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| Leonardo
da Vinci |
Leonardo
di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15,
1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian
polymath: scientist, mathematician,
engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter,
sculptor, architect, musician, and
writer.
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| Mona
Lisa |
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He was born and raised in Vinci, Italy,
the illegitimate son of a notary, Messer
Piero, and a peasant woman, Caterina.
He had no surname in the modern sense;
"da Vinci" simply means "of
Vinci". His full birth name was "Leonardo
di ser Piero da Vinci", meaning "Leonardo,
son of (Mes)ser Piero from Vinci."
Leonardo
was born on April 15, 1452, in Anchiano,
a village near the town of Vinci in
the lower valley of the Arno, within
the territories of Florence.
Leonardo
was later to record only two incidents
of his childhood. One, which he regarded
as a premonition, was when a hawk dropped
from the sky and hovered over his cradle,
its tail feathers brushing his face.
The
second incident occurred while exploring
in the mountains. He discovered a cave
and recorded his emotions at being,
on one hand, terrified that some great
monster might lurk there and on the
other, driven by curiosity to find out
what was inside.
At
the age of five, he went to live in
the household of his father, grandparents
and uncle, Francesco, in the small town
of Vinci, where his father had married
a sixteen-year-old girl called Albiera,
who loved Leonardo but unfortunately
died young.
Vasari
tells the story of how a local peasant
requested that Ser Piero asked his talented
son to paint a picture on a round plaque.
Leonardo responded with a painting of
snakes spitting fire which was so terrifying
that Ser Piero sold it to a Florentine
art dealer, who sold it to the Duke
of Milan. Meanwhile, having made a profit,
Ser Piero bought a plaque decorated
with a heart pierced by an arrow which
he gave to the peasant.
The
earliest known dated work of Leonardo's
is a drawing done in pen and ink of
the Arno valley, drawn on 5 August,
1473.
It
is assumed that he had his own workshop
in Florence between 1476 and 1481. He
was commissioned in 1478 to paint an
altarpiece for the Chapel of St Bernard
and in 1481 by the Monks at Scopeto
for The Adoration of the Magi. In 1482
Leonardo, whom Vasari tells us was a
most talented musician, created a silver
lyre in the shape of a horse's head.
Lorenzo de’ Medici was so impressed
with this that he decided to send both
the lyre and its maker to Milan, in
order to secure peace with Ludovico
il Moro, Duke of Milan. At this time
Leonardo wrote an often-quoted letter
to Ludovico, describing the many marvellous
and diverse things that he could achieve
in the field of engineering and informing
the Lord that he could also paint.
Between
1482 and 1499, when Louis XII of France
occupied Milan, much of Leonardo’s work
was in that city. It was here that he
was commissioned to paint two of his
most famous works, the Virgin of the
Rocks for the Confraternity of the Immaculate
Conception, and The Last Supper for
the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie.
While living in Milan between 1493 and
1495 Leonardo listed a woman called
Caterina as among his dependants in
his taxation documents. When she died
in 1495, the detailed list of expenditure
on her funeral suggests that she was
his mother rather than a servant girl.
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