The Only Modern Viola Organista is Constructed

In 2009, Pole Slawomir Zubryzycki begins work on the first known viola organista based directly on da Vinci’s designs. Zubryzycki synthesized this design with the descriptions of Michael Praetorius, a sixteenth century German organist. Praetorius released a series of volumes under the title Syntagma Musicum, where he illustrated and described various musical instruments from the time, including the Geigenwerk made by Hans Heyden. Zubryzycki was also inspired by the viola de gamba contained in the drawings, a seven-stringed chordophone similar in appearance to the cello. The goal was to create an instrument that was mechanically similar to da Vinci’s organista, with the timbre of the viola de gamba.

In 2012, the instrument was completed. Zubryzycki would perform on the organista for the first time on October 18^th, 2013, at the International Royal Cracow Piano Festival, in his hometown. The next three years were spent touring the instrument in seventeen countries. During this time, he would record a solo album entitled “Viola Organista – The da Vinci Sound,” released in 2015.

Zubryzycki, S. (2015). Reconstruction. Retrieved from http://www.violaorganista.com/en/about/reconstruction/

Jobson, C. (2013, November 18). Polish Concert Pianist Builds a 'Viola Organista' Based on a 500-Year-Old Leonardo Da Vinci Sketch. Retrieved from https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/11/viola-organista/

Lupu Bridge Opens to Public

While Leonardo da Vinci’s bridge design has never been implemented on the scale he imagined, key concepts in his design live on in many modern-day architectural marvels, including the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Lupu Bridge pictured here. The Lupu Bridge in Shanghai, opened in 2003, spans the Huangpu River. It is built with a tied-arch design, meaning that both ends are “tied” by the deck, which lessens the horizontal force of the arches on the bases. The bridge is also a through arch bridge, meaning that some of the arch was below the deck, while the rest of the arch is above the deck. The parabolic shape, as proposed by da Vinci in his notebook, remains especially advantageous because it equally distributes weight along the entire length. With the tied deck, this allows for the bridge to support enormous amounts of weight even in non-ideal ground conditions, such as the soft soil in Shanghai. Besides facilitating transportation, the bridge also serves as a tourist attraction; visitors can climb to the top of the arch for panoramic views of the city.

Sources:

Atalay, B. (2013, February 3). LEONARDO’S BRIDGE: Part 3. “Vebjørn Sand and Variations on a Theme by Leonardo”. Retrieved May 13, 2019, from https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2013/02/03/leonardos-bridge-part-3-vebjrn-sand-and-variations-on-a-theme-by-leonardo/

[Bridge of Lupu over the Huangpu river in Shanghai (China)]. (2012, August 5). Retrieved May 15, 2019, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lupu_Bridge,_Huangpu_River.JPG

The Lupu Bridge, Shanghai, China. (n.d.). Retrieved May 15, 2019, from https://www.iabse.org/IABSE/association/Award_files/Outstanding_Structure_Award/The_Lupu_Bridge__Shanghai__China.aspx

Tied-Arch Bridge Facts, History, and Examples. (2019). Retrieved May 15, 2019, from http://www.historyofbridges.com/facts-about-bridges/tied-arch-bridge/

Vebjørn Sand da Vinci Bridge

Between 1997 and 2001, Norwegian painter and artist Vebjørn Sand formed a partnership with the Norwegian Public Roads Administration to build what became known as the Vebjørn Sand da Vinci Bridge. Based on Leonardo da Vinci's arched bridge design originally intended for the Golden Horn of present day Istanbul, Sand's pedestrian bridge was built over European route E18 in Ås, Norway. The Vebjørn Sand da Vinci Bridge is smaller version of da Vinci's parabolic arch design which used a wider base to more effectively distribute force, a principle which da Vinci discovered centuries before its common use.

This bridge also launched the Oslo Leonardo Bridge Project. The project aims to build da Vinci footbridges all around the world using local resources, and Sand hopes to use the bridge as "a logo for all nations" according to the Wall Street Journal.

Sources:

Morris, Jan. “Spanning Past and Present.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 5 Nov. 2005, www.wsj.com/articles/SB113113585415688626.

Nash, Eric P. “After 500 Years, Leonardo Gets His Bridge.” New York Times, vol. 151, no. 51962, 2001, p. 3.

Wikimedia Foundation. “Vebjørn Sand Da Vinci Project.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 31 Jan. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vebj%C3%B8rn_Sand_Da_Vinci_Project.

