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Leonardo da Vinci Initiation

LightWorker™ Series

Channelled by Dr. David Joshua StoneManual by Jens Søeborg



Leonardo da Vinci Initiation (LightWorker™ Series)

This initiation is one of the many, channelled by Dr. Joshua DavidStone, shown on the picture to the right. They are from a numbered listof 303 initiations. I have sorted them differently, but I have kept thenumber as well, but skipped the "The" in front of all names. Dr. Stone isgiving them free as true gifts from our eternal and infinite Spirit,coming directly from the Absolute Source of Divine Light and DivineLove.

I will do simple manuals to them when I have time, mainly withmaterial from Wikipedia. And remember they are all free of any chargeand obligation. You are free to copy and pass on. I will send copies toDr. Joshua David Stone, and if you translate, then please pass a copy to

both of us: [email protected] and [email protected].

LightWorker™ Remarkable Persons Initiations 1 (Dr. Joshua David Stone) Abraham Lincoln Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 98) (LightWorker™ Series) Albert Einstein Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 110) (LightWorker™ Series) Andres Segovia Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 40) (LightWorker™ Series)Benjamin Franklin Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 192) (LightWorker™ Series)Bill Clinton Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 167) (LightWorker™ Series)Carl Jung Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 100) (LightWorker™ Series)Christopher Columbus Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 185) (LightWorker™ Series)Confucius Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 191) (LightWorker™ Series)Dalai Lama Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 135) (LightWorker™ Series)Edgar Cayce Initiations 1-2 (Dr. Joshua David Stone 85+149) (LightWorker™ Series)Elizabeth Kuebler-Ross Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 152) (LightWorker™ Series)Franklin Delanor Roosevelt Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 196) (LightWorker™ Series)

Fritz Perls Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 104) (LightWorker™ Series)Gloria Hoppala Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 109) (LightWorker™ Series)Helen Keller Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 181) (LightWorker™ Series)Jack La Lane Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 41) (LightWorker™ Series)John F. Kennedy Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 99) (LightWorker™ Series)John Paul II Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 186) (LightWorker™ Series)Joshua David Stone Initiations 1-2 (Dr. Joshua David Stone 115+224) (LightWorker™ Series)Ken Keyes Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 146) (LightWorker™ Series)Leonardo Da Vinci Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 132) (LightWorker™ Series) Martin Luther King Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 97) (LightWorker™ Series)Meyer Baba Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 143) (LightWorker™ Series)

Michaelangelo Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 102) (LightWorker™ Series)Nelson Mandela Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 183) (LightWorker™ Series)Nikola Tesla Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 111) (LightWorker™ Series)Norman Cousins Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 147) (LightWorker™ Series)Norman Vincent Peale Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 144) (LightWorker™ Series)Omar Arabia Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 226) (LightWorker™ Series)Paul Solomon Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 145) (LightWorker™ Series)Plato Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 206) (LightWorker™ Series)Pythagoras Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 205) (LightWorker™ Series)Ram Dass Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 151) (LightWorker™ Series)Robert Schuller Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 198) (LightWorker™ Series)

Roberto Assagioli Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 128) (LightWorker™ Series)Rosa Parks Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 180) (LightWorker™ Series)Rudolf Steiner Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 142) (LightWorker™ Series)Sai Baba Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 80) (LightWorker™ Series)



Socrates Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 204) (LightWorker™ Series)Sri Yukteswar Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 119) (LightWorker™ Series)Swami Vivekananda Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 140) (LightWorker™ Series)Theodore Roosevelt Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 179) (LightWorker™ Series)

Virginia Sattir Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 108) (LightWorker™ Series) William Shakespeare Initiation (Dr. Joshua David Stone 148) (LightWorker™ Series)

LightWorker™ Remarkable Persons Initiations 2 (Other founders)Leif Ericson Initiation (Jens Söeborg) (LightWorker™ Series) Hildegard of Bingen Initiation (Jens Söeborg) (LightWorker™ Series)Mother Teresa Initiation (Charmaine Söeborg) (LightWorker™ Series)

Receiving the InitiationStart with Gassho (prayer posture). Meditate on the light and love energies around you, above

you and inside of you. Ask the help of your higher self and others of your helpers such as themighty I AM Presence, the angels and archangels, masters and mahatma guides of meditation,ascension and initiation. Accept receiving the initiation from your teacher. Sense the energies!Enjoy! Expand! Relax...

