LEONARDO DA VINCI Leonardo da Vinci, who lived

Leonardo da Vinci, who lived from 1452 to 1519, was a great Italian painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, biologist, scientist, poet and musician. He was one of the greatest thinkers of all time, and was far ahead of his contemporaries in many fields. Because he was interested in knowing everything about everything, one of the greatest things that Leonardo has left to posterity is his notebooks, in which Leonardo describes his view of the world and his theories as to why things are the way they are. In these five thousand pages of notes concerning all aspects of thought, such as philosophy, anatomy, astronomy and physics, are notes concerning how to paint artistically (in very precise terms), and also there are notes relating the physical aspects of the human body to the reproduction of the body in art. This paper will discuss some of the ways in which Leonardo da Vinci's explorations in anatomy affected his work in painting and art.

Within The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (MacCurdy, 1939, pp. 93-214) are three sections concerning the human body. These sections are "Anatomy," "Comparative Anatomy," and "Human Proportions." There are also interspersed between these pages two very short sections on "Physiology," and "Natural History." Yes, Leonardo was interested in everything, but our concern here is with his anatomical discoveries and their application to his art.

In the section on "Human Proportions," (MacCurdy, 1939, pp. 206-214) Leonardo gives us, in detail

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3-190), there is a section entitled, "On Painting" (p. 185). In this section, Leonardo explores what the flesh looks like when it has little fat under it, and when it has more. He also states that, "The greatest thickness which the limbs acquire is in the part of the muscle that is farthest away from their attachments (MacCurdy, 1939, p. 185). This short section goes on like this, explaining exactly and in precise terms the manner in which the flesh stretches over the body, and the way that the muscles look underneath this flesh. It is certain that here -although perhaps as much as anywhere else in his anatomy sections Leonardo is speaking of the manner in which he would like to paint figures. Leonardo believed that gaining knowledge of the human body would help him paint the human body exactly as it is. He believed not in surrealism, but realism (as far as the Renaissance period painters could be realistic), and wanted his forms and figures to be true to life, even if they were depicting beings from Christianity who supposedly did not live on this earth. In other ways, it can be said that Leonardo's whole personality and being, including his intense interest in the world around him, along with his interest in anatomy and

Category: Arts - L