Leonardo Da Vinci

About Leonardo Da Vinci. (I made it on the computer.)

In a Tuscan hill town of Vinci, in April, 1452, at the third hour of night (Which would be ten thirty p.m) , Leonardo di ser Piero Da Vinci was born. He was son of a peasant, Caterina who we think might have been a barmaid and Messer Piero Di Antonio da Vinci who was the opposite of Caterina, he was very wealthy. After Leonardo’s birth, his dad married someone else much wealthier and his mom married someone else. He lived in Anchiano in the hamlet, the home of his mother for five years. After, in 1457, he lived in the house of his father with his grandparents and his uncle in Francesco, the town if Vinci. Leonardo learned Latin and geometry but didn’t show much interest. He recorded two childhood incidents which were one (he regarded as an omen) when a kite dropped from the sky and hovered over his cradle and its tail feathers brushed his face. Occurring when exploring in the mountains, the second one was when he discovered a cave and was both terrified that some great monster might lurk there, and driven by curiosity to find out what was inside. Leonardo had many talents like playing the lyre, he could beautifully sing, was very strong in mathematics and he would also sketch plants and animals. When Leonardo was fourteen, he was apprenticed to Andrea di Cione, an artist known as Verrocchio and his workshop was the finest in Florence. Many other famous artists that were apprenticed with the workshop were Domenico, Ghirlandaio, Pietro Perugino, Botticelli and Lorenzo di Credi. Inside the workshop Leonardo did drafting, chemistry, metallurgy, metal working, plaster casting, leather working, mechanics, carpentry, drawing, painting, sculpting, and modeling. Amazingly, he helped Verrocchio with his Baptism of Christ, which was a painting of an angel holding Jesus’s robe and people think that it was so amazing, that Verrocchio apparently never painted again (probably false)! Also Leonardo helped model for some of Verrocchio paintings. In 1472, after lots of hard work, at age twenty, Leonardo qualified as a master in the Guild of St Luke which was the guild of artists and doctors of medicine. That was a small bit of Leonardo’s early life.

Portrait of Leonardo Da Vinci (I drew the picture)

In Leonardo’s professional life, Leonardo did many things which were amazing! Leonardo was a very talented musician and in 1482, Leonardo created a silver lyre that surprisingly, was in the shape of a horse's head, and he gave it to Milan which was to make peace with Ludovico il Moro who was the Duke of Milan. Also in these years, Leonardo wrote a letter to Ludovico telling him about the marvelous and different inventions that Leonardo could invent in the different fields of engineering also telling the Duke that he could paint very well. In Milan, Leonardo worked painting Virgin of the Rocks and the Last Supper (which I think was one of his most amazing paintings) which was for the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Working on many projects for Ludovico, the duke, which included preparations for floats, pageants for special occasions, designs for a dome for Milan Cathedral and did a monument to Francesco Sforza. To make it, seventy tons of bronze were set aside but sadly it was set aside and never worked on for several years which wasn’t unusual for Leonardo Da Vinci. Leonardo made a clay model for the horse in 1492 which passed the size of two very large statues which were called Gattemelata (In Padua) and Bartolomeo Colleoni (Made by Verrocchio in Venice). Also, it was called the Gran Cavallo. When Leonardo started making plans to make the bronze horse, Michelangelo rudely said that Leonardo was not capable of making it. Sadly, Ludovico in 1494 used the bronze that was supposed to be made for the statue to defend the city from the invasion of Charles VIII. Sadly, the French troops used the clay statue for target practice while invading the city and Ludovico was overthrown. Fleeing the city with Leonardo’s assistant Salai and collaborator, Luca Pacioli and went from Milan to Venice. While in Venice, Leonardo worked as a military architect and engineer who made methods for defending the city from attack. In a workshop provided for him, Leonardo created a cartoon of The Virgin and Child with St. Anne. Which won so much admiration, that people young and old came to see it as though the people were attending a great festival. In 1502, Leonardo was in service of Cesare Borgia who was the son of Pope Alexander VI, and his job was a military architect and an engineer who was constantly traveling through Italy with his patronage. Amazingly, Leonardo Da Vinci created a map of the stronghold which was a plan of Imolia in order to win his patronage. Because maps were very rare in this time so it probably would have seemed like a new concept of thinking. Surprisingly, Leonardo was hired as the chief military engineer and architect. In the later year, Leonardo had created a map of Chiana Valley (Tuscany) to give his patron a better strategic position. Leonardo later returned to Florence and he went back to the Guild of St Luke and later he painted The Battle of Anghiari which was for the Signoria, and Michelangelo was designing the companion which is called The Battle of Cascina. Later on, Leonardo came back to Milan and many of his pupils/followers that were in painting got to work with him in Milan. Sadly, Leonardo’s father died and he had to go back to Florence to sort out the problems with his brothers over his father’s estate. Leonardo was back in Milan living in his own house in Porta Orientale by 1508. Although this isn't all of the information of his professional life, this is a lot of it.

A picture kind of like the Mona Lisa which is the (I drew it.)

Leonardo did many great thing which included being a sculptor, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and lastly an artist which I think he was best at. Leonardo was considered as a Renaissance man and is one of the most famous polymaths in the Renaissance Era. Also, he is without any doubt the father of modern science because he invented things that were not supposed to be invented at his time. He invented things like a helicopter, scissors, a tank, a calculator and a bicycle. Leonardo was kind because he took in a thief Salai who Leonardo said a thief and a liar but still took him who was ten at the time in. Also another thing is that he took in a young boy named Zoro who eventually became a very famous artist because Leonardo took him in and taught him. Because people might steal his ideas, Leonardo used mirror writing starting from from the right side of the paper to the left and only he could read it because not very many people couldn’t read like that so people couldn’t read his ideas. One time Leonardo blew up goat guts when there were a lot of people in the room. Probably, without Leonardo Da Vinci, we wouldn’t be able to do many things like figure out one of the many problems that we have figured out until much later. Also, without Leonardo, we wouldn’t be able to see the Mona Lisa in the museum and also see all his masterpieces in the museum. An interesting fact about Leonardo Da Vinci is that he wore pink and other bright colours to make his complexion to look better or younger. I think that Leonardo Da Vinci is truly the father of modern science.

Sadly, on May 2nd, 1519 when Leonardo was 67 and when he could no longer paint, Leonardo Da Vinci died through what people think are natural causes at the Clos Lucé which was Leonardo’s house. When Leonardo died, The king of France, claimed to have supported him and held Leonardo in his arms while he died. Although Leonardo is dead, his ideas of science, engineering, art, architecture and the human body because of how Leonardo left his notebook with his friends who later threw it away and then many, many years later, scientists found the papers. Using the idea, people used the ideas to make the ideas real. Now people acknowledge his ideas and skill. “Leonardo towered above all other artists through strength and through the nobility of his talents,” said A.E. Rio. Because of Leonardo’s talent and creativeness, Leonardo’s paintings are known all around around the world.

A web about the qualities of Leonardo Da Vincin (Mindmapinspiration.com)