If you receive more than one initiation, then please remember to take deep breaths in-betweeninitiations.

Passing on the Initiation To Pass the Initiations to others do the same process as above. Just intend to pass them andread them out loud waiting for a few moments in-between initiations sensing the energiesrunning and the spiritual shifts. Trust in the Higher Wisdom and Power. Enjoy! Expand! Relax...

Leonardo da VinciFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian polymath: scientist, mathematician, engineer,inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, musician, and

writer.

He was born and raised near Vinci, Italy, the illegitimate son ofa notary, Messer Piero, and a peasant woman, Caterina. He hadno surname in the modern sense, "da Vinci" simply meaning "of

Vinci". His full birth name was "Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci",

meaning "Leonardo, son of (Mes)ser Piero from Vinci."

Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the"Renaissance man", a man whose seemingly infinite curiosity

was equalled only by his powers of invention. He is widelyconsidered to be one of the greatest painters of all time andperhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.

It is primarily as a painter that Leonardo was and is renowned. Two of his works, the Mona Lisaand The Last Supper occupy unique positions as the most famous, the most illustrated and mostimitated portrait and religious painting of all time. Their fame is approached only by

Michelangelo's Creation of Adam. Leonardo's drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also iconic.

As an engineer, Leonardo conceived ideas vastly ahead of his own time, conceptually inventing ahelicopter, a tank, the use of concentrated solar power, a calculator, a rudimentary theory of



plate tectonics, the double hull, and many others. Relatively few of his designs were constructedor were feasible during his lifetime. Some of his smaller inventions such as an automated bobbin

winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire entered the world of manufacturingunheralded.

He greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy, astronomy, civilengineering, optics, and the study of water (hydrodynamics). Of his works, only a few paintings

survive, together with his notebooks, which contain drawings, scientific diagrams, and notes.

Early life, 1452-1466

Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452, in Anchiano, a hamlet near the town of Vinci in the lower valley of the Arno, within the territories of Florence. Leonardo was later to record only twoincidents of his childhood.

One, which he regarded as an omen, was when a hawk dropped from the sky and hovered overhis cradle, its tail feathers brushing his face.

The second incident occurred while he was exploring in the mountains. He discovered a caveand recorded his emotions at being, on one hand, terrified that some great monster might lurkthere and on the other, driven by curiosity to find out what was inside.

At the age of five, he went to live in the household of his father, grandparents and uncle,Francesco, in the small town of Vinci, where his father had married a sixteen-year-old girlnamed Albiera, who loved Leonardo but unfortunately died young.

Vasari, the 16th century biographer of Renaissancepainters, tells the story of how a local peasant requestedthat Ser Piero ask his talented son to paint a picture on a

round plaque. Leonardo responded with a painting ofsnakes spitting fire which was so terrifying that Ser Pierosold it to a Florentine art dealer, who sold it to the Duke ofMilan. Meanwhile, having made a profit, Ser Piero boughta plaque decorated with a heart pierced by an arrow whichhe gave to the peasant.

The earliest known dated work of Leonardo's is a drawing done in pen and ink of the Arno valley, drawn on 5 August, 1473.

Verrocchio's workshop, 1466-76

In 1466 Leonardo was apprenticed to one of the most proficient artists of his day, Andrea diCione, known as Verrocchio. The workshop of this renowned master was at the centre of theintellectual currents of Florence, assuring the young Leonardo of an education in thehumanities. Among the painters apprenticed or associated with the workshop and also to

become famous, were Perugino, Botticelli, and Lorenzo di Credi.

In a quarttrocento workshop such as Verrocchio's, artists were regarded primarily as craftsmenand only a master such as Verrocchio had social standing. The products of a workshop includeddecorated tournament shields, painted dowry chests, christening platters, votive plaques, smallportraits, and devotional pictures. Major commissions included altarpieces for churches andcommemorative statues. The largest commissions were fresco cycles for chapels. As a fourteen-

year-old apprentice Leonardo would have been trained in all the countless skills that wereemployed in a traditional workshop.

Although many craftsmen specialised in tasks such as frame-making, gilding and bronze casting,



Leonardo would have been exposed to a vast range of technical skills and had the opportunity tolearn drafting, chemistry, metallurgy, metal working, plaster casting, leather working,mechanics and carpentry as well as the obvious artistic skills of drawing, painting, sculpting andmodelling.

