Leonardo da Vinci For Kids

Posted February 17th, 2008 by Jen in features

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was one of the greatest painters of all times, but is also known as the ultimate Renaissance man because he was perhaps the most widely talented person ever to have lived. Da Vinci is a favorite with the children studying art history because of this Renaissance quality - not only was he a consummate painter and sculptor, he was a great inventor, military engineer, scientist, botanist, and mathematician.

There are volumes written about the genius of da Vinci, and it can be hard to know where to start, but if you’re interested in a unit study on this magnificent artist, I would begin with Janis Herbert’s book Leonardo da Vinci For Kids, His Life and Ideas - 21 Activities. Only 90 pages, Herbert’s book neatly breaks up the study into four sections, each including historical and artistic information, and activities for students to do at home or in the classroom: 1) A Boy in Vinci; 2) The Young Apprentice; 3) A Genius at Work; and 4) “I Shall Continue”. Herbert takes some literary license in her book, and creates some wonderful dialogue and scenarios, that while not authenticated, brings Leonardo da Vinci to life for young minds. I’ll highlight some of the activities Herbert has created for each section.

ONE: A Boy in Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, in the small village of Vinci, in a region of Italy called Tuscany. He was the illegitimate son of a peasant woman and an ambitious notary. Probably because of his illegitimate status, Leonardo had little early education, other than the local priest teaching him how to read and write and use an abacus. Shuffled around to various family members as a child, Leonardo was left to himself quite often, and perhaps this solitude is what we’re still grateful for five centuries later, as he spent his days outdoors studying birds, plants, and nature.

Activity: Brush up on Birds (pp 4-5)
Materials:
Watercolor paints
Paintbrush
Cup of water
Absorbent paper

When you draw or paint something, you notice things you may not have seen before. That’s why Leonardo grew up to be a great artist and a great scientist. He was one of the first artists to draw things exactly as he saw them in nature. While sketching and painting birds, he learned a lot about their anatomy, or body structure.

Play with your paints! Get used to holding your brush and trying different strokes. See what it’s like to use a little water or a lot on your brush. Mix paints to get new colors. Then, take your tools outside. Sit in your yard near a bird feeder or go to a park or the zoo–anyplace where you can find birds. Sit quietly until a bird lands nearby to model for you.

For the head, dab a wet brush into the paint. Hold the brush so it is vertical (straight up and down) to the paper. Press it down, then twist it to the right with your fingers. (These instructions are for right-handed artists. If you’re left-handed, just reverse them.) To paint the bird’s breast, dab some more paint on the brush and hold it horizontally (sideways) to the paper. Place it on the paper and pull it down toward you. For the wing, hold the brush vertically, press it down and draw it toward you. Taper off at the end by lifting up your hand. Paint the tail feathers by starting at the end of the tail. Hold the brush vertically and touch just the tip of it to the paper. Paint up toward the body. Fill in the details of the bird’s legs, feet, and beak. Look for the distinctive markings and paint them in, using just a small amount of paint on the brush.

Some birds have black eye masks, some have striped wings. Some birds have spotted breasts–hold the brush vertically and dot the paint onto the paper. To paint streak markings, hold the brush the same way and make very small lines. You’ll see that birds come in many different colors, shapes, and sizes.

TWO: The Young Apprentice

When Leonardo was 14, his father sent him to Florence, where the young boy became apprenticed to the renowned master Verrocchio. It was with Verrocchio that young Leonardo was trained in all the countless skills of a traditional workshop - not only drawing, painting, sculpting and modelling, but drafting, chemistry, metallurgy, metal working, plaster casting, leather working, mechanics and carpentry.

According to the artist biographer Vasari, Leonardo and Verrocchio worked together on the painting Baptism of Christ (1472-1475). Vasari wrote that Leonardo painted the young angel holding Jesus’ robe so skillfully and with such superior quality to his master that Verrocchio put down his brush and never painted again.

New ideas in painting, and indeed culture, were rising up in Florence around this time, as the Renaissance was blossoming. Oil painting had just been introduced to Italy from northern Europe, and Leonardo spent a lot of time mixing different materials, and soon surpassed everyone in his use of the new medium. Leonardo also brought new perspective and depth to painting, as he used his skills in math and geometry to calculate the placement of lines in his drawings and paintings. And perhaps foremost to the new Rensaissance art was Leonardo’s passion to draw things as realistically as possible. He sketched incessantly and was an ardent observer of nature, animals, plants, people.

Activity: Animal Art (p. 20)

When Leonardo was a young apprentice in Florence, he spent all of his spare time drawing. Often, he went to the Medici family’s private zoo and drew the animals there. Take a trip to the zoo to sketch the animals or draw your pet at home.

