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 :. | Holy Hieronymus | Virgin of the Rocks | Kvinnoportratt | Maria with Child and St. Anna | The Refectory with the Last Supper after restoration g |
Related Artists:
marie suzanne giroust roslin
Marie-Suzanne Giroust, född 9 mars 1734 i Paris, Frankrike, död 31 augusti 1772 i Paris, var en fransk konstnär, i huvudsak verksam inom pastellmåleri. Hon var gift med den svenske porträttmålaren Alexander Roslin från 1759 till sin död. Dotter till Barthelemy Giroust och Marie Suzanne Leroy. När Giroust var sju år gammal, dog hennes far som var juvelerare. Fyra år senare dog även hennes mor, och hon flyttade in hos släktingar. Arvet efter fadern gav henne möjlighet att uppta målarstudier. Hon inledde sina studier hos Maurice Quentin de La Tour, men det var hos Joseph-Marie Vien hon kom att finna sig tillrätta. I Viens atelj?? träffade hon 1752 Alexander Roslin och blev förälskad. Girousts förmyndare kunde dock inte acceptera den svenske målaren som blivande make, då han var fattig och protestant.[1] Paret kämpade för sin kärlek, och Giroust vägrade att träffa de friare som hennes förmyndare föreslog för henne.[1] Efter medling av bland andra Roslins vän och beskyddare, Comte de Caylus, kunde Roslin och Giroust gifta sig, den 5 januari 1759. Paret Roslin fick mellan 1760 och 1772 sex barn, tre döttrar och tre söner, varav två döttrar och två söner nådde vuxen ålder. Alexander Roslin erkände offentligen sin hustrus talang som konstnär, och han hävdade att hon var en skickligare pastellmålare än han själv. Giroust invaldes 1770 i den franska konstakademin, Acad??mie royale. 1771 utställde hon sitt porträtt av abb?? Lemonnier, som fick mycket beröm. Hon måladet i pastell. Marie-Suzanne Giroust avled i bröstcancer i slutet av augusti 1772.
SALZILLO, Francisco
Spanish sculptor (b. 1707, Murcia, d. 1783, Murcia). Spanish sculptor of Italian descent. He was trained by his father, Nicol Salzillo (1672-1727), a Neapolitan sculptor who had settled in Murcia, whose first documented work is dated 1700. Francisco also studied with the Jesuits and was taught drawing and sculpture by the cleric and painter Manuel Senchez ( fl 1731-9). He entered the Dominican Order in Murcia as a novice but left to take charge of his father's studio at the latter's death in 1727. Francisco was assisted by his brothers, Juan Antonio Salzillo and Patricio Salzillo, a priest, and by his sister, Ines Salzillo, who specialized in painting carved religious statues. In 1746 Francisco married Juana Vallejo Martenez, and in 1755 he was appointed escultor y modelista by the municipal government (ayuntamiento) and Inspector to the Inquisition for painting and sculpture in Murcia. In 1763 he established an academy
Marco Zoppo
Cento 1433-Venice 1478