Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci

Born of humble of begins did not stop Leonardo Da Vinci of becoming a successful artist and craftsman. Leonardo is one of the greatest artistic minds of the world.

Leonardo was born illegitimately because his farther got his mother pregnant when they were not married. Leonardo was born on April 15, 1492. [i]His father was a page and got custody of Leonardo. His mother went away and a year later married  Accattabriga Di Piero del Vaca.  Later his farther got married and offspring. Altogether both parents had fifteen half brothers and sisters for Leonardo. [ii]

Leonardo was left-handed, which at that time was not a good sign so he had to learn to write with his right hand. Leonardo came up with the Right to Left or mirror image writing technique[iii]. I believe that he wrote that way because he wanted to hide his journals from the church. Many of journals where lost or misplaced when he died. Some of his journals have been recovered. Leonardo would write, observe, and draw in his journals. Leonardo was very scientific.[iv]

During Leonardo’s lifetime he created a few masterpieces, and created a few inventions that never saw the light of day until last centenary. Leonardo was a very scientific man who enjoyed observing things over and over again, he did this until he could figure out how they worked. He also did this so that he could figure out how he was he was going to paint or sculpt a picture.

Leonardo painted lots of religious paintings in his lifetime. The firs commission work he worked on was the S. Bernardo in the Palazzo dell Signori of Florence. He got paid 25 Florins for this art piece. Thus he continued to work on his pieces He did a few master piece on the Virgin Mary and Mondona. One of his famous paintings is the Mona Lisa.

To name just a few of his master pieces would be to name Adoration of the Magi, Mona Lisa, Annoucention, Baptism of Christ, Battle of Anghiari, Last Supper, Maleona of the Rocks, and tons of self portraits of himself. [v]

Leonardo died on May 2 1519 in the castle of Cloux. His wishes for him to buried at the church of Saint Florentine at Amboise was carried out. His living heir and beloved companion was Francesco Melzi. Melzi wrote Leonardo’s family of his passing. [vi]

In short Leonardo Da Vinci was a well educated, well versed, and very rich man. He used everything that he could get his hands on to study and observe and paint. Leonardo might of come from humble illegitimate begins but he is in no matter a man that is humbled by his surroundings.