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While growing up Leonardo was fascinated by animals and insects. Throughout his long life, he never stopped studying nature-plants, anatomy, the movement of water, the mechanics of flightand applying his observations to his art.
Animal Studies
Leonardo was often impatient with men, but he had a special fondness for animals. His lively sketches of cats are drawn with great affection. Look carefully for the cat that became a dragon.
Anatomical Study
Leonardo often watched doctors perform autopsies so that he could study human anatomy. He later began dissections on his own and carefully sketched everything that he saw.
The Inventor
Leonardo modeled his flying machines after his studies of bird wings. And though he failed at actually taking air, his careful and inventive researches in aerodynamics made him a forerunner of modern flight.
Mona Lisa
Leonardo Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa on a piece of pine wood in the year 1506. Never in the history of Art has one painting been so admired. This is due largely to the enigmatic smile, which has caused much speculation. Some people have even suggested that it is a self-portrait.
The Codes
Leonardo wrote in Italian using a special kind of shorthand that he invented himself. People who study his notebooks have long been puzzled by something else, however. He usually used "mirror writing," starting at the right side of the page and moving to the left. Only when he was writing something intended for other people did he write in the normal direction.
An Artistic and Scientific Search for the True Picture of Man and his Universe
"Leonardo da Vinci was like a man who awoke too early in the darkness, while the others were all still asleep" -Sigmund Freud