This image by Åsmund Ødegård (Flickr) is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0), via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ADa_Vinci_Bridge.jpg

First Test of a da Vinci Parachute

Adrian Nicholas was a British skydiver. As Leonardo da Vinci's design for the parachute was never tested, Nicholas wanted to confirm the theory. Katarina Ollikainen (his girlfriend) constructed a prototype based off of Leonardo da Vinci's sketch, even utilizing only period accurate tools and materials.  The parachute was in the shape of a 24 ft by 24 ft square-based pyramid. The four sides were to be covered in sealed linen. Against the skeptisism from experts, Nicholas attempted the jump from a hot-air balloon at almost 10,000 feet. The only fear was with the landing, with the concern that the 187 pound device would crush him. Because of this, he allowed himself to fall with da Vinci's parachute until he reached about 2000 feet, then cut himself free and deployed a modern parachute for the landing. He commented that the da Vinci device had a smoother ride than modern day parachutes. Also interesting: after being thrown away, the device floated to the ground, only sustaining minor damages on impact. A quote from Nicholas was "It took one of the greatest minds who ever lived to design it, but it took 500 years to find a man with a brain small enough to actually go and fly it."

Sources and Image Source:
Leonardo Da Vinci's Life. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.davincilife.com/davincis-parachute.html
Adrian Nicholas Proves Da Vinci Chute Works. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.dropzone.com/articles/news/adrian-nicholas-proves-da-vinci-c...
Orton, D. C. (2004, March 29). Parachute. Retrieved from http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/leonardo/parachute.html

da Vinci inspires modern works in mathematics and art

A hybrid polyhedron

Although da Vinci’s geometric sketches did not cause radical changes in mathematics, modern mathematicians and artists alike take inspiration from his geometric figures and interest in the transformation of shapes. George Hart is a professor recently retired from SUNY Stony Brook whose research was heavily inspired by da Vinci’s polyhedra sketches; by integrating the fields of math, computer science, and art he developed a computer program that synthesized new hybrid polyhedra. Likewise, several artists have been inspired by da Vinci’s thoughts on the transition of shapes. For example, sculptor Charles Perry created structures that depict abstract shapes underdoing transformation.

Sources

Shearer, Rhonda Roland. “Chaos Theory and Fractal Geometry: Their Potential Impact on the Future of Art.” Leonardo, vol. 25, no. 2, 1992, pp. 143–152., doi:10.2307/1575702.

Perry, Charles O. “On the Edge of Science: The Role of the Artists Intuition in Science.” Leonardo, vol. 25, no. 3/4, 1992, pp. 249–252., doi:10.2307/1575845.

Peterson, Ivars. “Polyhedron Man.” Science News, vol. 160, no. 25/26, 2001, pp. 396–398., doi:10.2307/4012851.

The image is taken from the following article "Polyhedron Man" that is listed above.

Mona Lisa Tours the US

The Mona Lisa went on a tour of the Us between November 1962 and March 1963. It was shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Gallery of Art in DC and was displayed for 1 week in each location. The  week in the MET drew over 1 million visitors despite bad weather, and its time in DC brought 600 thousand visitors to the National Gallery of Art. This accounted for more than 50% of the normal yearly visitors to the DC museum. 

Modern Parachute is Patented

Parachute Patent

Multiple people throughout history, including Leonardo da Vinci, have designed parachutes. The modern parachute was not patented until 1920. This version included a ripcord, a folding parachute, and a harness. According to Google Patents, this was filed under patent number US1340423A. The inventor is listed as Floyd Smith. The patent has since expired, and this is a common framework for parachutes in use today.

Sources: 
Leonardo Da Vinci's Life. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.davincilife.com/davincis-parachute.html
US1340423A - Parachute. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://patents.google.com/patent/US1340423A/en

Image Source:
US1340423A - Parachute. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://patents.google.com/patent/US1340423A/en

Mona Lisa is Recovered

After keeping it in his house for 2 years, Perugia contacted a Florentine art dealer, hoping to sell the painting in Florence. After coming into contact, the dealer manged to convince Perugia to leave the painting with him, and called the police on him. He was arrested at his house half an hour later. His official reasoning was that he mistakenly believed that Napoleon had stolen it from the people of Italy. For the crime, he served a relatively light sentence of eight months. 

The Mona Lisa is Stolen from the Louvre

On August 21, 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre. The ensuing media frenzy was unparalleled for any sort of art theft, and the hysteria bred all sorts of conspiracy theories. One prominent theory was that it was stolen by rogue modernist artists, trying to destroy the old world order and imposing their own. This line of thinking actually led to the arrest of Pable Picasso as a suspect, but he was never convicted. 

