Da Vinci" redirects here.
For other uses, see Da Vinci (disambiguation) and Leonardo da
Vinci (disambiguation).
In this Renaissance Florentine name, the name da Vinci is an indicator of birthplace, not
a family name; the person is properly referred to by the given name, Leonardo.
Leonardo da Vinci
Portrait attributed to Francesco Melzi[1]
Lionardo di ser Piero da Vinci[2]
Born
14/15 April 1452
Vinci, Republic of Florence (present-day Italy)
2 May 1519 (aged 67)
Died
Clos Lucé, Amboise, Kingdom of France
Art (painting, drawing, sculpting), science, engineering, architecture,
Known for
anatomy
Mona Lisa
The Last Supper
Lady with an Ermine
Works
Virgin of the Rocks
The Vitruvian Man
Salvator Mundi
Movement High Renaissance
Signature
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (Italian: [leoˈnardo di ˌsɛr ˈpjɛːro da (v)ˈvintʃi] ( listen); 14/15
April 1452[a] – 2 May 1519),[3] known as Leonardo da Vinci (English: / ˌliːə
ˈnɑːrdoʊ də ˈvɪntʃi , ˌliːoʊˈ -, ˌleɪoʊˈ -/ LEE-ə-NAR-doh də VIN-chee, LEE-oh-, LAY-oh-),[4] was
an Italian polymath of the Renaissance whose areas of interest included invention, drawing,
painting, sculpture, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature,
anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, paleontology, and cartography. He has been variously
called the father of palaeontology, ichnology, and architecture, and is widely considered one
of the greatest painters of all time (despite perhaps only 15 of his paintings having survived).
[b]
Born out of wedlock to a notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman, Caterina, in Vinci, in
the region of Florence, Italy, Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Italian
painter Andrea del Verrocchio. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service
of Ludovico il Moro in Milan, and he later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice. He spent his
last three years in France, where he died in 1519.
Leonardo is renowned primarily as a painter. The Mona Lisa is the most famous of his works
and the most popular portrait ever made. [5] The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious
painting of all time[6] and his Vitruvian Man drawing is regarded as a cultural icon as well.
[7] Salvator Mundi was sold for a world record $450.3 million at a Christie's auction in New
York, 15 November 2017, the highest price ever paid for a work of art.[8] Leonardo's paintings
and preparatory drawings—together with his notebooks, which contain sketches, scientific
diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting—compose a contribution to later
generations of artists rivalled only by that of his contemporary Michelangelo.[9]
Although he had no formal academic training,[10] many historians and scholars regard
Leonardo as the prime exemplar of the "Universal Genius" or "Renaissance Man", an
individual of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination." [6] He is widely
considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived. [11] According to
art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent in
recorded history, and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, while the man
himself mysterious and remote."[6] Scholars interpret his view of the world as being based in
logic, though the empirical methods he used were unorthodox for his time. [12]
Leonardo is revered for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualized flying machines, a
type of armoured fighting vehicle, concentrated solar power, an adding machine, [13] and the
double hull. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or even feasible during his
lifetime, as the modern scientific approaches to metallurgy and engineering were only in
their infancy during the Renaissance. Some of his smaller inventions, however, entered the
world of manufacturing unheralded, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for
testing the tensile strength of wire. He is also sometimes credited with the inventions of the
parachute, helicopter, and tank.[14][15] He made substantial discoveries in anatomy, civil
engineering, geology, optics, and hydrodynamics, but he did not publish his findings and they
had little to no direct influence on subsequent science.[16]
Contents
1 Life
1.1 Early life
1.2 Verrocchio's workshop
1.3 Professional life
1.4 Old age and death
2 Relationships and influences
2.1 Artistic and social background
2.2 Personal life
2.3 Assistants and pupils
3 Painting
3.1 Early works
3.2 Paintings of the 1480s
3.3 Paintings of the 1490s
3.4 Paintings of the 16th century
4 Drawings
5 Journals and notes
5.1 Scientific studies
5.2 Anatomy and physiology
5.3 Engineering and inventions
6 Fame and reputation
7 Location of remains
8 Art market
9 See also
10 Notes
11 References
11.1 Sources
12 Further reading
13 External links
Life
Leonardo was born out of wedlock to notary Piero da Vinci and a peasant woman named
Caterina in Vinci in the region of Florence, and he was educated in the studio of Florentine
painter Andrea del Verrocchio. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service
of Ludovico il Moro in Milan. He later worked in Rome, Bologna, and Venice, and he spent his
last years in France at the home awarded to him by Francis I.
Early life
Leonardo's childhood home in Anchiano, Vinci, Italy
Leonardo was born on 14/15 April 1452[a] in the Tuscan hill town of Vinci, in the lower valley
of the Arno river in the territory of the Medici-ruled Republic of Florence.[19] He was the out-
of-wedlock son of Messer Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci, a wealthy Florentine legal
notary, and a peasant named Caterina, [c] identified as Caterina Buti del Vacca and more
recently as Caterina di Meo Lippi by historian Martin Kemp. There have been many theories
regarding Leonardo's mother's identity, including that she was a slave of foreign origin or an
impoverished local youth.[18][21][22][23][d] Leonardo had no surname in the modern sense—da
Vinci simply meaning "of Vinci"; his full birth name was Lionardo di ser Piero da Vinci, [2]
[26] meaning "Leonardo, (son) of ser Piero from Vinci." [19][e]
Leonardo spent his first years in the hamlet of Anchiano in the home of his mother, and from
at least 1457 lived in the household of his father, grandparents and uncle in the small town of
Vinci.[27] His father had married a 16-year-old girl named Albiera Amadori, who loved
Leonardo but died young[28] in 1465 without children. In 1468, when Leonardo was 16, his
father married again to 20-year-old Francesca Lanfredini, who also died without children.
Piero's legitimate heirs were born from his third wife Margherita di Guglielmo, who gave birth
to six children, and his fourth and final wife, Lucrezia Cortigiani, who bore him another six
heirs.[29][30] In all, Leonardo had 12 half-siblings, who were much younger than he was (the
last was born when Leonardo was 40 years old) and with whom he had very little contact. [f]
Leonardo received an informal education in Latin, geometry and mathematics. In later life,
Leonardo recorded few distinct childhood incidents. One was of a kite coming to his cradle
and opening his mouth with its tail; he regarded this as an omen of his writing on the subject.
[32][33] The second occurred while he was exploring in the mountains: he discovered a cave
and was both terrified that some great monster might lurk there and driven by curiosity to
find out what was inside.[28] He also seems to have remembered some of his childhood
observations of water, writing and crossing out the name of his hometown in one of his
notebooks on the formation of rivers.[27]
Leonardo's early life has been the subject of historical conjecture. [34] Vasari, the 16th-century
biographer of Renaissance painters, tells a story of Leonardo as a very young man: A local
peasant made himself a round shield and requested that Ser Piero have it painted for him.
Leonardo, inspired by the story of Medusa, responded with a painting of a monster spitting
fire that was so terrifying that his father bought a different shield to give to the peasant and
sold Leonardo's to a Florentine art dealer for 100 ducats, who in turn sold it to the Duke of
Milan.[35]
Verrocchio's workshop
