1961-01-14 — Page 17

CTION

FOR HONGK

SE

LUDOVICO SFORZA,

regent and ruler of Milan, read the letter

Slozzá.

LEONARDO the GENIUS

with growing amaze- had too many other interests. ment. It was an appli- True, many of them delighted cation for a job. Sforza From a studio. in Sforza's had received plenty of castle, Leonardo designed-page- letters applying for jobs ats, creating sets and cos before, but never one castle and designed & new like this.

In peace, the writer said; he was an architect,

tithes. He redecorited: the

palace. He designed costs of atus, He installed plumbing in' the castle for the Duchess's

bent

He built canals and designed

engineer, sculptor and system of irrigation for the artist.

rice fields. He painted courtiers' portraits

But Sforza had no time for

by HENRY LEWIS Illustrated by Peter Jackson

Storza sild: "This is foolish-

་

sassinations at the bottom of 1 the "gang" by- sinking ships tò-

· gefkw. with their-crews"

Leonardo had become sieken- ed by Borgia's cruelty. He re- [started? tố- Florence and was } sutamped: by comumlesions for -portraita, te he accepted was from a merchant named. Fran- vesco del Giocondo, who wanted a portrait of his wife.

But then Louis XII of France In war he could make gun- other things at Leonardo's Desa"

invaded Italy. Sforza appealed proof ships and armoured many interests. Leonardo, the Leonardo, the optiefan, to his people: "Defend your

thousands studied the refraction of light county,” and then fed. There the serien Lea with a strange, The finished portrait showed cars behind which infantry town planner, saw could advance. He could break of plague.

die in airless huvels in an out- in water. Leonardo, the scient was no fighting, but the French mysterious emife of ber lips,

He designed ist studied sound and light froops brawled and looted and penure that intrigued all who make cannons to fire small- tér new cities in which the waves. Leonardo, the mechanic, the archers wed Leonardo's and still does today. stones, "the smoke of which houses would be prefabricated dropped iron weights from the statue for a target. It was is terrifying." He could for speed in construction. They castle tower to study rates of smashed,

La Gioconda, of the Festa destroy fortresses and make

were all airy aid att had piped fall.

At the same time Leonardo Lisa, as it is better knoway is water supply.

All the time he was experi- found His Last Supper was probably the most fámôls paint- portable fireproof bridges The tradesmen's entrances menting, checking on existing deteriorating due to dampnessing in the world, now the ptide and ladders for besieging would be grouped at the backs; bellets and accepting nothing in the wall. (It has been re- of the Louvre, in Paris. palaces. He could also de There would be roads on two till he had checked it. All the stored many times since but

levels, the upper ones for 'pro- the he was sketching and the original quality, kas been · sign tunnels.

menading the lower ones to writing in his notebook with lost).

to the cellars his silver-pointed pencil or a carry goods

Leonardo Yett there There would be public gardens crayon.

nothing left for him. in Milan.

He accepted a job as en- gineer-general

Cesare Borgia, warlike son of Pope Alexander VI, who had seen and admired The Last Suppe: He made maps for Cesare and then helped hing besiege a city. He dredged-harboury

The letter was signed Leonardo da Vinci. Sforza had never heard of him.

Other interests

who could

and fountains.

"I can't afford the money," saidTM Storya.

The siege

and

Leonardo, the physiologist, Said Sforza: "What about spent hours at the hospital dis- my father's monument?” Final- But be thought that a man serting bodies to lean the ly Sforza lost patience

make such extra- structure of the brain, the declaring that Leonardo was vagant claims was at least formation of the body, the wasting his time, stopped his worth 3 trial. So soon ☎ functioning of the heart,

the money

until tho monument courtier was on his way to a circulation of blood.

was built. little shop in Florence run by

Sforza wesn't interested.

Finally in 1493, after 10 a man named Andrea Veroc- chio.

years, Leonardo produced. a- Here Leonardo worked

bronze

was

ما

New dreams

auro Lanki Butino ofe" know's

He did more work; an-his Eli ever few.

Everyone wanted- Lenis:do's service now He went back to Milan to work for the King of France, to the Vatican to work for Pope Leo X, to Clou: in France to work for the new King, Francois I. made statues,

He painted, designed page- ants and planned engineering works.

