Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

                I think it would be really hard to find someone who has never seen the painting of Mona Lisa and I‘m sure the creator of this painting needs no introduction. It‘s Leonardo da Vinci. The reason I‘ve chosen to talk about him is because not only was he a brilliant painter and a sculptor, but also an amazing architect, anatomist and an inventor.

            So, what do we already know about him? His full name is Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci and he was born in the present-day Italy in 1452. He lived for 67 years and died in 1519. Leonardo was, and still is, renowned primarily as a painter. Among his works, the Mona Lisa is the most famous and most parodied portrait and The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting of all time. Leonardo's drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also regarded as a cultural icon, being reproduced on items as varied as the euro coin, textbooks, and T-shirts and his Lady with an Ermine is also one of the most famous paintings in the world.

            However, the most amazing thing about Leonardo da Vinci is his technological ingenuity although he was homeschooled and lacked a formal education.  He drew sketches of a working flying machine, a tank, concentrated solar power and an adding machine. And did you know that In December 2000, skydiver Adrian Nicholas landed in South Africa using a parachute built from one of Leonardo's designs? Leonardo was also the first to explain why the sky is blue - it's because of the way air scatters light. You might also be surprised to hear that being a paranoid dyslexic, Leonardo could draw forward with one hand while writing backwards with the other, producing a mirror-image script that others found difficult to read—which was exactly the point.

            I’m sure you’ll agree that Leonardo was not an ordinary man: he enjoyed purchasing caged birds so that he could set them free and he dug into graveyards at night to steal corpses and study human anatomy. He was also a vegetarian for humanitarian reasons. But what‘s really fascinating is that despite being a left-handed dyslexic and procrastinating perfectionist he managed to become so successful.

            There’s so much more I could tell you about Leonardo da Vinci, but I think it’s enough for now. Let me just finish by saying that this man, who died almost 500 years ago was a person that you can truly call a genius.