Leonardo Da Vinchi by Kayley Rolph



This is a picture of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinchi.

   

              I’ve been seeing lots of Renaissance art on the chapels, churches and museums we have been visiting over the last few days in Rome, Italy. I find the Renaissance paintings  really colorful but melancholy.  Leonardo Da Vinchi was a Renaissance artist and he was a good one too!  He is really famous even now. We saw a copy of Da Vinchi’s the Last Supper in a tapestry in the Vatican museum in Rome.  I saw the Mona Lisa and the Vitruvian Man on the internet and I’d like to see the real paintings and drawings of the two works of art in the future.    



I'm in front of a gory Renaissance battle scene.

 Leonardo Da Vinchi was born on the 15th of April 1452 in Vinci Italy (near Florence Italy). Da Vinchi died May 2^nd, 1519  in Amboise, France, he was 67 years old .  My question is, "How did Da Vinchi  die?" but the answer is unknown, at least on the internet. Some say that his death was caused by natural causes, but I think it might have been something to do with his profession, painting and sculpting.  I think he might have died from his work because Michelangelo got blinded from the paint he used.  He was working with paint that dripped into his eyes when he was painting the ceiling of the Sistine chapel in Rome. Da Vinchi might have fallen off the scaffolding when he was painting or eaten some paint like Van Gogh.  



We're inside of the dome after a long climb up Saint Peter's Basilica.

            Leonardo Da Vinchi was educated in the Florentine painter ,Verrocchio’s, studio. He did his early work with Ludovico Il Moro in Milan. Da Vinchi later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice. Da Vinchi  specialized in arts like painting, sculpting, music, and writing. Also he specialized in sciences like engineering, anatomy, geology, architecture, and  was  a cartographer. Da Vinchi painted Renaissance painting, Renaissance art is darkish religious paintings or sculptures that depict lots of wars, pain, and lots of naked men and children and, occasionally, naked woman. The woman in the painting are usually half naked, entirly naked with fabric that drapes over their shoulders, or mostly covered up.  The Renaissance art is usually painted on walls and ceilings. There were lots of mosaics on the ceilings and insides of domes like in saint Peter’s Basilica. There also were lots of statues and sculptures too, but not as much as the paintings and mosaics.

            Leonardo Da Vinchi’s greatest works are the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and the Vitruvian Man. The Mona Lisa now resides in the Musee du Louvre in Paris, France. The Last Supper is now in Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy.  I couldn’t find where the Vitruvian Man is now, but I think it might be in one of the museums in Italy.  

There's a happy example of Reniassance art. 

My favorite of Leonardo’s paintings is either the Mona Lisa or The Last Supper. The Last Supper is one of my favorites, because it’s very colorful, but all the figures in the painting look really sad especially Jesus. I really like the Mona Lisa because the background changes color. The woman is really life like and her expression is weird.  Her mouth is half smiling, but her eyes are sad. I’d like to see Leonardo Da Vinchi’s master pieces some day. Leonardo's life was probably an inspired life full with  art and science(my two favorite subjects). Leonardo's life was longish and filled with painting for needy popes and studying science.

I’m sure Leonardo died a peaceful death in France and his name still remembered and probably will live on because of his work.

BY KAYLEY S. ROLPH

There were some rocks in the mosaics that had some cool colors in them.