h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Tav - I just found this Entry when I was searching for what we've got about Leonardo da Vinci!

I also found this link to another of your Entries A8249899 - I hope it helps.

Would you be interested in collaborating on a biography of Leonardo? I made some notes today from a book I've been reading A87981060

Thanks, that's the Entry I currently update/split! ( A87981015 + A87981024 )
We got one about the Mona Lisa.

Oh, that's great! Is it ok if I jsut post here whatever I find about him?

Aha! Excellent

Yes, that's a good idea to post information that you find for the Leonardo Entry here

I'm working on it, already got some nots on paper.

I thought I have a seperate small book about Da Vinci, but no, it's Michelangelo. So here is what I found useful in my big arts history book:

Leonardo was one of the 3 star artists of the High Renaissance (Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raffael)
he made his first works in the 1470s

he was (one of the?) first to create large, organic compositions
the compositions were dependent on the subject and not on some conventions
this was an important part of the general development of monumental paintings in the Renaissance

his aim was always to depict nature as realistically as possible
for him the visual arts were the only true way to imitate nature
he also was a perfectionalist and had high expectations in his own works and therefore most of them stayed unfinished

his portraits were the first to make the impression of a relationship between viewer and subject

he also reformed the art of drawing by making sketches, drafts and studies with red chalk

during the Renaissance the first texts about arts theories since antiquity were written
Leonardo saw arts as part of the humanities and wrote the most universal theory written at that time
he wrote a huge number of texts throughout his life, it was so much taht he never published it and the work got scattered all over the world
although it was never finished his work influenced many later texts on arts theory


I'll try to find more

Thank you

I found another book about Leonardo in my University's online library so I'm reading that now - not the easiest text to read, but the illustrations are excellent