he model’s husband) became famous because of the unique expression on Lisa del Gioconda’s face. She appears to have just started to or finished smiling. This painting was one of Leonardo’s favorites and he carried it with him on all of his subsequent travels (Clark 133). In 1506, Leonardo returned to Milan to finished up some of his projects that he had to abandon during his hasty departure. He stayed there until 1516 when he moved to Cloux, France, where he stayed with his pupil Melzi. While in Milan he was named Court Painter to King Louis XII of France, who was then residing in Milan. For the next six years he traveled from Milan to Florence repeatedly to look after his inheritance. In 1514 he traveled to Rome under the patronage of Pope Leo X. During this time Leonardo’s energy was focused mainly on his scientific experiments. He then moved to France to serve King Francis I. It is here in Chateau de Cloux that he died on May 2,1519 (Wallace 127).Leonardo constantly reworked his drawings, studies and mechanical theories. His observations of the motion of water are amazingly accurate. In Leonardo’s Studies of Water Formation, the flow patterns observed are swirling around , then below as it forms a pool. Using modern slow motion cameras' scientists now study the same effects that Leonardo wrote about and observed with his naked eye (Encarta). Another study of water and wind is his Apocalyptic Visions. This is a collected study of hurricanes and storms. In these highly detailed drawings the pen lines so carefully marked explode into action similar to the storms themselves. Leonardo’s mathematical drawings are also highly skilled. In a math formula Leonardo proved the theory of perpetual motion false but it still intrigued him. Among his vast notes were small ideas for a perpetual motion machine. His ideas for completing this task involved an unbalanced wheel that would revolve for...
