Leonardo Da Vinci: A Man of Many Things

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Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the greatest minds of his time. Most will remember him for his many masterpieces including The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and The Vitruvian Man. But he did more than just draw works of art; he was also an inventor and a mathematician who studied a large variety of subjects. Leonardo’s life is more fascinating than any one man could imagine. He may be dead, but his work still lives on.

Leonardo Da Vinci was born on Saturday April 19, 1452, just outside the small village of Vinci, in Italy’s Tuscany region (Kalz 20). He was born from a peasant woman named Caterina and fathered by a lawyer with the name of Ser Piero Da Vinci. His parents were not married (Macdonald 5). When Leonardo was a one year old his mother left him with his father for some other man. His father wanted him to be successful, so at the age of fourteen his father sent him to become an apprentice of a famous artist in Florence, Italy called Andrea Del Verrocchio (Macdonald 5). His apprenticeship lasted twelve years (Kalz 23), in which time Verrocchio inspired and encouraged Leonardo to be a free-thinker (Reed 28). Before his apprenticeship Leonardo had little formal education (Reed 9). After his apprenticeship under Andrea Del Verrocchio he began to work under Lorenzo de’ Medici (Kalz 23). In 1482, at the age of thirty, Leonardo moved to Milan and gained favor of the duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza due to his singing voice and talent on the flute (Kalz 23). In 1483, while still living in Milan, Leonardo started his Treatise on Painting, which has many notes on experiments he continued on different ideas on optics such as the eyes, light, and shapes (Reed 28). Leonardo’s good fortune was interrupted in 1499 when the French inv...

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...for an undying thirst for knowledge and a man of many subjects, in all of which he was very knowledgeable. His achievements will be remembered thru his large measure of notebooks that he drew in and wrote notes on. This man is a man of the future in the past. He helped our word to be the way it is today, with its vast collection of technology and knowledge. Leonardo is truly a renascence man to admire.

Works Cited

Kalz, Jill . The Mona Lisa. Mankato, Minnesota: Creative Education, 2005.

MacCurdy, Edward . The Notebook's Of Leonardo Da Vinci. New York: Konecky & Konecky,

2003.

Macdonald, Fiona . The World in the Time of Leonardo Da Vinci. Philadelphia: Chelsea House

Publishers, 2001.

Reed, Jennifer . Leonardo Da Vinci. New York: Enslow, 2005.

Vezzosi, Alessandro . Leonardo Da Vinci: The Mind Of The Renaissance. New York:

Discoveries, 1997.

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