Although Verrocchio appears to have run an efficient and prolific workshop, few paintings can be ascertained as coming from his hand. And on one of those, according toVasari, Leonardo

collaborated.

The painting is the Baptism of Christ. According to Vasari, Leonardo painted the young angelholding Jesus’ robe. Verrocchio, overwhelmed by the sweetness of the angel’s expression, itsmoist eyes and lustrous curls, put down his brush and never painted again. This is probably anexaggeration. The truth is that on close examination the painting reveals much that has beenpainted or touched up over the tempera using the new technique of oil paint. The landscape, therocks that can be seen through the brown mountain stream and much of the figure of Jesus

bears witness to the hand of Leonardo.

The other creation of Verrocchio’s which is particularly pertinent to the young

Leonardo is the bronze statue of David, now in the Bargello Museum. Apartfrom the exquisite quality of this work of art, it is significant in holding theclaim to be a portrait of the apprentice, Leonardo. If this is the case, then in thefigure of David we see Leonardo as a thin muscular boy, quite different to therounded androgynous figure made by Verrocchio’s teacher, Donatello. It is alsosuggested that the Archangel Michael in Verrocchio's Tobias and the Angels is aportrait of Leonardo.

When Leonardo was twenty he joined the Guild of St Luke, the guild of artistsand doctors of medicine, but even after his father set him up in his own

workshop, his attachment to Verrocchio was such that he continued to work

with him.

Professional life, 1476-1519

It is assumed that Leonardo had his own workshop in Florence between 1476 and 1481. He wascommissioned in 1478 to paint an altarpiece for the Chapel of St Bernard and in 1481 by theMonks at Scopeto for The Adoration of the Magi. In 1482 Leonardo, whom Vasari tells us was amost talented musician, created a silver lyre in the shape of a horse's head. Lorenzo de’ Medici

was so impressed with this that he decided to send both the lyre and its maker to Milan, in orderto secure peace with Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan. At this time Leonardo wrote an often-quoted letter to Ludovico, describing the many marvellous and diverse things that he could

achieve in the field of engineering and informing the Lord that he could also paint.

Between 1482 and 1499, when Louis XII of France occupied Milan, much ofLeonardo’s work was in that city. It was here that he was commissioned to painttwo of his most famous works, the Virgin of the Rocks for the Confraternity of theImmaculate Conception, and The Last Supper for the monastery of Santa Mariadelle Grazie. While living in Milan between 1493 and 1495 Leonardo listed a

woman called Caterina as among his dependants in his taxation documents. When she died in 1495, the detailed list of expenditure on her funeral suggeststhat she was his mother rather than a servant girl.

For Ludovico, he worked on many different projects which included the preparation of floatsand pageants for special occasions, designs for a dome for Milan Cathedral and a model for ahuge equestrian monument to Francesco Sforza, Ludovico’s predecessor. Leonardo modelled ahuge horse in clay. Known as the “Gran Cavallo”, seventy tons of metal were set aside for casting



it in bronze. It surpassed in size the only two large equestrian statues of the Renaissance,Donatello’s statue of Gattemelata in Padova and Verrocchio’s Bartolomeo Colleoni in Venice.The monument remained unfinished for several years, which was not in the least unusual forLeonardo. Michelangelo rudely implied that he was unable to cast it.[6] In 1495 the bronze wasused for cannons to defend the city from invasion under Charles VIII.

The French returned to invade Milan in 1498 under Louis XII and the invading French used the

“Gran Cavallo” for target practice.

With Ludovico Sforza overthrown, Leonardo, with his assistant Salaino and friend, themathematician Luca Pacioli, fled Milan for Venice. In Venice he was employed as a militaryarchitect and engineer, devising methods to defend the city from naval attack.

Returning to Florence in 1500, he entered the services of Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI, acting as a military architect and engineer and travelling throughout Italy with hispatron. In Forlì he met Caterina Sforza, of whom it is speculated by some that the Mona Lisamay be a portrait. At Cesenatico he designed the port. In 1506 he returned to Milan, which wasin the hands of Maximilian Sforza after Swiss mercenaries had driven out the French. Many of

Leonardo’s most prominent pupils or followers in painting either knew or worked with him inMilan, including Bernardino Luini, Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio and Marco D'Oggione.

