ROTARY.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2728, 10 July 1925, Page 8

ROTARY.

LKCTUKKTTi: OX LEONARDO l>A VINCI. Rotarian B. J. Jacobs was master o£ ceremonies at yesterday’s weekly meeting: of the Palmerston North Rotary Club, the president, H. L. Young-, being indisposed. The meeting adopted a recommendation that the ladies' night take the form of a social evening in the club room. It was decided to assist the Girl Citizens’ executive by collaborating with it in a scheme to raise funds to equip and maintain a suitable room (already secured in the heart of the town). Mr. C. G. Swallow was welcomed as a visitor and Mr. L. F. do Berry inducted Messrs. G. H. Bennett and D. Morrison as members. A musical and elocutionary programme was then carried out. C. R. Luke recited something quite new “The Jolly Dead March;” H. E. Bennett sang “Invlctus;” a trio consisting of P. Larcomb (violin), C. G. Swallow flute, and J. W. Huggins piano, played an idyll, “Traum der Sennerin” (Herd Girl’s Dream); A. H. M. Wright told stories; and L. F, dc Berry gave a seven-minutes’ lecturotte on one of the great all-round geniuses the world has known. Leonardo da Vinci. In going back over four hundred years to the time of the Renaissance, Rotarian de Berry described Leonardo da Vinci as the most famous man ot that wonderful period. He was an artist, but as such was one who gave the lie direct to the impression that an artist could not be a practical mar.. Sent to a master. Leonardo soon became proficient in painting, but his tutor being a craftsman, as was customary with artists in those days, the pupil soon began to look behind the mere pictorial representation into things themselves. The result was Leonardo da Vinci became a military and hydraulic engineer, a physicist, an astronomer, an architect, a musician, a poet and a chemist—-touching nothing that he did not hdorn. The secret ot his success was unbounded confidence in himself.

Leonardo’s thoroughness was well illustrated by Rotarian de Berry’s reference to his 16 year’s work on a groat equestrian statute, for which he was commissioned at Milan. After many failures, Leonardo was at last satisfied, but before it could be cast into bronze, trouble arose with France and the soldiers of Louis XII made his masterpiece a target for archery. During that period da Vinci had become one of the greatest artists and portrait painters of the world. He painted “The Last Supper,” one of the most celebrated pictures of all time, and the Mona Lisa, the picture of the lady with the subtle, inscrutable smile. Leonardo da Vinci was the fore-run-ner of much that the world has at the present time. He experimented on a steam-engine, unravelled the mystery of earthlight. discovered that the sea once covered the tops of the mountains and produced a wonderful model of a flying - machine. Besides, he was one. of Italy’s three greatest artists and one of the world’s greatest portrait painters.