Mister

Tony Chen 5/5/11
Mr. Solowey
Renaissance- Leonardo da Vinci Perhaps when everyone hears this name the idea of genius and the painter of Mona Lisa come to mind. Nor is he only a genius and the painter of Mona Lisa but he is a very multi-talented person. The type on art Leonardo used was known as “chiaroscuro” a color shading technique. Leonardo was not a proud man as he said “I have offended God and mankind because my work didn’t reach the quality it should have.” Brainyquote.com 2001-2011 even though Leonardo was a genius he could see himself as an even better person.
Leonardo da Vinci was born with the full name of Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci on April 15, 1452 a Wednesday 3 o’clock in the morning or what other people dispute what is 10:30 p.m. He was born to a notary by the name of Ser Piero and a peasant girl called Catherina at Vinci, at the Val d’ Arno in Anachino. Not much was known about Leonardo’s youth. In his childhood Leonardo only recorded events one was about a kite and how it was an omen and the other one was about a cave and how he thought there were monsters in the cave but he ended up entering the cave anyways out of curiosity. Leonardo’s family had many problems; his mother remarried to a cow herder and left the family and his father also remarried to a wealthy family. After the family got separated, he spent his childhood on his father’s side as noticed in Leonardo’s grandfather’s notes that he was baptized and raised in his father’s house. The first signs of Leonardo’s genius were shown when he showed special talents in his youth. He was quick at music; he could play the lyre and other instruments, he could also sing very well. Leonardo was also really good in math and good at drawing as he was said to be sketching animals and birds in his youth.
Then in 1466, when Leonardo was 14 years old, Leonardo’s father who noticed his talent, decided to send him to Andrea Verrocchio, a Florentine artist who had many talents, to become his apprentice. After becoming Verrocchio’s apprentice he quickly became Verrocchio’s top student and learned many of his studies from. The first painting Leonardo officially worked with Verrocchio was the Baptism of Christ in 1476. And the first painting Leonardo worked on by himself was the Madonna and the child in 1478. Later on in 1480 when Leonardo was 28 years old, he joined the Company of Painters where he ended his apprenticeship but remained at his master’s workplace for work. Then in 1481 he finished painting the Annunciation which is still located today in Louvre, France. After all the paintings and works done in Florence, Leonardo moved to Milan in 1482 to work for Duke Ludovico. Leonardo stayed there to become a technical advisor as he was the architect, engineer, weapon and hydraulics developer. During the time at Milan, Leonardo was able to finish painting The Last Supper and The Virgin of the Rocks. Leonardo also tried to make a bronze horse but the plan failed after the bronze was needed to make the cannons. Then in 1500 Duke Ludovico fell and Leonardo left France and went back to Italy to Mandau and Venice for some months. After those months, Leonardo went back to Florence, and worked for with some high officials while concentrating studying on mathematics. However during his time not working with the high officials, Leonardo discovered cartographic techniques for the maps and also finished painting the Mona Lisa. Then later on in his time in Florence, Leonardo also became interested in science and his excellent artistic view helped support this. With his talent in art and science enabled him to study about the human body. Not did this only help him study the human body but many other natural phenomena .These enabled Leonardo to gather around many vast amounts of ideas of in science. Then Leonardo returns back to Milan in 1508 when he was 56 years old because, King Louis XII had admired him and wanted him to advice on architecture. So Governor Charles d’Amboise hired him to come to Milan. But meanwhile when Leonardo stayed at Milan as an architect, he was able to study more about science and anatomy. Later on he corroborated with Marcantonio Della Torre to study more about Anatomy. Later on this gave interest to Leonardo and he himself went on to study about botanical, mathematical, optical, mechanical and geological studies. Later on after having the studied all of this he came to conclusions and discovered the some of laws of nature and physics. Then by 1513, the French were forced to leave Milan and Leonardo decided to go back to Italy to go to Rome and tried to find employment through his patron Giuliano de Medici, the brother of the pope. But during his time in Rome Leonardo felt underemployed because Rome was full of young and ambitious people that Leonardo could not compete with so he decided to go to France where King Francis I invited Leonardo to stay at his summer palace in Cloux where he stayed for the rest of his life. Leonardo’s final work was the Visions of the End of the World also known as the Deluge. On May 2, 1592 Leonardo da Vinci died at the age of 67 in Cloux and was carried by 60 beggars and was buried in the Church of Saint Florentine.
Leonardo said that “Art is never finished, only abandoned” brainyquote.com, 2001-2011. I think what Leonardo was trying to say was that art can never be finish if it is not perfect.

http://italian.classic-literature.co.uk/leonardo-da-vinci/leonardo-da-vinci.asp http://neohumanism.org/m/mo/mona_lisa.html http://italian.classic-literature.co.uk/leonardo-da-vinci/leonardo-da-vinci.asp
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/l/leonardo_da_vinci.htm