A Study Of Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci’s diligent research, scientific concepts, and numerous inventions prove to be crucial parts of the modern world. He has shown that with hard work and patience, anything can be achieved. Leonardo excelled in anatomy, physics, engineering, and the arts.

Leonardo Da Vinci followed the philosophy that the truth would lead him, as opposed to himself leading the truth, meaning that he would not lie about the truth to become famous. With this thought, Leonardo pursued a never-ending adventure to seek truth. To seek the truth, Leonardo went into anatomy, which was one of his strong points. Some say that Da Vinci is the father of anatomy and that his discoveries of the human body greatly affected the world, during the Renaissance and in present day. With his skills in drawing, Leonardo chose to sketch his discoveries, in anatomy, rather than writing about them like most other scientists in the 1500’s. He thought that it was more efficient and was more easily explained. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Leonardo Da Vinci greatly increased the knowledge society has acquired over the years through countless dissections of the human body. His fascination for the human body led him to many great discoveries. It had been thought by the many Renaissance scientists that the male was more crucial than the female, but Da Vinci thought differently. Leonardo was credited as the first to dissect a woman’s body; he found that the female body was much more complex than that of the male body. He then concluded that the female played the more important role in reproduction than the counterpart male. Because of his ambition, he went farther than dissecting a female, and was credited as the first to dissect a fetus. Through dissection, Leonardo understood the human body better than most other doctors and scientists of his time.

Through his dissections, Leonardo discovered that major arteries had become clogged with substances in dead human bodies. Leonardo concluded that depending on what foods individuals ate, the substance was more likely to build up in the major arteries. This means that Leonardo Da Vinci discovered heart disease and could have saved millions of lives, but because he never published any of his discoveries and research, it was not taken seriously.

One of the motives of his anatomical career was to hopefully find the location of the soul within the human body. Along with finding the soul, he drove to find the Golden Ratio which is a mathematical equation, dealing with the size and proportions of the body, which was thought to be common between all human beings.

In the 1500’s, dissection of the dead broke many religious rules and was frowned upon by society. It was also a very risky activity because it was not sanitary. Because of the Black Plague, any job dealing with dead corpses was dangerous to the workers, but this did not stop Leonardo. Leonardo would let nothing stand in his way to gain knowledge. Sadly in 1514, five years before he passed away, Leonardo was sent to the Vatican in Rome to be examined by the Pope and the cardinal staff. Every note he had taken in his pursuit of anatomical success was brought along and also examined. Leonardo was unofficially being charged with multiple counts of necromancy and witchcraft. Because Leonardo was such a crucial member to society, the Pope, Leo X, ordered Leonardo to cease his anatomical research. Although Leonardo’s career of anatomy ended, his notes and drawings of his anatomical research were passed along and are still used today.

Although Leonardo never published any of his work, there is a large amount of evidence that he discovered everything he was credited for. If not for his extensive journaling and note taking, there would be almost no evidence of Leonardo Da Vinci’s success. By writing down all of his thoughts and studies, he compiled multiple notebooks and journals. Some journals consisted of 13,000 pages. Almost everything he ever thought was recorded in those notes. Those thoughts range from babies to helicopters, and everything in-between.

When Leonardo Da Vinci fled to Venice because of the invading French, he was employed as the head Military Engineer. In Venice, he made multiple inventions to protect the city walls and to scale the city walls. Along with war machines, like the military tank that he invented, Leonardo also invented an assortment of musical instruments, a steam powered cannon, finned mortar shells to increase accuracy, and crank mechanisms. Leonardo Da Vinci was fascinated by the flight of birds and tried to recreate flight. Leonardo tried to recreate flight by using man-powered flying contraptions, gliders, and helicopters. In most of his inventions, Leonardo used pulleys, gears, and springs to accomplish the impossible. To power many of his inventions, Leonardo used the water wheel in flowing water. Leonardo not only made inventions for flight but also inventions to accomplish tasks in the water. Da Vinci invented the life preserver, an unsinkable ship, at the time, with two hulls, ways to sink ships from underwater, shoes to walk on water, and a device to breathe underwater.

In 1478, Leonardo and his master Verrocchio jointly painted the Baptism of Christ. This painting is known worldwide for its beauty, lifelike figures, and stunning background. In the 1480’s, Da Vinci started three paintings, but only finished one. Leonardo Da Vinci entered a depression in the 1480’s which caused him to not finish the two other paintings. In 1498, Leonardo finished The Last Supper which depicted Jesus Christ and His disciples having His last meal before being crucified by Pontius Pilate. The Last Supper was and still is an incredibly famous painting, but because Leonardo used his own mix of paint, instead of the normal fresco paint, the painting quickly deteriorated but is still visible. Along with The Last Supper, in 1507 Leonardo finished Mona Lisa, which is another world famous painting. Because he used the fresco paint, the painting is still well preserved.

Without Leonardo Da Vinci, the modern world would be much changed. Through his extensive research and studies, Leonardo has provided modern day with new medical studies based off of his. Leonardo’s well written and drawn notes and journals are still being analyzed and being applied to modern medicine, while his beautiful paintings provide an insight into the culture of the Renaissance time period. In all, Leonardo Da Vinci has proven himself, time and again, that he is a genius.