When Brunelleschi began to design the structure of the Florence Duomo's lantern, he was conflicted on how he should go about supporting the arches.  One of his options was to adopt the technique used in Ancient Rome and have tie rods on the arches and cupola.  Brunelleschi had long had an affinity for the architecture of Ancient Rome after he failed to be recognized as one of the first sculptors in Florence during his time.  Nevertheless, he was still a sculptor with a rare creative mind that led to him creating several inventions and works of art.  His desire for inspir

The original Virgin of the Rocks painting is now hanging in the Louvre, but before this the original painting was in the chapel in San Francesco Grande in Milan as a piece of the altar.  This painting was commissioned to go here in 1483 as a part of a sculpture that had already been created in the altar there.  Many elements from San Francesco Grande have been destroyed and Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks are no longer there, but from different paintings and imaginings of the chapel, one can imagine th

A frequent travel spot for Leonardo, Monte Rosa is a large mountain in the Swiss Alps, very close to the Swiss-Italian Border.  At the peak, da Vinci noticed the extreme blueness of the sky,  commenting that "If you go to the top of a high mountain the sky will look proportionally darker above you as the atmosphere becomes rarer between you and the outer darkness; and this will be more visible at each degree of increasing height till at last we should find darkness." He speculated that the blue effects was due to the humidity in the air catching the rays of the sun (i.e.

The Bibliothèque nationale de France is where the Paris Manuscripts, the manuscripts in which the double hull design appears, currently reside. During the Italian capaign, Napoleon took many of Leonardo's works from Italy and sent them back to France. Although some of Leonardo's works were sent back to Italy after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, for example The Codex Atlanticus, most remained in France.

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