Leonardo
Da Vinci (full name: Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci) was born on 15th April
1452 in the Tuscan hill town of Vinci in The Republic of Florence. He does not
have a surname and his name means “Leonardo of Vinci”. He was public figure of
the Italian Renaissance time. Throughout his life he has worked as painter,
sculptor, architect, engineer, mathematician and inventor. Other than that, his
work of interest made him anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, writer
and musician.
Childhood
Leonardo
is said to have born out-of-wedlock to a wealthy Father Messer Piero Fruosino
di Antonio da Vinci, a Florentine legal notary and mother Caterina, a peasant.
He spent his initial five years at his mother’s home in Anchiano and later
lived with his father, grandparents and uncle, Francesco, in the small town of
Vinci.
Education
Leonardo
received an informal education in Latin, geometry and mathematics. In 1466,
when he was 14 he joined the finest workshop in Florence, of the artist Andrea
di Cione. Here Leonardo took his formal trainings of both theoretical training
and a vast range of technical skills including drafting, chemistry, metallurgy,
metal working, plaster casting, leather working, mechanics and carpentry as
well as the artistic skills of drawing, painting, sculpting and modeling. By
1472, at the age of twenty, Leonardo qualified as a master in the Guild of St
Luke.
Career
From
1482-99, Leonardo worked in Milan where he was commissioned to paint the
“Virgin of the Rocks” for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception and
“The Last Supper” for the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie. At the start
of Second Italian War in 1499, Leonardo returned to Florence. Here he created
the cartoon of “The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist”, a
work that won such admiration all over that people flocked see it.
Leonardo
returned to Florence where he rejoined the Guild of St Luke on October 18,
1503, and spent two years designing and painting a mural of The Battle of
Anghiari for the Signoria.
He
was also known for his engineering skills when he produced the concept of
flying machines, armored vehicle and moving barricade system to protect a city
against attack.
At
the End
In
the later years of his life, Leonardo Da Vinci produced his still best known
art work – “Mona Lisa” on which he worked between 1503 and 1505. Leonardo died
at Clos Lucé, on 2nd May 1519. He was buried in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert in
Château d'Amboise, in France.
