Event 2: Leonardo Da Vinci + Gravity

 For my second event I attended Leonardo Da Vinci + Gravity on zoom. I found this event to be quite educational and insightful. My main reason for choosing this event was due to the fact that it was based off of Leonardo Da Vinci, an extremely talented and famous artist. Though it was through this zoom and with the help of the speakers of this event, Claire Farago and Matthew Landrus, I've come to learn that Leonardo was much more than a painter, but also a well rounded scholar and scientist. Sources from the museum of Boston, state that Da Vinci was also know for being renowned in the fields of  civil engineering, chemistry, geology, geometry, hydrodynamics, mathematics, mechanical engineering, optics, physics, pyrotechnics, and zoology. I definitely would recommend others to attend this event, as it provides so much background on Da Vinci’s other passions and how that continues on and mixes within his own art work. 

Overall it really was nothing short of interesting and I think it was really important to learn about how this man truly was a scientist as well. I believe it's a shame society forgets to mention these other parts about him, and I hope many more can hear about all of his interests. This Particular event had many similarities with many of the blog themes from the past couple of weeks, a recurring intersection of art and technology. 

Speaker Claire Farago does a great job at explaining how Da Vinci combined many of his interests and utilized his findings to create his iconic works we now know today. In the painting, The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, Farago explains that Leonardo used math and science to create a Pyramidal composition in which he contributed this idea to painting and through gravity and forces that influence gravity. This in turn helped him in spacing and where to place certain structures in his art. Matthew Landrus, another speaker at this event mentions how Leonardo was fascinated with gravity. Mentioning that Leo was interested in science and mechanics before Galileo, though he didn't invent the idea of gravity he was knowledgeable in the field. Using analogy, he transferred one knowledge into another, for example  gravity into painting. Visualizing what we thought these would look like if acted out. Overall I believe Leonardo Da Vinci's work is deeply nuanced and different than most works today. He connected many subjects and tied them into art.

Work Cited 

“Claire Farago.” Art and Art History, 5 Jan. 2023, www.colorado.edu/artandarthistory/claire-farago.

“Dr Matthew Landrus.” Faculty of History, www.history.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-matthew-landrus. Accessed 19 May 2023.

“Inventor.” Inventor | Leonardo Da Vinci - The Genius, www.mos.org/leonardo/inventor. Accessed 19 May 2023.

“Leonardo Da Vinci (Vinci 1452-Amboise 1519) - a Deluge.” Royal Collection Trust, www.rct.uk/collection/912380/a-deluge. Accessed 19 May 2023.

Nield, David. “Sketches Hint Leonardo Da Vinci Grasped Gravity a Century Ahead of Newton.” ScienceAlert, 14 Feb. 2023, www.sciencealert.com/sketches-hint-leonardo-da-vinci-grasped-gravity-a-century-ahead-of-newton.