Dr Matthew Landrus is a Supernumerary Fellow at Wolfson College and the Faculty of History at the University of Oxford. His work addresses the history of innovation, with particular interest in early modern engagements across the disciplines of natural philosophy, technology and the practical arts.
He also teaches a course on the ‘science of art’ at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he is a Senior Lecturer. Specializing in the history and reception of Leonardo da Vinci, on which he has published widely, Landrus’s books include Leonardo da Vinci, 500 years on (Andre Deutsch, 2018), Instruments and Mechanisms: Leonardo and the Art of Engineering (DeAgostini, 2013), Leonardo da Vinci’s Giant Crossbow (Springer 2010), Weapons and Machines of War: De re militari by Leonardo (DeAgostini 2010), and The Treasures of Leonardo (Carlton 2006).
‘Leonardo and the laws of Nature, in paintings and mechanics‘, May 2024
The talk will address Leonardo’s methods for applying his concepts of natural laws in paintings and engineering projects. Recognizing that a better knowledge of geometry and arithmetic would help him understand Nature and his visual and technical projects, Leonardo developed quantifiable methods for understanding arts such as painting, mechanics, engineering, architecture and natural philosophy. He also wrote books (in manuscript) on various subjects, starting with books on painting and mechanics. In the 1498 edition of his Divina proportione, Luca Pacioli praises Leonardo’s development of, “an inestimable work on local motion, percussion, weights and all the forces, that is, accidental weights, having already with great diligence finished a worthy book on painting and human movements.” For approximately thirty years, Leonardo studied the rules of Nature and geometry, and their principles in the arts of painting and mechanics, among other disciplines. The present lecture will examine this passion of his with the help of several examples.
