Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)




Italian High Renaissance painter, scientist, mathematician and inventor Leonardo da Vinci was born and raised near Vinci, Italy. In 1466, da Vinci was the apprentice to Verrocchio, one of the most proficient artists of the time, who himself had learned from the great Donatello. At this workshop, da Vinci gained training in drafting, chemistry, metallurgy, and carpentry in addition to the artistic skills of painting, drawing, sculpting and modeling. After his years of training and creating paintings that even his teacher could not match, da Vinci opened his own studio in Florence in 1476. It was here that he was commissioned to paint two of his most famous paintings, The Virgin of the Rocks and The Last Supper.

Although vastly talented in anything he attempted, Leonardo da Vinci's paintings are what made him most famous. His Mona Lisa and The Last Supper paintings are cultural icons and the most illustrated and imitated portrait and religious painting of all time. His drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also iconic.

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