Leonardo da Vinci: studies and projects
Leonardo da Vinci understood the importance of scientific experimentation better than any other scientist of his century. His scientific theories, as well as his artistic innovations, were based on careful observation and precise documentation.
Unfortunately, as often happened with artistic projects, many of his scientific treatises were never completed. His manuscripts consist of five thousand pages of notes, many of which are only legible in the mirror because they were written backwards, from right to left. Anticipating numerous discoveries of the modern era, Leonardo studied, in the field of anatomy, the blood circulation and the movement of the eyes, made discoveries both in meteorology and geology, studied the effect of the moon on the tides, presaged some modern conceptions regarding the formation of the continents and deepened the study of the origins of fossils.
He was also one of the initiators of the science of hydraulics and the first to consider botany as an autonomous science. He designed an effective river canal system and invented many ingenious machines, including the diving suit.
Until the end he studied and analyzed the flight of birds, and his discoveries on flight include still valid principles of aerodynamics.Master in all the arts, researcher in many fields of science, Leonardo is certainly worthy of the title of Homo Universalis, Universal Man.
Leonardo's studies deal with every field of knowledge, from science to painting, urban planning, engineering, finding great success in each one: in the scientific one, his work recalls the Galilean method, in the artistic one the Caravaggesque revolution.
Leonardo questions everything: "I ask", he often writes in his notebooks.
But this great curiosity of his is accompanied by an equally great desireto make his knowledge concrete: science and practice are therefore
indissoluble: "Those who fall in love with practice without science are
like the helmsman who gets on a ship without a rudder or compass, and he
is never sure where he is going ". From this point of view, the various
sketches and projects of Leonardo can be analyzed. Leonardo's studies
on urban planning were important: during the period of the plague in
Milan, he developed a project for an ideal city, which took into account
the problems and needs of the city. In fact, he was the first to
understand the need to decentralize the population, who found themselves
massed within the walls, forced into gloomy alleys and houses: in his
design the people resided in the countryside, while the city was
reserved for the nobles.
This had a checkerboard layout, without walls, in which a network of canals for the disposal of waste appeared.
There were also elevations for pedestrian walkways and spiral staircases that connected the various floors. In addition to the theoretical elaboration, Leonardo applied himself in France in the reclamation of swamps and marshes. Leonardo's engineering spirit was also applied in the creation of new technologies: deeply fascinated by flight, he spent whole years building flying machines that, at first similar to birds, gradually became real ancestors of our airplanes.
In fact, having abandoned the idea of operating these machines with muscle strength alone, he inserted mechanical devices, giving life to two different projects: one in which the man was lying down, the other in which he was standing.
Leonardo da Vinci: Architect and urban planner
In the Milanese period he was able to investigate problems of architecture, military and civil engineering, fluid mechanics, acoustics, ballistics, optics and statics.
After 1500 he will devote his attention to the study of water, neglecting the production of mechanical models. He combined the analysis of the human body with the study of other natural entities: mountains, valleys and earthquakes. A man of science, he perfected contemporary engineering projects, such as those of Francesco di Giorgio or Brunelleschi, thanks to the help of Pacioli and the knowledge of classical and contemporary texts that he can access during his stay in Milan.
The goal of its spinning machines, its twisting machines, bininals, mechanical looms, file and needle sharpeners is to unite the forces of man with those of nature.
On the basis of this perspective, where technology is never separated from beauty and usefulness, architecture, which is the fulfillment of works of nature, is not subtracted either.
Leonardo da Vinci: Military engineer
The activity of Leonardo, architect and war engineer, marks the biographical path.
His skills on war machines, cannons, assault tanks and the multiple siege procedures are again relevant when he is in Venice as a military consultant to the Republic. As a military architect he is up to date on the proposals of Brunelleschi, Taccola, Francesco di Giorgio and Valturio.
With the creation of firearms he is able to perfect land and naval weapons, thanks to his physical skills he is able to increase the volume of fire and the speed of loading and firing, to create new ogival bullets, bursting grenades, phalarics, cannons and guns.
Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomy studies
Being a passionate investigator of new instruments of representation, Leonardo was not satisfied with learning the laws of anatomy from ancient sculpture or from second-hand sources, and also in this case he reaffirms the primacy of experience.
He practiced the dissection of human and animal corpses, he was able to access the hospitals of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence and Santo Spirito in Sassia in Rome.
Vincent's anatomical studies are both topographical and physiological; the investigations are carried out in normal and pathological situations on the muscular, circulatory, genitourinal systems, on the nerves, on the cartilages, on the layers of the skin and on the skeleton. The hollow organs are studied through the injection of solidifiable masses.
The Flemish Andrea Vesalio, a scholar of anatomy in Padua and author of "De humani corporis fabrica", the first treatise on modern anatomy, will treasure Leonardo's studies of anatomy.
Leonardo da Vinci: Studies on flight and on the cosmos
Studies on flight adapted to humans are full of scientific observations. The limit and the charm of his investigations lies in the analogy he always tries to establish between man and natural beings: insects and birds. Years of fruitless studies saw him engaged in the experimentation of a machine for flight, but the attempt to move and support the human body in the air fails because, not knowing the internal combustion engine, he was unable to create adequate propulsion organs to those of sustenance. Despite this, his contribution is exceptional, knowing the resistance opposed by air to the motion of bodies, he manages to design the precedent of the glider, the parachute and the modern helicopter. Thanks to these studies, investigations of the Leicester Code were conducted, which were later the subject of Galileo's analyzes.
Leonardo da Vinci: Studies of optics and perspective
Leonardo
is one of the most significant interpreters of perspective science,
updated on the scientific innovations of Piero, Brunelleschi and Alberti
and informed on the Arab and medieval treatises of Alhazen, Viterio,
Ruggero Bacone, Pecham, while accepting the contributions, proposes a
critical revision of that tradition.
Even if Leonardo shares the mathematical and geometric foundations of perspective with the Florentines, he is aware that the theories arise from a process of abstraction, which wants the monocular perspective with a fixed observer.
His proposal identifies three types of perspective: to the linear and mathematical perspective he combines two other tools for the sounding of the third dimension, the "perspective of perditions", which evaluates the incidence of the atmospheric medium in our vision, and the chromatic one, or "shipping". Moving from optics, he arrives at an artistic field, that of perspective.
