One of the greatest and most mysterious figures in human history is the consummate Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci. In his amazing and adventurous biography, there are many secrets that have not yet been revealed …
Epiphany
Da Vinci's "official biography" says that he was born on April 15, 1452 in the town of Anchiano near the city of Vinci, located near Florence. But in reality, the circumstances of da Vinci's birth are extremely confusing - it is even still unknown who his mother was. According to some versions, she was a simple peasant woman, according to another, the owner of a tavern named Katarina. The fatherhood of the future genius is attributed to a certain notary named Piero da Vinci. At least from 4.5 years old, the boy was brought up in his house, because the rich notary and landowner did not have their own children.
At the age of fifteen, Leonardo was apprenticed to the famous painter, sculptor and jeweler Andrea del Verrocchio. The young man rubbed the paint master and brought the brushes. But at the same time he himself showed remarkable abilities in drawing and, according to legend, painted the figure of an angel in Verrocchio's painting "Baptism".
Leonardo was known as Verrocchio's favorite student, and even after he was admitted to the painters' guild in 1472, he continued to live in his teacher's house. But at the same time, da Vinci was already engaged in his own work. And already his first works showed that a brilliant artist was born.
Leonardo continued to paint, and, around 1467, even opened his own workshop. During that period, he painted his canvases "Madonna with a Flower" and "Adoration of the Magi". The details of da Vinci's life at that period of his life, no one knows, because one of the mysteries of the genius is that, among his numerous manuscripts, there is not a single record concerning his youth …
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TV drawing
Da Vinci, being an unsurpassed master of painting, turned out to be a genius in all areas … Those around him were amazed at Da Vinci's ability to instantly learn something new. Hearing the lyre playing, Leonardo immediately decided to learn how to play music himself. Very quickly he became one of the best musicians, and then he created his own instrument - a lyre in the form of a horse's head, whose music was simply divine …
But he was brilliant not only in painting and music. When in 1482 Leonardo left for Milan to the court of the patron Lodovico Sforza, da Vinci introduced himself to him as a military expert, inventor of weapons, military chariots and machines. Indeed, Leonardo da Vinci proved himself to be an outstanding engineer and inventor. But not only - he was also a sculptor, mechanic, chemist, visionary, singer, swimmer, creator of musical instruments, horse rider, fencer, architect …
Living at the Sforza court, he invented various mechanisms and devices that were centuries ahead of their time. It was da Vinci who invented the spacesuit, the submarine, the steamer, fins, the helicopter, the glider, the parachute, the tank, the machine gun, the poisonous gases, the smoke screen for the troops, the magnifying glass, the textile machines, the loom, the powerful crane, the swamp drainage system, the arch bridge and many other mechanisms that did not exist in his time. Not all of them were implemented, but the first drawings of all these mechanisms belong to da Vinci.
Some of these drawings have not yet been solved - and only after some time, with the development of science and technology, engineers guess about the purpose of these or those mechanisms. So, when televisions, computers and digital cameras appeared, it turned out that the great Leonardo had already described them in his time! And, probably, the secrets of inventions that have not yet been made are kept in da Vinci's drawings …
Horses and birds
Leonardo was in complete control of his feelings, tried not to show emotions, kept a constantly even mood. Da Vinci diligently avoided quarrels and once responded to an insult to Michelangelo with an entry in his diary: "A wise man must cultivate patience."
Da Vinci was distinguished by beauty, strength, dexterity, he caught admiring gazes on himself, but he preferred loneliness, without making any serious friendships or love relationships. He wrote: “If you are alone, then you completely belong to yourself. If there is at least one person next to you, then you belong to yourself only half or even less, in proportion to the thoughtlessness of his behavior; and if there is more than one person next to you, then you plunge into a deplorable state deeper and deeper."
Leonardo loved animals much more than people. "Although he did not own any property and worked a little, he still kept servants, as well as horses, to which he was always partial," wrote his contemporary. Da Vinci considered animals to be the crown of nature and from his love for them even became a vegetarian. Sometimes, passing by bird markets, he bought birds, and then released them … By the way, in da Vinci's notes there are sketches of birds in flight. Such images in the future were obtained only after watching slow motion filming …
Time Machine
Interestingly, many of da Vinci's inventions are described in a very strange way: he wrote from right to left and in mirror image. He did not publish the results of his scientific discoveries, limiting himself only to notes for himself.
In general, Leonardo's personal characteristics and habits were quite unusual. He slept for 15 minutes every 4 hours, finding this type of rest the most effective and not taking a lot of time from life. At the time, this was perceived as a quirk of a genius, but now doctors say that such a daily regimen makes it possible to relax and always be at the peak of mental form.
A lot of facts from da Vinci's life are absolutely incredible - discoveries ahead of their time, knowledge of many things that were not available to science in the 15th century. So, for example, in one of his notes he says that the Sahara Desert was once blooming and inhabited by people. But this discovery was made quite recently! All these amazing facts have allowed many researchers of the biography of the genius to put forward absolutely fantastic versions of da Vinci. One of the main ones - Leonardo could travel in time or was a messenger from the future. For all its improbability, this version is not devoid of some plausibility - who knows, maybe a time machine will be invented, and then a certain person of the future may well be in the past …
In Robert Heinlein's The Door to Summer, this is exactly what happened. During experiments with a time machine in the 15th century, a young scientist Leonard Vincent appeared: “Did he really become Leonardo da Vinci? There is some information in the encyclopedia about his life, but did he give it to his biographer himself? In addition, in the 15th century, there were no social security registration cards or identification cards in Italy; no fingerprints were taken either. So he could well have composed any legends about himself. One can only guess how he, divorced from everything familiar, who knew about aviation and the electric engine, who was familiar with many other achievements of mankind, reflected all this in drawings, unsuccessfully trying to bring it to life in the 15th century. But his efforts were doomed to failure: what seems so simple and accessible today,would not have appeared without using the experience accumulated by the previous centuries …
Of course, this is just a fantastic version. But who knows if it will ever turn out to be true …
Natalia Trubinovskaya