sooooooo, while we were in Raleigh, we went out to the Museum of Art to view the Da Vinci folios and a stunning exhibit of M.C. Escher's work (whom i had not previously known was dutch, the knowledge of which greatly pleased me since it is part of my family mythology that one branch of the tree is actually dutch not german due to the fluidity of national borders long, long ago. like the rest of you, i am also related to both abraham lincoln and jefferson davis, which i can tenuously confirm via a quick web search) ~
730 conclusions about W A T E R
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was born in 1452
to a Tuscan farm girl named Caterina.
the father (Piero) was a notary from Florence,
and Leonardo was raised in his father's household
(much to the delight of the notary's wife, i suppose).
when he was five,
Leonardo was sent to live with his uncle and grandparents
at the family's nearby estate in the town of Vinci.
in 1466 (or so), Leonardo took his basic knowledge
of reading, math, and writing
of reading, math, and writing
and, at age 14, apprenticed in the workshop
of Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence.
of Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence.
six years later (around 1472),
da Vinci established his own workshop
da Vinci established his own workshop
as a guild-member in his own right.
his precociousness wasn't all a bed of roses.
he dropped out of sight for a period of time
(starting in about 1476)
and resurfaced in Milan around 1482
(he was now 30 years old).
da Vinci had reinvented himself from artist to engineer,
designing war machines for the Duke of Milan.
S A P E R * V E R D E
knowing how to see
da Vinci had this in spades,
filling dozens of pages in the 1480's
with his artistic and scientific observations.
he spent a lot of time in his own head,
developing theories but rarely testing them.
in 1499 (da Vinci was about 47 now),
France invaded Milan and the Duke fled.
Leonardo left behind 'The Last Supper,'
painted on the back wall
painted on the back wall
of a dining room at the Santa Maria delle Grazie monastery
and, with a few stops between, returned to Florence by 1503,
the year he started painting 'Mona Lisa' -
a painting which he never considered finished
and with which he never parted.
the 'Codex Leicester' was written by da Vinci
from 1504-1508 and published in 1510.
in 1719, it was purchased by the Earl of Leicester.
in 1980, Armand Hammer purchased it
from the Leicester estate for $5.1million,
renaming it the Codex Hammer.
that name, unsurprisingly, did not stick,
and when Bill Gates purchased the writings in 1994
via an auction at Christie's for $30.8million,
he returned the writings to their name.
the Codex now travels the world,
on display in a new location every year.
how AMAZING it is now in North Carolina!
the year he started painting 'Mona Lisa' -
a painting which he never considered finished
and with which he never parted.
the 'Codex Leicester' was written by da Vinci
from 1504-1508 and published in 1510.
in 1719, it was purchased by the Earl of Leicester.
in 1980, Armand Hammer purchased it
from the Leicester estate for $5.1million,
renaming it the Codex Hammer.
that name, unsurprisingly, did not stick,
and when Bill Gates purchased the writings in 1994
via an auction at Christie's for $30.8million,
he returned the writings to their name.
the Codex now travels the world,
on display in a new location every year.
how AMAZING it is now in North Carolina!
in 1506, da Vinci returned to Milan
to work for the conquering French.
when they were expelled from Milan in 1513,
da Vinci headed to Rome,
where he lived in a suite of rooms in the Vatican.
present during a meeting between the Pope
and the King of France,
and the King of France,
da Vinci could hardly turn away the offer from France
which included the title "Premier Painter and Engineer and Architect to the King."
in 1515, at the age of 63, da Vinci moved to France,
where he died four years later.
one of his last commissioned works
was a mechanical lion that could walk
and open its chest to reveal a bouquet of lilies.
(by the way, did you notice that the entire Codex
yep.
da Vinci wrote all of his personal notes & observations
from right-to-left.
records seem to indicate that he was left-handed,
which was highly unusual in the 1500's.
as an occupational therapist who works a lot
with children who have difficulty writing,
i've often thought how much easier it would be
for my left-handed students to write
if our written language moved from right-to-left.
& i've wondered if there are more left-handed writers
in countries where the written language moves in that direction.
who knows?
i do know that there seems to be
many more left-handers these days.
in my son's high school math class,
a full thirty percent of the students
raised their (left) hands when asked
who in the class was left-handed!
(my eldest son is one of them)
in any case, no one knows why da Vinci
used 'mirror writing.'
my guess is that it was simply a practical solution
to avoid smearing wet ink.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
no photography was permitted in the Escher galleries.
but here is Escher's story . . .
like i said earlier, Maurits Cornelis Escher
(or 'Mauk' as he was affectionately known)
was from Holland,
born in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, in 1898,
the fourth son of a civil engineer father
(and, i would infer, of a woman who was
the mother of four sons).
failed high school exams led him to enroll
in the School for Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem,
where he focused on graphic art.
after graduation, Escher took a hop-skip-jump
down to Italy,
in the southern part of which he met the woman
who agreed to marry a man who left on long
drawing excursions each spring.
her name was Giuliaetta (Jetta) Umiker
(her father was swiss).
Mauk & Jetta met while staying in the same pension
(he traveling solo; she with her parents).
they married in 1924
and lived in Rome until 1935
when Fascism drove out the pair & their two young sons
(a third was born many years later in Holland)
& landed them in Switzerland for a pair of years.
prior to his marriage, Escher's travels
took him to southern Spain.
where he was captivated by the Alhambra,
a Moorish castle from the fourteenth century.
the geometry of design made a lasting impact on Escher
(a bit of the chicken or the egg, i'd wager)
and influenced his entire body of work.
that is...tessellations or regular division of the plane,
to which he devoted his years in Switzerland,
amassing sixty-two tessellation drawings.
after Switzerland, the family spent five years in Belgium;
then, in 1941, they moved to the Netherlands,
where they remained.
Escher died in 1972.
his final piece of work, from 1969, is entitled Snakes.
speaking of tessellations, Escher once said,
"It remains an extremely absorbing activity, a real mania
to which I have
become addicted,
and from which I sometimes find it hard to tear myself
away."
this was my oldest son's favorite Escher, Another World
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
the Art museum did a nice job of complementary exhibits,
including this one from NCSU engineering students.
my youngest son especially enjoyed watching
this infinity cube
and who doesn't enjoy a spy mirror or two?
 |
| me, lying in wait. there's J walking towards me just now. |
 |
| ah, now here comes S. |
 |
| both boys, scene one |
 |
| both boys, scene two |
 |
| both boys, scene three |
 |
| both boys, scene four |
 |
| both boys, final scene |
so, there's my post about infinity.
