Science, Art, Litt, Science based Art & Science Communication
Short Essay about a Giant.
Short Essay about a Giant.
Netta Yudkevich.
©
In our days Leonardo da Vinci is a household name. It was not so until the beginning of the 20ies century. In 1911 the Mona Lisa painting was stolen from Louvre. Eduardo de Valfierno, who masterminded the theft, hid it under his jacket and walked out the front door of the museum. All major newspapers of Europe followed this thriller until 1913, when the thief was caught and the famous painting was returned to Louvre.
The name of Leonardo da Vinci was brought back in to the light, and the world discovered its greatest artist.
Although, he was less of an artist, then an inventor, a scientist, an engineer, an anatomist, a mathematician, a geologist, a botanic, and etc. Leonardo, when asked about his occupations, placed the art at the eleventh place – the last one.
He hardly produced about 12 painting during his life time. As a scientist he didn’t measure up to Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, or Newton, although he made quite a few discoveries in different fields.
As an inventor he would not be able to patent most of his inventions by the modern criteria. Those inventions, (a tank, a submarine and helicopter including,) were never produced. The one that he did build - the flying apparatus, never worked. Yet, the attempt to build one, to understand the laws of aerodynamics, and the structure of the wing, is extraordinary. By the way, Leonardo da Vinci invented the propeller.
The amount of subject matters that he was preoccupied with, the range of his interest is unthinkable for one person . He created and invented, ether by power of his genius, or by the power of his prophetic abilities, objects that would emerge in our reality 500 years afterward.
Merely the fact that he was capable to developed the concepts of things half millennium ahead of his time is astonishing by itself, and earned him our appreciation and adulation.
The intellectual depth of his ideas, the observation abilities, the analytical mindset are beyond comprehension. His favorite science was mathematics:
"...no human inquiry can be called science unless it pursues its path through mathematical exposition and demonstration." - Leonardo da Vinci.
Simple and laconic. By this sentence Leonardo defined the meaning of science. And he did it, when the science was still in embryonic stage. Galileo makes his discoveries a century later, and Newton defines the laws of mechanics two centuries later.
Leonardo understood something that not all of our contemporaries do that the lows of nature could be described by only the quantitative relationship of the matter, or energy, namely - equations. No verbal interpretation and explanation can be regarded as science, if there is no mathematical exposition behind it.
Somehow the artists of Renaissance including Leonardo didn’t distinguish between art and science. They applied math to painting and art to geometry. They came up with the laws of perspective, which gave birth to a new chapter in math. They believed that beauty and harmony can be calculated. Perhaps, such an attitude was inspired by the Euclidian geometry and the golden section.
The visual art in the time of Renaissance was about beauty and harmony. Leonardo was truthful to this thesis, actively seeking for answers. One of the results of his search was the famous Vitruvian men, which became an icon, a symbol for anything that has to do with humans, and anything that deals with science. There were other achievements, more profound and less known in the field of botanic
Leonardo realized that the Plato’s thesis, which states that beauty is an expression of the divine, was not merely a poetic statement. Probably, the physical appearance is connected to the existential abilities of the spicies. The tree, for example, if his branches are not perfectly balanced, simple will brake down and will not grow up. This balance and the proportion of an object we perceive as beauty and harmony.
Leonardo was the first one, who established the laws of phyllotaxy that governs arrangement of the leaves on a stem; as well as laws of heliotropism and geotropism, which describes the influence of the gravitation of the Earth and the movement of the sun on the plants. Again, very few people know, that it’s Leonardo discovered the method of calculating the age of a tree by the rings of its trunk.
Between Giaconda and the rings of the tree trunk, seemingly, there is a nothing in common. They are worlds apart. Only a giant can cover the gap. The name of this giant is Leonardo da Vinci.
Netta Yudkevich.
©
In our days Leonardo da Vinci is a household name. It was not so until the beginning of the 20ies century. In 1911 the Mona Lisa painting was stolen from Louvre. Eduardo de Valfierno, who masterminded the theft, hid it under his jacket and walked out the front door of the museum. All major newspapers of Europe followed this thriller until 1913, when the thief was caught and the famous painting was returned to Louvre.
The name of Leonardo da Vinci was brought back in to the light, and the world discovered its greatest artist.
Although, he was less of an artist, then an inventor, a scientist, an engineer, an anatomist, a mathematician, a geologist, a botanic, and etc. Leonardo, when asked about his occupations, placed the art at the eleventh place – the last one.
He hardly produced about 12 painting during his life time. As a scientist he didn’t measure up to Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, or Newton, although he made quite a few discoveries in different fields.
As an inventor he would not be able to patent most of his inventions by the modern criteria. Those inventions, (a tank, a submarine and helicopter including,) were never produced. The one that he did build - the flying apparatus, never worked. Yet, the attempt to build one, to understand the laws of aerodynamics, and the structure of the wing, is extraordinary. By the way, Leonardo da Vinci invented the propeller.
The amount of subject matters that he was preoccupied with, the range of his interest is unthinkable for one person . He created and invented, ether by power of his genius, or by the power of his prophetic abilities, objects that would emerge in our reality 500 years afterward.
Merely the fact that he was capable to developed the concepts of things half millennium ahead of his time is astonishing by itself, and earned him our appreciation and adulation.
The intellectual depth of his ideas, the observation abilities, the analytical mindset are beyond comprehension. His favorite science was mathematics:
"...no human inquiry can be called science unless it pursues its path through mathematical exposition and demonstration." - Leonardo da Vinci.
Simple and laconic. By this sentence Leonardo defined the meaning of science. And he did it, when the science was still in embryonic stage. Galileo makes his discoveries a century later, and Newton defines the laws of mechanics two centuries later.
Leonardo understood something that not all of our contemporaries do that the lows of nature could be described by only the quantitative relationship of the matter, or energy, namely - equations. No verbal interpretation and explanation can be regarded as science, if there is no mathematical exposition behind it.
Somehow the artists of Renaissance including Leonardo didn’t distinguish between art and science. They applied math to painting and art to geometry. They came up with the laws of perspective, which gave birth to a new chapter in math. They believed that beauty and harmony can be calculated. Perhaps, such an attitude was inspired by the Euclidian geometry and the golden section.
The visual art in the time of Renaissance was about beauty and harmony. Leonardo was truthful to this thesis, actively seeking for answers. One of the results of his search was the famous Vitruvian men, which became an icon, a symbol for anything that has to do with humans, and anything that deals with science. There were other achievements, more profound and less known in the field of botanic
Leonardo realized that the Plato’s thesis, which states that beauty is an expression of the divine, was not merely a poetic statement. Probably, the physical appearance is connected to the existential abilities of the spicies. The tree, for example, if his branches are not perfectly balanced, simple will brake down and will not grow up. This balance and the proportion of an object we perceive as beauty and harmony.
Leonardo was the first one, who established the laws of phyllotaxy that governs arrangement of the leaves on a stem; as well as laws of heliotropism and geotropism, which describes the influence of the gravitation of the Earth and the movement of the sun on the plants. Again, very few people know, that it’s Leonardo discovered the method of calculating the age of a tree by the rings of its trunk.
Between Giaconda and the rings of the tree trunk, seemingly, there is a nothing in common. They are worlds apart. Only a giant can cover the gap. The name of this giant is Leonardo da Vinci.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on
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Netta, I am really happy to read this discussion on my favourite genius. Yes, da Vinci was well ahead of his times.
Had he lived in our times, I am pretty sure, he would have achieved more success in the scientific field. Nobody can forget he was the first person to get several new ideas. He was a true path breaker! But as an artist he truly belonged to the era in which he lived. Because now an artist has to do works like products in a factory to get at least some recognition. Although his paintings are only a few, he did several drawings of most of his scientific discoveries & experiments! But look at it this way: had he painted several versions of Mona Lisa like people now do, would it have become so famous?
Regards
krishna
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Permalink Reply by Netta Yudkevich on
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Yes, it's true.
The mathematics. It was not developed enough for him to able to calculate right things he observed, like aerodinamics. The laws of mechnics were absent, and the same with other fields - hydravlics, optics and so on.
The ather problem was his personality. He was famous by starting things and then abandoning them for something else.
Art too. It was for him a research field. He treated everything as an expiriment, with enormous curyosity about everything in his pass.
Ones, when my child was 5 years old, I took him to see a movie abot Leonardo. On the way home the kid was crying. He was extremely upset that Leonardo died in the end. I brought him home in tears, and my mother asked why is he crying. I explained. My mother said that, probably, he is the only person, who morns the death of da Vinci half millenium later. It was fanny. And I thought that this is symbolic. How many people we know, that would be morn in 500 years?
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa said:Netta, I am really happy to read this discussion on my favourite genius. Yes, da Vinci was well ahead of his times.
Had he lived in our times, I am pretty sure, he would have achieved more success in the scientific field. Nobody can forget he was the first person to get several new ideas. He was a true path breaker! But as an artist he truly belonged to the era in which he lived. Because now an artist has to do works like products in a factory to get at least some recognition. Although his paintings are only a few, he did several drawings of most of his scientific discoveries & experiments! But look at it this way: had he painted several versions of Mona Lisa like people now do, would it have become so famous?
Regards
krishna
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You are right, Netta. Yes, we remember all the great masters for their work even after hundreds of years later because their works are classics-age less.
But we don't know under what circumstances he worked, what difficulties he faced & why he abandoned his scientific work in the middle. We should always analyse a person along with the context otherwise we might misjudge his personality.
Regards
Krishna
s Netta Yudkevich said:Yes, it's true.
The mathematics. It was not developed enough for him to able to calculate right things he observed, like aerodinamics. The laws of mechnics were absent, and the same with other fields - hydravlics, optics and so on.
The ather problem was his personality. He was famous by starting things and then abandoning them for something else.
Art too. It was for him a research field. He treated everything as an expiriment, with enormous curyosity about everything in his pass.
Ones, when my child was 5 years old, I took him to see a movie abot Leonardo. On the way home the kid was crying. He was extremely upset that Leonardo died in the end. I brought him home in tears, and my mother asked why is he crying. I explained. My mother said that, probably, he is the only person, who morns the death of da Vinci half millenium later. It was fanny. And I thought that this is symbolic. How many people we know, that would be morn in 500 years?
Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa said:Netta, I am really happy to read this discussion on my favourite genius. Yes, da Vinci was well ahead of his times.
Had he lived in our times, I am pretty sure, he would have achieved more success in the scientific field. Nobody can forget he was the first person to get several new ideas. He was a true path breaker! But as an artist he truly belonged to the era in which he lived. Because now an artist has to do works like products in a factory to get at least some recognition. Although his paintings are only a few, he did several drawings of most of his scientific discoveries & experiments! But look at it this way: had he painted several versions of Mona Lisa like people now do, would it have become so famous?
Regards
krishna
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