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 :. | Saint John the Baptist | The Last Supper-l | Flower Studies | Detail of Madonna of the Rocks | Pod of cherry and forest strawberry |
Related Artists:
Emily Carr
Canadian Expressionist Painter, 1871-1945 Canadian painter and writer. She studied art from 1891 to 1894 at the California School of Design in San Francisco. She lived in England from 1899 to 1904, studying at the Westminster School of Art in 1899, and settled in Vancouver on her return. Her stay in Paris in 1910-11, during which she had a painting shown at the Salon d'Automne in 1911, proved far more influential on her art, familiarizing her with Impressionism, with Post-Impressionism and with Fauvism.
Henry Ossawa Tanner
African-American Realist Painter, 1859-1937 American painter. He was one of the foremost African American artists, achieving an international reputation in the early years of the 20th century for his religious paintings. The son of an African Methodist Episcopal bishop, he studied art with Thomas Eakins from 1880 to 1882 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He then worked in Philadelphia and Atlanta, GA, where he ran a photography studio and taught at Clark College.
Nico Klopp
Den Nico Klopp war e letzebuergesche Moler. Hien ass den 18. September 1894 zu Bech-Maacher gebuer, an den 29. Dezember 1930 an der Stad Lëtzebuerg gestuerwen, wahrscheinlech un engem Gehirtumor, am Alter vun nëmme 36 Joer. Hie gëtt zu de postimpressionistesche Moler gerechent. Säi LiewenDen Nico Klopp koum aus dem Wënzermilieu. Hien huet d'Handwierkerschoul an der Stad besicht. Seng Eltere si frei gestuerwen. No hirem Doud, huet hie sech fräi gefillt, fir vun 1915-1920 zu Dusseldorf a Weimar Konscht ze studeieren. Well hie vun der Konscht aleng net liewe konnt, war hien, vun 1923 un, Gemengereceveur zu Reimech. Zäitweileg huet hien op Schoulen Zeechenunterrecht ginn, an huet nach en Täschegeld als Kannengerchersziichter verdengt. 1927 huet hie sech mat e puer anere Kënschtler, wei dem Joseph Kutter, dem Claus Cito, dem Auguste Tremont an anere vum Cercle Artistique getrennt, well him de Cercle ze reckstänneg war. Si goufe Sezessioniste genannt, well se 1927 e Salon de la Secession" organiseiert haten. E puer vu senge Wierker sinn am Nationalmusee fir Geschicht a Konscht an der Stad ze gesinn. Den Nico Klopp huet vill Biller vun der Musel gemoolt, bekannt si virun allem seng Biller vun der Muselbreck zu Reimech. Hien huet och Blummebiller gemoolt an dobäi hat hien eng Präferenz fir Tulpen. Ausserdeem war hien e Meeschter an Holz- a Linoschnëtter.