Free Essays on Da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci is one of the greatest and most ingenious men that history has produced. His contributions in the areas of art, science, and humanity are still among the most important that a single man has put forth, definitely making his a life worth knowing. Da Vinci, born on April 15, 1452, is credited with being a master painter, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer, and scientist. He was born an illegitimate child to Catherina, a peasant girl. His father was Ser Piero da Vinci, a public notary for the city of Florence, Italy. For the first four years of his life he lived with his mother in the small village of Vinci, directly outside of the great center of the Renaissance, Florence. Catherina was a poor woman, with possible artistic talent, the genetic basis of Leonardo’s talents. Upon the realization of Leonardo’s potential, his father took the boy to live with him and his wife in Florence (Why did). This was the start of the boy’s education and his q uest for knowledge. Leonardo was recognized by many to be a â€Å"Renaissance child† because of his many talents. As a boy, Leonardo was described as being handsome, strong, and agile. He had keen powers of observation, an imagination, and the ability to detach himself from the world around him. At an early age Leonardo became interested in subjects such as botany, geology, animals (specifically birds), the motion of water, and shadows (About Leonardo). At the age of 17, in about 1469, Leonardo was apprenticed as a garzone (studio boy) to Andrea del Verrocchio, the leading Florentine painter and sculptor of his day. In Verrocchio’s workshop Leonardo was introduced to many techniques, from the painting of altarpieces and panel pictures to the creation of large sculptural projects in marble and bronze. In 1472 he was accepted in the painter’s guild of Florence, and worked there for about six years. While there, Leonardo often painted portions of Verrocchio’ s paintings f... Free Essays on Da Vinci Free Essays on Da Vinci Leonardo Da Vinci is one of the greatest and most ingenious men that history has produced. His contributions in the areas of art, science, and humanity are still among the most important that a single man has put forth, definitely making his a life worth knowing. Da Vinci, born on April 15, 1452, is credited with being a master painter, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer, and scientist. He was born an illegitimate child to Catherina, a peasant girl. His father was Ser Piero da Vinci, a public notary for the city of Florence, Italy. For the first four years of his life he lived with his mother in the small village of Vinci, directly outside of the great center of the Renaissance, Florence. Catherina was a poor woman, with possible artistic talent, the genetic basis of Leonardo’s talents. Upon the realization of Leonardo’s potential, his father took the boy to live with him and his wife in Florence (Why did). This was the start of the boy’s education and his q uest for knowledge. Leonardo was recognized by many to be a â€Å"Renaissance child† because of his many talents. As a boy, Leonardo was described as being handsome, strong, and agile. He had keen powers of observation, an imagination, and the ability to detach himself from the world around him. At an early age Leonardo became interested in subjects such as botany, geology, animals (specifically birds), the motion of water, and shadows (About Leonardo). At the age of 17, in about 1469, Leonardo was apprenticed as a garzone (studio boy) to Andrea del Verrocchio, the leading Florentine painter and sculptor of his day. In Verrocchio’s workshop Leonardo was introduced to many techniques, from the painting of altarpieces and panel pictures to the creation of large sculptural projects in marble and bronze. In 1472 he was accepted in the painter’s guild of Florence, and worked there for about six years. While there, Leonardo often painted portions of Verrocchio’ s paintings f... Free Essays on Da Vinci Da Vinci I chose Leonardo Da Vinci as the greatest renissance personality. I chose Da Vinci because he made many contributions to the time period. Da Vinci was an artist, a scientist, and a philosopher. A lot of the famous artists and thinkers of the time weren’t recognized as being great for many years after their death. The kings and other important people of the time recognized Da Vinci as a great artist. This is why I chose Da Vinci as the greatest renissance personality. Leonardo Da Vinci was born in 1452 on his father’s estate in Vinci, Italy. At 15 his father had noticed Leonardo’s potential and had decided to send him to be an apprentice to the artist Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence. This was also when he first developed an interest in anatomy. In 1482, Leonardo was hired by the duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, to be artist and engineer. He stayed in Milan for seventeen years. There he completed five paintings: two portraits of the 'Last Supper', two versions of 'The Virgin of the Rocks', and a decorative ceiling painting in the Castello Sforzesco. In Florence, he was commissioned to do a number of paintings, but other interests and tasks kept him from finishing them. The most well known piece to survive from this time period was the famous "Mona Lisa". During the years 1513 to 1516, Leonardo was in Rome at the invitation of Cardinal Giuliano de' Medici, brother of Pope Leo X. His work in painting and sculpture over the next seven years remained mostly in the planning stage. But his scientific work flourished. He continued his notebooks with observations and drawings of human anatomy, optics, mechanics, and botanical studies. In 1516, at the age of 65, he accepted an invitation from Francis I, king of France, to leave Italy and work for him. Leonardo spent the last three years of his life in the palace of Cloux, near the king's residence at Amboise, near Tours. He was given the title of "first painter, arch...