From 1513 to 1516, Leonardo lived in Rome, where Raphael and Michelangelo were both activeat the time. In Florence, he was part of a committee formed to relocate, against the artist’s will,Michelangelo’s statue of David.

In 1515, François I of France retook Milan. Leonardo wascommissioned to make a centrepiece (a mechanical lion)for the peace talks between the French king and Pope LeoX in Bologna. In 1516, he entered François' service, being

given the use of the manor house Clos Lucé next to theking's residence at the royal Chateau Amboise. It was herethat he spent the last three years of his life. The Kinggranted Leonardo and his entourage generous pensions:the surviving document lists 1,000 écus for the artist, 400for Count Francesco Melzi, ("apprentice"), and 100 forSalaino ("servant"). In 1518 Salaino left Leonardo andreturned to Milan, where he eventually perished in a duel.

Leonardo died at Clos Lucé, France, on May 2, 1519. François I had become a close friend. Vasari records that the King held Leonardo’s head in his arms as he died. According to his wish,

sixty beggars followed his casket. He was buried in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert in the castle of Amboise. Although Melzi was his principal heir and executor, Salaino was not forgotten,receiving half of Leonardo's vineyards and the Mona Lisa.

Personal life

Leonardo had many friends who are figures now renowned in their fields, or for their influenceon history. These included the mathematician Luca Pacioli with whom he collaborated on a

book in the 1490s and Cesare Borgia, in whose service he spent the years 1502 and 1503. Duringthat time he also met Niccolò Machiavelli, with whom later he was to develop a close friendship.

Also among his friends are counted Franchinus Gaffurius and Isabella d'Este. Isabella wasprobably his closest female friend. He drew a portrait of her while on a journey which took himthrough Mantua which appears to have been used to create a painted portrait, now lost.



Beyond friendship, Leonardo kept his private life secret. He commented "the act of procreationand anything that has any relation to it is so disgusting that human beings would soon die out ifthere were no pretty faces and sensuous dispositions".

Leonardo appears to have had no close relationships with women beyond his friendship withIsabella d'Este. His most intimate relationships were with his pupils Salai and Melzi, Melzi

writing that Leonardo's feelings for him were both loving and passionate. It has been claimed

since the 16th century that these relationships were of an erotic nature and since that date muchhas written about this aspect of Leonardo's life.

Leonardo’s painting Despite the recent awareness and admiration of Leonardo as a scientist and inventor, for the

better part of four hundred years his enormous fame rested on his achievements as a painterand on a handful of works, either authenticated or attributed to him that have been regarded asamong the supreme masterpieces ever created.

These painting are famous for a variety of qualities which have been much imitated by studentsand discussed at great length by connoisseurs and critics. Among the qualities that makeLeonardo’s work unique are the innovative techniques that he used in laying on the paint, hisdetailed knowledge of anatomy, light, botany and geology, his interest in physiognomy and the

way in which humans register emotion in expression and gesture, his innovative use of thehuman form in figurative composition and his use of the subtle gradation of tone. All thesequalities come together in his most famous works, the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper and the

Virgin of the Rocks.

Leonardo’s early works begin with the Baptism of Christ painted in conjunction with Verrocchio.Two other paintings appear to date from his time at the workshop, both of which are

Annunciations. One is small, 59 cms long and only 14 cms high. It is a “predella” to go at the

base of a larger composition, in this case a painting by Lorenzo Di Credi from which it has become separated. The other is amuch larger work, 217 cm long. In

both these Annunciations Leonardohas used the very formal arrangementof Fra Angelico’s two well knownpictures of the same subject, the

Virgin Mary sitting or kneeeling tothe right of the picture, approachedfrom the left by an angel in profile,

with rich flowing garment, raised

wings and bearing a lily.

In the smaller picture Mary averts her eyes and folds her hands in a gesture that symbolisedsubmission to God’s will. In the larger picture, however, Mary is not in the least submissive. The

beautiful girl, interrupted in her reading by this unexpected messenger, puts a finger in her bibleto mark the place and raises her hand in greeting. This calm young woman accepts her role asthe Mother of God not with resignation but with confidence. In this painting the youngLeonardo presents the Humanist face of the Virgin Mary, a woman who recognises humanity’srole in God’s incarnation.

