LEONARDO DA VINCI.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 58, 9 March 1935, Page 17

LEONARDO DA VINCI.

ADDRESS AT WRITERS' CLUB. ■ "Leonardo da Vinci might well be styled the forerunner of the marvels of science and art which to-day are accepted almost as commonplace," said Mrs. Isabel M. Cluett in an address to the Writers' Club on Friday afternoon. "He is believed by many to be the master painter of his age even though it be born? in mind that his contemporaries and rivals in art were such men as Michael Angelo, Buonarotti and Raphael Santi." Da Vinci, the speaker continued, was best remembered by his masterpiece of art, the fresco, in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazic, depicting the Last Supper, and his portrait of the Mona Lisa. His genius was so many sided that there were few fields in which lie did not adventure, his list of gifts including painting, sculpture, literature, engineering, chemistry, architecture, aeronautics, and many other branches of scientific knowledge. Years of labour were spent in perfecting and rejecting one flying machine aftc.- another. All hie attempts to master the air failed because he had only man power on which to depend for the manipulation of the wings. Noble patrons engaged his services in various capacities because of the versatility of his gifts.