Leonardo DA VINCI (b. 1452, Vinci, Republic of Florence [now in Italy]--d. May 2, 1519, Cloux, Fr.

), Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized theRenaissance humanist ideal. His Last Supper (1495-97) and Mona Lisa (1503-06) are among the most widely popular and influential paintings of the Renaissance. His notebooks reveal a spirit of scientific inquiry and a mechanical inventiveness that were centuries ahead of his time.

Ginevra de' Benci

The Adoration of the Magi

Lady with an Ermine

Madonna Litta

The Last Supper

The Virgin of the Rocks

Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo Da Vinci (b.1458 April 15th-d.1519) was a visionary genius centuries ahead of his school mates. Da Vinci not only produced some of the worlds greatest works of art and conceptual sketches, but this Study Crammer was also a vegetarian and a left hander! Da Vinci was born in 1458 in Vinci, Italy the illegitimate child of a notary and a poor farmer girl. HIs illegitimacy disqualified him from inheritance and constrained him from higher education relegating him to become a tradesman. Leonardo was also not allowed to take his fathers surname. 'Da Vinci' actually means "from Vinci" i.e. Leonardo actually has no conventional surname. In his teens, Leonardo moved with his father to Florence. Here he became an art apprentice to a Guild. He was exposed to metallurgy, mechanics, sculpting, and the business of selling art by commission to wealthy patrons. Da Vinci worked tirelessly. He sketched fabrics draped into complex folds then moved his light source and drew them again to learn the effects of light and shade. Leonardo also carried a sketchpad on his person and would sketch notable persons and events that caught his eye as he traversed through town. He was described as being handsome, well groomed, and intelligent. By 24 years old Leonardo Da Vinci transformed himself from an illegitimate nonentity in the eyes of Italian society, to an acclaimed artist recognized by the Medicis, the most powerful family in Florence at that time. In 1482, at 30 years old, Da Vinci left his secure job as court painter and moved to the military city of Milan to reinvent himself as a military engineer. Here he drew revolutionary designs for prototypes for the modern tank, helicopter, siege machines, and created his famous painting The Last Supper. In 1502, Da Vinci became Chief General Engineer to the despot Cesare Borgia. He supervised construction of defenses, towers, weapons and painted aerial maps. Da Vinci quickly found himself unable to stomach the realities of war and moved on. 1503 at 45 Leonardo painted The Mona Lisa and spent his time between Milan, Florence and Rome. In 1507 Da Vinci moved to France to take his final job as the Kind of France's favorite painter, engineer and architect. At 65 he suffered a stroke. He died at 67 in his sleep. He never married or had kids. He left behind an eclectic collection of sketches, notes, schematics, and reflections comprising over 15, 000 pages of notes made in mirror handwriting written from R to L, which collectively are called the Da Vinci Notebooks.