Scientific discoveries of Leonardo da Vinci briefly. Titans of the Renaissance (Leonardo Da Vinci)

You will learn from this article what Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian scientist and artist, inventor and scientist, musician and writer, as well as a representative of Renaissance art, became famous for.

Discoveries of Leonardo da Vinci. What was da Vinci famous for?

He was a true genius and inventor of his time. But at that time, technological progress was not at the required level to bring his sketches to life. In most cases, they remained on paper, far ahead of their time.

Achievements of Leonardo da Vinci that went down in history and glorified him:

Bearing

Historians agree that the first sketch of the bearing was made by da Vinci. After all, many of the devices he invented could not work without this element.

Parachute

The scientist was fascinated by the thoughts of a flying man and conceived the design of a parachute that would help drift through the air. His parachute had a pyramidal structure and was draped with fabric. In his notes, he mentioned that this device would allow a person falling from any height to land without damage or injury. His inventions in the 21st century have become more relevant than ever.

Ornithopter

The Italian genius was inspired by birds: he could spend hours watching them, drawing and thinking about an aircraft that would resemble birds. The result of the thinking was the appearance of an ornithopter - a device capable of lifting a person into the air like a bird. The sketch on paper was simply perfect, as it was created taking into account the laws of aerodynamics. It is worth noting that in addition to the parachute and ornithopter, he also invented a helicopter-like aircraft and a glider.

Machine gun

In our modern understanding, the da Vinci machine gun was somewhat different. This weapon was called a “33-barreled organ.” And although it could not quickly fire bullets from the barrel, it was easy to stop the advancing infantry. The inventor came up with a fairly simple machine gun mechanism: he proposed placing 11 muskets on a rectangular board, then folding three such boards into a triangle. Leonardo placed a shaft in the middle that would rotate this structure and one set of 11 muskets would fire while the others reloaded and cooled. The mechanism could turn over and fire another volley.

Diving suit

It is worth noting that the inventor lived at the end of the 15th century. And already at that time he developed an idea to repel invading ships: men were equipped with diving suits and sent to the bottom of the harbor. They quickly opened the bottom of the ships there, like cans. Perhaps today this idea is still banal. But at the time his idea was a sip fresh air. Divers breathed underwater using an underwater bell filled with air, and a mask with special glass holes was put on their face, through which they could see perfectly under water.

Armored tank

When he worked for Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, he came up with an armored tank. It somewhat resembled a turtle, bristling on all sides with 36 guns and a system of gear wheels. It was driven by 8 strong men, who were protected from battle by the outer shell of the tank. They could bring the combat vehicle to the very hot spot fight without fear for your life. It is interesting that in the design of the tank, da Vinci made a mistake: the wheels that set it in motion turned in the opposite direction from the rear wheels. Thus, if the car were built, it would not be able to move. Scientists are inclined to believe that this error not accidental for such a genius as Leonardo da Vinci. He either really did not want the tank to be built, or he was afraid that his personal notes would fall into the hands of the enemy and such a maneuver would not allow his plan to be realized.

Self-propelled trolley

This invention has the potential to be the first automobile in history. What's more, the cart didn't have a driver's seat, which means it could be considered the first robotic vehicle.

Cities of the future

In 1400, plague raged in European cities. And da Vinci suggested that cities are especially vulnerable to this disease. He developed a project plan settlement, sanitary and vital. " Ideal city"was divided into levels. Each of them has a minimized level of unsanitary conditions, a wide network of channels for waste disposal and a hydraulic system similar to a modern one.

Robot Knight

He created a robot that was used as entertainment at the court of Lodovico Sforza.

In addition to technical inventions, Leonardo da Vinci became famous as an artist. His brushes belong to such famous paintings like: Mona Lisa, Last Supper, Annunciation, Ginevra de Benci, Madonna Benoit, Virgin with Flowers, Adoration of the Magi, Cecilia Gallerani with Ermine, Musician, Madonna Litta.

We hope that from this article you learned what Leonardo da Vinci became famous for.

Leonardo da Vinci [ True story genius] Alferova Marianna Vladimirovna

Leonardo's discoveries in painting

After Leonardo painted a beautiful angel in the painting of his teacher and people started talking about him in Florence, he began to receive new orders one after another. This is the painting “The Annunciation”, and “Portrait of Senora Benci”, and images of Madonnas and Child.

But from now on, every step of Leonardo in painting is associated with innovations, with such techniques and techniques that painting did not know before him. Creation of each new painting Leonardo views it as an experiment - and an experiment in all areas, from the interpretation of the plot to the use of new materials and new technology painting. At the very beginning of his work as a painter, Leonardo developed the sfumato technique, which he perfected throughout his life. Translated from Italian " sfumato" means “shaded”, in the literal meaning of the word – “disappearing”, like smoke. Thanks to this technique, the lines in the painting turn out to be slightly blurry - the way we see them in reality, and not clearly defined, like medieval artists. Haze creates the illusion of air and depth of space, softens the boundaries of bodies and objects, and allows you to achieve amazing realism.