Materials:
Pencils
Sketch pad

The most important thing to do when learning how to draw is to learn how to look. Study Leonardo’s sketches of horses. What is special about the shape? The parts of the body? Note the horse’s rounded haunches, barrel-shaped body, and powerful muscles. These are the features you will want to emphasize. The second most important thing to do is practice. Even if you think you can’t draw, give it a try. Can you draw circles and ovals? That’s all you need to start.

Draw the animal using geometric shapes. For the horse, you might start by lightly drawing a large circle for his rear, a long oval for his body, and another circle for his chest. Draw his neck and head as ovals. Draw narrow cylinders for his legs and small ovals for his feet. While making this preliminary sketch, notice proportion (for instance, the size of the head compared to the body).

Go over the shapes, building on them with heavier lines. Hold and move the pencil in different ways to get different effects. Draw soft, shaded lines lightly with the side of the pencil. Press down hard and move it back and forth for a hard, jagged line. Pencil in the distinctive features, such as the hooves and tail. For the horse, use soft, short strokes with the pencil held slightly at an angle to capture the texture of his hair. Use longer lines of different sizes for his flowing mane.

THREE: A Genius at Work

When Leonardo da Vinci was 30 years old, he left Florence for Milan, where he spent the next 17 years. At the persuasion of Lorenzo de’ Medici (hoping to secure peace between Florence and Milan), Da Vinci presented himself to the Duke of Milan, Ludovico il Moro. Leonardo wrote a letter to Ludovico, offering himself as a military engineer, and came before the Duke with a lira da braccio, lute, which he made himself and beautifully played before the court. Leonardo’s letter told of all the weapons and fortifications he could design to keep the city safe.

Leonardo was fascinated by technology and the workings of machines. He invented fire throwers and missiles, and made an early design for a machine gun. Hundreds of inventions were sketched out in his notebooks - tanks, helicopters, bicycles, submarines, hang gliders, pulleys, cranes, bridges, and more.

Leonardo’s love of music led him to study the science of sound, and he was one of the first to liken it to the motion of waves. He was also one of the first to note that il sole non si muove, the sun does not move - a remarkable observation in a day when people thought the sun revolved around the earth.
Anatomy was another passion of Leonardo. He went to hospitals to watch operations, he visited morgues to dissect bodies of the dead. He measured muscles, diagrammed organs, discovered the way blood flows through the body, and made important conclusions about lungs and oxygen. His knowledge surpassed the doctors of his time. Leonardo applied this deep understanding of the human body to his art, and excelled in drawing proportional anatomy.

In 1484 the plague struck Milan, and the thousands of dead people were left to rot in the streets. Leonardo, being the ultimate problem solver that he was, turned his attention to disease prevention. He designed a layout of the city that had wide streets and canals in place of the narrow ones, wide enough for proper sewage disposal, and a system for washing the streets automatically with locks and paddle wheels. It was a two-tiered town design, with the top streets for homes and churches, and the bottom streets to be used for deliveries and wagons.

Throughout all of these other pursuits, Leonardo da Vinci continued to paint. His patron, Ludovico, was invaluable during his time in Milan. Ludovico had Leonardo paint his friend Cecilia Gallerani, and Leonardo called the painting Lady with Ermine. It was so lifelike that a poet commented that “Nature herself was jealous.”

Leonardo also received a commission to paint an altarpiece, for which he created Virgin of the Rocks, a stunning work which reflects his interest in nature. One of Leonardo’s most famous paintings, The Last Supper, was also painted in Milan. It took him over three years to complete this painting. Leonardo’s work habits are best reflected in The Last Supper. He often didn’t even finish his work, so the world is fortunate to have this masterpiece. Here’s how Herbert describes his work on The Last Supper:

Leonardo would sometimes appear at the refectory at sunrise and paint until dark without ever once putting down his brush to eat or drink. On other days he would simply stand in front of his work for hours with his arms folded. Sometimes he could be seen racing down the streets to the monastery where he would grab a brush, climb up the scaffolding, add a couple of brushstrokes to the mural, and abruptly leave. Sometimes weeks would go by and he wouldn’t show up at all.

When Leonardo finally finished, the painting was immediately acclaimed as a masterpiece, with superb design and characterisation. However, because Leonardo had used tempera paint over a ground of mostly gesso, instead of the more reliable fresco, it rapidly deteriorated. The Last Supper has undergone extensive restoration over the centuries, but is still one of the most reproduced works of art ever.

Activity: Leonardo’s Lute (p. 31)

Leonardo’s silver lute captured the heart of Ludovico. You can make a musical instrument from items found around the house. Adult supervision is recommended for this activity.

