Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci was without a doubt the quintessential Renaissance Man--a peerless genius of whom Sister Wendy Beckett the internationally known art critic described as:
the definitive polymath [who] had almost too many gifts, including superlative male beauty, a splendid singing voice, magnificent phtysique, mathematical excellence, scientific daring . . .and the list is endless.1
Some of the attributes of this list of talents include: artist, sculptor, anatomist, urban planner, mathmetician, inventor, gourmet cook, equestrian, athelete, architect--and the list continues. A man so far ahead of his time, his inventions included prototypes of helicopters and flying machines, parachutes and tanks. Long before there was a science of nutirtion and health, Leonardo, practised vegetarianism.

Leonardo's Inventions


Canon and Mortar
Scythed Chariot and Tank
Leonardo's Flying Machine


The man who is best known today for his painting of the Mona Lisa was born in 1452 in Vinci, the illegitimate son of a notary from a small town of Vinci in Tuscany and a woman named Caterina. His father acknowledged Leonardo as his son and paid for the young man's education. When he was seventeen, Leonardo began his apprenticeship as a painter with Andrea del Verrocchio (1435-1488) the well-known painter and sculptor. Leonardo was to remain under the tutelage of Verrucchio till he was twenty-five.

As Leonardo began his independent career, Italy was made up of different city-states, each governed by noble clans whose families dated back to the Middle Ages. Artists like Leonardo usually sought the patronage of such families and in 1481, Leonardo departed for Milan to work for Duke Ludovico il Moro. During his years in Milan Leonardo During this time Leonardo worked on the Duomo in Milan as well as on the Castle and Duomo in Pavia. During this period of his life also he painted his Madonna of the Rocks as well as his celebrated Last Supper. An earlier altar mural The Adoration of the Magi that he had started in the San Donato Monastery of Scopeto was never finished.

In 1499, the French invaded Milan and both the Duke and Leaonardo were forced to flee. Leonardo first went to Mantua and then to Venice where he managed to secure the patronage of Isabelle to secure the patronage of Isabella d'Este. He remained in Venice for four years serving primarily as an architectural consultant.

Leonardo's next position was that of a military consultant with the celebrated Borgia family, headed then by Cesare Borgia in Florence. While he was in Florence, Leonardo was commissioned by the Florentine Republic to paint a fresco on fresco on one of the walls of theSala del Gran Consiglio in the Palazzo della Signioria. The subject of this fresco was the historic Battle of Anghiari. Due to the poor preparation of the paint, however, this fresco did not survive.

It was during his years in Florence that Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa in 1503. During his service in Florence he was frequently invited by French-occupied Milan to return to that city to complete works he had left unfinished. Leonardo returned to Milan in 1506 and from then he on he was to make only periodic visits to Florence.

Leonardo would spend several years in Milan. The French conferred the title peintre et ingenieur ordinarie, painter and ordinary engineer, on him but much of this period was spent in scientic research and engineering projects.

From 1513 - 1518 Leonardo would move once again--this time to Rome where he had secured the patronage of once of most powerful men in history--Giuliano Medici of the great Medici family. Leonardo left Rome following Guiliano's death and went to live in Amboise. He resided in that city till his death at the age of sixty-seven in 1519.
Renaissance Home Page
Galileo
Leonardo da Vinci
Machiavelli