Paintings of the 1480s In the 1480s Leonardo received two very important commissions, and commenced another

work which was also of ground-breaking importance in terms of compositon. Unfortunately twoof the three were never finished and the third took so long that it was subject to lengthynegotiations over completion and payment. One of these paintings is that of St Jerome in the



wilderness. Although the painting is barely begun the entire composition can be seen and it is very unusual. Jerome, as a penitent, occupies the middle of the picture, set on a slight diagonaland viewed somewhat from above. His kneeling form takes on a trapezoid shape, with one armstretched to the outer edge of the painting and his gaze looking in the opposite direction. Acrossthe foreground sprawls his symbol, a great lion whose body and tail make a double spiral acrossthe base of the picture space. The other remarkable feature is the sketchy landscape of craggyrocks against which the figure is silhouetted.

The daring display of figure composition, the landscape elements andpersonal drama were to reappear in the great unfinished masterpiece, the

Adoration of the Magi, a commission from the Monks of St Donato aScopeto. It is a very complex composition about 250cm square. For itLeonardo did numerous drawings and preparatory studies, including adetailed one in linear perspective of the ruined Classical architecture

which makes part of the backdrop to the scene. But in 1482 Leonardo went off to Milan at the behest of Lorenzo de’ Medici in order to winfavour with Ludovico il Moro and the painting was abandoned.

The third important work of this period is the Madonna of the Rocks which was commissionedin Milan for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception. The painting, to be done with theassistance of the de Predis brothers was to fill a large complex altarpiece, already constructed.

Leonardo chose to paint an apocryphal moment of the infancy ofChrist when the Infant John the Baptist, in protection of an angel,met the Holy Family on the road to Egypt. In this scene, aspainted by Leonardo, John recognizes and worships Jesus as theChrist. The painting demonstrates an eerie beauty as the gracefulfigures kneel in adoration around the infant Christ in a wild androcky landscape of tumbling rock and whirling water.

While the painting is quite large, about 200 x 120 cms, it isnowhere as complex as the painting ordered by the monks of StDonato, having only four figures rather than about 50 and a rockylandscape rather than architectural details. The painting waseventually finished; in fact, two versions of the painting werefinished, one which remained at the chapel of the Confraternityand the other which Leonardo carried away to France. But theBrothers did not get their painting, or the de Predis their paymentuntil both were long over due.

Paintings of the 1490s The most famous painting the 1490s is Last Supper, also painted in Milan. The paintingrepresents the last meal shared by Jesus with his desciples before his capture and death. Itshows, specifically the moment when Jesus hassaid “one of you will betray me.” See paintingreproduced further down this page.

Leonardo tells the story of the consternationthat this statement caused to the twelvefollowers of Jesus. Vasari describes in detailhow he worked on it, how some days he wouldpaint like fury, how other days he would spendhours just looking at it, and how he walked thestreets of the city looking for the face of Judas,the traitor.



When finished, the painting was acclaimed as a masterpiece of design and characterisation. Butits artist was also denounced for the fact that it was no sooner finished than it began to fall offthe wall. Leonardo, instead of using the reliable technique of fresco had experimented withdifferent paint-binding agents, which were subject to mold and to flaking. Despite this, thepainting has remained one of the most reproduced works of art, countless copies being made inevery medium from carpets to cameos.

Paintings of the 1500s Among the works created by Leonardo in the 1500s is the smallportrait known as the Mona Lisa or “la Gioconda”, the laughing one.The painting is famous, in particular, for the elusive smile on the

woman’s face, its mysterious quality brought about perhaps by thefact that the artist has subtly shadowed the corners of the mouthand eyes so that the exact nature of the smile cannot be determined.The shadowy quality for which the work is renowned came to becalled “sfumato” or Leonardo’s smoke. Other characteristics foundin this work are the unadorned dress, in which the eyes and

beautiful hands have no competition from other details, thedramatic landscape background in which the world seems to be in astate of flux, the subdued colouring and the extremely smoothnature of the painterly technique, employing oils, but laid on muchlike tempera and blended on the surface so that the brushstrokes areindistinguishable.

In the Virgin and Child with St. Anne the composition again picks up thetheme of figures in a landscape. It harks back to the St Jerome picture withthe figure set at an oblique angle. What makes this painting unusual is thatthere are two obliquely-set figures, superimposed. Mary is seated on the knee

of her mother, St Anne. She leans forward to support the Christ Child as heplays (rather roughly) with a lamb, the sign of his own impending sacrifice.In the composition of this painting, Leonardo is showing trends which would

be adopted in particular by the Venetian painters, Titian and Tintoretto as well as by Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo and Correggio.

