Leonardo da Vinci

Lore & Background

Leonardo was born out of wedlock to a successful notary and a lower-class woman in or near Vinci. He was educated in Florence by Andrea del Verrocchio. He began his career in Florence, then spent much time in the service of Ludovico Sforza in Milan, later working in Florence and Milan again, as well as briefly in Rome, attracting a large following of imitators and students. Upon the invitation of Francis I, he spent his last three years in France, where he died in 1519.

His early life is shrouded in myth, partly due to Giorgio Vasari's biography. Tax records indicate he lived in his paternal grandfather's household by at least 1457. He received only a basic informal education, possibly because his artistic talents were recognised early. Around age 14 he became a garzone in Verrocchio's workshop, remaining in training for seven years, where he was exposed to theoretical training and technical skills including drafting, chemistry, metallurgy, and woodwork. By 1472, at age 20, he qualified as a master in the Guild of Saint Luke.

Reader's Guide

Leonardo is identified as one of the greatest painters in Western art history and is often credited as the founder of the High Renaissance. Despite having many lost works and fewer than 25 attributed major works – including numerous unfinished works – he created some of the most influential paintings in the Western canon. The Mona Lisa is his best known work and is regarded as the world's most famous individual painting. The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting of all time, and his Vitruvian Man drawing is also regarded as a cultural icon. In 2017, Salvator Mundi, attributed in whole or part to Leonardo, sold at auction for US$450.3 million, setting a record for the most expensive painting ever sold at public auction.

Revered for his technological ingenuity, he conceptualised flying machines, an armoured fighting vehicle, concentrated solar power, a ratio machine usable in an adding machine, and the double hull. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or feasible during his lifetime. Some smaller inventions, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing tensile strength of wire, entered manufacturing unheralded. He made substantial discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, hydrodynamics, geology, optics, and tribology, but did not publish his findings, so they had little direct influence on subsequent science.

Did You Know?

• Leonardo was born out of wedlock to a successful notary and a lower-class woman.
• He recorded an earliest memory of a kite coming to his cradle and opening his mouth with its tail.
• He qualified as a master in the Guild of Saint Luke by 1472 at age 20.
• Salvator Mundi, attributed in whole or part to Leonardo, sold at auction in 2017 for US$450.3 million.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian Renaissance painter, architect, inventor, engineer, scientist, sculptor, and musician. His best known painting is the Mona Lisa." — Leonardo da Vinci "The painter strives and competes with nature...There is nothing in all nature without its reason. If you know the reason, you do not need the experience..." — Leonardo da Vinci "Look at the grace and sweetness of men and women in the street..." — Leonardo da Vinci "Thou, O God, sellest us all benefits, at the cost of our toil...." — Leonardo da Vinci