Transcript
Yasmin Zafirah Safian
Journal of
Leonardo da Vinci
Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does Nature, because in her inventions, nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous.Simplicity is the ultimate
sophistication.
The Tuscan hill town of Vinci echoed the screams of a
April 15 1452
young peasant girl.Beads of perspiration were running down her face. She
yelled again, pulling the sheets as she heaved a heavy breathing, going faster by seconds. The p ain of childbirth was unbearable but she had to endure it for the sake of her love and her unborn child. Caterina griped the hand of Monsieur Messer Piero and with all her might, she made the final push. .
That was how I, Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was born. In the third hour of the night in Tuscan Hill Town of Vinci in the lower valley of Amo River in the territory of Florence. Mother said it was written in the stars that i was destined to be a painter.
When i was little, a peasant dared my father to ask me paint a picture on a round plaque. I accepted the challenge and I painted a snake spitting fire figure. The painting impressed my father that he sold it to a Florentine Art Dealer. It ended in the home of the Duke of Milan
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Year 1466
“Leonardo, I want you to work with Andrea di Cione as his apprentice”. Father came home one day and announced it to me excitedly. “You will learn much from Verrocchio because his workshop is the centre of the intellectual currents of Florence. You, my son will be educated by one of
the finest master of humanities.” Father convinced me.
I was 14 years of age imagined having the chance to meet the famous Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Botticelli and lorenzo di Credi. There, I learned drafting, chemistry, metallurgy, metal working, plaster casting, leather working, mechanics and carpentry as well as the artistic skills of drawing, painting, sculpting and modelling.
I will never forget Verrocchio kind words to me the day I painted the young angel holdingJesus’ robe, The Baptism of Christ. “I swear I’ll never paint again for you my son has managed to portray a magnificent drawing that I could ever have!”
A memoir to Verrocchio. The Baptism of Christ.
Year 1472
I was twenty and now a qualified master in the Guild of St. Luke. The guild of artists and doctors of medicine. Father was proud of me. “You shall have a workshop of your own Leonardo” he announced as his face shone with admiration. I still continued collaborating with Verrocchio as i was forever indebted to his guidance as my master apprentice.
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One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself
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5th of August 1473. My first drawing in pen and ink of the Arno Valley
Year 1478 and 1481
I began painting an altar piece for the Chapel of St Bernard and The Adoration of the Magi for the monks of San Donato a Scopeto
Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen
Virgin of The Rocks
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The Last Supper
I do a lot of work for Ludovico included floats and pageants for special occasions, designs for a dome for Milan Cathedral and a model for a huge equastrian monument to Francesco Sforza, Ludovico’s predecessor.
I modeled a huge horse in clay, which became known as the Gran Caxallo. A Seventy tons of bronze were set aside for casting it. In 1492, the model was finally completed
Salai
There are three classes of people :
those who see.Those who see when
they are shown.Those who do not
see.
Year 1495I received sad news. The woman who had brought me
Year 1494Ludovico gave the bronze to be used for cannons to defend the city from invasion by Charles VIII. When Ludovica Sforza overthrown, I, my assistant Salai and friend, the mathematician Luca Pacioli, fled Milan for Venice. There, I was employed as a military architect and engineer, devising methods to defend the city from naval attack.
into the world had finally left. I settled her funeral expenditure. I hope my mother, Caterina would
rest in peace.
Tears come from the heart, and not from the brain
Year 1500I returned to Florence and became the guests of the Servite
monks at the monastery of Santissima Annunziata. There, I created the cartoon of The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist. It was a great piece of work that won such admiration that men and women, young and old flocked to see it as if they were attending a great festival ,
I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Being willing is not enough, we
must do.
Cesare Borgia
Year 1502I became a millitary architect and engineer to Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI, travelling through Italy with my patron.
18th of October 1503I rejoined the Guild of St Luke and painted a great mural of
the Battle of Anghiari with Michelangelo, designing the
companion piece, The Battle
of Cascina.
Year 1504
I received news that my beloved father had passed away and I had to sort problems with my brothers over my father’s estate.
I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death
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Year Between 1513-1516
I spent much of my time in the Belvedee in the Vatican in Rome. In October 1515, Francois I of France recaptured Milan. I was commissioned to make a mechanical lion which could walk forward, then open its chest to reveal a cluster of lilies. In 1516, I was given a manor house Clos Luce near the king’s residence at the royal Chateau Amboise. I spent my life accompanied by my friend, Count Francesco Melzi.
Mona Lisa. 1503-1504
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Vitruvian Man’s Hernia
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Leonardo Da Vinci died at Clos Luce, France, on May 2 1519. He had became close friend with Francois 1. Vasari records that the King held Leonardo’s head in his arms as he died. Vasari also tells us that in Leonardo’s last days, he sent for a priest to make his confession and to receive the Holy Sacrament. In accordance to his will, sixty beggars followed his casket. He was buried in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert in the castle of Amboise. Melzi was the principle heir and executer, receiving as well as money, Leonardo’s paintings, tools, library and personal effects. Leonardo also remembered his long-time pupil and companion, Salai and his servant Battista di Vilussis, who each received half of Leonardo’s vineyards, his brothers who received land, and his serving woman who received a black cloak of good stuff with fur edge.
Some years after Leonardo’s death, Francois was reported by the goldsmith and sculptor Benevenuto Cellini as saying : “There had never been another man born in the world who knew as much as Leonardo, not so much about painting, sculpture and architecture, as that he was a very great philosopher.”
Leonardo Da vinci 1452-1519
It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.
Art is never finished, only abandoned
One has no right to love or hate anything if one has not acquired a thorough knowledge of its nature. Great love springs from great knowledge of the beloved object, and if u know it but little you will able to love it only a little or not at all.
Every now and the go away, have a little relaxation for when you come back to your work your judgement will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen
The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men.
An average human looks without seeing, listens without hearing, touches without feeling, eats without tasting, moves without physical awareness, inhales without awareness of odour or fragrance, and talks without thinking
A poet knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.
Marriage is like putting your hand into a bag of snakes in the hope of pulling out an eel
Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence ; he is just using his memory
The painter will produce pictures of little merit if he takes the works of others as his standard.
Lady with an ermine/
Ginevra de’ Benci
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