The painting was actually stolen by Vincenzo Perugia, who had briefly worked at the Louvre. Wearing a worker's smock, he hid in the museum until after it had closed, took the painting out of the frame, and hid it in a closet. The next morning, he hid it under his smock, and walked right out with it. He kept it in a hidden compartment of a trunk in his house for the next two years. 

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Mona Lisa.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 4 Apr. 2019, www.britannica.com/topic/Mona-Lisa-painting.

Maxim machine gun invented

As the Industrial Revolution dawned, new inventions were spring up, taking advantage of new manufacturing techniques. Along with this revolution came new military technologies. One such technology is the Maxim machine gun. Created in about 1884 by inventor and engineer Hiram Maxim, this gun drastically shaped the way wars were fought and the causalities that resulted. It was used by every major power during World War I. It was recoil-operated and had a water jacket around the barrel, which functioned as a way to cool the barrel since the heat from the high number of rounds being fired would otherwise warp the shape of the barrel. Firing at a rate of 500 bullets per minute, it drastically changed battle tactics. Men would have to dash and weave to avoid the spray of damage. Offensive lines could be easily crushed using the Maxim. Unlike the Gatling guns of the time, the Maxim was not hand-cranked and was less prone to becoming jammed.

The effects of the Maxim machine gun were also psychological due to the large number of casualties it could cause in a short amount of time. In one incident where British used the Maxim against Matabele tribesmen, 1600 tribesmen were killed while only 4 British were killed. Several tribe leaders committed suicide after the event due to the trauma of the scene. When used in World War I, the effect was demoralizing as troops would watch their comrades immediately dropped by the powerful weapon.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Maxim Machine Gun.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 7 Sept. 2010, www.britannica.com/technology/Maxim-machine-gun.

Huard, Paul Richard. “Maxim's Machine Gun Slaughtered Hundreds of Thousands of People.” Medium, War Is Boring, 5 Nov. 2014, medium.com/war-is-boring/maxims-machine-gun-slaughtered-hundreds-of-thousands-of-people-f9e068f5148.

The Name "Helicopter" is Coined

In 1863, French scholar and writer, Gustave de Ponton D'Amecourt, coined the name "helicopter" based off the Greek words "helikos" (helix) and "pteron" (wing).  Ponton D'Amecourt had the privilege of studying mathematics, Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin. Gabriel de La Landelle and Ponton D'Amecourt worked together to create a steam boiler engine prototype made of aluminum, so he had a personal connection with helicopters in addition to creating the name. The coining of the name "helicopter" is important as it has not been altered since its initial formation, and it has made it easier for us to look back and locate information about helicopters now. 

Text sources:

Bellis, M. (2019). History of the helicopter. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-the-helicopter-1991899.

Ponton D'Amecourt, Gustave. (2013). Retrieved from https://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/record/2020801/dmglib_handler_biogr_24784004.html.

Image Source:

http://www.famille-damecourt.com/post/Gustave-Vicomte-de-Ponton-d’Amécourt-%281825-1888%292

Italy is united

On February 1861, Vittorio Emanuele II of Piedmont is crowned king of Italy: Italy is formally united, with Turin as the capital city. Image: Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoia (c. 1840s-1850s), Museo nazionale del Risorgimento, Torino (author unknown). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

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Alison Chapman, "On Il Risorgimento"

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Napoleon made king of Italy

On 26 May 1805, Napoleon crowns himself King of Italy in Milan Cathedral, with the iron crown of Lombardy. Image: The Iron Crown of Lombardy, from Cesare Cantù Grande illustrazione del Lombardo-Veneto ossia storia delle città, dei borghi, comuni, castelli, ecc. fino ai tempi moderni Milano, Corona e Caimi Editori, 1858. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

In a flamboyant and highly theatrical gesture, Napoleon Bonaparte signifies his political and military dominance over the Italian peninsula with a ceremony in Milan Cathedral, where he crowned himself King of Italy with the ancient, iconic iron crown of Lombardy. This crowning of Napoleon as King is a result of the French conquest of Italy. His full title was "Emperor of the French and King of Italy."

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Alison Chapman, "On Il Risorgimento"

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First Pendulum Clock

The first pendulum clock, invented by Christiaan Huygens in 1656

The first clock that utilizes the pendulum is attributed to Huygens in 1656. This increased the accuracy of clocks from 15 minutes per day to 15 secinds per day. This led to the development of the 'seconds pendulum' which became a standard 0.994-meter long pendulum used in all quality clocks.

