Leonardo da Vinci was one of the great artists of the High Renaissance. Born in Anchiano, Italy in 1452, he was regarded as the embodiment of the ideal Renaissance Man, someone who was adept in many different areas. Although Leonardo was foremost a painter, he also was a sculptor and architect and studied a whole spectrum of sciences: anatomy, biology, botany, astronomy, geology, physics, aviation, mechanics, engineering, and even geometry. When he died in Cloux, France in 1519, he left behind a stunning legacy of world-famous masterpieces and cryptic notebooks filled with his brilliant ideas. Out of all of his works, Leonardo’s three greatest achievements are his notebooks, the Last Supper, and the Mona Lisa.
One of Leonardo’s major contributions…show more content… Painted in Florence from 1503 to 1506, the Mona Lisa, also known as La Gioconda, is probably the most famous painting in the world. The painting depicts a woman in half-body portrait, framed by a faraway landscape. By using sfumato, or fine shading, to mirror the curves of the woman’s hair and clothing in the shapes of the rivers and valleys in the background, Leonardo has added a sense of the harmony between nature and humanity to this seemingly simple work. The woman’s faint smile further illustrates this link and also adds a touch of mystery to the overall portrait. It was this hint of a smile that has fascinated the multitudes who have admired Leonardo’s masterpiece, as well as the mystery surrounding the identity of the woman who had sat for the painting. Scholars have argued about whether the Mona Lisa was a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of a Florentine merchant; Caterina, Leonardo’s mother; or a self-portrait of Leonardo disguised as a woman, but her identity is not yet proven. The Mona Lisa is one of Leonardo’s most significant works as it became an example for all portraits that followed it, transforming the way they were painted and even affecting the fashion of the clothes their subjects wore. It also influenced the work of many of Leonardo’s contemporaries and encouraged them to be more unrestrained with their art. Many artists, both during the Renaissance and in the modern era, have replicated the famous work. The original, now hanging in the Louvre in Paris, is visited by millions of people every day, and truly attests to Leonardo’s wondrous skill (“Mona