Leonardo Da Vinci Biography

Biography of a Mathematician
Introduction
Leonardo da Vinci was a great mathematician whose contributions to the discipline were immense, especially in the field of geometry. Besides being a mathematician, Leonardo da Vinci was a renowned painter, inventor, architect, and a student of scientific concepts (Cremante, Leonardo & Pedretti, 2005). Since Leonardo’s natural genius encompassed several disciplines, he personified the term “Renaissance man.” At present, Leonardo is best acknowledged for his art masterpieces, particularly the “The Last Supper” and “Mona Lisa” that are still among the worlds most renowned and admired (Cremante et al., 2005). In all his works, Leonardo believed that there is a significant connection between art, science
He was born to Ser Piero, a respected Florentine notary, and Caterina, a young peasant woman (Bortolon, 1967). Having been born out of wedlock, Leonardo was raised by his father along with his stepmothers. At five, he relocated to his father’s family land that was close to Vinci, the Tuscan town from which Leonardo’s surname was derived, and stayed with his grandparents and uncle (Bortolon, 1967). Even though his artistic gifts were apparent from an early age, the young Leonardo got a little formal education outside the basic reading, writing, and mathematical instructions. He later started a long apprenticeship with Andrea del Verrocchio, a noted artist in Florence. Under Andrea, he learned several technical skills such as metalworking, carpentry, leather arts, sculpting, drawing, and painting. In 1473, Leonardo sketched the scenery in the Arno valley, his first known dated work, using a pen and ink.
At the age of 20, Leonardo qualified for master artist membership with Florence’s Guild of Saint Luke where he set up his workshop (Cremante et al., 2005). However, he kept on working together with his teacher for an extra five years. It is believed that Verrocchio’s work “Baptism of Christ” was completed around 1475 with Leonardo’s help. Leonardo painted a section of the background as well as the young angel clinging to Jesus’ robe. According to
Leonardo had an understanding of higher mathematics but never knew how to put it into the academic structure of numbers as in the contemporary mathematics (Cremante et al., 2005). Even after learning the mathematical language, Leonardo preferred using geographical shapes to compute equations, and this enlisted his artist abilities. In mathematics, Leonardo's major pursuit was in the exploration of the concept of spatial mechanics and proportionality (Lucertini et al., 2004). The reason Leonardo preferred using drawings in mathematics is that pure mathematics excludes the incomprehensible characteristics of reality that are better described by drawing. Since mathematics is a tool for producing outcomes, Leonardo chose to draw as his key tool in executing his proportionality and spatial awareness studies that were applied in his engineering