Renaissance Biography
Of
Childhood
Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452. He was in a farmhouse in Anchiano. Leonardo was christened at a baptismal chapel inside the church of Vince. In 1457, he moved to his grandfather from Anchiano to Vinci. When Leonardo went to school, he received the best education Florence had to offer. He learned to read, write, and calculate in school. He also learned geometry and a little bit of Latin while in school. Leonardo did not think he learned enough Latin in school, so he taught himself and this is one of the reasons why his writings are in Italian
Family/Social Life
Leonardo’s father, Ser Piero, was a wealthy Florentine notary and his mother, Catrina, was a peasant women. He was a member of his father’s family when he moved to Vinci, but he was never legitimated or born with legally married parents. He lived in Vinci until he was 14 and moved to Florence in 1466. Leonardo became a handsome and persuasive man. He was also a well musician and improviser. Although his personal life was kept a secret, it is a fact that he surrounded himself with men throughout his life. It is believed that he was a homosexual
Professional Life
There was a workshop in Florence where Leonardo started his apprenticeship. It was a workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio and he started there in 1466. Verrocchio was a sculptor, painter, goldsmith, bronze caster and more. He was the most gifted artist in Florence. Leonardo was very much inspired by Verrocchio. There were other famous artists that worked with Leonardo such as Botticelli, Perugino, and Lorenzo di Credi. Leonardo mixed colors and painted simple parts of paintings at the beginning of his apprenticeship. Between 1466 and 1472, where there was no works of him, he taught himself how to paint in oils. Leonardo was listed in the red book of painters from Florence in June 1472. This ended his apprenticeship but he did not leave the workshop. Before he moved to France, he painted for many people in Italy from 1499 to 1516. This was known as the nomadic period. Such paintings were the Mona Lisa, 1510-1506, or The Virgin of the Rocks, 1508.Leonardo lived in Rome from 1513 to 1516. While he was there, there were painter like Raphael and Michelangelo were active but Leonardo had little contact with them.
Golden Years
An invitation to let Leonardo spend his last life span in Amboise at the court of France was given by King Francis I. Leonardo appeared at Amboise in the autumn of 1516. The small castle Cloux, which is now called Le Clos Luce, was settled between the town and the king castle. This is where Leonardo lived and he did not do any painting here. Instead, he did hydrological studies. Leonardo appeared to have had paralysis on the right side of his body since 1517. Weeks before Leonardo’s death, Vasari, a historian, told about his illness. Leonardo wrote his last will on April 23, 1519. Leonardo died on May 2 1519. He was buried in the cloister of San Fiorentino and later was transferred to the Chapel of St. Hubert because of the destruction of the church. Leonardo is best remembered for painting the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper but is also famous for his multiple talents.
Works Cited
Martin Kausal, Leonardo da Vinci, http://www.kausal.com/leonardo/index.html, 17 October 2005
Wikipedia/ Leonardo da Vinci, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_vinci, 17 October 2005
Emil Kren and Daniel Marx, Web Gallery of Art/Leonardo da Vinci Biography, http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/l/leonardo/biograph.html, 20 October 2005