Materials:
Pencil
Empty shoe box with lid
Utility knife
Piece of cardboard, about 1 1/2 by 3 inches
Scissors
Ruler
Tape
Newspaper
Silver spray paint
6 rubber bands of varying thickness

Draw a horse’s head (approximately 3 by 3 inches) at one end of the lid of the shoe box. Ask an adult to help you cut the shape out carefully with a utility knife. Make a 1 1/2 inch slit in the lid of the box 3 inches from the other end as shown. Make a bridge for the lute out of the small square of cardboard.

Cut it into a T-shape so that the bottom of the bridge is 1 1/2 inches and the top is 3 inches. Make 6 slits in the top of the bridge. Insert the bridge into the slit in the box. (The bridge will raise the “strings” off the box, making the sound better.) Tape the lid firmly to the bottom of the box.

Now take the project outside or to a well-ventilated area. Spread the newspaper out and spray paint the box and bridge with the silver paint. Leave it several hours to dry. When dry, stretch the rubber bands around the box, putting each one through one of the slits in the bridge.

FOUR: “I Shall Continue.”

With Italy at war with the French, Leonardo returned to Florence in 1500. In 1502, Leonardo entered the services of Cesare Borgia, the Duke of Valentinois. Borgia helped the French conquer Milan, and had ambitions to conquer all of central Italy. Borgia hired Leonardo da Vinci to be his military engineer, and Leonardo traveled all over Italy with him, examining castles and fortresses, and suggesting improvements for fortifications.

Around this time, Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa, beginning in 1503, the most famous painting in the history of art. Leonardo took the painting with him everywhere. Many historians say the Mona Lisa wasn’t finished when he left Florence, and that he completed it during his final stay in France. After Leonardo died, the painting was given to the king of France, and today, it hangs in the Louvre in Paris.

It is now known that the identity of the woman in the portrait is Lisa di Gherardini, the third wife of a Florentine silk trader named Francesco del Giocondo. Lisa di Gherardini was 26 years old at the time of the sitting and had recently lost a child. Herbert invites students to question the portrait:

And what is she thinking? Why does she smile? A story is told that Leonardo had musicians and clowns in his bottega as the woman sat for her portrait, so that she would smile as he painted. But this smile has appeared in other paintings by Leonardo. Is he trying to tell us something? Is this a peaceful smile or is it a little disturbing? Why does she smile when she wears a black veil and all around her is dark and gloomy?

Leonardo was back in Milan by 1508, and then moved to France at the behest of King François in 1516. He settled in the Loire valley in the beautiful manor house Clos Lucé, near the royal chateaux in Amboise, France, and became First Painter and Architect and Engineer of the King. Leonardo and King François visited together often, discussing philosophy, art, science. Though now paralyzed in one arm, Leonardo could still draw and supervise the work of his pupil. Leonardo wrote in his notebooks, “I shall continue,” and he never gave up his studies or his work. Leonardo died on May 2, 1519, and French legend tells us that he died in the arms of King François.

Activity: The Craft of Cartography (p. 65)

When Leonardo became a military engineer for Cesare Borgia he created many maps. Mapmakers are also called “cartographers.” Leonardo was one of the first cartographers to draw maps from a vista d’uccello, a bird’s-eye view.

Materials:
Stick, at least 8 inches long
Maps to use as examples
Sheet of paper, 8 1/2 by 11 inches
Pencil
Ruler

Things to consider when making a map are direction, scale, and symbols. With these things in mind, you can make a map of your neighborhood, showing the way from your house to your friend’s house or from your house to school.

First, figure out the compass points (north, south, east, and west). Here is a simple way to do that. On a sunny day, push a long stick into the ground at an angle so that it is pointing to the sun and so that it is not making a shadow. Leave for about an hour. When you return, because the sun will have moved farther west, the stick will have a shadow and the shadow will be pointing east. Face east and the south will be to your right, north to your left, and west behind you.

Next, choose a scale for the map. Look at other maps for examples. Often the scale is something like 1 inch for every 10 miles. On your map, 1 inch could equal 1 block. Indicate the scale you are using so anyone who reads it can measure out the inches and calculate distances. Create symbols for landmarks such as houses, bridges, and railroads. Churches can be shown with a steeple, schools with a flag. Made a “legend” or explanation, so the reader will know what the symbols mean.

Lastly, draw the streets and label them. Use the symbols you invented to show landmarks and buildings. You can draw your map in different colors, like Leonardo did, to show water, land, and roads. Draw the compass points so the person reading your map knows which way is north, south, east, and west. See if a friend can follow your map.

I highly recommend Janis Herbert’s book, Leonardo da Vinci For Kids. These and many more activities can be found in her engaging book. She includes biographies of other famous Renaissance artists and historical figures, web sites to explore, and a helpful glossary.

Other Resources:

WebMuseum, Paris
Leonardo’s Workshop
National Gallery of Art
Enchanted Learning da Vinci Coloring Pages
Museum of Science: Exploring da Vinci
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci

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