Monday, November 15, 2010

Leonardo's Dream

So, one day I got to thinking that Leonardo, being 'only human', must have obsessed enough with the dream of flight, that he actually would have dreamed about it. I did a preliminary drawing with the intent of painting it, but as with most of my personal work, it had to be set aside for paying commissions. Below is just one small section of that really large panorama drawing that includes a number of surrealistic details outside of this zoomed frame.

I have a dream of one day painting this, but it'll probably have to be a triptych, because the actual layout is so wide.

© 2008 Thomas Buchanan — Leonardo's Dream

6 comments:

  1. I'd love to see the surrealistic details and the finished painting. I'm not an artist, though I have artistic leanings; and I've been surprised lately, looking up artists, at the number of years some paintings took from idea to completion. It's kind of like a novel-in-progress; growing deeper and better with each envisioning.

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  2. That's a beautiful idea. It would make a lovely full painting. I have a few of those kicking around, those "I'll get to them one day..." projects.

    But the paying gigs keep coming...

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  3. Wonderful. The bridge on the far left side reminds of the Old Bridge in Mostar...

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  4. Doruk—well, no. In my mind that is Leonardo dreaming of his own flight, using his own design of a flying apparatus, soaring over the waters of Florence (in case he has to make a ditched landing).

    Whereas the man of 1001 Sciences—Hezarfen Ahmed Celebi—seemingly truly soared across the Bosphorus a century or so after Leonardo dreamed it.

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  5. Of course, there is always the chance that the Hezarfen story is fictitious. I remember reading somewhere that the distance he supposedly flew was too long to physically fly with a glider, but I cannot relocate that source. At least one recent source (a movie) claimed he got the idea and basic design of his apparatus from Leonardo's notes, so that links the two of them neatly together. I am not sure if this was the idea of the filmmakers or if they got it from somewhere else.

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