Leonardo da Vinci's Treatise on Painting is published

A culmination of much of Leonardo's notebook entries and thoughts on painting appears in his Treatise on Painting. Included in the book is a section known as Botany for Painters and Elements of Landscape Painting. It is in this section that Leonardo reveals three discoveries about botany. These discoveries include the arrangement of leaves on a stem, how to determine the age of a tree by its structure, and that new branches form from underneath the bark of a tree. His findings became a staple for future botany and also instructed artists on how to properly display plants in paintings.

Invention of the telescope

Image of Lippershey's telescope

Despite the common belief that Galileo was the originator of the telescope, it was actually first patented in 1608 by German-Dutch lensmaker Hans Lippershey, though it would not be called a "telescope" for three years, until which it was called a "Dutch Perspective Glass".  Its design involved a concave eyepiece aligned with a convex objective lens that was capable of magnifying objects by a magnitude of three.  Although Lippershey was the first to patnent his design, there is little information proving he was the origional inventor and the Instrument was greatly improved, however, a year later by Galileo, who was able to design a telescope capable of a magnification of 20 times.  This date is particularly significant since da Vinci's obvservations on the moon were made a century before the invention of the telescope.  His discoveries reguarding the moon's surface and illumination were made without any magnification or ability to see the surface with any clarity.

Hans Heyden Creates the Geigenwerk

German engineer Hans Heyden creates the first working approximation of the viola organista, the Geigenwerk, paving the way for a category of instrument called the “sostenente piano,” signifying a keyboard instrument that produces a sustained sound (as opposed to the percussive voice of a concert piano). The Geigenwerk deviated significantly from the viola organista, but the primary concept behind both is very similar. The Geigenwerk had forty-four keys and five foot-pedals, used to activate the internal wheels that bowed the stings. The creation of this instrument allowed for the spirit of the viola organista to return to Italy, as a Medici prince would purchase a Geigenwerk in the sixteenth century.

Many German craftsmen begin to take da Vinci’s designs, along with the Geigenwerk, as inspiration for their own instruments. The clavichord, a common piano-esque instrument used for composing at the time, was too quiet for public performance and many designers wanted to broaden the available dynamic range as well. Variations of the sostenente piano would continue to be produced as one-off creations until roughly the nineteenth century.

Apel, W. L. (1969). Harvard Dictionary of Music. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Badura-Skoda, E. (2017). The Eighteenth-century Fortepiano Grand and Its Patrons: From Scarlatti to Beethoven. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Geigenwerk Praetorius [Digital image]. (2014, October 19). Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Geigenwerk_Praetorius.jpg

Flaking of the Last Supper

Unfortunately, The Last Supper did not stand the test of time and it began flaking and fading around 1518, only 20 years after its completion. This is because of da Vinci’s failed experimentation with painting materials instead of using traditional fresco techniques. Typically, tempera paint is applied directly onto the wet plaster of the wall which helps it affix to the painting, but its fast drying time meant an area had to be completed in one day’s work and could not easily be reworked later. This didn’t sit well with Leonardo, who preferred a leisurely style of applying thin paint layers over many hours, a style supported by his use of oil paint. He also didn’t have any previous fresco experience, so he decided to use a different approach for The Last Supper. He coated the wall with a layer of ground white stone and white lead primer before painting directly onto the dry plaster wall. He experimented with different proportions of oil and tempera paint in different parts of the painting, as he thought that mixing the types would allow him to still use his method of gradually applying thin layers of paint. However, his experimentation failed and the painting quickly faded and crumbled. When a biography of da Vinci was published in 1550, the author, Vasari, proclaimed that the painting was “ruined”. Today, very little of the original is left.

Sources:

Issacson, W. (2017). The Last Supper. In Issacson, W, Leonardo da Vinci. (pp. 273-292). New York, NY: Simon & Schuster

Harris, B. & Zucker, S. (n.d.) The Last Supper. Retrieved from https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/early-europe-and-colonial-americas/renaissance-art-europe-ap/a/leonardo-last-supper

Moving the Arno: An Idealized Florence

Returning to Florence, Da Vinci devised a scheme that would make the city more efficient. The main idea was straightening the Arno, likely to make it more geometrically pleasing to work with. He also added that there would be five total main streets, three running perpendicularly over the river and two running parallel to it. This would make the flow of traffic much more efficient and less confusing as there would be no twist and turns. The city limits would be bordered by a wall in the shape of a 11-sided polygon. On the bottom there are 9 names for the 9 gates Da Vinci added on this map, each at a different street and wall intersection except for one. When taking into account all of the different projects Da Vinci did in his lifetime, one may say that this project connected to his idea of a two-level city. This would only increase efficiency along the main streets. Alas, like many other Da Vinci ideas, this idealized city was never built.

