Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was a painter, architect, engineer and a sculpture.

Leonardo was born in Vinci, Italy on the 15th of April 1452. He died at the age of 67 in Clos-Lucé, France on the 2nd of May 1519.

Da Vinci’s true mother was a peasant girl called Caterina but his father, Ser Piero, took him away and Da Vinci was raised by his father and stepmother.

When he was 14, da Vinci became an apprentice* in Florence to Andrea del Verrocchio. There, he demonstrated great talent and learned plenty of new skills.

After qualifying as a member of the Florence’s Guild of Saint Luke, Da Vinci founded his own workshop. Despite this, he still remained working with Andrea.

Five years later, da Vinci left Andrea and gained his first individual commission*, in 1478. It was to be put on an altar in a chapel in Florence. Sadly, da Vinci never got round to completing it.

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The Mona Lisa

Leonardo da Vinci started working on the Mona Lisa in 1503. People argue that this ‘the most famous painting in the world’ and that it is ‘defiantly his most famous work’. We do not know for certain but it is believed that the Mona Lisa is a painting of Lisa del Giocondo. Da Vinci never split with the painting because he was aiming for perfection. The Mona Lisa now hangs in the Louvre Museum, in Paris, France.

The Last Supper

The Last Supper took Leonardo three years to complete. He was commissioned to paint it by the Duke of Milan and it was to hang on the back wall of of a dinning hall inside a monastery in Milan. (The photo above of the Last Supper is not of the full painting).

Da Vinci also invented the flying machine, which is based on the anatomy* of a bat. He did many other sketches of other inventions too.

On May the 2nd , 1519, da Vinci died of a stroke at the age of 67. He did not marry and he had no children of his own.

Did you know…?

Leonardo da Vinci drew over 12,000 sketches in this sketch book and one of them was of a bicycle which he invented and bicycles didn’t appear on the road until 300 years later!

Glossary

• *apprentice is a person who is learning a trade from a skilled employer and working for them for low costs
• *commission is an instruction, command, or role given to a person or group.