Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest artists
of all time. He is remembered not only as a painter, but also as a sculptor,
musician, inventor, astronomer, scientist and engineer.
Leonardo was
born in 1452, in Vinci, Italy. As a young boy, he showed a talent for mathematics
and painting. His father took him to Florence, Italy,
to study painting and engineering. Florence was a city where many well-known
artists lived. Leonardo became well-known in Florence
as a gifted young painter. Soon he was painting better than his teachers.
In 1472, at the age of twenty, Leonardo was asked to
join the painter's guild in Florence. This was an honor for Leonardo to be
officially accepted by so many other great artists.
When Leonardo
was thirty years old, he decided to move to Milan, Italy. He began working
for the Duke of Milan, who wanted to make Milan a beautiful
and famous city like Florence.
While in Milan,
Leonardo painted one of the most famous paintings in history—"The Last Supper."
"The Last
Supper" was painted on the wall of a small church near the duke's castle.
People came from many countries to see the painting.
The King of France liked the painting so much that he wanted to move the
entire church back to France. Today the painting is still found on the wall
of the little church in Italy.
In 1499, Leonardo
returned to Florence. Here he painted his other famous painting, the "Mona
Lisa." The "Mona Lisa" was a painting of a twenty-four
year old wife of a wealthy merchant. Her name was Lisa del Gioconda. The
painting is famous for
Lisa's mysterious smile. For centuries, people have
wondered what her smile really meant.
Leonardo is
remembered for other contributions, such as sketch designs for flying machines
long before anyone ever believed man could fly. Leonardo
also drew detailed sketche of the human body and how it worked. He wrote
thousands of pages of notes on mathematics and science
Sometimes he even wrote his notes backwards and read them with a mirror!
Many of Leonardo's
sketches and notes have been used through the years to help scientists and
inventors make new
discoveries.