Leonardo was not a prolific painter, but he was a most prolific draftsman, keeping journals fullof small sketches and detailed drawings recording all manner of things that took his attention.

As well as the journals there exist many studies for paintings, some of which can be identified aspreparatory to particular works such as The Adoration of the Magi, The Virgin of the Rocks' andThe Last Supper. His earliest dated drawing is a Landscape of the Arno Valley, 1473, whichshows the river, the mountains, Montelupo Castle and the farmlands beyond it in great detail.

Among his famous drawings are the Vitruvian Man, a study of the proportionsof the human body, the Head of an Angel, for The Virgin of the Rocks in theLouvre, a botanical study of Star of Bethlehem and a large drawing (160×100cm) in black chalk on coloured paper of the The Virgin and Child with St. Anneand St. John the Baptist in the National Gallery, London. This drawing employsthe subtle sfumato technique of shading, in the manner of the Mona Lisa. It isthought that Leonardo never made a painting from it, the closest similarity

being to The Virgin and Child with St. Anne in the Louvre.

Other drawings of interest include numerous studies of facial deformities which are frequentlyreferred to as "caricatures", while close examination of the skeletal proportions indicates thatthe majority are based directly on live models. There are numerous studies of the beautiful

young man, Salaino, with his rare and much admired facial feature, the so-called "Grecian



profile". He is often depicted in fancy-dress costume. Leonardo is known to have designed setsfor pageants with which these may be associated. Other, often meticulous, drawings showstudies of drapery. A marked development in Leornardo's ability to draw drapery occurred in hisearly works. Another often-reproduced drawing is a macabre sketch that was done by Leonardoin Florence in 1479 showing the body of Bernado Baroncelli, hanged in connection with themurder of Giuliano, brother of Lorenzo de'Medici, in the Pazzi Conspiracy. With dispassionateintegrity Leonardo has registered in neat mirror writing the colours of the robes that Baroncelli

was wearing when he died.

Leonardo as observer, scientist and inventor

Renaissance humanism saw no mutually exclusive polarities betweenthe sciences and the arts, and Leonardo's studies in science andengineering are as impressive and innovative as his artistic work,recorded in notebooks comprising some 13,000 pages of notes anddrawings, which fuse art and natural philosophy (the forerunner ofmodern science). These notes were made and maintained dailythroughout Leonardo's life and travels, as he made continualobservations of the world around him.

The journals are mostly written in mirror-image cursive. The reasonmay have been more a practical expediency than for reasons ofsecrecy as is often suggested. Since Leonardo wrote with his lefthand, it is probable that it was easier for him to write from right toleft.

His notes and drawings display an enormous range ofinterests and preoccupations, some as mundane as lists of

groceries and people who owed him money and some asintriguing as designs for wings and shoes for walking on water. There are compositions for paintings, studies ofdetails and drapery, studies of faces and emotions, ofanimals, babies, dissections, plant studies, rock formations,

whirl pools, war machines, helicopters and architecture.

These notebooks—originally loose papers of different typesand sizes, distributed by friends after his death—have foundtheir way into major collections such as the Louvre, theBiblioteca Nacional de España, the Biblioteca Ambrosiana

in Milan, and the Victoria and Albert Museum and BritishLibrary in London. The British Library has put a selectionfrom its notebook on the web in the Turning the Pagessection. The Codex Leicester is the only major scientific

work of Leonardo's in private hands. It is owned by BillGates, and is displayed once a year in different cities aroundthe world.

Why Leonardo did not publish or otherwise distribute the contents of his notebooks remains amystery to those who believe that Leonardo wanted to make his observations public knowledge.Technological historian Lewis Mumford suggests that Leonardo kept notebooks as a private

journal, intentionally censoring his work from those who might irresponsibly use it (the tank,for instance). They remained obscure until the 19th century, and were not directly of value to thedevelopment of science and technology.



In January 2005, researchers discovered what some believe to be a hidden laboratory used byLeonardo da Vinci for studies of flight and other pioneering scientific work in previously sealedrooms at a monastery next to the Basilica of the Santissima Annunziata, in the heart of Florence.

