leonardo da vinci

Bonjour Riel,

Tell me about
Leonardo Da Vinci.

Bisous, Mai

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What I knew about Leonardo Da Vinci before hand was that he had painted the Mona Lisa, and The Last Supper. Growing up in my grandma's house, there was a paint by number painting of the Last Supper hanging beside the dinning room table and as a kid I always looked at it, and wondered the story behind it. At that time I probably had no idea who was the artist behind that painting, or how important the story behind the painting was.

I just went to the Vancouver Art gallery this week as its free during the Paralympics, and has a Leonardo Di Vinci expedition. I looked through his art and drawings they had featured and did not realised how talented he was, with not only painting but drawing and inventing also.

This lead me to wonder who Leonardo really was and the story behind his greatness.

Leonardo was born in a Tuscan hill town called Vinci in 1452. He spent most of his life living and working in Florence. Leonardo was a painter, writer, sculptor, architect, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, and botanist.

He is considered to be the greatest painter of all time, and the most talented man to have ever lived. He is most known for The last supper and The Mona Lisa. Lots of controversy about each of these paintings. The Last Supper painting, is a painting of the last supper before Jesus was put to death. The person sitting to the left of Jesus, is presumed to be John, but may really be a women named Mary Magdalene. Also one of the glasses is thought to be the Holy Grail.

The painting was almost ruined in world war II. Sandbags around the painting helped to protect it, but they think the vibration damaged it.

The Last supper is displayed in Milan at the Santa Maria Delle Grazie.

The Mona Lisa is a painting of a women that seems to be half smiling. If you walk from wall to wall looking at the painting, her eyes seem to follow you. Some people think it is actually a painting of Leonardo in form of a women. It is really Lisa Gherardini a maiden fom Florence. Mona means my lady. The Mona Lisa is displayed at the Louvre in Paris. In 1911 the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre. To be copied and to be sold. They found it later on trying to be sold in Florence.

Interesting Facts-

Leonardo would often paint from dawn until dusk with no eating. Then he would take breaks for 3 to 4 days. If he saw a person with an interesting face, he would follow them around town all day observing them.

There were sketches found that Leonardo did of a bridge, part of a civil engineering project. In 2001 a similar bridge was built in Norway. In 2006 that exact bridge of his designs was built in Istanbul. Hundreds of years later.

His life and his paintings have been made up of several movies and books. Leonardo died at the age of 67 and probably had no idea that 500 years later he would be so famous.

Very interesting Mai, so much more to know, the info on him never ends.....

*riel, i never took a picture of myself like you did in front the mona lisa because people were going crazy over it! people that know nothing about art but that it's "famous" and had to take 27 photos each. so here's me in front of the louvre...