Last month, he was in the news again. His painting, Salavator Mundi meaning Saviour of the World made history on November 15 this year fetching a record total of $450 million at Christie’s auction in New York.
Yes, Leonardo da Vinci is an enduring hero in one way or the other.
Unmatched talent
Endowed with a spectacular combination of intelligence and imagination, he made a mark in invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, maths, engineering, anatomy, writing and cartography.
“ Learning never exhausts the mind,” he said. The parachute, helicopter, tank, automated bobbin winder, so goes the list of the inventions he conceptualised. A talented musician, he created a silver lyre in the shape of a horse’s head. But history remembers him mainly as an artist nonpareil.
The two most famous paintings by Leonardo are the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. The famous lady with the enigmatic smile is believed to be Lisa del Giocondo, wife of a rich silk merchant in Florence. The portrait, regarded as a priceless national treasure , today hangs in the Louvre museum in Paris secure behind bulletproof glass. Leonardo chose tempera and oil mural for The Last Supper, which took three years for him to complete, and it is the most reproduced religious painting of all time.
Da Vinci pioneered the painting techniques of chiaroscuro and sfumato, the former to do with contrast between light and darkness and the other deals with subtle gradations rather than strict borders.
According to a biographer, Da Vinci had outstanding physical beauty and grace to top his multifarious talents. He was notorious for not completing many of the commissioned paintings including the very first one.
Royal patronage
The French king Francis I gave him the title Premier Painter and Engineer and Architect to the King. It is said that the monarch held him in his arms as he died. Considered the most diversely talented individual ever, the Renaissance Man died in his Manor House near the king’s residence at the age of 67, leaving his wealth for two of his student companions, Count Francesco Melzi and Salai. Sixty beggars followed his casket in the funeral as per the artist’s wishes.
Growing up
Born in 1452 to a rich attorney and notary and a peasant woman in Anchiano near Vinci in Tuscany, Leonardo lived the first five years of his life with his mother, then moved to his father’s house.
At 14, Leonardo apprenticed as a studio boy with a leading Florentine artist, Andrea del Verrocchio.
He stayed for seven years picking up a gamut of technical skills like drafting, chemistry, metallurgy, metal working, plaster casting, leather working, mechanics and carpentry besides the all-important artistic skills of drawing, painting, sculpting and modelling.
According to legend, Verrocchio bid adieu to painting after his ward drew the young angel holding the robe of Jesus in his work, Baptism of Christ.
A vegetarian by preference, the artist was left handed when it came to writing.
He liked to buy caged birds and set them free
