Renaissance - Da Vinci

Question 1

What time period is da Vinci associated with

Answer 1

High renaissance, 1500s, Cinquecento

Question 2

When and where was he born

Answer 2

Born in 1452

Town of Vinci, in Tuscany, Italy

Question 3

He was a radical. What was that

Answer 3

He disagreed with the authorities of the time

Question 4

How many painting did he make

Answer 4

15

Question 5

He was a polymath. What was that

Answer 5

Someone who was skilled in many things

Question 6

What was da Vinci highly skilled in

Answer 6

Scientist, sculptor, artist, musician, inventor, architect, anatomist, botanist, geologist

Question 7

What are common techniques he used in his paintings

Answer 7

Chiaroscuro 
Sfumato
Triangular composition 
Atmospheric perspective
Linear perspective
Balanced  harmonious composition 
Carefully proportioned sculptural figures 
Precise detailed drawings 
Pictures lit from one light source
Tone more important than colour 
Slowly executed layers of paint and transparent glazes
Gestures and facial expression used to dramatise a story

Question 8

What is common subject matter of his paintings

Answer 8

Religion (the last supper, the lady on the rocks)

Portraits of women (Mona Lisa, the lady with the ermine)

Question 9

What did Leonardo believe about distance and colour

Answer 9

He believed that the closer an object was the truer it’s colour and the further away it got the object appeared bluer.

Question 10

What did he do to find out why distance changed the colour of objects

Answer 10

Experiments with smoke and vapor

Question 11

Leonardo kept a notebook. Give some information about it

Answer 11

He wrote backwards (from right to left instead of from left to write)
He had drawings of inventions
He believed in drawing and writing
He was ahead of his time (sketches of machinery that wasn’t manufactured for years after)

Question 12

What did KC say about Leonardo

Answer 12

“the most relentlessly curious man at ever lived”

Question 13

What did Leonardo observe

Answer 13

People, animals, landscape (in great detail)

Question 14

Give a quote to back up how Leonardo was a polymath

Answer 14

“Learning Never exhausts the mind” - Leonardo

Question 15

Give a quote that backs up his belief in freedom of expression and thought

Answer 15

“Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art” - Leonardo

Question 16

Give a quote that backs up his simpler paintings

Answer 16

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” - Leonardo

Question 17

Give a quote that backs up/describes his sketchbook

Answer 17

“Art is never finished, only abandoned” - Leonardo

Question 18

Discuss Leonardo and anatomy

Answer 18

Dissected more than 30 corpses in his lifetime
Left the Vatican to avoid persecution
Layer the foundation for modern scientific illustration
First known artist to draw the bones of the hand and the muscles of the facial structure correctly
Some of his studies are still used in medical books today
Dissected a 100 year old man to see how his body worked and how he lived so long

Question 19

Quote to describe how Leonardo felt that art is individual

Answer 19

“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt. Poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen” - Leonardo

Question 20

Who taught Leonardo

Answer 20

Andrea del verrocchio

Question 21

Describe his apprenticeship

Answer 21

Learned superb craftsmanship - painting and sculpting

Said to have painted the angel in the lower left hand corner of the painting the “baptism of Christ”

Question 22

What is the name of the first art history book and what does it say

Answer 22

Vasari

Says that after verrocchio saw the excellence of his young students work he never painted again

Question 23

What type of things was Leonardo curious about

Answer 23

Nature and the human body (weather/water/plants/human/anatomy)

Question 24

What did Leonardo invent and study

Answer 24

Invented machinery

Studied the Bible as Giotto had done before

Question 25

What happened to Leonardo’s sculptures and architecture

Answer 25

None remains that we can definitely acquire to Leonardo

Hunt museum in limerick displays what is believed to be one of his bronze horses

Question 26

What themes are associated with Leonardo’s work

Answer 26

Religion
Portraiture
Family

Question 27

What did Leonardo invent in terms of technique

Answer 27

Aerial / atmospheric perspective

He was obsessed with the way things got bluer in the distance when you looked at nature

Question 28

What is Leonardo sometimes called

Answer 28

The universal man

Question 29

Who were Leonardo’s patrons

Answer 29

Medici Family
Pope Leo x
French king, Francis I

Question 30

Leonardo’s choice of media

Answer 30

Fresco - the last supper 
Tempera - the last supper 
Oils - the last supper/Mona Lisa 
Pen and ink - notebooks 
Clay/bronze - horses/human figures

Question 31

What is sfumato

Answer 31

Allowing tones and colors to gradually face into each other creating softened outlines or hazy tones
Smokey effect

Question 32

What is chiaroscuro

Answer 32

Dramatic contrasts between light and dark

Question 33

What is contrapposto

Answer 33

Gentle twist in the body

One half of the body is facing one way and the other half is facing the other way

Question 34

What is aerial perspective

Answer 34

Creating the illusion of depth in a painting by modulating colors