In 2010, with the help x-rays researchers were able to study several paintings by Leonardo, including the most famous painting Master - “Mona Lisa” (the painting itself will be discussed in the corresponding chapter). As a result, we managed to find out an amazing thing: Leonardo da Vinci sometimes applied layers of paint just a couple of microns thick, while the total thickness of the paint layer often did not exceed 30–40 microns. Just think: one micron is one thousandth of a millimeter. The human eye is not capable of distinguishing such quantities. Even with a magnifying glass you won't be able to see anything 30 microns in size. But the Master did not have any magnifying equipment. Leonardo may have used homemade glasses towards the end of his life. Leonardo's notes also mention lenses, that is, an ordinary magnifying glass. But a magnifying glass is not a microscope. How Leonardo managed to apply such layers of paint is a mystery. At the same time, scientists did not find any brush strokes or fingerprints on the portrait. The image seemed to appear by itself.

Sketch for the painting “Adoration of the Magi”

But the Mona Lisa is one of latest paintings Masters, so let's return to the story about his first experiments in painting.

In his book, Giorgio Vasari enthusiastically describes several early works Leonardo is both a cardboard made with amazing art and an unfinished Medusa.

These works, unfortunately, have not survived. Vasari writes that to young Leonardo The images that appear on the canvas are “more alive than life.” This is how he describes the “Madonna” and admires, first of all, the details - the decanter of water in which there are flowers. You can see sweat drops of moisture on the glass walls. It's about about the painting “Madonna with a Carnation”, in the lower right corner of which this decanter is depicted.

First works young artist are now considered “The Annunciation” - the painting began in 1472, “Madonna with a Carnation” and “Portrait of Ginevra de Benci”.

In 1479, Leonardo received an order from the church for the painting “Saint Jerome” and in 1481 another order - to paint a large altarpiece “The Adoration of the Magi” for the monastery of San Donato. Most likely, the mediator in both cases was the artist’s father, a notary. But, as it soon became clear, the brilliant young artist often did not complete the work. This happened with these two orders. But why didn’t Leonardo finish his works? No one can answer this question with certainty.

Quite often, receiving an order, Leonardo was inspired by ideas, drew sketches and made cardboard. Then he transferred the drawing to the board and did the underpainting. And after that he quickly lost interest in work. Perhaps the customers did not like his compositions - they were too innovative, too daring. However, the monks from San Donato paid two advances for the painting “Adoration of the Magi,” so they probably wanted to receive an order for their church. Or is the whole point that Leonardo did not like to finish what he started? He painted with oil paints very slowly; work on the painting lasted for years. Who knows, maybe he was becoming uninterested in working on what he saw in his mind's eye and depicted on cardboard or in the underpainting. After a year or two, he was already carried away by new ideas, and Leonardo quit his job, despite the fact that he received money for it in advance.

To paint the painting “Saint Jerome,” Leonardo studied anatomy, dissecting corpses. Such activities, let’s say, were not encouraged by the church, so autopsies were performed at night and secretly. Anatomy at the heart of the image human body– this was also a novelty, this was still practiced very rarely. Even doctors at that time studied anatomy “on occasion.” Nowadays, artists study anatomy from textbooks, and improve their drawing in classes, depicting the human body. In the 15th century, such textbooks simply did not exist. Before Leonardo, almost no one depicted a person as we see him in the painting “Saint Jerome.” The half-naked body of the saint is painted with knowledge the smallest details anatomy. Jerome is depicted at the moment when he repents of his sins, preparing to hit himself in the chest with a stone. A tamed lion lies at his feet. According to legend, a dangerous predator splintered its paw and suffered from unbearable pain. Jerome removed the splinter, after which the man and the king of beasts became inseparable.

It is easy to notice that the Christian legend repeats the pagan story about Androcles and the lion, adding to the legend a story about the Christian humility of the beast, which not only made friends with a person, but also worked like a donkey - in the literal sense of the word. What did Saint Jerome repent of? Maybe because he was too passionate about the thirst for knowledge, that he loved reading the works of Cicero too much? After all, the thirst for knowledge in the Middle Ages was considered a sin. If so, then Leonardo probably felt a kinship with Jerome. But he was not going to repent of the fact that he wanted to penetrate all earthly secrets.

