Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci Essay

Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest inventors in his decade who was able to create new ideas that opened up a gateway for other inventors whom later improvised Leonardo's ideas to upgrade the technologythat lead to this industry and revolutionizedthe present world. The Annunciation, one of Leonardo's art pieces was one of his great works as it showcased the inventor'swondrous talent in art too. This particular artwork brought a lot of emotions and feelings to my mind, but the feeling of admiration was dominant as I too aspire to be a great person as he was. Interestingly, Leonardo da Vinci's work appears to be very authentic and descriptive of the events that lead to the creation of this artwork. It almost gives the viewer the correct image of what was taking place at that time. He puts out his thoughts and ideas about angels,and by this, he demonstrates his creativity and great ability to process thoughts which he later puts on paper.

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The Annunciationwas created during the Renaissance period when Leonardo was in his early twenties. This period is recognized as the time when new ideas were brought to light by scholars after a period of cultural stagnation that had revealed for some significant amount of years. During this period, it was evident that there was the immense growth of economy and commerce, which reflected the civilization of Europeans that signified the transition from the middle ages to a new dawn. The inventions and innovations such as paper were of great significance to da Vinci's work as he was able to document his ideas that would then be passed over to downline generations.

Leonardo da Vinci was born 15th April 1452 and lived till 2nd May 1519. He was known as an Italian Renaissance polymath who had great talents and ideas that created a whole new way of thinking in men's minds. He majored on a wide range of disciplines such as architecture, sculpting, science, music, mathematics, invention, literature, writing, astronomy, history,and many other fields (Long, 2014). He was well known because of his ability to master many disciplines,and as such he was able to combine all these talents and invent new things and bring up new ideas. The fact that he was able to monitor nature, and it'ssurrounding (Cynthia, 2006, p.245) including human beings made him a great artist and sketcher as he was able to produce great anatomical artworks that represented the body structure of humans thereby consequentially assisting in the production of cures for illness and new ideas for diagnosis of diseases. Leonardo was born in an era of scholarly prevalence and as a result learned from one of the best artists Verrocchio, with whom he later partnered with in some of his sketches. One of Leonardo's greatest works was the Mona Lisa and also the Annunciation which he painted in his early twenties.

The Annunciation was painted between the years 1472-1475 (Carvalho, 2015). As a young inventor and painter, da Vincicreated the annunciation art piece with the goal of sharing his ideas about the relationship between God and Mary,the mother of Jesus. The painting shows Mary sitting close to a wall reading a book which is placed on the desk as Gabriel is kneeling down to show respect as he presents Mary the flower. The presentation of a lily flower by angel Gabriel to Mary whom is sitting at the front of the city of Florence (Fiorani, 2008, p.271) was meant to bea sign of virginity and to symbolize the purity of the city as well. Mary pulls her left hand aback, a sign of the surprise the visitation gave her. The presence of an angel relates the annunciation work as to the domain of religion and the great forces that are out of this world thereby partially categorizing the work as mythical as much as it is historical. The painting is strategically positioned and drawn to put all the attention on Mary considering the lighting contrast, depth and also height. With more explanation, Mary is seen to have light bouncing off her chest as her face is well illuminated to depict Leonardo's professionalism in optics as he highly regarded it as an important feature in paintings. In comparison angel, Gabriel is faced away from the light while the subtle shading around his face brings a lower contrast and tone. Also, his right hand that stretches to greet Mary is darker than that of Mary yet in obvious circumstances it is supposed to be of the same lighting strength. It clearly shows da Vinci's motive in highlighting Mary and with it also creating an insight of Mary's importance, magnificence,and purity.

With the modern technological advancement, art has been dramatically replaced with devices such as cameras and phones with massive megapixels and looking at the art in a glance, it seemed like an understatement of the current three-dimensional captions. However, the rich content and amazingly stroked colors overwhelmed me, once I took a closer look. The message within the artwork surpasses the Annunciation. Mary is presented as a scholarly woman, (by reading the wooden sculpture), a phenomenon that was unheard of during the Florentine times. With comparison to the previous annunciation works for instance that of Fra Filippo Lippi, where Mary is drawn in a bending posture, and not facing the archangel directly (a sign of respect and submission), da Vinci presents a bold virgin with her head held high and her back straight. She is shown not as a docile or fearful woman but instead one with agency and confidence. This transformation, to me, was the time a revolution for the role and position of women emerged.

The background is well minimized and misty to show that da Vinci well understood the essence of resenting a reality feature in the drawing to bring more aesthetic meaning. Also, the minimization of distant features or objects such as the mountain shows that Leonardo wanted to create a something similar to a three-dimensional space to capture the attention of those who view the painting. During the period when da Vinci made the painting, not many people understood the correct setting of the Annunciation of Jesus' birth. Many believed it to be the time at which John the Baptist proclaimed the coming of the Messiah but rather it was the moment angel Gabriel visited Mary. Therefore, this painting was meant to cleary describe the annunciation of the Messiah's birth.

Conclusion

Leonardo da Vinci's annunciation art piece is relevant for the generations that followed after his death including today's generation. The Annunciation depicts the clear occurrences during which Jesus's birth was announced. The art helps the different religions of the world understand the meaning of Annunciation according to the Christian religion by just looking at the painting and analyzing the characters involved. The painting also brings a form of open-mindedness considering that in the painting Mary is reading a book which depicts her as a scholar but at the time when the art was created women were deemed not to be fit to read books and gain knowledge. By proving that women indeed need equal rights as men, da Vinci impacted the modern world greatly such that most women presently are scholars probably because of the insight gained by observing da Vinci's Annunciation work. Additionally, with the knowledge I gained by analyzing this work, I can respect and be open-minded about the equality of all genders and also correct my initial idea of the Annunciation to the idea depicted by da Vinci's annunciation work.

References

Cynthia, P (2008). March.The Everything Da Vinci Book. Priwer Shana.Everything

Fiorani, F (2008). June. The Color of Leonardo's shadows. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Carvalho, J (2015 July 28th). Annunciations- Figuring the feminine renaissance art. Retrieved from www.contempaesthetics.org

Long, J (2014 March 28th) Leonardo da Vinci between art and science. Retrieved from www.faculty.virginia.edu