Undergraduate Student: Nancy Sanchez
Research Mentor(s): Ehsan Sheikholharam Mashhadi
Bridging the Epochs of Ledoux and Da Vinci
From two different periods of time, Claude-Nicholas Ledoux and Leonardo Da Vinci have transformed the history of architecture and art. Their work has helped shape the two eras they were a part of. Leonardo Da Vinci was from the 16th century and was coined as the ‘Italian Polymath of the High Renaissance era’, due to his extensive knowledge in engineering, painting, architecture, and science. Claude-Nicolas Ledoux was an 18th century neoclassical architect from France. Ledoux produced architecturally innovative work that influenced social changes in pre-revolutionary France. In particular, his most notable work, Salines de Chaux, helped represent the future of urban design by adopting utopian societies and ideology. This utopian ideology challenged the traditional concept of design and introduced a new standard of thinking in rational architecture. On the other hand, Leonardo da Vinci\u27s extraordinary methods and ways of thinking were reflected in his works of art, such as the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper. His methods of drawing set new standards in forms of artistic expression. His thoughts and methods in science and technology were far ahead for his time, but were highly influential in Da Vinci’s era and in the subsequent modern period. By comparing the works of both Ledoux and Da Vinci, readers will have a better understanding of the significance their works had made in architecture and the artists’ receptive fields
