre tilltalande för konstkännaren. Han har dock efterlämnat verk, som vittnar om, att han, när han allvarligt uppbjöd sin förmåga, var mäktig till både varm och djup uppfattning samt hade stor skicklighet i färgbehandling och i framställningens enskildheter.
The Brunswick Monogrammist
active in Antwerp 1588 - 1629