Perhaps best known for his paintings Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci lived from 1452 to 1519 and was a painter, architect, inventor, and science student. He was the epitome of a Renaissance man. He was mostly self-educated and kept a notebook full of his inventions, observations, and theories.
Early Life and Training
Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 in Anchiano, Tuscany, near the town of Vinci. He was at the time known as Leonardo or Il Florentine since he lived near Florence. He was a famous artist, inventor, and thinker. His parents were not married, and his sister married while he was young. His father was Ser Peiro, an attorney and notary, and Leonardo began living on his estate when he was five. His uncle also helped raise him, and they shared a love of nature.
Early Career
Leonardo da Vinci didn’t receive a formal education beyond the basics of reading, writing, and math. However, his father recognized his talent and apprenticed him to a famous sculptor and painter, Andrea del Verrocchio, when he was 15. Da Vinci stayed with him for around ten years and was trained in mechanical arts and refined his skills.
When he turned 20, he was offered membership in the painter’s guild of Florence and he was first commissioned in 1482, The Adoration of the Magi for a Scopeto monastery, San Donato in Florence. He didn’t complete it because he was relocated to Milan to work for the Sforza clan as an engineer, painter, sculptor, architect, and designer of court festivals. While there, he spent 12 years on a 16-foot tall equestrian statue in bronze, but it was destroyed in 1499.
The Last Supper and Mona Lisa
Few of da Vinci’s paintings and sculptures survived, but two of them are among the most highly respected and well-known paintings. The Last Supper was painted between 1495 and 1498, and it is a tempera and oil mural on plaster. It was created for the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie for their refectory. It is also known as the Cenacle, and it measures 15 by 29 feet. It is his only surviving fresco.
Mona Lisa was painted between 1503 and 1506, and the woman depicted has been the subject of speculation for centuries.