Author(s):
Rick Faloon (The Ross School)
Over the course of this trimester each of you will create pages for a Renaissance notebook inspired by the work of Leonardo Da Vinci and by other Renaissance artists. The objective of this project is to give you an opportunity to perform like a Renaissance person by making your own observational sketches, perspective studies, mathematical calculations, scientific notes and drawings.
Your notebook must contain competent examples of the following:
Art
- Imagined creature drawing blind contour drawing (palm of hand)
- Modified contour drawing (hand)
- Mechanical drawing (from boat or from mechanical objects in class)
- Leaf drawing (using contour in ink and pencil)
- Tonal drawing of torso (using chiaroscuro sfumato)
- Silverpoint drawing
- 10 quotations from Leonardo
- 10 quotes from others including the Vasari quotation (relating to Leonardo’s seven traits)
- Leonardo biography page
- List of seven traits of Leonardo with your commentary on your own traits
- Anatomy drawing from model (with muscles labeled)
- Gesture drawings of figure (using ink, conte, etc)
- Facial expression drawing
- Backwards writing
- Art history images/pages with notes
- Master copies
- Michelangelo back drawing (crosshatching)
- Mantegna - Dead Christ (foreshortening)
- 3 copies of works of Leonardo or other Renaissance artists
Mathematics
- 2 drawings of Platonic Solids using 1 or 2 point perspective. Show area and volume.
- Tiled Piazza in 1 point linear perspective. Show all measurements and correct perspective. Include quotation by Pierro della Francesca.
- Vitruvian Man and Golden Mean
- Fibonacci Sequence
- Mathematical evaluation of a Renaissance Painting showing horizon line, vanishing point, orthogonal lines, eye point, and correct ratios demonstrating correct linear perspective.
Science
- 2 Dissection drawings (done in science class in conjunction with dissection)
- Drawing of simple machine in Leonardo style; explanation of physics of mechanism
On the following pages are examples of students' work from the mathematics section of the project.
Rick Faloon (The Ross School), "Teaching Leonardo: An Integrated Approach - Renaissance Notebook Assignment," Convergence (June 2010), DOI:10.4169/loci002172