Possibly the greatest artist of all time, Leonardo Da Vinci requires no introduction from me. Suffice to say that today is his 557th birthday, and thats as good a reason as any to honour the great man!
On a personal note however, I might as well point out why I think Leonardo is possibly the greatest artist of all time, certainly greater than his Rennaisance rivals, in particular Michelangelo. The difference between Leonardo and his rivals is illustrated by the three drawings I have chosen in this post, for they demonstrate how Leonardo, a brilliant draughtsman and a master of composition and the human figure like Michelangelo, went beyond Michelangelo, beyond painting, composition and perspective and pushed the boundary of art into what we today consider science.
That is the big difference and the thing that sets Leonardo apart from all other artists. Its possibly just a coincidence of birth and many a great artist has gone unnoticed, but born in the right time, in the right place, Leonardo lived in the one time when there was no difference between art and science, possibly the only time in human history when that was the case. Alone in that period, Leonardo was artist, biologist, physicist, alchemist, architect, designer and philosopher. There has never been another who turned their eye to so much and saw it all as Art.
3 comments:
I just had this odd idea, playing an online vampire game while listening to Turkish Janissary music.
The vampire legend originated in Eastern Europe.
The Ottomans were in the Balkans around the same time.
How would Ottoman Turks deal with Vampires?
Kill a vampire, get rewarded by the Pasha!
Janissaries were good with muskets. Perhaps they could have specialist ammunition? Silver balls?
(moif at work)
I read the other day that the modern Vampire legend actually comes from medieval Italy where it arose from the communal death pits of plague victims. The grave diggers would notice that some corpses would continue to grow hair, beards etc, and others would grow fat (from gas build up in the body's cavities). It was believed that these corpses, were feeding on the other dead and the only way to stop them would be to jam a rock, or brick into the mouth of the undead corpse.
(moif at work)
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