Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo's last known painting of St. John the ba (http://www.elrelojdesol.com/leonardo-da-vinci/gallery-english/pages/12_St._John.htm)

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in the small village of Vinci. In Italy at the time, you where named after the place you where born in. da Vinci means “of Vinci.” He was born to Ser Piero and Caternia da Vinci.

the picture Leonardo did with Verrocchio (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci)

Because his parents were not available to attend to him, all he had were his grandparents who were getting older it seemed by the minute. His uncle eventually became more of a father to Leonardo than his own dad. Because little opportunities were open to Leonardo, he became an apprentice of Verrocchio in Florence. Housing was cramped in Verroccio’s workshop. Leonardo often had to sleep on hay laid on the floor in a cramped room jam packed with the other apprentices. One day Verrocchio let Leonardo paint part of his painting. It was said that Leonardo’s part of the art piece was so grand it just popped off the page compared to Verrocchio’s work. It was also said that Verrocchio never painted again after that! After he achieved a high spot in Verrocchio’s workshop, he sent out by himself to Milan. After Milan, he moved to various places before his death in 1519.

Leonardo's only known self portrait (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Leonardo_self.jpg)

Over the course of Leonardo’s life, he encountered many hardships. His father spent little time with him. To us that would be like growing up without a dad. His mother died, so he DID grow up without a mother. Imagine that! Just because he couldn’t go to any of the prestigious educational facilities, he had to go work as an apprentice in a city. It was basically a boarding school slash two star hotel. Another hardship was that he was not offered the same opportunities other people were offered because his parents didn’t marry. He couldn’t help that! Why should he be punished? As my motto explains, no matter how dark a path is, there is light on the other end.

Now, I will talk of his accomplishments over those hardships. Despite the fact that he was going blind, he made the Mona Lisa while he was struggling with his sight. Even though he had a sad childhood, the world as we know it would not be the same. He was the first to study flight and make the blueprints for the model of today’s helicopters for example. He also became arguably the greatest artist of all time.

Study of a horse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Study_of_horse.jpg)

There are many things I admire about Leonardo da Vinci. I will start by listing a few. He was inspirational because despite a sad childhood, he turned out to be a very successful person in life. He was also very caring. He took his favorite apprentice all over Europe because he wanted him to have the good education he never was able to have. He also thought outside the box. He thought up information, tactics, and inventions nobody would have thought of in their lifetime!

We are almost done with this lovely journey into Leonardo da Vinci’s life. After being stressed out for a long time, Leonardo da Vinci died on May second, 1519 from old age. Leonardo da Vinci taught me many lessons but my favorite is no matter how dark a path is, there is light on the other end; this I have adopted as my new motto as I have explained.

Where Leonardo died (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Leonardo_Da_Vinci%27s_house.jpg)

Quotes

"A well-spent day brings happy sleep."

"Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory."

"As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death."

"He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year."

Bibliography
O'Connor, Barbara. Leonardo da Vinci Rennaissance Genius. n.d Google. 26 Feb. 2009 .