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To understand a work of art or a beautiful object, you need to think about how the artist or the designer made it.
This Revision Bite describes how some of the world's greatest artists and designers set about their work.
Behind the picture - Leonardo Da Vinci
Do you ever wonder about what an artist wants to say with his/her work? It often depends on how they approach it. Sometimes they'll work directly with their subject, at other times they'll jot down their ideas, or make sketches, before getting started. This preparation work is called a study.
Leonardo Da Vinci
Da Vinci used a sketchbook [sketchbook: Evidence of the working process, the preparatory studies, the ideas and thinking behind them. Can be a book, loose pages, or information gathered in a box. ] to record his ideas.
They contained detailed anatomical [anatomical: The structure of living things such as plants, people, animals. ] pictures of the human body. He based them on what he found when he dissected human and animal bodies, to help him understand how muscles and bones formed their shape.
He also went to the country to study plants and the landscape [landscape: An expanse of natural scenery, trees, hills, lakes etc. ]. Some of his most famous works are based on the careful, delicate studies he drew in his sketchbooks.
Click on the images below to see bigger versions of two of Leonardo's studies. (If you have Flash, click Magnify to see the detail - to remove the viewfinder just click Magnify again.)
Copyright © Galleria dell' Accademia, Venice, Bridgeman
Copyright © Louvre, Paris, Bridgeman
The Battle of Anghiari after Leonardo da Vinci, Peter Paul Rubens
Leonardo's original 'Battle of Anghiari' cannot be found, but the picture above is a copy made by Rubens, based on the original.
See the next pages for the work of William Morris, Pablo Picasso, and video clips of other artists and designers.
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