Pay attention to the composition, to the distribution of light and dark spots in the picture. One of the most important principles of contrast is used here: light figures should be depicted on dark background, dark - on light. The light areas of the landscape and the figure of the lion form a twisting spiral that comes into the person’s hand. If we continue it, it will touch a point on the chest where the saint will hit himself with a stone a few seconds later. This composition gives the picture amazing dynamics. The saint's head resembles Roman bust-portraits in features. Perhaps one of them served as a prototype for the head of Jerome - after all, this was the time when they were rediscovering antique art, when excavations were carried out throughout Italy. However, not everyone was involved in excavations - for example, Benvenuto Cellini boasted in his book that he had forged an antique bust and sold it for a very substantial sum.

“Saint Jerome” remained at the underpainting stage. Leonardo painted it with white and black paint. The fact that the picture is now seen in brown and olive tones is the result of the influence of time.

Working with oil paints required endurance and patience. Before proceeding to the second stage of work on the painting, it was necessary to thoroughly dry the underpainting. Otherwise, the first paint layer will begin to absorb oil from the new layer, the paints will begin to dry out (go cloudy, lose their brightness), crack and crumble.

After the first layer of painting had dried, the artist began the next part of the work - registering the details. Usually the painting ended with the application of the thinnest layers of translucent paint - glazes. As mentioned above, in his completed works Leonardo applied dozens of extremely thin translucent layers.

The destinies of paintings are sometimes similar to human destinies. Some gain instant fame and then disappear into oblivion, others get lost for years and years, only to then suddenly gain fame and occupy central place in one of famous meetings. The story of “Saint Jerome” followed the second path. After Leonardo stopped working on it, it was cut off at the edges (apparently, adapting it to a small room), and then completely sawed into two parts. Some enterprising merchant used the lower piece as a tabletop in his shop. lucky chance helped find this scrap, and only in the 19th century both parts of the picture were united, and in 1845 the Vatican bought it for its collection.

But let's return to Leonardo the artist and his next job. Having never finished Saint Jerome, Leonardo began to fulfill a new order - for the monastery of San Donato. This is very big picture– 243 by 246 centimeters. For comparison, the size of the “Madonna Litta” stored in the Hermitage is only 42 by 33 centimeters.

Leonardo da Vinci. Adoration of the Magi. Tempera mixed with oil, using red and green varnish, white lead, wood. Despite the fact that the painting is not finished, the chiaroscuro gives a striking volume to the figures. It is interesting that Filippo Lippi, who ultimately completed the order instead of Leonardo, created a painting that replicated the Master’s creation in size and composition

And again, working on “The Adoration of the Magi,” Leonardo refuses to repeat the established canons and creates a completely new and unusual composition. First of all, the innovation lay in the way the figures were positioned in the painting. The Adoration of the Magi is a famous subject, and before Leonardo, the central part of the painting was usually fitted into an imaginary rectangle. Leonardo began to arrange figures according to the principle of a pyramid. In the center is the Madonna and Child without any hint of halos or radiance above their heads. And all around were crowds of people in motion, as if they had come to some national assembly. The Madonna and the two groups on the right and left are depicted light on a dark background, and the central space in the middle below, at the feet of the Madonna, is left free. A person looking at the picture seems to take this place in front of the Madonna and the newborn Christ. The amazing appearance of the Divine Child threw the crowd into confusion. All the people who have gathered around Mary and the Child are on the move. It looks like a stream of boiling water that Leonardo loved to paint. There is not a single similar pose in the picture - each person expresses his own special feeling, but all together they move in a common impulse.

Even unfinished, the picture amazed and confused viewers with its unusualness.

What we see now in the picture was made using the chiaroscuro technique - a sense of volume, the transfer of light and shade is achieved with the help of contrasting light and dark spots. Correctly distributing gradations of light and shade from the lightest spot - the highlight, to the darkest - the falling shadow, the artist conveys the volume of objects.

“Every opaque body is surrounded and superficially clothed with shadows and light... In addition, shadows have different qualities of darkness, for they are deprived of different numbers of light rays... These are the first shadows that clothe the bodies to which they are adjacent...” - Leonardo’s entry was preserved in the Atlantic Codex.

Place some massive object on the table, such as a jug, point a beam of light at it and take a closer look. The brightest spot is a glare of light on the side of the jug. The thickest shadow is the falling shadow nearby. All other gradations of chiaroscuro “will fall” in the range from the lightest spot to the darkest. If you want to depict a jug as voluminous, you must each time compare the areas of light and shadow with each other - which one is lighter and which one is darker. Using this technique, a volume is “molded” on a flat sheet. It seems very simple. But painters managed without this simplicity for a thousand years.

So, Leonardo, an unsurpassed master and innovator, but “The Adoration of the Magi” remained unfinished. The artist never started the next stage - registering the details.

