Leonardo da Vinci was an all around Renaissance Man, who accomplished many things during his life. He was a celebrated painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, scientist and inventor. Innovations of his paintings influenced Italian art a century after his death. His scientific studies such as anatomy, optics, and hydraulics led to the development of modern science. He was born in a town in Tuscany, near Florence. His dad was a wealthy Florentine notary, and his mom was peasant woman.
In the mid-1460s his family and he settled in Florence, where he was given the best education that a major intellectual and artistic center could offer. There he rapidly advanced socially and intellectually. At first he became an apprentice for Andrea del Verrocchio, the leading painter and sculptor at that time. Then in 1478 he became an independent master. He was first commissioned to paint an altarpiece for the chapel of the Palazzo Vecchio, the Florentine town hall, which was never executed. Other works that hes done in his youth are; Benois Madonna, Ginevra de Benci, and the Saint Jerome.
In about 1482 he went to work for Ludaico Sforza, the duke of Milan. He wrote the duke a letter that stated that he could build portable bridges and that he knew the techniques of constructing bombardments and making cannons. He also wrote that he could build ships as good as armored vehicles, catapults, and other war machines. He served as the principle engineer in the dukes military enterprises and was an active architect of his. While in Milan it was said that he had apprentices and pupils. The most important painting during the early Milan period was The Virgin of the Rocks.
Then from 1495 to 1497 he labored on The Last Supper, a mural in the refectory of the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. Unfortunately by the 1500 it had started to deteriorate because of his experimental use of oil on dry plaster. While he was in Milan, he produced other paintings and drawings, theater designs, architectural drawings, and models for the dome of Milan Cathedral. His largest commission while he was there was a bronze monument, made for the dukes father. He left the statue unfinished and returned to Florence in 1500.
In 1502 he entered the Cesare Borgia, duke of Romagna, also son of Pope Alexander VI. In 1503 he became a member of a commission of artists who were to decide on the proper location for the statue of David. He was an engineer in the war against Pisa too. He painted several portraits during his return, but the only one that became famous was the Mona Lisa. Also known as La Gioconda, after the name of the womans husband presumably. When he traveled he was said to have taken the portrait along with him. In 1506 he went to Milan again, at the summons of its French governor, Charles dAmboise.
The next year he was named court painter to king Louis XII of France. For the next six years his time was divided by Milan and Florence, where he visited his half brothers and sisters. Not to mention look after his inheritance. In Milan he continued working on his engineering projects and worked on an equestrian figure for a monument to Gian Giacomo Trivulzio. Then from 1514 to 1516 he lived in Rome under the patronage of Pope Leo X. After he left in 1516 he traveled to France to enter the service of King Francis I.
He spent his last years at the Chateau de Cloux, near Amboise, where he died. Before he died he had come up with many scientific and theoretical projects. He understood better than anyone of his century or the next, the importance of precise scientific observation. His theories are contained in numerous notebooks, most written in mirror script. Because they were not easily read, his findings were not disseminated in his own lifetime. If they were published they would have revolutionized the science of the 16th century.
Scientific discoveries of his anticipated many of modern times. He studied the circulation of the blood and action of the eye in anatomy. He made discoveries in meteorology and geology. He learned the effect of the moon on the tides. He was among the originators of the science of hydraulics and probably devised the hydrometer. He invented a large number of ingenious machines, many of them potentially useful. Among them an underwater diving suit. These are some of his most famous discoveries. As you can see he was a great painter and inventor, along with many other things.
