Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci Webby Kallen

Leonardo Da Vinci inspires me to do art and to do better at drawing, which is why I chose him for My Hero to write about. The book I'm reading is a 599-page biography titled “Leonardo Da Vinci” written by Walter Issacson. This book covers when Leonardo Da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, to when he died on May 2, 1519, from a stroke. He lived for 67 years. The book was published on October 17, 2017. Walter Isaacson is a university professor of history and taught at Tulane University and wrote other biography books about Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin, etc. Walter Issacson was born on May 20, 1952. He is 67 today.

Leonardo da Vinci KallenLeonardo Da Vinci was born in Anchiano, Italy near Vinci, which provided him with his surname, Da Vinci. He grew up in Vinci, Italy, and had a lot of family. Leonardo had 8 brothers and 3 sisters and his father was Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci. Caterina di Meo Lippi was his mother, Antonio da Vinci was his grandfather, and Francesco da Vinci was his nephew. Leonardo didn't have education except reading, writing and math, but his father realised Leonardo’s talent when Leonardo was the age of 15 and his father took him to the famous sculptor, painter Andrea Del Verrocchio. When not taking lessons from Verrocchio, Leonardo liked to draw and paint. There are no stories I know of Leonardo growing up. The people that inspired Leonardo were Andrea del Verrocchio, John Argyropoulos, and Lorenzo de' Medici, because they inspired him to become a better artist and sculptor. A dream Leonardo had when he was little, was a bird landed on his cradle and opened his mouth with its tail. Leonardo loved nature and wanted to be an artist when he grew up. One thing that foreshadows him was when he was little he loved art and wanted to be an artist, and he did. 

Leonardo da Vinci paintingBy KallenOne challenge Leonardo faced was that his parents separated when he was young, and his stepmother passed away but he overcame this because as time went by, he kind of got used to it. But the thought of it still hurt him inside because it's hard to lose family. Andrea Del Verrocchio led Leonardo to most of his success because he taught Leonardo how to get better at art. The influence Verrocchio had on Leonardo was that Verrocchio taught Leonardo how to get better at painting. Leonardo has a bunch of qualities but I will only describe three about him. He is unique, indescribable, and a great artist. The reason I picked those is because he is a really good artist to me because his art is wonderful, and he is unique because no one else is like him, and lastly he is indescribable because no one could describe some of the things he did. Leonardo da Vinci's weakness was the inability to use time because he was always jumping to one painting to the next without the paintings actually being finished. One sad thing that Leonardo faced in his life was that his stepmother passed away. Leonardo da Vinci did not receive any awards during his life.

One thing that surprised me about Leonardo da Vinci is that I never knew he drew the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa is Leonardo’s biggest success, and the person he painted was La Gioconda. The Mona Lisa is held in the Louvre Museum. If I were to meet Leonardo da Vinci and I was able to ask him three questions, I would ask him: Why did you never go back to your unfinished paintings? Is the Mona Lisa actually smiling? What was your favourite thing to do besides painting, sculpting etc? I would and wouldn't want to be Leonardo's child because Leonardo did some weird things like dissecting people and drawing weird stuff, and I would want to be his child because he would teach me what he learned. The book I'm reading about Leonardo is okay, but I'm not really that interested in it. From the book I learned that Leonardo was taught how to paint by Verrocchio and that he was a vegetarian. There isn't really any lesson or experience from Leonardo's life that could apply to mine. People may not like to read this book because it's a pretty long book, but also I think people will like this book because if some people are interested in Leonardo's life, this is the book for them to read. I'm pretty happy I chose this person because he inspired me to get better at my art skills. I think I find this person to look up to as a role model because he may inspire people to draw and get better and eventually be an artist.