Leonardo da Vinci

Background

Leonardo Da Vinci wrote his notebooks in mirrored writing for unknown purposes, leaving him mysterious. In addition to being an artist, he was an engineer, thinker, and inventor. He is referred to as Leonardo rather than da Vinci. Da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, apparently in the village of Anchiano, to Ser Piero da Vinci, a notary and later chancellor of Florence, and Caterina Lippi, an unmarried peasant girl. Da Vinci was the only child of Ser Piero da Vinci and Caterina Lippi. He did not attend traditional education, and he spent his adolescence experimenting and exploring, meticulously recording his findings in a series of diaries that have since been discovered.

Da Vinci came to Florence when he was 14 years old to undertake an apprenticeship with Andrea del Verrocchio, an artist who had previously studied under Donatello, the maestro of the Early Renaissance. Verrocchio was an artist at the court of the Medici, a powerful family with political involvement and patronage of the arts, and who advocated for the Renaissance is often attributed. Da Vinci was fortunate to be born at a time and location where he could fully use his incredible abilities. Supported by the art-loving Medici dynasty now in power in Italy, the Renaissance blossomed throughout the mid-1400s. People began to appreciate Greek and Roman art in a new light, while the development of scientific equipment and mathematics sparked an interest in perspective. Da Vinci and his contemporaries wanted to achieve beauty on par with the ancients. Still, at the same time, they were striving to be more accurate and realistic than their predecessors.

Da Vinci started working on the “Mona Lisa” around 1503. While living and working in Rome from 1513 to 15, he was employed by the Pope and worked on several papal-related projects. Despite the Pope’s prohibition against dissecting cadavers, he continued to study human anatomy and physiology. France’s King Francis I awarded him the title of “Premier Painter and Engineer and Architect of the King” in 1516 when his patron Giuliano de’ Medici died. In his final and arguably most lavish patron, Francis I, Leonardo received a stipend and a manor residence near Amboise’s royal palace. Da Vinci was able to teach and draw despite his right-hand paralysis. His many accomplishments were drawings of the Virgin Mary, St. Anne, cats, horses, dragons, St. George, and anatomical studies. He also drew the deluge and different machines and researched the origin of water and nature.