da Vinci, Leonardo 1452 -- 1519
Painter, culptor, inventor. Born April 15, 1452 near the village of Vinci, Italy. He wa the illegitimate on of Ser Piero da Vinci, a prominent notary of Florence, who had no other children until much later. Ser Piero raied hi on himelf, a common practice at the time, arranging for Leonardo mother to marry a villager. When Leonardo wa 15, hi father apprenticed him to Andrea del Verrocchio, the leading artit of Florence and a characteritic talent of the early Renaiance. A culptor, painter, and goldmith, Verrocchio wa a remarkable craftman, and hi GREat kill and paionate concern for quality of execution, a well a hi interet in expreing the vital mobility of the human figure, were important element in Leonardo artitic formation. Indeed, much in Leonardo approach to art wa evolutionary from tradition rather than revolutionary againt it, although the oppoite i often true of hi reult.
After completing hi apprenticehip, Leonardo tayed on a an aitant in Verrocchio hop, and hi earliet known painting i a product of hi collaboration with the mater. In Verrocchio Baptim of Chrit , Leonardo executed one of the two angel, a fact already recorded in the 16th century, a well a the ditant landcape, and he added the final touche to the figure of Chrit, determining the texture of the fleh. Collaboration on a major project by a mater and hi aitant wa tandard procedure in the Italian Renaiance. What i pecial i that Leonardo work i not, a wa uual, a lightly le killed verion of Verrocchio manner of painting but an original approach altering it. It completely poee all the fundamental qualitie of Leonardo mature tyle and implie a criticim of the early Renaiance. By changing hard metallic urface effect to oft yielding one, making edge le cutting, and increaing the light modulation of light and hade, Leonardo evoked a new flexibility within the figure. Thi oft union, a Giorgio Vaari called it, i alo preent in the pecial lighting and i emphatically developed in the piral turn of the angel head and body and the vat depth of the landcape.WWw.hAOZUowEn.com