Leonardo.
He was everything and everyone. I have studied Leonardo before and it still surprises me how much he did. I think he is a perfect example of the Renaissance man not only in his range of skills and interests but also in that, as an artist who mostly painted catholic images, he was not doing it out of devotion to Christianity, but to art, and math, and perfection and harmony. This is the Renaissance.
The Madonna of the Rocks was my favorite work discussed today in class. I thought it was interesting how he left it unfinished for years and years only because he grew bored of it after having figured out the composition of the painting. I think the Renaissance is remarked by the efforts made to add depth to works that should already be deep in themselves. The image of the caves, both representing the death of Christ (while he is being figuratively depicted as a child) and the Nativity, it comes full circle. Christ is the beginning and the end, and the work represents Christ’s beginning and end.
The composition of the work is beautiful, and visually satisfying. Leonardo’s mathematical harmony does not only solve the problem of mathematical composition, but it creates a perfect flow of visual relationships between the subjects depicted in the painting: it is easy to understand how they are all connected just from the way in which they are laid out.