By simply applying science to each sphere, Leonardo da Vinci left a legacy that has survived several centuries of invention. Although Leonardo da Vinci is self-taught, his creativity has made him one of the most imaginative men in history.
Although he only completed a few of his paintings, the iconic artist is best known for his expressive artwork. Learn about the influential life of the talented artist, scientist and inventor.
Da Vinci’s early years
The famous artist was born Leonardo di ser Pieroda Vinci, that is Leonardo, son of Messer Piero from Vinci, on April 15, 1452 in the Tuscan hill town of Vinci. He is the illegitimate son of the Florentine notary Messer Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci and the peasant girl Caterina. His father and mother were never married and Leonardo was their only child together. However, he had other half-siblings from each of his parents’ marriages to other partners.
Not much is known about the early life of Leonardo. He spent his childhood years in Anchiano before spending the rest of his formative years on his father’s estate in Vinci. Da Vinci had no formal education, but that didn’t leave him handicapped. In his youth Leonardo was trained in Florence by Andrea del Verrocchio, one of the most successful sculptors and painters of his time, before gaining his independence in 1478. He later moved to Milan to work as an engineer, sculptor, painter and architect for the ruling Sforza family.
works and heritage
A multifaceted personality, Leonardo Da Vinci is undoubtedly one of the greatest contemporary painters. His earliest known drawing dates from the early 1470s. Da Vinci’s overall output was quite small as only a few of his paintings and sculptures survive. Yet two of his works leave the world in awe and admiration. The Mona Lisa and the Last Supper are uniquely the most famous and reproduced portraits of all time.
A Milan-inspired work of art, Da Vinci’s The Last Supper was painted between 1495 and 1498. La Gioconda, popularly known as the Mona Lisa, depicting a woman with a mysterious slight smile, was painted around 1503 and 1506. The rare drawing is currently housed in the Louvre in Paris, France, where it attracts millions of visitors from around the world each year.
Though regarded primarily as an artist given the Da Vinci, famous for his surviving paintings, was a brilliant mind whose interests were so broad that he reached new heights in both art and science. He expressed science through art – in his drawings and diagrams. His painting was scientific, with a deep understanding of the physics of light and shadow, as well as anatomy, how the human body works. Da Vinci worked and advanced knowledge in a number of scientific fields.
His technical ideas were far ahead of his time, since his designs could hardly be realized during his lifetime. Da Vinci failed to complete a large number of his paintings and projects, a situation that many attribute to his many different interests. He would have been undeniably considered a pioneering scientist if all his work had been completed and published.
notebooks and collections
In the early 1490s, Leonardo Da Vinci began documenting his ideas on subjects ranging from nature to mechanics in meticulously illustrated notebooks. Most of his illustrations were written in codes (left-handed mirror writing) that are not easily deciphered by others.
After da Vinci’s death the various codices and manuscripts were scattered, but fortunately they are now safe in the museum collections. Bill Gates reportedly once paid $30 million for one of the collections – the Codex Leicester.
Leonardo Da Vinci’s Sexuality
The man had an ambivalent attitude towards sex. He is known to be vegetarian, gay and extravagant in his clothes (he had a fondness for pink). In 1476, Leonardo and three other young men, including a 17-year-old, were accused of sodomy. Luckily for the artist, one of the young men he was accused of having had ties to the Medici family, the case was dropped and all four men acquitted. In addition, Leonardo shows in his works that his depictions of men are more erotic than those of women.
His death
Da Vinci returned to Milan in the early 16th century and stayed there until 1513. For the next three years he lived in the Belvedere in the Vatican, Rome. Vinci spent his last years in France in the company of his bosom friend and apprentice, Count Francesco Melzi, to whom he left his entire estate. The legendary artist died on May 2, 1519 and was buried in the castle church of Saint-Florentin.