Leonardo Da Vinci influenced a whole new generation of younger artists, sculptors, architects, engineers, astronomers, geologists, mathematicians, botanists, inventors and even musicians, he, himself was all of these things and more!
He also investigated anatomy and almost discovered the circulation of the blood, he planned schemes for irrigation and drainage, designed the first armored car, and he also invented the scissors and foresaw the creation of the helicopter, the airplane and the submarine. Though he turned very little of his ideas into reality, either because he lost interest in them or his imagination flowed to somewhere else, many of his ideas have been taken from the past to build into a future, where his ideas really came to life. He had once said “Things of the mind left untested by the senses are useless”. Leonardo left very little untested and yet not many people recognize the remarkable story behind the man often described as the embodiment of the Renaissance.
Leonardo was born on the 15th of April, 1452 in Vinci. He was an illegitimate son of Ser Piero and a young peasant girl, named Caterina, who is not very well known. Leonardo was less than a year old when Ser Piero married to another young girl, but of noble birth, Albiera Di Giovanni Amadori, Leonardo was extremely fond of her. Very little is known about Leonardo's early days, but it is said that that he lived with his grandparents, his father and his step-mother (Albiera) in a house at Anchiano. Because he was illegitimate, he was unable to school with other children, so instead he was home schooled by his grandparents. But his education was still of no great means, he learnt to read, write and do arithmetic, like any country lad.
By 1469, both his step-mother and grandfather had died, so Ser Piero remarried. It was also this year when Leonardo turned 17 years of age. So his father decided to send him to a workshop of his friend, Verrocchio, who was famed for a sculptor, goldsmith, painter and a musician. While in his spare time he studied geometry and drawings from life, learnt the basic elements of hydraulics set his hands a building various pieces of machinery. But after seven years under Verrocchio's care, Leonardo decided to leave the security of Verrocchio's workshop, by this time it was 1476.
Once Leonardo left the workshop, he became just one of the many artists in Florence, unknown, and without clients or students. But in January, 1478, his first personal commission arrived, he was told by San Bernard, the commissioner, to paint the altar of the chapel in the Palazzo Vecchio. It took Leonardo 3 years to finish the commission, and not soon in March, 1481, Leonardo receives another commission, to paint Adoration of the Magi, a picture which to this day is famous world wide. Later in the year, Leonardo obtains the last part of the payment from the monks, even though he has never finished the painting, because he left Florence for Milan in the early 1482.
I n April, 1483, Leonardo decides to sign for another commission with Evangelista de Predis. This commission, decided by the Milanese Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, was to be an artwork to celebrate their new chapel.
In 1488, Leonardo paints another famous portrait, the portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, this artwork is commonly known as The Lady with an Ermine, even with the tragedy of his former master, Verrocchio, dead, Leonardo still had the courage to finish the painting. Before Verrocchio died it was said that after Verrocchio saw one of Leonardo's paintings of an angel, he never touched paint again.
When Fra Luca Pacioli, a famous mathematician from Venice, appeared in Milan, he and Leonardo became close friends, during this time, 1496, Pacioli taught Leonardo mathematics, but the these days didn't stay long. In 1499, Pacioli and Leonardo were forced to escape Milan when Louis XII of France seized the city and drove their clients out, but Pacioli and Leonardo still had a great time traveling from place to place together.
1500, Leonardo returns to Florence, and out of his wishes, he starts the artwork The Virgin and Child with St. Anne, but soon he gave up on this artwork in late 1503, to start another commission to enhance the walls of the Sala Del Consiglio Grande with his great rival Michelangelo, who also an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer. But not soon after they started, Leonardo also gave up this commission to start the painting of Mona Lisa, or Lisa Gioconda, who was married to a successful silk merchant named, Francesco Del Giocondo. After he had lingered over the portrait for four years, he left it unfinished… He is thought to have continued to work on it for three years after he moved to France and had it finished shortly before he died. 1503, was also the year of Leonardo's father death.
Leonardo knew that soon to come was his own death, so as a memorial for himself, he did a self-portrait in red chalk, between 1512 and 1515. On the 23rd of April, 1519 he dictated his will and on the 2nd of May, 1519, he died peacefully in the castle of Cloux. Then on the 12th of August his body was buried in the church of Saint Florentine in Amboise and following his will; sixty beggars followed his casket. Melzi was the principal heir and executor, receiving as well as money, Leonardo's paintings, tools, library and personal effects. Leonardo also remembered his other long-time pupil and companion, Salai and his servant Battista di Vilussis, who each received half of Leonardo's vineyard, his brothers who received land, and his serving woman who received a black cloak of good stuff with a fur edge.
I chose Leonardo Da Vinci for this task, because I thought it would be pointless and not interesting if I studied about someone I didn't know a little about and it also would have been boring too. But the main reason why I decided to do this biography on Leonardo is because I have always been inspired by his many talents, and I thought it would be good if I knew more about the person I was idolizing. I have never thought someone could be so perfect with so many things.
