W.C leonardo davinci

        Leonardo da Vinci was an immensely talented painter, engineer, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, scientist and inventor lived during the Italian Renaissance. What is unique about Leonardo and make him an universal genius, is that he excelled at both technical and creative endeavors in a wide variety of fields. He completely embodies the notion of the inquisitive "Renaissance Man".

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 . Leonardo was the illegitimate son of Ser Piero da Vinci, a wealthy 25-year-old notary of Florence, and local peasant girl, who is only known by her first name, Caterina. Leonardo was born out of wedlock but his father took custody of the little fellow shortly after his birth.

  

    Leonardo never attended public school but growing up in his father's home he had access to scholarly texts owned by family and friends. Early sources describe his charm of manner, and precocious display of artistic talent. And he demonstrated a great talent for drawing. When Leonardo was 15, his father apprenticed him to Andrea del Verrocchio, the leading artist of Florence and the early Renaissance. He served at least ten years (1466-1476) as Garzone (apprentice) to Andrea del Verrocchio and painted details in Verrocchio's canvases. In 1475 da Vinci painted the kneeling angel on the left and the landscape of the Verrocchio's picture Baptism of Christ.

      With his paintings, he introduced new techniques, and researched concepts such as drawing in perspective.

   

     In 1472, he was accepted into the painter's guild of Florence and officially graduated from apprentice to master. After leaving Verrocchio's studio in 1478, Leonardo remained in Florence where he worked independently. His early paintings include Ginevra de Benu (1474), Adoration of the Magi (1481), Benois Madonna (1481), Saint Jerome (1481), and an altarpiece for the chapel of the Palazzo Vecchio. The unfinished Adoration of the Magi is the most important of all the early paintings.

About 1482 Leonardo became the court artist for the duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza and spent 17 years working for him. Da Vinci wrote the duke an astonishing letter in which he claimed that he could build portable bridges, ships, armored vehicles, and other war machines, and that he could execute sculpture in marble, bronze, and clay. In Milan he served at the same time as a military engineer, architect and artist.

      

    During his long stay in Milan, da Vinci painted The Virgin of the Rocks and The Last Supper. He also produced many other paintings and drawings (most of which have been lost), theater designs, architectural drawings, domed churches, fortresses and canals. His largest commission was for a colossal bronze monument of Sforza's father on horseback, that Leonardo never finished.

          

         While working on The Battle of Anghiari, the French governor of Milan hired Leonardo, and once again Da Vinci abandoned his project to begin employment elsewhere.

          

      One of Leonardo's great accomplishment, which still so fascinate the world, is the famous Mona Lisa (originally called La Gioconda). Even more captivating to the imagination of many is the controversial self-portrait da Vinci sketched in his later years. Its structural similarity to the face of the Mona Lisa has long held the interest of artists and scientists. To this day no one knows whether the woman in the painting was a real person, Leonardo seems to have had a special affection for the picture, for he took it with him on all of his subsequent travels.hs another famous work was " the last supper" which took him 3 years to complete,its secrete was not know at that time.

secret of the last supper.

Besides being a skillful artist, Leonardo was also known as a remarkable inventor, and a brilliant scientist. Leonardo designed a myriad of inventions, although few of these designs were constructed in his lifetime. In his later years, he devoted a substantial amount of time to carefully constructed notebooks filled with scientific notations and compelling sketches, all precisely inscribed backwards , so that they can only be read with the aid of a mirror.

He sketched designs of many different flying machines. Leonardo designed an flying machine that bears a striking resemblance to modern helicopters.

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              One of his most complete scientific achievements was in geology. Many scientists, as late as the nineteenth century, refused to believe that the world was not created as we see it, but that it had formed over many years. Most believed in the 'biblical' age of the earth, some 4 000 years. Yet 300 years earlier, Da Vinci had already formulated the idea of geological time, following his involvement in canal building and his insatiable curiosity that led him to investigate the exposed rocks. His observations led him to believe that valleys are carved by rivers, that the sea-level can fall to reveal mountains, and that this all happened over a huge period of time.

              After the death of Giuliano dei Medici, Leonardo accepted an invitation from Francis I, king of France, to leave Italy and work for him. At the age of 67, in 1519, while living in France, Leonardo Da Vinci died and was buried in the church of Saint-Forentine in Amboise. 

sources

 www.mos.org/leonardo/bio.html

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci

www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/projects/renaissance/davinci.html

www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/art/artyfacts/davinci/davinci_life.shtml.