Scientific studies

Leonardo's approach to science was an observational one: he tried to understand a phenomenon by describing and depicting it in utmost detail, and did not emphasize experiments or

theoretical explanation. Since he lacked formal education in Latin and mathematics,contemporary scholars mostly ignored Leonardo the scientist, although he did teach himselfLatin. In the 1490s he studied mathematics under Luca Pacioli and prepared a series ofdrawings of regular solids in a skeletal form to be engraved as plates for Pacioli's book DivinaProportione, published in 1509.

It has also been said that he was planning a series of treatises to be published on a variety ofsubjects though none survives; it appears he did complete a coherent treatise on anatomy, which

was observed during a visit by Cardinal Louis D'Aragon's secretary in 1517.

Anatomy Leonardo's formal training in the anatomy of the human body began with hisapprenticeship to Andrea del Verrocchio, his teacher insisting that all hispupils learn anatomy. As an artist, he quickly became master of topographicanatomy, drawing many studies of muscles, tendons and other visibleanatomical features.

As a successful artist, he was given permission to dissect human corpses atthe hospital Santa Maria Nuova in Florence and later at hospitals in Milanand Rome. From 1510 to 1511 he collaborated in his studies with the doctor Marcantonio dellaTorre and together they prepared a theoretical work on anatomy for which Leonardo made morethan 200 drawings. It was published only in 1680 (161 years after his death) under the heading

Treatise on painting.

Leonardo drew many studies of the human skeleton and its parts, as well as muscles and sinews,the heart and vascular system, the sex organs, and other internal organs. He made one of thefirst scientific drawings of a fetus in utero.

He also studied and drew the anatomy of manyother animals as well. He dissected cows, birds,monkeys, bears, and frogs, comparing in hisdrawings their anatomical structure with that ofhumans. He also made a number of studies of

horses.

As an artist, Leonardo closely observed andrecorded the effects of age and of humanemotion on the physiology, studying inparticular the effects of rage. He also drewmany models among those who had significantfacial deformities or signs of illness.

Engineering and inventions

Fascinated by the phenomenon of flight, Leonardo produced detailed studies of the flight of birds, and plans for several flying machines, including a helicopter powered by four men (which would not have worked since the body of the craft would have rotated) and a light hang glider which could have flown.. On January 3, 1496 he unsuccessfully tested a flying machine he hadconstructed.



During his lifetime Leonardo was valued as an engineer. In a letter toLudovico il Moro he claimed to be able to create all sorts of machines bothfor the protection of a city and for siege. When he fled to Venice in 1499he found employment as an engineer and devised a system of moveable

barricades to protect the city from attack. He also had a scheme fordiverting the flow of the Arno River in order to flood Pisa.

In 1502, Leonardo produced a drawing of a single span 720-foot (240 m) bridge as part of a civilengineering project for Ottoman Sultan Beyazid II of Istanbul. The bridge was intended to spanan inlet at the mouth of the Bosporus known as the Golden Horn. Beyazid did not pursue theproject, because he believed that such a construction was impossible.

Leonardo's vision was resurrected in 2001 whena smaller bridge based on his design wasconstructed in Norway.

Leonardo, the "Legend"

Within Leonardo's own lifetime his fame wassuch that the King of France carried him awaylike a trophy, supported him in his old age andheld him in his arms as he died. Vasari, in his"Lives of the Artists" written about thirty yearsafter Leonardo's death, described him as havingtalents that "transcended nature".

The interest in Leonardo has never slackened. The crowds still queue to see his most famousartworks, T-shirts bear his most famous drawing and writers, like Vasari, continue to marvel at

his genius and speculate about his private life and, particularly, about what one so intelligentactually believed in.

Giorgio Vasari, in his "Lives of the Artists", in its enlarged edition of 1568 introduces his chapteron Leonardo da Vinci with the following words:

"In the normal course of eventsmany men and women are born

with remarkable talents; but occa-sionally, in a way that transcendsnature, a single person is mar-

vellously endowed by Heaven with beauty, grace and talent in suchabundance that he leaves othermen far behind, all his actionsseem inspired and indeed every-thing he does clearly comes fromGod rather than from human skill.Everyone acknowledged that this

was true of Leonardo da Vinci, anartist of outstanding physical

beauty, who displayed infinite

grace in everything that he did and who cultivated his genius so brilliantly that all problems hestudied he solved with ease."

lw leonardo da vinci initiation[1].pdf

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