ary engineer Leonardo designed artillery andplanned the diversion of rivers. He also improved many inventionsthat were already in use such as the rope ladder. Leonardo alsodrew pictures of an armored tank hundreds of years ahead of itstime. His concept failed because the tank was too heavy to bemobile and the hand cranks he designed were not strong enough tosupport such a vehicle. As a civil engineer, he designed revolvingstages for pageants. As a sculptor he planned a huge monument ofthe Duke's father mounted up on a leaping horse. The Horse, as it was known, was the culmination of 16years of work. Leonardo was fascinated by horses and drew themconstantly. In The Horse, Leonardo experimented with the horses'forelegs and measurements. The severe plagues in 1484 and 1485drew his attention to town planning, and his drawings and plansfor domed churches reflect his concern with architecturalproblems. In addition he also assisted the Italian mathematicianLuca Pacioli in the work Divina Proportione (1509). While inMilan Leonardo kept up his own work and studies with thepossible help of apprentices and pupils, for whom he probablywrote the various texts later compiled as Treatise on Painting(1651). The most important painting of those created in the earlyMilan age was The Virgin of the Rocks. Leonardo worked on thispiece for an extended period of time, seemingly unwilling to finishwhat he had begun. It is his earliest major painting that survives incomplete form. From 1495 to 1497 Leonardo labored on hismasterpiece, The Last Supper, a mural in the refectory of theMonastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. While painting TheLast Supper, Leonardo rejected the fresco technique normally usedfor wall paintings. An artist that uses this fresco method mustwork quickly. Leonardo wanted to work slowly, revising his work,and use shadows-which would have been impossible in usingfresco painting. He invented a new technique that involved ...
