Leonardo Da Vinci

Peter Amey

Pages: 143

Self-actualized humans are people who succeed in their ambition, and developed their full potential and talent. They achieved the goal they strived for, and it means that they were very much into what they wanted to achieve, and were ready to sacrifice some other pleasures in order to gain their goal. Usually they show their special talents, interest and passion in early age and all their life is more or less devoted and focused to fulfill their dreams.

Verrocchio was one of the greatest painters of his time in Florence. He had many apprentices, and Leonardo was one of them. He stood out from the rest, and Verrocchio saw his talent from the start. It usually took apprentices around seven years or more to become masters, but it only took Leonardo four. He learnt by copying drawings done by his master, and by helping him in his work. Often, Verrocchio would ask his apprentices to paint some of the easier or less important parts of a picture. In this way, the apprentice would learn through practice. They all lived in Verrocchio’s house, and would even clean and cook for him, and do whatever he asked of them, but in the same time, he would provide them food, shelter, and many other things.

Leonardo made many different inventions, sculptures and paintings. The Last Supper, being one of them, shows Christ telling his disciples that he knew that one of them would betray him. It became the most admired picture in the Christian world. It took Leonardo three years to paint it, and he even sometimes worked on it all day without eating or drinking, but there were also times where he wouldn’t work on it for days. Today, it is located in the Santa Maria delle Grazie abbey in Milan, Italy. The second one is The Mona Lisa. Mona is short for Madonna, which is Italian for My Lady, and the woman in the picture was Lisa Giacondo, the wife of a Florentine nobleman. The skill and beauty of this painting is great, but what else is incredible is her smile. Generations of people have known about Mona Lisa’s smile, and found it mysterious. She seems to be thinking about something we would want to know, but we can’t guess what it is. Leonardo loved this painting, and he cared very deeply for it, and for the rest of his life he took it with him wherever he traveled. Today, Mona Lisa is located in the Louvre museum in Paris for everyone to see. The third, is The Great Horse. Ludovico, the Milan ruler, wanted a bronze statue of himself on a horse, which would forever show his greatness to the world, and also to be the largest bronze statue ever made. He asked Leonardo to build it for him. He began studying horses, and made many pages of drawings of horses in his notebooks. He even drew dissected dead horses, in order to make no mistake in shaping the bronze horse. After six years of hard work, he revealed a huge clay model of the statue, but the bronze horse was never made. The French invaded Milan, and many tons of bronze meant for the statue were sent to be made into guns. Unfortunately, it was too late. Ludovico was taken prisoner and Leonardo fled to Venice. French archers used the clay horse for target practice, and shot it to pieces. Another, is an invention he made, that is his machine for flying. He created a machine, that would be used to fly, but it didn’t work, and Leonardo had to redesign the machine several times. Also, he created many sketches of various war weapons, such as one man submarines, boats that cannot sink, guns, and defense mechanisms.