A Critique of a Work of Art. Leonardo Da Vinci Essay

A Critique of a Work of Art. Leonardo Da Vinci - Essay Example For instance, Da Vinci figured out that the earth revolves around the sun long before Copernicus theorized this. His inventions were so sought-after that princes and generals wanted him to build canals, forts and weapons. Da Vinci was also a â€Å"splendid musician† (Gombrich, 1989, p. 222). Moreover, Da Vinci conceived of a helicopter, long before man had the technology to actually build one (Ramirez, 1999, p. 50). In other word, Da Vinci was a genius on many, many different levels, creating timeless masterpieces of art while also conceiving of scientific theories that were clearly after his time. Da Vinci’s work is so renowned that his work could be seen in most any art museum, most prominently in the Louvre in Paris, the Guggenheim museum in New York City and the Santa Maria delle Grazie abbey in Milan, Italy, which is where The Last Supper is located. Study of a Womb shows the marriage of Da Vinci’s fascination with science and scientific principles with his meticulous skill in art. The medium used is pen and in. The actual drawing uses lines in a curvilinear fashion, as all the lines in the drawing are curved and rounded. The lines are also used to illustrate the fetus in the womb, as the lines are also used for contrast of the dark and light. The shape of the drawing is round – the womb is round, and heart-shaped, with a larger right side than left, and the fetus itself is also rounded. The head is perfectly round, and the body is also rounded. There are no sharp lines on this drawing, just gentle curves. On the left side of the womb, however, there are shapes which illustrate blood vessels, and, although these are not sharply drawn, they are also not perfectly round, either. Thus, this is the only part of the drawing which is not rounded. The texture of the drawing is such that Da Vinci depicts the actual texture of the fetus in the womb, which would be soft and pliable, through his use of light, color and darkness. Da Vinci w as the first artist to describe how the use of light and dark can portray three-dimensional figures, as this figure is (Mamassian, 1998, p. 288). The inside of the womb, which would have a soft texture is portrayed softly as well, and Da Vinci designs his linear formations to reflect this. The flesh of the baby, which would also be soft, but, perhaps, not as spongy as the inside of the womb, is depicted by the use of lines, the light and the dark contrasting to show the softness of the flesh. These lines denote the pliability of the flesh. The value of the artwork also depicts the texture of the subject matter, as the light and the dark are entirely used to depict the texture of the womb and the fetus. The color of the drawing is varying shades of black and grey, with the grey portions of the drawing depicting the light of the drawing, and the black depicting the dark of the drawing. As for the balance of the drawing, it is slightly off balance, in that the right side of the drawing is more pronounced than the left side. The right side has the largest part of the womb and the fetus inside. The left side, on the other hand, only contains a small part