And, although the Master received a cash advance for his work and spent everything, he ultimately did not finish the painting. He was given a second advance - olive oil, grain and firewood (with such harsh measures the monks wanted to force the artist to continue working on the order). But this did not help either - Leonardo completely cooled down to what he had started with such enthusiasm. The fact that Leonardo's interpretation of the plot was truly revolutionary could hardly console the monks.

It is not difficult to find this picture in good resolution on the Internet. And you can carefully examine Leonardo’s work at that stage, before the Master has yet begun to register the details. It’s as if you looked into the artist’s studio for a few minutes when he left.

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In Northern Italy there is a wonderful city of Florence. Across the river, on the banks of which it stands, there are many beautiful stone bridges. Pay attention to the Ponte Vecchio bridge, near which there are numerous shops with windows overlooking the river. If you look into any of them, you will see almost the same thing as the brilliant Leonardo da Vinci.

He was 16 years old when he came to Florence with the goal of becoming the best artist in the whole world. In principle, he achieved his goal. But not only in the field of painting: the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci still haunt historians and researchers, since they were far ahead of their time, no matter how incredible it may sound.

The World of Leonardo's Age

Florence, which was surrounded by nature of wondrous beauty, must surely have become a real discovery for the young genius. His path lay from the town of Vinci, which is located just one day from the city. Even today this village looks exactly the same as it did 500 years ago. Leonardo was so amazed by the local beauty that he spent hours admiring the leisurely flow of the river and observing the habits of the numerous birds that nest in these places to this day.

If you have ever visited the exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci’s inventions, which is regularly held in Florence, then you yourself will easily notice the abundance of “bird” motifs in many of his works.

In general, he was distinguished by a love for our smaller brothers, rare for that time: contemporaries say that one of his favorite pastimes was to buy several cages with birds at the market, and then release them all into the wild. It must be said that the influence of nature, its forms and proportions can be traced in all subsequent works of the master, so that his youthful hobby turned out to be extremely useful in his mature years.

The beginning of Leonardo's life

He was born on April 15, 1452. Just 40 years later, Columbus would discover America, but even this event is unlikely to be able to overshadow the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci, which contemporaries considered some to be a miracle and some to be the tricks of the Evil One. From a young age, he had a pronounced inclination towards science, but the small village could not quench his indomitable thirst for knowledge for long. In 1469 his father sent talented son apprenticed to the sculptor Andrea Verrochio.

In general, the short biography of Leonardo da Vinci, which is given in most textbooks, did not preserve any other data about the initial period of his life.

He was very famous, and his works were very popular even at the court of the rulers of Florence. At that time, the Renaissance reigned, when the position of the Church weakened, and scientists, sculptors and artists could do what they loved without the risk of being roasted at the inquisitorial fire.

The standard of living has increased, many people have moved to cities. Florence, already big and beautiful city, literally turned out to be filled talented people art and merchants. Sculptors, painters and blacksmiths worked in Verrochio's workshop, producing magnificent works of art that captured the imagination of contemporaries and still delight us today.

The artist's craft, already difficult, required remarkable knowledge of mechanics and physics.

While working as an apprentice, Leonardo quickly became familiar with numerous systems for carrying and transporting heavy loads, which greatly helped him in further career. Almost all of Leonardo da Vinci's inventions carry easily recognizable features that anyone can notice when examining reproductions of paintings that depicted the workshops of that time.

Early works of Leonardo

At just 20 years old young genius became a full member of the Florence Guild of Artists, which in those days was the same as if someone at the same age took the main post in the Large Hadron Collider project. In a word, the boy was not just talented, but simply brilliant. It was he who complemented the work of his teacher Verrocchio, “The Baptism of Christ.” The angel on the left side of the canvas, as well as significant pieces of the landscape, belong to his brush.

It should be noted that there was nothing unusual in the practice of using students to paint paintings: many paintings of the Renaissance, which “de jure” belonged to the brushes of the great masters of that period, were actually painted by their students (Rembrandt, in particular, in his time was engaged in precisely this).

In the above-mentioned painting, Leonardo first demonstrated to the world his originality and fresh vision of problems. Thus, he first began to use oil paints, thanks to which he quickly managed to create his own own style in painting and surpassed his teacher. Some believe that the student’s success aroused Verrochio’s envy, but contemporaries say that the old teacher was sincerely glad to transfer part of his affairs into reliable hands. Around the same time, Leonardo gradually began to work on his own projects and paintings.

In those years, the works of artists were divided into only two categories: religious motifs and landscapes. But young talent this was clearly not enough. One of Leonardo's first works was a simple pencil sketch called "The Arno Valley". Despite its apparent simplicity, this is a real masterpiece: the observer literally sees and feels in it the movement of leaves, the flow of water and the rustle of the wind. In short, Leonardo not only departed from the generally accepted canons of depiction, but also created his own style, which no one has been able to replicate to this day.

