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 :. | Madonna with the Yarnwinder (detail) dft | Study fur the communion | Madonna with the Yarnwinder | Last Supper | Portrait |
Related Artists:
georg von rosen
Johan Georg Otto von Rosen, född 13 februari 1843 i Paris, död 1923 i Stockholm, var en svensk konstnär och greve av ätten von Rosen. Han målade i den akademiska stilen, till stor del historiemåleri och porträtt. Han var professor vid Konstakademien 1880-1908 och dess direktör 1881-1887 samt 1893-1899. Som konstakademiens direktör kom han i stark konflikt med den nya generation av konstnärer som krävde reformer av akademiens utbildning och utställningsverksamhet, de så kallade opponenterna. Georg von Rosen föddes i Paris 1843 som son till generalkonsuln greve Adolf Eugene von Rosen (kallad "de svenska järnvägarnas fader") och hans hustru Euphrosyne Rizo-Rangabe. Hans första levnadsår förflöt i Paris, varifrån familjen flydde till Sverige under februarirevolutionen 1848. Han studerade 1855-1861 vid Konstakademien i Stockholm. 1862 besökte Rosen världsutställningen i London där han lärde känna belgaren Henri Leys' arbeten, målningar med scener från medeltiden och renässansen målade i ålderdomlig stil. Dessa verk gjorde ett stort intryck på von Rosen. Han skrev själv Stående hvarje dag i flere timmar, försjunken i åskådandet af dessa om en snart sagdt öfvermänsklig intuition vittnande bilder, som likväl flertalet i den stora hopen med likgiltighet skred förbi, drömde jag mig tillbaka in i en hänsvunnen tid och för mina yttre ögon försvann hela den öfriga utställningen, den omgifvande mängden, ja hela den existerande verlden! Då jag lemnade London, var jag på 14 dagar vorden 300 år äldre. Rosen uppsökte följande året mästaren i Antwerpen och tillbringade en tid i hans umgänge och i hans atelje. Återkommen till Sverige, inspirerad av mötet, målade han Sten Sture d.ä. intåg i Stockholm. Den medeltida stadsmiljön med det noggranna återgivandet av stenläggningen och den närmast osannolika rikedomen på byggnadsdetaljer känns igen från Leys målningar. von Rosen belönades med kunglig medalj för målningen, och blev hyllad och uppskattad av Oscar II på grund av bildspråket, som i hög grad uttryckte den oscarianska epokens ideal. Samma år begav han sig ut på resa och besökte Egypten, Palestina, Syrien, Osmanska riket, Grekland och Ungern där han studerade måleri. 1866 vistades han ett år i Rom och vistades sedan åter hos Leys fram till dennes död 1869. Därefter studerade han i Menchen under Karl Piloty och reste sedan vidare till Italien innan han återkom till Sverige 1871. Efter hemkomsten målade han Erik XIV och Karin Månsdotter. 1872 blev han ledamot av Konstakademien, 1874 blev han vice professor, 1879 kammarherre och 1880 professor i figurteckning och målning. 1881-1887 samt 1893-1899 var han direktör för Akademins läroverk. 1892-1900 var han även ordförande i Nordiska samfundet till bekämpande av det vetenskapliga djurplågeriet, numera Djurens Rätt. Han avled 1923 och förblev ogift under hela sitt liv.
Paul Desire Trouillebert
1829-1900
Jens Juel
1745-1802 Danish Jens Juel Galleries was a Danish painter, primarily known for his many portraits, of which the largest collection is on display at Frederiksborg Castle. He was born in the house of his mothers brother Johan Jørgensen, who was a school teacher in Balslev on the island of Fyn. Jens Juel was the illegitimate son of Vilhelmine Elisabeth Juel (January 1725 ?C March 1799), who served at Wedellsborg and a fine gentleman, probably a Wedell or Lord Jens Juel. When Juel was one year old, his mother married Jørgen Jørgensen (1724 ?C June 4, 1796), who was a school master in Gamborg, not far from Balslev, and he grew up in Gamborg. He showed an interest in painting from an early age, and his parents sent him to be an apprentice of painter Johann Michael Gehrman in Hamburg, where he worked hard for five or six years and improved himself so far, that he created himself a reputation as a painter of portraits, landscapes, etc. Just over twenty years old he came to Copenhagen to attend the Royal Danish Academy of Art. In 1767 he was awarded its small gold medal and in 1771 the large gold medal. In 1772 he left Copenhagen to be away for eight years. Initially, he went to Rome where he stayed for four years together with other Danish artists, including Abildgaard. From Rome, he moved to Paris, at the time a center of portrait painting. In 1777 he moved on to Geneva, where he stayed for two years at the home of his friend Charles Bonnet in the company of other Danish artists, including etcher Clemens. In Geneva, Juel soon earned himself a reputation as an excellent artist and he painted many portraits. Through Bonnet, who had become a member of honour of the Danish academy, his reputation reached Denmark. After eight years of absence, he returned to Copenhagen in 1780 after a brief stay in Hamburg, where he met Klopstock. It was at his house, that he painted his well-known picture of "Messiadens Digter". Back in Copenhagen, he created himself a reputation as a painter of portraits for the royal house, nobility and the well-to-do. April 4, 1782, he was unanimously elected to be a member of the academy by Mandelberg, Weidenhaupt and Abildgaard. He became the director of the academy in 1795.