Today, we are going to introduce you to a renowned inventor, mathematician and artist, Leonardo di ser Pierro da Vinci. His work, the Mona Lisa is a familiar name to most people in the world. But his story is one unknown to many. 

Born on 15th April 1452 in Vinci, a region in Florence, Leonardo was mentored by a notable artist Verrocchio. Other famous protégées of Verrocchio include Botticelli and Perugino. It is said that Leonardo aided Verrocchio with his painting of The Baptism of Christ, and painted an angel holding Jesus’s robe in a manner so superior to his master’s, that Verrocchio never painted again. It is rumoured that Leonardo even modeled for Verrocchio’s statue of David.

From here onwards, records of his life disappear to resurface around the time when he went to Milan in 1482. Here, he was commissioned to make The Virgin of the Rocks and The Last Supper for a monastery. During this time, he was also involved in making a model for a large equestrian monument for Francesco Sforza, an elaborate deal for which seventy tons of bronze was required. As with most of Leonardo’s work however, the monument remained unfinished for a long time. In November 1494, just when Leonardo had started making plans for casting, the bronze kept aside had to be used to make cannons to defend the city from an attack led by Charles VIII.

Following this, Leonardo fled Milan. In 1500, he returned to Florence, where he was provided with a workshop by the Servite monks of a monastery. Here Leonardo created a cartoon of The Virgin and The Child, winning great admiration among the common people. After this, Leonardo spent two years creating a mural depicting the Battle of Anghiari for the Signoria. He employed various techniques ranging from painting on a dry stone wall to using wet plaster for his art. Typically however, he used oil paint made by hand from ground pigments.

In 1506, he returned to Milan. From here, he went back to Florence in 1507 due to his father’s death, but chose to came back to Milan a year later and settle in Porta Orientale. From 1513 to 1516, Leonardo lived in the Vatican. Upon the recapture of Milan by France in 1515, Leonardo was commissioned to make a mechanical lion that could walk and open to reveal a chest full of lilies. Leonardo died on 2 May 1519 and was buried in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert. But even centuries after the end of his tumultuous life, his name lives on as that of a legend, the most celebrated artist of all times.


Author - Nikita Singal (PGP1 Finesse Club Member)

- By Darshan Sumant Chintamani

‘A building is not just a place to be but a way to be. The mother art is architecture. 
Without an architecture of our own, we have no soul of our own civilization.’
                                                                                                                                                            – Frank Lloyd Wright

Wright, perhaps one of the best architects of his time, aptly defined the true essence of architecture. Architecture is an integral part of every civilization, an eternal mark on the earth’s face, of its people and their artistic genius. One can experience this for himself only while travelling through the different parts of Europe. For over the last two millennia, each civilization – small or big – has imprinted itself in stone and brick. The buildings in each city stand testimony to the continuous evolution of society’s artistic expression. It is therefore imminent to understand the main architectural styles, their history and the symbolism, to better understand the rich heritage of an entire continent.

Classical

Classical architecture is derived from the architecture of ancient Greece and ancient Rome. With the collapse of the western part of the Roman Empire, the architectural traditions of the Roman empire ceased to be practiced in large parts of western Europe. In the Byzantine Empire, the ancient ways of building lived on but relatively soon developed into a distinct Byzantine style.  It places emphasis on symmetry, proportion, geometry and the regularity of parts as they are demonstrated in the architecture of Classical antiquity and in particular, the architecture of Ancient Rome. Greek amphitheaters, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and the Roman Baths are just a small set of examples.

The artist Alfonso Ossorio, described Pollock's artistic journey this way:

                                     "Here I saw a man who had both broken all the traditions of the past and unified them, 
                                     who had gone beyond cubism, beyond Picasso and surrealism, beyond everything that
                                      had happened in art....his work expressed both action and contemplation."

Pollock reveals the artistic process as the essence of creation, not the product, or finished painting. Process is action, and product is passive. Process is alive, and product the dead. Looking at his painting what you see is the action, the process, the moment still alive with texture, color and pattern.

Jackson Pollock was an abstract American artist who believed in expressing himself through his art, creating composition which may be far from reality, non-figurative. Widely known for his spectacular, wall-sized paintings, which typically feature a combination of swirling drips, bright splotches, and bold, rhythmic streaks; he is an artist who lived his art. He emerged as the most original painter in America, for his unprecedented physical involvement with the act of painting.

                                                                                                                                                                                                            -By Sourav Sengupta
The glamour of film-maker Satyajit Ray, the man who revolutionized Indian cinema often shrouds the character of artist Satyajit Ray. A creative genius, Ray had an exceptional hand in sketching and made priceless contributions to contemporary commercial art. 

This is the second article in the Artist series.

Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon has brought Renaissance art closer to all of us through The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons and most recently, Inferno by bringing alive the work of notable painters like Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael, Giorgio Vasari, Sandro Botticelli and Michelangelo, among others.

Surrealism

 Surrealism was an artistic and literary movement that began in the early 1920’s, dedicated to expressing the imagination as revealed in dreams, free of the conscious control of reason and convention. The aim of Surrealism was to reveal the unconscious and reconcile it with rational life. There was no single style of Surrealist art but two broad types can be seen. These are the early dream-like work of Salvador Dali, and Rene Magritte, and the later free form or automatist work by artist such as Max Ernst and Joan Miro. Surrealist artists used unexpected juxtapositions and illogical scenes which they painted with photographic precision to express their subconscious imagination.

The art was also practiced at the courts of Naples, Madrid, Prague, Paris and elsewhere. From the late 16th century, the colorful stones were arranged on furniture as landscapes and flower scenes.

As I grew up, the crayons were replaced first by sketch pens and eventually by watercolors. After 4 years of my on and off relationship with various colors, I discovered the two true and everlasting colors of the universe: Black & White. Encompassing everything within and beyond imagination, these are the only two shades which have demanded and succeeded to be perceived over the ages. While others often shy away in darkness, these two have always managed to prevent the catastrophe of a colorless world. Their bold and omnipresent character paved the way for my love towards sketching.

While sketching in my undergrad college, I was greatly influenced by the work of Laurie Lipton.