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Quick Facts
- NAME: Leonardo da Vinci
- OCCUPATION: Mathematician, Artist, Inventor, Musician, Writer
- BIRTH DATE: April 15, 1452
- DEATH DATE: May 02, 1519
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Vinci, Italy
- PLACE OF DEATH: Amboise, France
- Full Name: Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci
- AKA: Leonardo da Vinci
Best Known For
Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian painter and a genius in many realms of science. He is best known for two paintings: the "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper."
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Leonardo da Vinci - Legacy (0:00)
Leonardo da Vinci - A Divine Mind
Watch a short video about Leonardo da Vinci and learn about the many ideas and creations that made by this brilliant artist.
Leonardo da Vinci - Mini Biography
Leonardo da Vinci began apprenticing under the artist Verrocchio. His best-known works are two of the most famous paintings of all time, the "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper."
Leonardo da Vinci - Mona Lisa
In the year, 1503 Leonardo da Vinci returned to Florence and began a portrait that would become one of the most famous works of art of all time.
Leonardo da Vinci - Legacy
While Leonardo da Vinci is well-remembered for his paintings, it was perhaps his notebooks that have the greatest impact on the modern world.
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Play NowLeonardo da Vinci. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 10:56, May 19, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/leonardo-da-vinci-40396.
Leonardo da Vinci. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/leonardo-da-vinci-40396 [Accessed 19 May 2013].
"Leonardo da Vinci." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 19 2013, 10:56 http://www.biography.com/people/leonardo-da-vinci-40396.
"Leonardo da Vinci," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/leonardo-da-vinci-40396 [accessed May 19, 2013].
"Leonardo da Vinci," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/leonardo-da-vinci-40396 (accessed May 19, 2013).
Leonardo da Vinci [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 19] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/leonardo-da-vinci-40396.
Leonardo da Vinci, http://www.biography.com/people/leonardo-da-vinci-40396 (last visited May 19, 2013).
Leonardo da Vinci. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/leonardo-da-vinci-40396. Accessed May 19, 2013.
Synopsis
Born on April 15, 1452, in Vinci, Italy, Leonardo da Vinci was concerned with the laws of science and nature, which greatly informed his work as a painter, sculptor, inventor and draftsmen. His ideas and body of work -- which includes Virgin of the Rocks, The Last Supper, Leda and the Swan and Mona Lisa -- have influenced countless artists and made da Vinci a leading light of the Italian Renaissance.
Quotes
Leonardo da Vinci was a leading artist and intellectual of the Italian Renaissance who’s known for his enduring works The Last Supper and Mona Lisa.
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence."
Humble Beginnings
Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, in Vinci, Italy. Born out of wedlock, the love child of a respected notary and a young peasant woman, he was raised by his father, Ser Piero, and his stepmothers. At the age of 14, da Vinci began apprenticing with the artist Verrocchio. For six years, he learned a wide breadth of technical skills, including metalworking, leather arts, carpentry, drawing and sculpting. By the age of 20, he had qualified as a master artist in the Guild of Saint Luke and established his own workshop.
Florentine court records show that da Vinci was charged with and acquitted of sodomy at the age of 22, and for two years, his whereabouts went entirely undocumented.
'The Last Supper'
In 1482, Lorenzo de' Medici, a man from a prominent Italian family, commissioned da Vinci to create a silver lyre and bring it to Ludovico il Moro, the Duke of Milan, as a gesture of peace. Da Vinci did so and then wrote Ludovico a letter describing how his engineering and artistic talents would be of great service to Ludovico's court. His letter successfully endeared him to Ludovico, and from 1482 until 1499, Leonardo was commissioned to work on a great many projects. It was during this time that da Vinci painted "The Last Supper."
'Mona Lisa'
Da Vinci's most well-known painting, and arguably the most famous painting in the world, the "Mona Lisa," was a privately commissioned work and was completed sometime between 1505 and 1507. Of the painting's wide appeal, James Beck, an art historian at Columbia University, once explained, "It is the inherent spirituality of the human creature that Leonardo was able to ingenuine to the picture that raises the human figure to some kind of majesty."
It's been said that the Mona Lisa had jaundice, that she was a pregnant woman and that she wasn't actually a woman at all, but a man in drag. Based on accounts from an early biographer, however, the "Mona Lisa" is a picture of Lisa Gioconda, the real-life wife of a merchant, but that's far from certain. For da Vinci, the "Mona Lisa" was forever a work in progress, as it was his attempt at perfection. The painting was never delivered to its commissioner; da Vinci kept it with him until the end of his life. Today, the "Mona Lisa" hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, secured behind bulletproof glass, and is regarded as a priceless national treasure.
Renaissance Man
Da Vinci has been called a genius and the archetypal Renaissance man. His talents in arguably extended far beyond his artistic works. Like many leaders of Renaissance humanism, he did not see a divide between science and art.
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