But over time, the genius’s paintings became more and more complex and perfect. It was he who came up with the idea of applying the thinnest layers oil paint one on top of the other, which gave the paintings a peculiar “smokiness” and indescribable charm. In principle, the master himself called this technique “enveloping in haze.” He learned to convey colors so naturally that many of his paintings are simply photographic in accuracy.

In general, the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci still shock both experienced art critics and chemists. Some of the compositions of his paints are still being deciphered to this day.

Ambition in the field of invention

14 years passed, which were completely devoted to Florence. The active Leonard became bored. But he always said that all the time he spent in Florence allowed him to become a truly great artist and inventor. Be that as it may, Leonardo soon has the opportunity to apply his efforts to another project.

It all started with the fact that neighboring Milan was threatened by enemies, and Leonardo da Vinci (whose era was not characterized by calm) got the idea to create his own project to effectively protect the city from possible attack. At that time, the ruler of Milan was Francesco Sforza. Da Vinci wrote a letter to him in which he praised his ability to make cannons, catapults, warships, and other military equipment.

The ambitious Leonardo wanted to do something more than painting. But he soon discovered that his employer was more interested in turning Milan into a city as beautiful as Florence. And the genius again had to return to the path of sculptor and artist’s craft. Fortunately, because otherwise we would have lost numerous of his works, which today are the property of all mankind.

What were the main inventions of Leonardo da Vinci? The list is far from complete, but here they are:

Tank project.
Drawings of airplanes, helicopters, balloons.
Leonardo da Vinci invented the alarm clock (he was always on the short side with mechanics).
First mentions, schematic sketches of steam locomotives.
Several dozen unique techniques in painting and sculpture, which still cannot be repeated.
Leonardo da Vinci invented scissors. According to legend, he came up with the idea of connecting two small knives using screws. Why he decided to conduct such an experiment, history is silent. However, the invention turned out to be very useful.
Incredibly accurate and detailed anatomical atlases, based on the model and likeness of which all modern analogues are created.
Advanced sewerage and storm drainage schemes.

It is possible to continue listing the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci, the list of which we have given in a thousandfold truncated form. He truly was a genius.

Immortal creations of Leonardo

These, in particular, include a number of his creations, which we will discuss below. So, let's list the especially outstanding ones.

Bronze horse

The first “party task” of Leonardo da Vinci, whose discoveries still amaze the world, was the creation of a monument that would depict Father Sforzi sitting astride a horse. An ambitious inventor and sculptor planned to make it so that the whole world would admire its genius. He spent 11 years working on developments, as a result of which a “model” of a clay horse was born, the height of which was almost nine meters. The bronze copy came out much more modest.

"Last Supper"

One of the most mysterious and famous creations of Leonardo to this day is the painting “ Last Supper" During the Second World War, a bomb hit the monastery on whose walls it was painted, but did not explode. But it was this projectile that broke off pieces of plaster on the walls, as a result of which researchers for the first time in several centuries saw Leonardo’s creation, which by that time needed high-quality restoration.

In general, paintings by Leonardo da Vinci are still discovered from time to time in various parts of Italy. Perhaps great discoveries of his new paintings are still awaiting us.

"Mona Lisa"

In 1500, the artist returned from Milan to Florence, where three years later he created a truly brilliant picture"Mona Lisa". The mystery of the painting in a certain incredible technology: The smile of the girl depicted in the picture looks incredibly realistic. No matter how many times artists try to repeat this technique, they still don’t succeed.

Engineering

In 1506 Leonardo da Vinci (discoveries in various scientific fields became more active during this period) moved to Milan again. At that time, the city was under French control, so the inventor went to the commander of the French army, Charles d'Amboise. For the next seven years, he practically did not paint, but spent a lot of time studying mechanics, anatomy and mathematics in depth. Thus, it was his inquisitive mind that created the project for draining the Pontine swamp. Tellingly, his plan turned out to be the most realistic and least expensive, so the drainage was carried out precisely according to his recommendations.

Entertainment of the courtiers

In Milan, Leonardo's time was almost entirely occupied by a variety of various projects. He continued to paint, took on a variety of projects, but often did not complete them. In addition, he often wrote songs and plays, which he often showed to the rulers of Milan. He was also responsible for creating scenery and costumes at the time when carnivals were planned.

Leonardo da Vinci was such a multifaceted person. What else has this restless designer invented?

