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 :. | Cecila Gallerani (mk45) | The Last Supper | Equestrian monument | Abendmahl | Portrait of Ginevra de' Benci sg |
Related Artists:
georg von rosen
Johan Georg Otto von Rosen, född 13 februari 1843 i Paris, död 1923 i Stockholm, var en svensk konstnär och greve av ätten von Rosen. Han målade i den akademiska stilen, till stor del historiemåleri och porträtt. Han var professor vid Konstakademien 1880-1908 och dess direktör 1881-1887 samt 1893-1899. Som konstakademiens direktör kom han i stark konflikt med den nya generation av konstnärer som krävde reformer av akademiens utbildning och utställningsverksamhet, de så kallade opponenterna. Georg von Rosen föddes i Paris 1843 som son till generalkonsuln greve Adolf Eugene von Rosen (kallad "de svenska järnvägarnas fader") och hans hustru Euphrosyne Rizo-Rangabe. Hans första levnadsår förflöt i Paris, varifrån familjen flydde till Sverige under februarirevolutionen 1848. Han studerade 1855-1861 vid Konstakademien i Stockholm. 1862 besökte Rosen världsutställningen i London där han lärde känna belgaren Henri Leys' arbeten, målningar med scener från medeltiden och renässansen målade i ålderdomlig stil. Dessa verk gjorde ett stort intryck på von Rosen. Han skrev själv Stående hvarje dag i flere timmar, försjunken i åskådandet af dessa om en snart sagdt öfvermänsklig intuition vittnande bilder, som likväl flertalet i den stora hopen med likgiltighet skred förbi, drömde jag mig tillbaka in i en hänsvunnen tid och för mina yttre ögon försvann hela den öfriga utställningen, den omgifvande mängden, ja hela den existerande verlden! Då jag lemnade London, var jag på 14 dagar vorden 300 år äldre. Rosen uppsökte följande året mästaren i Antwerpen och tillbringade en tid i hans umgänge och i hans atelje. Återkommen till Sverige, inspirerad av mötet, målade han Sten Sture d.ä. intåg i Stockholm. Den medeltida stadsmiljön med det noggranna återgivandet av stenläggningen och den närmast osannolika rikedomen på byggnadsdetaljer känns igen från Leys målningar. von Rosen belönades med kunglig medalj för målningen, och blev hyllad och uppskattad av Oscar II på grund av bildspråket, som i hög grad uttryckte den oscarianska epokens ideal. Samma år begav han sig ut på resa och besökte Egypten, Palestina, Syrien, Osmanska riket, Grekland och Ungern där han studerade måleri. 1866 vistades han ett år i Rom och vistades sedan åter hos Leys fram till dennes död 1869. Därefter studerade han i Menchen under Karl Piloty och reste sedan vidare till Italien innan han återkom till Sverige 1871. Efter hemkomsten målade han Erik XIV och Karin Månsdotter. 1872 blev han ledamot av Konstakademien, 1874 blev han vice professor, 1879 kammarherre och 1880 professor i figurteckning och målning. 1881-1887 samt 1893-1899 var han direktör för Akademins läroverk. 1892-1900 var han även ordförande i Nordiska samfundet till bekämpande av det vetenskapliga djurplågeriet, numera Djurens Rätt. Han avled 1923 och förblev ogift under hela sitt liv.
David de Coninck
(ca. 1644 Antwerp - after 1701, Brussels), also known as Rammelaar was a Flemish painter of the Baroque period. David Koninck was born in Antwerp and studied there under Jan Fyt. After a few years in Paris, he staid in Rome from ca 1671 to 1694, where joined the Bentvueghels with the nickname Rammelaar (rattle). He is sometimes stated to have died in Rome in 1687; however, he returned to his home country and is last recorded becoming a member of the painters guild in Brussels in 1701. His pictures are chiefly landscapes with animals and still life. He is likely unrelated to the generally contemporary Dutch painters, Philip de Koninck, or Philips Koninck (5 November 1619, Amsterdam - buried 4 October 1688, Amsterdam) and the fellow townsman Salomon de Koninck. See Biography by Filippo Baldinucci.
Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi
Russian Painter, 1842-1910 Ukrainian painter, active in Russia. Initially self-taught as an artist, he twice failed the St Petersburg Academy's entrance examination, despite coaching by the marine painter Ivan Aivazovsky. In 1868, however, he was accepted as an external student. He persevered against conservative prejudice and poverty throughout his early career, supplementing his income by retouching photographs. In his early landscape paintings he often sought to capture seasonal moods, as in Autumn Mud (1872; St Petersburg, Rus. Mus.). A more human focus, however, is noticeable after 1874, when he joined the travelling exhibitions society the WANDERERS: the village houses dominate the landscape setting in Evening in Ukraine (1878; St Petersburg, Rus. Mus.). Kuindzhi's principal interest, however, was in lighting, and he obtained striking effects by using vivid colours, chiaroscuro contrasts and simple but cleverly conceived designs. Spectacular paintings, such as the Birch Grove (1879; Moscow, Tret'yakov Gal.), greatly moved contemporary viewers. Through years of experimentation, Kuindzhi developed a highly original technique, which he applied to an increasingly typical, at times almost visionary, treatment of subjects such as snow-covered mountains and moonlight (e.g. Elbnis: Moonlit Night, 1890-95; Moscow, Tret'yakov Gal.). Due to imperfections in the paints he used, many of his canvases soon darkened.