Leonardo Da Vinci Architecture Drawings History Essay

Leonardo Da Vinci's Architecture Drawings
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 Leonardo da Vinci's Architectural Drawings
Leonardo Da Vinci remains to be a revered artist known throughout the world for his aesthetic, innovation and logical designs which we still make use of today i.e. parachutes, helicopters, and tanks. Delving into his architectural designs, we would see how he cleverly combined both beauty and functionality – a commendable feat that merges both arts and sciences.  To discover the philosophies and to analyze the inner workings behind da Vinci’s architectural drawings and designs, this paper investigates da Vinci’s influences, his perspective on matter and form, his disegno, fictive architecture, and central plans. 
Introduction
Following the middle ages where artists are mostly revered as artisans and craftsmen whose main existence is to praise God, the renaissance paved way for the rebirth – the blossoming of the culture, arts, and sciences in Italy and Europe . The Renaissance was an age characterized by innovation and the booming curiosities that forever transformed the way people perceived the world. This age owes to the humanist movement lead by the intellectuals of Florence Italy in the mid-1300s who dedicated themselves to the “stylish revival of Greek and Roman learning” which brings man at the center of the works . 
Born in the midst of the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) would then become one of the most influential artists with his boundless imagination and skill. Widely known as an influential painter, Leonardo also wore many hats in the course of his life. He was a “sculptor, architect, scientist, mathematician, poet, inventor, astronomer, geologist, historian, and cartographer” . His multiple proficiencies reflect his deep curiosity about the workings of the world and his imaginative mind. 
At a young age, Leonardo went to become an apprentice of Andrea del Verrocchio, a Florentine artist at par with the greats within that age. Verrochio’s workshop was also home to other eminent artists such as Domenico Ghirlandaio, Pietro Perugino, and Sandro Botticelli . Working in Verrochio’s workshop served as an artistic training ground for Leonardo, where he would learn in particular the specifics of human anatomy that were central during the Renaissance. Verrocchio was well-versed in the anatomical representation and was even called a “master of perspective” in his day. Aside from painting, he busied himself with sculpting in almost all available mediums. His sculptures were even commissioned by the prominent Medici family . 
The Renaissance authors have been preoccupied with the idea of imitating nature through art which they found desirable because this too was the practice of the ancient Greeks and Romans. This was evidenced by the rediscovery of Vitruvius’s explanation perspective’s importance in creating a visually accurate representation of buildings in his Ten Books (first century BC), the only surviving Roman treatise on Architecture . 
 This predilection towards naturalism accompanied the most, if not all, Italian Renaissance artists at that time and characterized the “progress of art” in their own day . The predecessors of Leonardo in the arts such as Giotto, Filippo Brunelleschi, and especially Masaccio, influenced his works. Masaccio’s painting The Trinity with the Virgin, St John and Donors (c. 1426–7) was the first “true perspective painting of the Renaissance” in which both technical innovation and spiritual meaning are complete. He used illusion instead of allusion, which Leonardo was to do in the future. For Leonardo, this illusion held the most important moral, wherein Masaccio used nature as the ultimate guide in his works (9-10). 
Other than that, one more notable influence of Leonardo which solidified his visual foundations was Leon Battista Alberti, a humanist author. In this book ‘On Painting’ (1435), Alberti expounded on the optical truths of perspective. According to him, the eyes see through a “visual pyramid,” the means of which geometry aids in measuring the shape and position of the forms in front of the eye which was then followed by a method of creating an illusion of space in a two-dimensional surface (11). Through the visual pyramid, Alberti provided a simplified version of optical science known in the middle ages. The use of geometry in optical sciences was closely related to the actual process of the natural world. He also emphasized the importance of correct spatial representation of the emotions and body gestures to express the narrative of the art. These influences coupled with his genuine desire to study the inner workings of the world has even led him to study the internal organs of the body and its roles. In his extensive study which circled around both animal and human dissections, he created about 120 notebooks explaining each organ along with detailed anatomy, physiology, and pathology . In his notes, Leonardo wrote about the heart and blood circulation, with hypotheses about “pulmonary circulation, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, atherosclerosis, and cirrhosis among others”, with special annotations in how they work and how to possibly treat it. Anton Sterpetti (2012) said to be revolutionary and advanced for his age, even surpassing that of the current knowledge of the time.  Leonardo has been called many names — a ‘genius,’ the ‘ideal Renaissance man,” the epitome of a renaissance man,’ ‘the Apelles of Florence,’ and so on. The famous mathematician Luca Pacioli said that Leonardo’s Last Supper equals the Appellee's “eye-deceiving illusions” while his model of the equestrian statue of the Duke of Milan was said by one contemporary poet to be superior, surpassing even the sculptures of antiquity .  Shaped by his environment, broad knowledge, and his lingering curiosity, Leonardo proceeded to create works that are ahead of his time, and some of which we now use today. As the paper progresses, we would see how his influences helped him create that of his amazing architectural designs. 
Matter and Form: Leonardo da Vinci as an Empiricist
As an empiricist, Leonardo believed that “All our knowledge has its foundation in our sensations” (20v). Aristotle has a similar view, in which he said “no one can learn anything at all in the absence of sense” (DA 432a7–9)
From his influences and his theories of art alone, Leonardo echoes the teachings of Aristotelian thought. His understanding of matter and form as the “structure of things” can be seen in Aristotle’s Metaphysics (written 350 BCE). According to Aristotle, a substance is made up of two elements namely form and matter. In respect to the concept of motion, Aristotle provides that motion implies “the passing of one mode of being to the other” . ToThe form is where the matter takes place — the actualization. It "confers being” (Mare, 58) . Matter, on the other hand, is the possibility in which form can be instilled to. Leonardo echoes this thought in expounding on the importance of disegno (to be discussed further) wherein to actualize a design, it must first come from the idea of the creator and then sketched as the disegno, which can be further molded in different things (matter).  In comparison to Da Vinci's architectural concepts, matter and form coincide with his "expression of the motion that shapes organic growth patterns" (Ibid.). This can be seen in his designs of domes and its seeming potential to grow and follow the natural growth pattern of a somewhat living organism. 
The fact that matter is the possibility and form is the actualization means that da Vinci's architectural drawings were acts of motion that shape organic growth patterns
Disegno
According to Estelle Alma Maré (2012), Leonardo’s visual thinking which gives birth to his architectural design is made through a process of “thought experiments” or the “devices of imagination used to ‘investigate the nature of things’” . Maré (2012) provides that Leonardo formulates puzzles in his mind and solves them visually . This is related to what Leonardo calls the disegno, a means to which he finds solutions to his “thought experiments.” 
Disegno does not exactly pertain to “design.” It refers to a sketch, the drawing of a visually thought work of art, albeit an exploratory one, which includes architectural and engineering designs . In creating a disegno, an artist plans the entire composition.  The concept of disegno owes to the empiricist Aristotelian thought. In his art theory, Leonard regurgitates Dante Alighieri’s insights that “art must begin in the mind before it can issue through the hands” . Leonardo further added that art exists in three degrees. Owing to Dante, he provides that art exists in 1) the artist’s mind, 2) “in the instrument as technique,” and 3) “in the material potentiality as informed substance” . However, his definition of disegno does not end there. Leonardo, in his book Codex Urbino (folio 50r and 116r), exalted the concept of disegno and added that it surpasses the study of nature because it is more infinite than those made by nature. Moreover, disegno surpasses nature because Leonardo believes that the basic forms of nature are limited while the imagination is infinite (Ibid). 
Maré (2012) said that Da Vin...