The Life of Leonardo Da Vinci Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Life of Leonardo Da Vinci - Essay Example These characterizations of Leonardo that originated in Vasari's Lives held particular significance for modern art. In the nineteenth-century atmosphere in which artists' training was based on the emulation of masters, Leonardo offered an alternative to the traditions represented by Raphael and Michelangelo particularly because he united art with science. From birth, Vasari's Leonardo is set apart from other artists, divinely endowed with supernatural gifts of beauty, grace, and talent; this last quality is evident in his mastery of all subjects he considered, made possible by his "mind of regal boldness and magnanimous daring" (Vasari 366). His wide-ranging intellect is a mixed blessing, a key to his success and to his undoing. Leonardo "would without doubt have made great progress in learning and knowledge of the sciences, had he not been so versatile and changeful, but the instability of his character caused him to undertake many things which having commenced he afterwards abandone d" (Vasari 366-367). Leonardo made rapid progress in arithmetic, though he confounded his teacher "by the perpetual doubts he started, and by the difficulty of the questions he proposed" (Vasari 367). A gifted musician, he improvised verses and music for the lute. "But, though dividing his attention among pursuits so varied, he never abandoned his drawing, and employed himself much in works of relief, that being the occupation which attracted him more than any other (Vasari 368)." His success in Verrocchio's workshop was based on his intelligence, especially his knowledge of geometry, a necessary skill for a painter. Ultimately, Vasari notes, the artist's abilities as a painter surpassed those of his master (Vasari 371). His talents were never limited to painting, though "as he had resolved to make painting his profession, he gave the larger portion of time to drawing from nature" (Vasari 368). Leonardo sketched architectural plans and designed entire buildings. He designed water-po wered mills, machines, and engines, and was the first to suggest that, by transforming the river Arno, a canal could link Pisa with Florence (Vasari 368). Leonardo, "frequently occupied with the construction of models and the preparation of designs for the removal or the perforation of mountains," also showed how to raise or draw great weights through levers, cranes, and screws (Vasari 369). He designed methods to clean and maintain ports and havens, and to obtain water from great depths. "From speculations of this kind he never gave himself rest," recording them on the pages of his notebooks (Vasari 369). Not all of his projects had such immediately recognizable application, however; he "wasted not a little time" intertwining cords like those he assembled to form the emblem of his academy (Vasari 369). Mental powers contributed to Leonardo's social and artistic success. "His memory also was always so ready and so efficient in the service of his intellect, that in discourse he won a ll men by his reasonings, and confounded every antagonist, however powerful, by the force of his arguments" (Vasari 368). He was so charismatic that, with a model or a drawing, Leonardo could convince a listener of the impossible. With his scheme for raising the Florentine

Self and Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Self and Society - Essay Example Each "healthy" society needs people capable of looking forward into the future and capable of showing us the path that leads outside the polluted atmosphere of intrigues of the group of the "little" people we all belong to. Namely, people who serve the truth and not the group or the public opinion are predecessors of the society who warn us of the dangers on our way to freedom. While the group is characterized with sluggishness and inertia, the individual is capable of rapid changes of his/her opinion towards the light that glows over the new facts and warns of new danger. However, those who serve the truth only, are rare and few. Many philosophers and famous writers have tried to find answers to these and similar questions concerning the individual versus society. Camus, Dostoyevsky, Kafka, Thoreau and Emerson are only a few of those who have tried to criticize the society they have lived in, to cynically laugh at and mock their own time, to warn of the dangers of the moral and ethical erosion they have been witnesses of. Knowing the characteristics of existentialism to which Camus belongs, it is understandable why in his short novel "The Stranger" Albert Camus criticizes the judicial system and depicts the irony of a case when a man is condemned for his indifference and avoidance of societal code. Mersault, the protagonist, is condemned not only by the judge but the spectators in the courtroom as well for something else, that is, his lack of emotional response at his mother's funeral, etc., other than the crime he committed (killing the Arab) and the sentence is for him to be decapitated in the name of many people whom he has never known or whom he will never meet. Mersault is forced to be the outsider when he wants to speak on his behalf. Mersault's story is the story of everyman. To Mersault (i.e. to Camus) life's only meaning is seen from the death point of view. According to Camus, people strive to make their lives meaningful in the face of God but it is absurd, because hope and faith are only p ointless measures constructed by each individual to provide purpose and avoid responsibility. Yet, Mersault is not a person who avoids responsibility for his deeds. On the contrary, he accepts responsibility for what he has done, changes into a person readers would like him to be, i.e. he shows that he is fully capable of feeling, he has emotions, he comes to terms with death, and gives a clear picture of what others are like - people hiding their true selves behind the veal of moral and societal code, when in fact they are nothing else but people full of hatred. "With death so near, Mother must have felt like someone on the brink of freedom, ready to start life all over again. It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe. To feel it so like myself, indeed, so brotherly, made me realize that I'd been happy, and that I was happy still. For all to be accomplished, for me to feel less lonely, all that remained to hope was that on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should greet me with howls of execration" (Camus, "The Stranger", p.76). Does not hatred equal less than zero "Someone must have been telling lies about