Leonardo da Vinci


 
 
Since Leonardo was a vegetarian, one of his quotes was
"Art is never finished, only abandoned," and
"It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things."
  On a very fine day, April 15, 1452 a baby was born in a farmhouse in a small town called, Vinci. The baby's father was a wealthy Florentine notary and his mother, a peasant woman. That birth was the birth of a wonderful artist and musician... Leonardo da Vinci. In the mid-1460's the family moved to a city named, Florence. There Leonardo went to school to the finest education a little guy could ask for, a major artistic center located in Italy. After a while, da Vinci rapidly started to advance in knowledge and as well as socially. As the young boy began to grow into a young man, Leonardo was handsome, persuasive and an awesome musician and improviser. What had gotten Vinci started with his beautiful paintings was on one special day in 1466 he was apprenticed as a garzone (a stable boy)to a man named Andrea del Verocchio, who was leading Florentine painter and sculptor during their time. In this leaders' workshop, Leonardo was introduced to many new activities, from some famous paintings of altarpieces and panel pieces to the creation of the large sculptural projects in the pretty colors of marble and bronze.

 This talented man's accomplishments are from the year of 1478 when he started to become an independent master. His first commission was to paint an altarpiece for a chapel, Palazzo Vecchio. Other paintings of his work is the portrait of Ginevra  de' Benci, the unfinished St. Jerome and Benois Madonna. The most important out of the paintings during the early Milan was the famous 'The Virgin of the Rocks.' But, the world famous painting was 'Mona Lisa' which is an awesome example of the two techniques known as sfumato and chiaroscuro. Another masterpiece was, 'The Last Supper' and 'La Gioconda.' Leonardo was also known for his science structured inventions, the 'hydrometer' and 'aerodynamics.'

     

Works Cited: Information from: Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2002

Quote from: http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/people/ren_epoch/davinci.html

Picture from://www.firstscience.com/site/editor/0117_ramblings_07102005.asp