He we never a very ratir- factory employee fér often hà

He designed a diving suit did not finish" a job. He was plaster preliminary model. The for underwater fighting and tever staffed with' anything still not ready this led him to the subcarine. of his own creation and at raya Sforza could wait no longer. Ha had the plaster model erected What was it 12 do not his had some new idea, a new

piazza

divulge my method of remaining dream to ptisde. under water, he wrote.-* "on

on a cathedral.

outside

the

as a painter and sculptor, paint

Flying machine ing cups, plates, chests and portraits, and making statues.

Leonardo, the engineer, saw Sforza did not know it at the men working at the cathedral with spades and crowbars and time but he had just engagediscovered the laws relating to the greatest all-round genius

account of the evit mature of He died, aged 67, in Claust, the world has ever

levers. known--

He designed a whole range of tools based on pincer The monument was a statue- men who would commit as in 1519. painter, musician, philosopher, movement and went on to de- of Francesco Sforza on horse- inthematician, scientist, and wrigineer.

sign giant corkscrews for bor back. It was huge and it was Sforza was de- It was 1482 when the 30-ng into earth, cranes and der- magnificent.

By this time Storza year-old Leonardo, handsome ricks, Jacks for raising weights, lightet. and-elegant in a stylish short mechanical shovels, 3 pile was short of money and could

to

Sforza said:

nose-coloured cloak came

driver. After watching monks not pay Leonardo so he gave work for the man nicknamed making cloth he designed an him a farm instead. The Moor because of His improved loom.

And he put Leonardo to work "Workmen are on a painting of The Last Sup warthy skin.

His trial was

per for à monastery wall to paint a cheap and plentiful” portrait of a young girl named Leonardo, the arithologist, Leonardo found his models for

in flight, then the disciples all over Sforza liked studied birds it so well that he commissioned began to make flying machine. He sketched them in his note

bats wings of books and then Leonardo-to start work on his with huge

transferred heart's desire a monument to leather and a cage for

the them to the wall The picture his father, Francesco Sforza, pilot,

won him new famẽ,

Cecilia - Gallerām.

that was rófumierila

to eclipse all other

But Sfórza", was to find. there were drawbacles in employing o'gedus.. The years passed but his father's: monument got - no nétrer completion. Leonarto

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WATER EXPANDS AS IT

FREEZES INTO ICE. YOU CAN SEE HERE →→ HOW MUCH MORE SPACE ICE TAKES

THE GAME WATER

WATER

INTO

Milan.

A PRECIOUS INCH

ONE

MOSCOW.

NE of the world's-smallest: manmali has been caught in the Archangel region; says. Moscou radio. It is a shrew, just over an inch long:

Despite its size, the shrew her perfectly furiaed paws, snout, dark, pelusty fur, and a half-inch-long tail: It looks something like a mole. Scientists describe this type of shrew, which was caught near the Northern Dõiña River, as “extremely rare.”

ICH

TRAN WATER BEFORE

IT IS FROZEN,

PERHAPS YOU'VE SEEN IT HAPPEN WHEN A BOTTLE OF MILK IS- FROZEN AND ICE FORCES ITS WAY OUT THE TOP OF THE BOTTLE.

!

SO, IF WATER EXERTS PRESSURE AS IT FREEZES, PRESSURE APPLIED

TO ICE SHOULD HELP MELT IT.

YOU CAN PROVE THAT IT DOES WITH AN *ICE BRICK" (FROZEN" IN AN ICE CUBE TRAY), THREE REGULAR BRICKS, AND A PIECE OF MIN WIRE SET UP THIS WAY-

THE PRESSURE OF THE WIRE WILL CAUSE THE ICE BELOW IT TO MELT: GRADUALLY, THE WIRE WILL PASS- ENTIRELY THROUGH THE ICE:

THEN THE BIG SURPRISE!....... THE WIRE- EDES THROUGH, THE BRICK FALLS; BUT THE ICE REMAINS VÝHOLE! WHY?" AS THE WIRE PASSED, PRESSURE WAS GONE AND THE VIATER RE FROZE.

/BILL ARTER