Italian High Renaissance Painter and Inventor, 1452-1519 Italian High Renaissance Painter and Inventor, 1452-1519 Florentine Renaissance man, genius, artist in all media, architect, military engineer. Possibly the most brilliantly creative man in European history, he advertised himself, first of all, as a military engineer. In a famous letter dated about 1481 to Ludovico Sforza, of which a copy survives in the Codice Atlantico in Milan, Leonardo asks for employment in that capacity. He had plans for bridges, very light and strong, and plans for destroying those of the enemy. He knew how to cut off water to besieged fortifications, and how to construct bridges, mantlets, scaling ladders, and other instruments. He designed cannon, very convenient and easy of transport, designed to fire small stones, almost in the manner of hail??grape- or case-shot (see ammunition, artillery). He offered cannon of very beautiful and useful shapes, quite different from those in common use and, where it is not possible to employ cannon ?? catapults, mangonels and trabocchi and other engines of wonderful efficacy not in general use. And he said he made armoured cars, safe and unassailable, which will enter the serried ranks of the enemy with their artillery ?? and behind them the infantry will be able to follow quite unharmed, and without any opposition. He also offered to design ships which can resist the fire of all the heaviest cannon, and powder and smoke. The large number of surviving drawings and notes on military art show that Leonardo claims were not without foundation, although most date from after the Sforza letter. Most of the drawings, including giant crossbows (see bows), appear to be improvements on existing machines rather than new inventions. One exception is the drawing of a tank dating from 1485-8 now in the British Museum??a flattened cone, propelled from inside by crankshafts, firing guns. Another design in the British Museum, for a machine with scythes revolving in the horizontal plane, dismembering bodies as it goes, is gruesomely fanciful. Most of the other drawings are in the Codice Atlantico in Milan but some are in the Royal Libraries at Windsor and Turin, in Venice, or the Louvre and the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. Two ingenious machines for continuously firing arrows, machine-gun style, powered by a treadmill are shown in the Codice Atlantico. A number of other sketches of bridges, water pumps, and canals could be for military or civil purposes: dual use technology. Leonardo lived at a time when the first artillery fortifications were appearing and the Codice Atlantico contains sketches of ingenious fortifications combining bastions, round towers, and truncated cones. Models constructed from the drawings and photographed in Calvi works reveal forts which would have looked strikingly modern in the 19th century, and might even feature in science fiction films today. On 18 August 1502 Cesare Borgia appointed Leonardo as his Military Engineer General, although no known building by Leonardo exists. Leonardo was also fascinated by flight. Thirteen pages with drawings for man-powered aeroplanes survive and there is one design for a helicoidal helicopter. Leonardo later realized the inadequacy of the power a man could generate and turned his attention to aerofoils. Had his enormous abilities been concentrated on one thing, he might have invented the modern glider.   Related Paintings of LEONARDO da Vinci :. | Buste one frontal to seeing man and head of a Lowen | Profile of a man | Self Portrait | You branching of the Blutgefabe, anatomical figure with heart kidneys and Blutgefaben | Muscle structure of the thigh |
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auguste macke
August Macke (1887-1914) was a German painter whose harmonious and simple scenes of everyday life made a unique contribution to Expressionism.
Matteo Rosselli
Italian Baroque Era Painter, 1578-1650 Italian painter. An influential artist of the early 17th century in Florence, he is described by the early sources as being of a gentle disposition and as a dedicated and dignified painter, although he lacked originality and power. His work is characterized by the simplicity, descriptive naturalism and refined colour of the Counter-Reformation art created by such Tuscan artists as Santi di Tito, Bernardino Poccetti, Lodovico Cigoli and Domenico Passignano, yet he was also responsive to Venetian and Emilian art. The son of Alfonso Rosselli and Elena Coppi, he received his early education in Gregorio Pagani's studio, which he attended from as early as 1587. His initial inclination was towards classical and balanced compositions, in which the influence of Andrea del Sarto, whose frescoes he copied in the Chiostro dello Scalzo, is clear. On 26 February 1599 he was admitted to the Accademia del Disegno and in 1605 went to be with Passignano in Rome for six months, greatly enriching his artistic experiences through this contact. He returned to Florence in the same year and, on Pagani's death (1605), completed his master's unfinished works with great success. Pagani's influence can be seen in the bright colours of Rosselli's Adoration of the Magi (1607; Montevarchi, Arezzo, S Andrea). To 1610 belong two monochrome paintings depicting Henry IV at Nantes and Henry IV at Gaudebec
Andrea Lilio
Andrea Lilio (1555/1570 - after 1639) was an Italian painter born in Fano, not far from Ancona, hence he also is known as L'Anconitano. Die Geschichte des Hl. NikolausHe painted mainly in his native city, as well as in Rome, where he was active from the beginning of the 17th century until around 1640. He was employed by Pope Sixtus V in the decoration of the library of the Vatican and in the decoration of the Scala Santa in San Giovanni Laterano. In the latter, he painted, Moses striking the Rock and Moses with the Brazen Serpent. Said to have been a pupil of Federico Barocci, he painted in a Mannerist style, already outdated in Baroque Rome at the time. Nevertheless, Lilio created a popular niche for himself by painting allegories for aristocratic audiences. In fact, it is altogether possible that Lilio collaborated for the illustrations of Cesare Ripa's Iconologia, which was a popular source for such motifs for a very long time. He died at Ascoli Piceno. In a chapel of the Chiesa Nuova, he painted The Archangel Michael driving fallen angels from Heaven. He continued to ornament churches and convents of Rome during the reign of Pope Clement VIII. One of his masterpieces, the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, was painted for Santa Caterina in Ancona. He painted the Christ Washing the Feet of His Disciples for the nave of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. He also was part of the team active in the painting of the Sistine chapel (chapel of Nativity) in Santa Maria Maggiore. For the cathedral of Fano, he painted a picture of All Saints.