Source: “A Schematised Plan of Florence.” Royal Collection Trust, www.rct.uk/collection/912681/a-schematised-plan-of-florence.

Leonardo da Vinci's Heart Studies

Leonardo da Vinci began his studies of the heart, specifically looking at the flow of blood through the aorta and closure of the aortic valve.  Da Vinci first noted in his studies that it was the heart that was the center of circulation, not the liver which was the belief at the time produced by anatomist Galen, whom da Vinci studied from. With this information, da Vinci continued to look deeper in the mechanics of the heart and wrote detailed descriptions of the blood flow. Da Vinci used his work with fluid dynamics and fluid drag in 1510 to help him describe the closure of the aortic valve in the heart.  In his notes, he wrote about how the blood pushed through the valve circles back around in dilated trunk of the aorta, currently known at the sinuses of Valsalva, to close the valves. An interesting point to make is that sinuses of Valsalva are named after Antonio Valsalva, who “discovered” them in the 1700s.

Originally, people believed the valve closed by blood back flowing into the aorta once the heart relaxes, pushing the valve closed. But Leonardo argued by saying “This would be impossible, because if the blood beats against the valves of the heart while they are wrinkled and folded, the blood that presses from above would press down and crumple the membrane.” He then devised an ingenious way to prove them wrong. Da Vinci used sculpting skills to create a glass heart model. Using water and grass seed in the model, he could visualize the flow around that valve. Unfortunately, like most of da Vinci’s work, his heart studies were not published at the time. His theory of the blood flow forming spiraling eddies to close the valves was not rediscovered or confirmed until 450 years later around 1960 by Brian Bellhouse at Oxford University.

Sources and Picture from:

 Isaacson, W. (2017). Leonardo da Vinci. New York: Simon and Schuster

Publication of De Divina Proportione

De Divina Proportione Subject Hierarchy

In this year Luca Pacioli and Leonardo da Vinci’s joint work De Divina Proportione was published in Venice; this text focused on the role of proportions and ratios in architecture, art, anatomy, and math. Pacioli provided the mathematical content (again, most of his work was unoriginal) and da Vinci provided sixty illustrations of geometric figures. Each geometric figure was depicted in two ways: solid faces and then solid edges. The solid face representation was more typical of the time but was disadvantageous in the fact that it was difficult to get a sense of the whole shape. The other approach is the solid edge approach, in which each of the edges are emphasized and the sides are left “see through.” This was a novel approach to geometric representation at the time, although it is debated whether da Vinci invented this representation. It is also a possibility that he was sketching wooden figures of these shapes as constructed by Pacioli. In either case, da Vinci’s perfection of perspective certainly aided in the two-dimensional representation of these shapes. It is important to note that these geometric figures were the only sketches of da Vinci that were published during his lifetime.  

Sources

Isaacson, Walter. Leonardo Da Vinci. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2018.

“Luca Pacioli.” Luca Pacioli (1445-1517), School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Pacioli.html.

The image source is Wikimedia Commons, and it is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1924.

Cesare Borgia dies

Cesare Borgia, of whom Leonardo da Vinci was a patron, dies in a battle with rebels outside of Viana.

Leonardo Creates Detailed Sketches of Plants

While working on his painting Leda and the Swan, Leonardo created several sketches of plants, such as A star-of-Bethlehem and other plants (c.1506-12), in order to better represent them within his painting.  Sketches These sketches show a high level of detail that later carries into his art and pays close attention to the form and structure of plants and how that can change for each one. These sketches have been collected and held on to by the Windsor Castle Royal Collection since the 17th Century.

Image from Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leonardo_da_vinci,_Star_of_Bethlehem_and_other_plants.jpg. This image is under public domain and free use.

Raphael Sketches the Mona Lisa

The Mona Lisa had a very large effect on daVinci's contemporaries, especially Raphael. It can be seen in numerous Raphael paintings that he took large inspirtion from the portrait. His "Yound Woman with a Unicorn" is exremetly similar to the Mona Lisa, with folded hands, three quarter tilt, and mysterious smile. However, he also drew an early version of the Mona Lisa, as noticible differences between the sketch and the final product are evident.