Military designer

He was passionate about creating all kinds of military vehicles: tanks and shells with improved ballistics, new bombs for mortars. In addition, he was designing fortresses that could survive long-term sieges. Of course, he could carry out no more than a tenth of his bold projects, since most of them were significantly ahead of their time, and therefore the technology for their construction simply did not yet exist. For example, the first tanks were built only 450 years after he drew drawings of such machines.

However, with equal success Leonardo was also interested in completely peaceful projects. Thus, the sewerage project in Milan belongs to him. He designed the sewage system in such a way that sewage could not cause subsequent epidemics among the townspeople.

Great anatomist

Leonardo da Vinci made his greatest contribution to anatomy, since he was responsible for hundreds of studies of the human body, carried out in amazing detail and with high quality. However, for artists of that time, the study of anatomy was a completely natural phenomenon, but only Leonardo became interested not only appearance, but also the mechanics of the human body.

Even though the Church was sharply against this method of obtaining new knowledge, he carried out dozens of resections, studied hundreds of organs of people belonging to various classes, different gender, age and physiological state.

His descriptions of anatomical experiments showed that in his research he sometimes went further than some anatomists of the 19th century. But the most remarkable thing is that he made magnificent sketches of his experiments. He was the first to make an absolutely accurate drawing of an opened human body with an embryo inside.

The umbilical cord was captured by him down to the smallest detail. Leonardo was one of the first to make cross-sectional sketches of the human body, giving names to each individual part. It should be noted that this method continues to be used today.

The researcher paid special attention to the human eye, and therefore long before his contemporaries he described the fundamental laws of optics. Thus, he was the first to make a brilliant assumption about the refraction of light in the lens of the eye of animals and humans. Leonardo wrote in his diary that the eye lens is a kind of lens that is attached to the brain by attaching through the orbital nerve.

Flying in dreams and in reality

As we wrote at the very beginning of the article, he was very interested in birds. It is not surprising that many of his works are devoted to finding methods of flight, thanks to which a person could take to the skies. It was he who owned the designs of the first helicopters (helicopters), airplanes and balloons.

As you may have noticed, Leonardo da Vinci’s whole life is closely connected with the sky: he loved birds, loved to create designs for all kinds of aeronautical mechanisms.

The last years of a genius

When the creator turned sixty years old, he suddenly discovered that he simply did not have cash in sufficient quantities. This is strange, since almost all talented sculptors and artists of that time had many wealthy sponsors. Why didn't Leonardo have them?

The fact is that he had the reputation of a gifted, but very absent-minded genius. Even if Leonardo da Vinci (whose history knows many similar episodes) took on some project, no one could guarantee that he would complete it and not abandon it halfway. Perhaps this is why he created no more than a dozen paintings in his entire life.

At approximately the age of 60, da Vinci painted a self-portrait (in the article). He makes it with a simple red crayon. The portrait shows a very aged man, with with sad eyes, wrinkled skin and a long white beard. Was Leonardo lonely in his last years, was he disappointed that not all of his projects were considered feasible by his contemporaries? Alas, we will probably never know this.

This brilliant scientist died at the age of 67. This happened on May 2, 1519. He spent the last two years of his life at the court of the French monarch, as he truly appreciated science and everything that Leonardo did for its development. This is how it ends short biography Leonardo da Vinci.

Mirror writing and diaries

After his death, they were able to find more than five thousand pages of notes and a wide variety of diaries. What immediately caught my eye was the mirror writing with which Leonardo carefully encrypted his notes. Who might need to read them? From whom did the old scientist defend himself with such energy?

Let us not forget that even during the Renaissance, the Church was still an extremely powerful organization. Almost everything Leonardo wrote could easily be interpreted as “devilishness.” However, the scientist surprisingly had good relationship with many high-ranking members of the clergy, and therefore some scholars suggest that Leonardo was simply having his own quirks, writing his notes in this way.

This theory is supported by the fact that deciphering a “mirror” letter is not particularly difficult. It is unlikely that the churchmen, if they really set themselves such a goal, would not be able to read it.

Thus, the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci left a deep mark on culture and art, science and technology, and in all other spheres of life of modern society.

The largest figure among engineers of the 15th–16th centuries. was Leonardo da Vinci, one of the titans of the Renaissance, artist, sculptor, philosopher, experimenter - greatest genius humanity. On the birthday of the great scientist, the “dilettante” decided to remember his discoveries and inventions.

Leonardo was born in the town of Vinci in Tuscany.

He studied in the studio of the artist Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence.

Since 1472 - member of the Guild of Painters of St. Luke.

Lived and worked in Italy and France.

For Leonardo, art and science were inextricably linked.

