The extraordinary life of Leonardo da Vinci -

Leonardo da Vinci’s achievements are so numerous and prolific that it is difficult to narrow them down to the most important ones. It is safe to say that if da Vinci had not existed, then the world would be a different place. Not only did he paint some of the most important works of art ever created, but he also extensively contributed to the fields of engineering and anatomy.

From the way the heart works to the first flying machine, click through to learn about da Vinci’s life and achievements.

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Birth - Leonardo da Vinci was born in Italy in the region of Tuscany. He lived near a town called Vinci, hence his name da Vinci, meaning "from Vinci."

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Family -

Da Vinci did not come from an aristocratic background at all. His father was a notary and his mother was a peasant girl. Fortunately, his father acknowledged him and so he had a better social standing in his village.

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Growing up - In a small village, on a farm, da Vinci was raised by his paternal grandfather and uncle. It is said that they were very loving towards him.

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Youth - In his youth, he had an insatiable appetite for knowledge and loved nature. He was educated at the local village school but was not able to go to university because he was an illegitimate child.

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Apprentice - He decided to become a painter and joined the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio. Even though he became technically magnificent and could have made a living from just art, da Vinci also had many other talents he wanted to explore.

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Notes - Leonardo da Vinci was a prolific notetaker. They have been organized into books called codices. However, many were lost over time. Many of his writings also don’t make sense–they're a tangle of his genius thoughts.

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Writing - Da Vinci wrote in mirror language. This is when you write from back to front, but it looks normal in a mirror. Researchers say he did this because he was left-handed and did not want to smudge the ink.

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Writing -

When you look at da Vinci’s works, you will also notice that his handwriting is incredibly small, almost illegible. It is likely he did this to save money on paper because it was expensive in those days.

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Sleep -

Da Vinci was a polyphasic sleeper, which explains why he could get so much done. Polyphase sleep is where you nap for 20 minutes every four hours instead of sleeping eight hours at night.

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Time - If you live for 72 years, you will probably sleep 24 years of your life. With polyphasic sleep, you would only sleep for six years of your life. This is why da Vinci could get so much done!

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Publishing - Even though da Vinci contributed heavily to both the fields of art and science, most of his works were not published or were lost over time. The academic community did not really regard him with much esteem because he could not speak Latin.

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Empirical - It may seem obvious to us now that science should be based on observation and facts derived from experiments, but it was not back then. Da Vinci was hundreds of years ahead of empiricists such as Francis Bacon (1561-1626) and Galileo Galilei (1562-1642).

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Experiments - Whenever he wanted to learn about something, he conducted many experiments on the subject and recorded his findings until he could come to a conclusion. One of his passions was flight.

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Flight - He wrote a codex of 35,000 words and 500 sketches on the flight of birds. In it, he outlines that the key to flight is having higher pressure on the top of the wing than below it. No other scientist had figured this out yet.

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Inventions - Da Vinci invented things you would not even believe. He designed the first parachute and a flying machine called the ornithopter. He also designed what is regarded as the first battle tank.

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Too advanced - Leonardo da Vinci was so ahead of his time that either the technology did not exist to create his inventions, or he needed a large amount of money to do so. Due to this, many of his discoveries were not practically used.

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Anatomy - He put together his two favorite passions of art and science in the study of anatomy. He dissected 30 corpses to find out what precisely was going on.

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The 'Vitruvian Man' -

In around 1490, da Vinci used his artistic talent and scientific understanding of proportion to create the “ideal man” according to the architect Vitruvius (c. 81 BCE–c. 15 BCE).

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The heart - Although the emotional and spiritual importance of the heart was understood during da Vinci’s lifetime, the scientific importance of it was hardly known. Scientists only thought that it generated heat, but not much more.

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Oxheart - In order to find out how the heart works, da Vinci filled an ox heart with molten wax and then made a glass cast of it. Then, he pumped through a liquid so that he could see how blood went through the valves.

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Discoveries - The insight that he gained on blood flow and the way the heart worked were not publicly discovered until the 20th century. That is 500 years after Leonardo da Vinci first discovered them.

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Civil engineering - Da Vinci was a real problem solver, and so he moved to Milan in the 1480s to try and make it a better city. He thought that cities should be designed with the same proportions that nature has.

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Art - No matter how great at other professions he was, da Vinci is most famous for his art. Not only are his paintings shrouded in mystery, but they are also very scientifically accurate owing to his great understanding of anatomy and perspective.

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The 'Mona Lisa' - In 1503, Leonardo da Vinci created arguably the greatest painting in the world. He pioneered the new technique of using lots of little brush strokes to change the texture and make the painting seem more lifelike.

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The 'Mona Lisa' - In the painting, he used a technique called chiaroscuro. It means "light and dark." Da Vinci was one of the first to use this method to give a portrait a three-dimensional look.

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'The Last Supper' - This monumental painting is the most reproduced in history. It was created in 1495–1498 as a commission by da Vinci’s patron Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan.

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'Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk' -

There are very few representations of Leonardo da Vinci but this is one of them, done by himself. He did it when he was around 60 years old.

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'Salvator Mundi' - This is possibly the most expensive painting on the planet. It was created in 1490–1500. In 2016, it was sold at auction for a jaw-dropping US$450 million!

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Death - Later in life, Leonardo da Vinci was thought to have several strokes that stopped the movement in his right hand. This explains why some of his works were incomplete.

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Death -

In 1519 at Château du Clos Lucé, Amboise, France, Leonardo da Vinci passed away in the presence of his faithful apprentice Francesco Melzi. It is also suspected that King Francis I of France (1494–1547) was at da Vinci’s bedside when he died. Pictured: an artistic representation of his death by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867).

Sources: (BBC) (Britannica) (SciShow)

See also: Classic paintings with secret messages

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