Leonardo da Vinci

Who else will be more appropriate person moreover a legend to start with other than da Vinci himself. His unmatched vision and brilliance to calibrate mechanics and complex concepts of design to practical use makes him my choice for the Designer of the Month.

 “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
                          -Leonardo da Vinci

What Wiki Says

According to Wikipedia-

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519, Old Style) was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. His genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance Man, a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination". He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.

Not only is he one of his kind designers to exist in human civilization but also his’ is one of the profiles with so many designations praising his genius on Wiki.

 

“While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.”                                                                                                                         -Leonardo da Vinci

Famous Works

Vitruvian Man

 



This image demonstrates the blend of art and science during the Renaissance and provides the perfect example of Leonardo's deep understanding of proportion. In addition, this picture represents a cornerstone of Leonardo's attempts to relate man to nature. Encyclopaedia Britannica online states, "Leonardo envisaged the great picture chart of the human body he had produced through his anatomical drawings and Vitruvian Man as a cosmografia del minor mondo (cosmography of the microcosm). He believed the workings of the human body to be an analogy for the workings of the universe."

 

 

Mona Lisa theory



- A prevailing theory says reason of her smile was her secret pregnancy.

-Another theory states when Leonardo was painting her she was being entertained by clowns and musicians.

- At University of Amsterdam and University of Illinois researchers used new age face-recognition software and determined that Mona Lisa is 2% angry, 6% fearful, 9% disgusted and 83% happy.

“The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.”                                                       -Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo Facts to Know

• At Milanese court Leonardo was presented as a musician for his talent of playing lyre player and not as inventor or artist.

[caption id="attachment_82" align="alignright" width="300"] The Codex Leicester[/caption]

• In 1995 Microsoft mogul Bill Gates bought the only manuscript containing Leonardo da Vinci’s study on hydraulics called the Codex Leicester for a whopping $30 million.

 

• Leonardo was paranoid dyslexic and ambidextrous. He could write backward with one hand while drawing forward with the other. This produced a mirror-image script which was difficult to read by others.

 

• Machine designs of Leonardo da Vinci include a scythed chariot, an armored car, a pulley, a pile driver, a lagoon dredge, a flying ship and a revolving crane.

• Leonardo was simply brilliant at studying designs. He was convinced that earth is much older than as depicted in Bible based on his studies of river erosion.

“Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?”                                                                                                                     -Leonardo da Vinci