Leonardo Da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance genius. He was a great painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, mathematician, anatomist, scientist, musician and writer.
His innovations in the fields of painting influenced Italian art and his scientific studies in the fields of Anatomy, Optics, Maths and Hydraulics anticipated many of the developments of modern science. Leonardo is considered one of the grates artist of all time.
Leonardo was born in Vinci, a small town near Florence, in Tuscany on 15 April 1452.
His parents were not married. His father, Messer Piero Frusino di Antonio da Vinci, was a lawyer. His mother, Caterina was a servant. Leonardo’s full name was “Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci”, which means “Leonardo, the son of Messer (Mister) Piero from Vinci”.
Leonardo spent his first five years living in a farm house with his mother. Then he lived at Vinci with his father, his father’s wife Albiera, his grandparents and his uncle, Francesco.
In 1467, when Leonardo was fourteen, his father took him to Florence and he became an apprentice to the artist Andrea Verrocchio. While he was at Verrocchio’s workshop Leonardo learnt drawing, painting, sculpting and model making. In the workshop he met famous artist such as:
Ghirlandaio,
Perugino and..
Botticelli.
In 1473 he completed his first famous drawing “ The Arno Valley�, which shows the river, the mountains and the farmlands of this area.
In 1477 he painted “The Annunciation” and in 1478 he painted “ The Adoration of the Magi”, which are one show in Room 15 in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
In 1482 Leonardo left Florence and he moved to Milan where he worked for the Duke of Milan, Ludovico il Moro.
After studying horses and drawings designs, he made a huge horse of clay. It was called the “Gran Cavallo�.
While Leonardo was working for Duke of Milan, he painted “the Virgin of the Rocks” (1483-1486), which is now in the “Louvre” in Paris. It shows a scene of the Virgin Mary and the child Jesus in a mysterious rocky landscape. Mary and Jesus are meeting John the Baptist.
In this scene John is praying and the baby Jesus is raising his hand to bless John.
He also painted the “Last Supper” in 1495.
In this period Leonardo began to explore the human flight, designed a flying machine (1492), and worked on the giant equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza.
In 1499 Leonardo left Milan and went to Venice, where Leonardo worked as a military architect and engineer.
In 1496 he met the mathematician Luca Pacioli, with whom he studied Euclid.
In 1499 he painted “the Virgin and Child with St Anne and John Baptist�, which is now in the National Gallery in London.
In 1500, Leonardo went back to Florence and he worked for a powerful nobleman, Cesare Borgia, who was Pope Alexander VI’s son. He travelled around Italy, as a military architect and engineer.
In 1503 he returned to Florence.
The unusual thing about this picture is the woman’s smile. The smile is the clue to her name: Mona Lisa Gioconda. “Gioconda” means “the joking one “. (“Mona” is the short from for Madonna which means “My Lady”.)
While Leonardo was working in his studio in Florence, he painted the most famous portrait that had ever been painted, the “Mona Lisa”. It shows a woman’s face, body and hands. She is very plainly dressed. Mona Lisa is wearing a dark dress and a fine black veil over her head.
The painting is so famous but it is full of mystery. Mona Lisa’s eyes seem to look at the viewer, but nobody can guess what she is thinking. Her eyes and her mouth seem to be smiling. Leonardo painted soft shadows in the corners of Mona Lisa’s mouth and eyes, to disguise her expression. The soft shadows are also found on the sides of her face, her neck and hands.
From 1505 to 1508 Leonardo studied the flight of birds, flying machines, water, air and fire.
In 1508 he returned to Milan, where he painted “St. Anne� and in 1513 he went to Rome and lived there until 1516.
In 1516, Leonardo went to France with King Francis I, who gave Leonardo a beautiful house called “Clos Lucè”, near his Palace “Chateau Amboise”. Leonardo spent the last three years of his life there.
One of Leonardo’s last paintings was “John the Baptist”.
Leonardo died at Clos Lucè, on May 2, 1519 and he was buried in the Chapel of the “Chateau Amboise”.
Leonardo did not paint many paintings, but he drew hundreds of quick sketches, plans, maps and detailed drawings.
Some of Leonardo’s drawings are “studies� for his paintings. In these drawings Leonardo planned the things he was going to paint. These studies show buildings, hands, faces, plants and horses.
Leonardo did not go to university to study. He studied by observing things in the world around him. He wanted to understand how they were made and how they worked. He drew the things that he saw and discovered and he made notes and he wrote about them in his notebooks. Many of his notebooks are now in museums.
Leonardo's notebooks are difficult to read because he wrote backwards in "mirror writing". Leonardo wrote (and sometimes drew) with his left hand.
In those days pens were made from a quill (a large feather) that was cut with a pen-knife. It is hard for a left-handed person to write with a quill in the ordinary way, but it is quite easy to write backwards.