Da Vinci began writing in the Codex at the age of 37 and continued to write them almost until his death

Since 1481, he began working in Milan as a military engineer, architect, hydraulic engineer, creator of many mechanisms, engineering structures and technical devices. This period of da Vinci's life includes notes on structural mechanics, the theory of constructing vaults and arches. With his technical discoveries, Leonardo enriched almost all areas of contemporary science.

Leonardo da Vinci's inventions were collected by him in the “Codes” in the form of drawings, accompanied by detailed comments. He began taking notes at the age of 37 and continued to keep them almost until his death. Leonardo himself did not publish a single line. He expressed his thoughts in an extremely concise form, and kept his notes in code.

The inventor wrote with his left hand and in very small letters, and even from right to left. But this was not enough - he turned all the letters over in a mirror image. He spoke in riddles, made metaphorical prophecies, and loved to make puzzles. Leonardo did not sign his works, but they have identification marks. For example, if you look closely at the paintings, you can find a symbolic bird taking off. And there were many such signs...

Currently, there are 10 known manuscripts that can be united under one name - “Codes of Leonardo da Vinci”. Systematic study and publication of his works began only in the second half of the 19th century. Scientists from different countries took part in this work.

Da Vinci took part in the reclamation of Lomellina, designed the diversion of the Arno River at the Pisa Bridge

Leonardo's influence on the subsequent development of science is a matter of debate, as it has been pointed out that his manuscripts were unknown until the publication of J. B. Ventura's work in 1797. Opponents of this point of view believe that Leonardo da Vinci's ideas were spread orally or through his manuscripts. A number of Leonardo's ideas are contained in the works of Nicolo Tartaglia (1499-1552), Hieronymus Cardan (1501-1576) and Giovan Batista Benedetti (1530-1590).

Inventions

From tens to hundreds of Leonardo's inventions are contained in the form of drawings in his notebooks and may be accompanied by remarks. Drawings are sometimes repeated, modified and improved.

Among the most famous inventions of Leonardo da Vinci, Mario Llozzi in the book “History of Physics” notes: devices for converting and transmitting motion (in particular, steel chain drives used in bicycles); simple and intertwined belt drives, various clutches (bevel, spiral, stepped); roller bearings to reduce friction, double connection (now known as cardan and used in cars); various machines: for example, an automatic notching machine, a gold bullion forming machine, a mechanical loom and spinning machine, weaving machines (shearing, twisting, carding); suspension of axles on moving wheels located around them to reduce friction during rotation - a predecessor of ball and roller bearings; a device for testing the tensile strength of metal threads; combat vehicles for warfare; new musical instruments; coin minting machine more high definition. During his lifetime, Leonardo received recognition for his invention of a wheel lock for a pistol (started with a key).

Hydraulics and hydrostatics

Leonardo da Vinci was involved in practical hydraulics, participating in a number of hydraulic engineering works of his time. He took part in the reclamation of Lomellina, the construction of hydraulic structures in Navara, designed the diversion of the Arno River at the Pisa Bridge, studied the problem of draining the Pontic works, and worked on hydraulic structures on the Adda and the Martesan Canal.

While carrying out hydraulic engineering work, Leonardo da Vinci made a number of inventions. He designed dredgers similar to modern ones, created mechanical means for digging canals, and improved locks to make canals navigable, namely, he introduced a system of shields that controlled the size of the openings for filling and emptying the lock.

In the field of theoretical hydrostatics, Leonardo knew the principle of communicating vessels for liquids of different densities, and also knew the basic principle of hydrostatics, now known as Pascal's law. According to the historian of science Duhem, Pascal learned this law from Leonardo da Vinci through Giovan Batisto Benedetti and Marino Mersenne, with whom Pascal corresponded.

Leonardo became the author of the theory of wave motion on the sea and expressed the idea that wave motion underlies the series physical phenomena. According to the “History of Physics” by M. Llozzi, Leonardo expressed the ideas that light, sound, color, smell, magnetism are distributed in waves.

Flight

Leonardo da Vinci was interested in flight for more than two decades, from 1490 to 1513. He began by studying the flight of birds. In 1490 he designed the first model aircraft, to which he returned later. This model had wings like those of a bat and was supposed to be propelled by human muscular power. Currently, it is believed that the problem of building an aircraft driven by muscular force is insoluble, since it is not enough for flight.

Leonardo later thought about soaring flight using wind energy.

Leonardo also came up with the idea of a helicopter, the driving element of which should be a fast-moving spiral.

In the Codex Atlanticus, Leonardo apparently cites the most early draft parachute

Statics and dynamics

While studying perspective in relation to painting, Leonardo moved on to problems of geometry and mechanics.

Leonardo continued his research on the centers of gravity of flat and volumetric figures, begun by the ancient Greek thinkers Archimedes and Heron. Leonardo could have learned about their ideas through the scholastics and from the works of Albert of Saxony.

