Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci lived during the period of the Italian renaissance which is estimated to have existed during the end of the 13th centaury and lasted to around 1600. This is the period of rebirth or a period where most of the nations in the large parts of Europe were moving away from the middle age life towards the modern life. It s during this time that most of the states in Europe developed a renewed interest in the fields of culture and other classical antiques that looked ancient during that time. Most of the cultural settings and classical artifacts of Greek and Latin were studied very much during this period. In addition, it is during this period where a lot of freedom was given towards the many forms of art like architecture, painting, sculpture, writing and music. This freedom led to more diversity and very fast development in the above mentioned artistic fields.
It is worth noting that during this period that Italy experienced a very good economic growth that was attributed to the opening of the trade routes with the east. This good economy actually helped the mercantile grow a lot of wealth from this trade. It is recorded that the large wealth that was received from the trade was mainly re-invested in the arts sector. This rich mercantile became patrons hence used to sponsor and pay people who make articles just for their own enjoyment. Through this, the artists gained interest in the field and produced very good and attractive articles that majorly had the religious content.
Leonardo da Vinci lived during the time when there were a lot of human cultural developments that were taking place. Through these big changes that were being experienced, they gave da Vinci a lot of opportunity to even achieve the much that he achieved during his time. In fact the high achievements of Leonardo da Vinci leave all the people wondering what he could have achieved if he could have been born in the current era of modernity.
Leonardo da Vinci success is also greatly attributed to the great patronage that he received from Medici family. This was a very wealth family during this era and it provided a lot of support to most of the artists in the whole of Italy. It is this painting patronage that led to the development of the European renaissance painting which benefited very many artists, Leonardo da Vinci being one of the major beneficiaries.
In addition, Leonardo da Vinci completed his two paintings, The Last Supper and the Madonna of the Rocks, when he was working for the Sforza family in the city of Milan. At this time, military conflicts occurred where the city of Milan was invaded by the French military. These conflicts affected Leonardo da Vinci as he had to flee the city of Milan when the French military invaded the Sforza family that Leonardo was working for.
After the seizure of the city of Milan by the French military, Leonardo da Vinci returned back to Florence. It is during his stay in this city that he painted his very famous and high selling painting the Mona Lisa. Leonardo then spent his later years moving between various places like Florence, Rome and France and handled various projects. It is Leonardo da Vinci who was very appreciated and received good payments for his projects. Later on Leonardo da Vinci settled in France after he was invited by Francis I.
In conclusion, the era that Leonardo lived provided him with a good opportunity to excel in the field of painting. This is because this was the period when a lot of patronage was being seen in Italy and the artists also received a lot of freedom to carry out their activities. I believe Leonardo could not have achieved much if he could have existed during the era of the middle age.
