Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci (1415 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance. He conceptualized flying machines, a type of armoured fighting vehicle, concentrated solar power, an adding machine, and the double hull. Mona Lisa is the most famous of his works and most famous portrait ever made. His Vitruvian Man drawing is also regarded as a cultural icon.

About Leonardo da Vinci in brief

Summary Leonardo da VinciLeonardo da Vinci (1415 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance. He is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived. Leonardo’s genius epitomized the Renaissance humanist idea, and his collective works compose a contribution to later generations of artists rivalled only by that of his contemporary Michelangelo. He conceptualized flying machines, a type of armoured fighting vehicle, concentrated solar power, an adding machine, and the double hull. Mona Lisa is the most famous of his works and most famous portrait ever made. His Vitruvian Man drawing is also regarded as a cultural icon. In 2017, Salvator Mundi was sold at auction for USD 450. 3 million, setting a new record for most expensive painting ever sold at public auction. He was born out of wedlock to a notary and a peasant woman, Caterina, in Vinci, in the region of Florence, Italy. He married a 16-year-old girl named Albiera Amadori, who loved Leonardo, but died in 1465. In 1468, Leonardo was married again to Francesca Lanca Lanfredini who gave birth to six children, all of whom were much younger than Leonardo. Leonardo had no surname in the modern sense—da Vinci simply meaning “of Vinci” His full birth name was Lionardo di ser Piero da VinCI, meaning “Leonardo, of Ser Piero Vinci.” He is also sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter, and tank.

He made substantial discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, geology, optics, and hydrodynamics, but he did not publish his findings and they had little to no direct influence on subsequent science. He spent his last three years in France, where he died in 1519, and is buried in the Piazzale di San Giorgio in Florence. He had no formal academic training, but many historians and scholars regard Leonardo as the prime exemplar of the \”Renaissance Man\” or “Universal Genius” He was the son of a wealthy Florentine legal notary, and a peasants named Caterina. There have been many theories regarding Leonardo’s mother’s identity, including that she was a slave of foreign origin or an impoverished local youth. Leonardo spent his first years in the hamlet of Anchiano in the home of his mother, and from at least 1457 lived in the household of his father, grandparents and uncle in the small town of Vinci in the lower valley of the Arno river in the territory of the Medici-ruled Republic of Florence. His father had six legitimate heirs from his third wife Margherita di Guglielmo, who bore him four children, and another six from his fourth and final wife, Lucrezia Cortreziani. Leonardo was very informal and had very little contact with his younger half-siblings, who were all younger than he.