Leonardo established that the center of gravity of the tetrahedron is located at the intersection point of the lines connecting the vertices of the tetrahedron with the centers of gravity of the opposite faces.

Leonardo is credited with having foreseen the principle of inertia and anticipating Newton's third law

While working on problems of statics, Leonardo expanded the concept of the moment of force with respect to a point, discovered the theorem on the expansion of moments for special cases and applied it to solve the problem of the addition and expansion of forces. Knew the conditions of equilibrium of a body resting on an inclined plane. While studying the problem of stability of inclined towers, he discovered the theorem about the support polygon: a body resting on a horizontal plane remains in balance if the base of the vertical, drawn from the center of gravity, falls inside the area of the support.

He tried to create a theory of the arch, and also dealt with the problems of the resistance of beams to tension and compression, analyzed the mechanism of friction and established its influence on the balance of bodies.

Leonardo is credited with having foreseen the principle of inertia, and in a number of his statements in the Atlantic Code he anticipated Newton's third law of equality of action and reaction.

He established that air has weight and tried to measure atmospheric pressure.

Experimental scientific method and its application

Being an artist, Leonardo da Vinci was interested in the theory of optics. He gave a description of the camera obscura and used it in the theory of vision. He proposed glasses for observing the Moon, established that the eyes see three-dimensional bodies differently, and worked on parabolic mirrors. The first to suggest that the ashen light of the Moon is light that is first reflected from the Earth and then from the Moon. He proposed the first design of a telescope with two lenses.

In his anatomical studies, Leonardo da Vinci, summarizing the results of autopsies, laid the foundations of modern scientific illustration, making a series of detailed drawings of various organs, muscles and systems of the human body. Leonardo described the human body as an example of “natural mechanics.” He discovered and described a number of bones and nerves, studied the problems of embryology and comparative anatomy.

He studied botany, isolating it as a separate discipline, described the leaf arrangement of plants, studied root pressure and the movement of plant juices.

Da Vinci was the first to suggest that the ashen light of the Moon was light that was first reflected from the Earth and then from the Moon

Leonardo da Vinci is considered one of the founders of paleontology, arguing that fossils found on mountain tops refute biblical ideas about the Flood.

In a number of books, Leonardo is considered to be the founder of the experimental scientific method, although experiments have been carried out by natural scientists since ancient times. He said that “knowledge is the daughter of experience” and argued that since knowledge begins with feelings, reasoning must be limited to experience. According to Leonardo, all nature is permeated with mathematical laws, which makes him similar to Galileo, who put forward a program for the mathematization of scientific knowledge.

Self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci

Discoveries of Leonardo da Vinci in the field of science and technology- a set of scientific discoveries and technical inventions made Italian artist, scientist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

Leonardo da Vinci proposed drawings for a number of mechanisms and inventions. He studied hydraulics, statics and dynamics of bodies, geometry, optics, anatomy, botany, paleontology, and military affairs.

Inventions

From tens to hundreds of Leonardo's inventions are contained in the form of drawings in his notebooks and may be accompanied by remarks. Drawings are sometimes repeated, modified and improved.

Among the most famous inventions of Leonardo da Vinci, Mario Llozzi in the book “History of Physics” notes: devices for converting and transmitting motion (in particular, steel chain drives used in bicycles); simple and intertwined belt drives, various clutches (bevel, spiral, stepped); roller bearings to reduce friction, double connection (now known as cardan and used in cars); various machines: for example, an automatic notching machine, a gold bullion forming machine, a mechanical loom and spinning machine, weaving machines (shearing, twisting, carding); suspension of axles on moving wheels located around them to reduce friction during rotation - the predecessor of ball and roller bearings; a device for testing the tensile strength of metal threads; combat vehicles for warfare; new musical instruments; higher definition coin minting machine. During his lifetime, Leonardo received recognition for his invention of a wheel lock for a pistol (started with a key).

Hydraulics and hydrostatics

Leonardo became the author of the theory of wave motion on the sea and expressed the idea that wave motion underlies a number of physical phenomena. According to the “History of Physics” by M. Llozzi, Leonardo expressed the ideas that light, sound, color, smell, magnetism are distributed in waves.

Flight

Leonardo da Vinci was interested in flight for more than two decades, from 1490 to 1513. He began by studying the flight of birds. In 1490, he designed the first model of an aircraft, to which he subsequently returned. This model had wings like those of a bat and was supposed to be propelled by human muscular power. Currently, it is believed that the problem of building an aircraft driven by muscular force is insoluble, since it is not enough for flight.

Leonardo later thought about soaring flight using wind energy.

Leonardo also came up with the idea of a helicopter, the driving element of which should be a fast-moving spiral: