Leonardo da Vinci is often known by many for his artistic skills. But da Vinci was also an anatomist, architect, botanist, cartographer, engineer, geologist, inventor, mathematician, musician, scientist and writer.

None of Da Vinci`s paintings are signed.
Leonardo was also a left-handed artist. It can also be said that the small amount of works by Da Vinci was probably due to his constant procrastination and experimentation with new techniques. A total of fifteen works are mostly attributed either in whole or in large part to Leonardo da Vinci. Most of them are paintings on panel, but including a mural, a large drawing on paper and two works in the early stages of preparation. A further six paintings are disputed. There are four recently attributed works, and two are copies of lost work.

Leonardo da Vinci was born during 1452, on april 15, in Florence, in the small village of Vinci that is located in the Arno River. His father was, Messer Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci. His mother was Caterina. But his mother and father were never married. His father was a rich and powerful Florentine legal notary. But his mother was very poor and at that time was regarded as a peasant.

In a legal sense, Leonardo had no surname. He takes his name, Vinci, from the town where he was born. In fact his full name was, Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci.

We do not know much of the early days of young Leonardo. During early years of childhood, the young Da Vinci`s life, he lived with his mother Caterina. Then, in 1457 Leonardo moved into the house where his father lived in Vinci. Also living in the hose were his uncle and grandparents. His Father was married to Albiera, a young woman who soon died. By the time Leonardo had reached the age of 16, his father had married again. This time to a woman named, Francesca Lanfredini. While living there, Leonardo received an informal type of education.

During 1466, Leonardo Da Vinci turned fourteen years of age. An apprenticeship was arranged for Leonardo with the famous Master Andrea di Cione, who was called Verrocchio. Here, the young Da Vinci would have learnt a fully array of artistic skills including, sculpting, drawing, painting, and modeling. It is very possible that during his time there, da Vinci was possibly the model of two works by Verrocchio. These are the bronze statue of David in the Bargello and the Archangel Michael in Tobias and the Angel.

In 1472, Leonardo Da Vinci had qualified as a Master in the Guild of St Luke. After this, Leonardo was then set up on his own. The first dated work of Da Vinci that is known is August 5, 1473, a drawing of the valley of Arno, in ink and pen.

In 1476, da Vinco and three others were charged but later acquitted. By early 1478, Leonardo received a commission to paint an altarpiece for the Chapel of St Bernard in the Palazzo Vecchioand. Da Vinci however failed to complete this commission when he had to leave for Milan.

During 1482, Da Vinci had made a silver lyre of a head of a horse. Lorenzo de’ Medici then sent Da Vinci with the silver lyre to Milan, where he gave it to Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan, in order to secure peace. From 1482 to 1499, Leonardo worked in Milan. It was during this time that Leonardo Da Vinci received the commission to paint The Last Supper for the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, and the Virgin of the Rocks for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception. Records from the time show a Caterina living with him. This was probably his mother. Records indicate she passed away in 1495.

Leonardo did a number of works for Ludovico. One of these was a clay model for an equestrian monument to Francesco Sforza. A massive 70 tons of bronze had been made available for the casting. But Leonardo was very slow in completing the clay model of the horse and it was not until 1492 before it was finished. However, before Da Vinci could cast it, in 1494 Ludovico converted the bronze into cannons for the defense of the town from the invading French army. During the Second Italian War, the occupying French troops made the clay model a target practice.

Da Vinci left Milan and he went to Venice where he eventually found employment as an engineer and architect. In 1500, Da Vinci was in Florence were he was invited to stay at the monastery of Santissima Annunziata where Leonardo was able to continue his work. It was here that Da Vinci created the, The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist. Da Vinci then worked for Cesare Borgia during 1502. Cesare Borgia was the son of Pope Alexander VI. Leonardo was employed as an engineer and architect, traveling around Italy. Around this time, Leonardo created two maps. One of Cesare Borgia’s stronghold and the other of Chiana Valley, Tuscany. Maps at this point in history were just a new concept and very rare. Most people had never seen or heard of such a thing. Another project of Da Vinci around this time was the construction of a dam.

Da Vinci went to Florence and then took the next two years to paint a mural of, The Battle of Anghiari. In 1504, Leonardo was a member of a controversial committee that was founded to relocate Michelangelo's, Statue of David. Michelangelo was opposed to such a thing.

In 1506, Leonardo returned to Milan for a brief time. In 1507, Da Vinci returned to Florence in order to resolve disputes over his late father's estate. In 1508, Leonardo returned to Milan. Here he stayed in his home in Porta Orientale. Through the end of 1513 until early 1516, Da Vinci stayed mostly in Rome at the Belvedere. Francis I of France was able to recapture Milan during October 1515. Da Vinci took part in a meeting between Pope Leo X and Francis I and in Bologna.

In 1516, Da Vinci worked for François, 1516 where he occupied a manor house close to the where the king lived. Leonardo received a pension of 10,000 scudi. Leonardo passed away in 1519 on May 2, at Clos Lucé. The tomb of Leonardo Da Vinci is located in the the castle of Amboise in their Chapel of Saint-Hubert.

Many of the inventions of Leonardo were very much ahead of their time. Did you know that da Vinci invented the worlds first scuba diving gear. It was during the time when Venice was under threat from an invading Turkish navy. So Leonardo invented the scuba gear for use by the soldiers of Venice, but it was so far ahead of its time that people could just not understand.

Leonardo also invented a type of military tank that could be used to break enemy lines during a time of war. The design of the tank was a turtle dome shape and the tank could carry cannons.

Leonardo also took precautions to protect his work from theft. He often placed misinformation in his work or left out key pieces of information. Da Vinci also used a special type of shorthand that he had developed making it difficult for others to understand what he wrote. Another technique that Leonardo used was mirror writing, in which he wrote from the right side of the page to the left.

Da Vinci is also credited with developing the first bowed keyboard instrument, the viola organista. It seems however that Leonardo may never have actually constructed the instrument.

Leonardo also designed a parachute that was made of sealed linen cloth that was opened by a pyramid of wooden poles.



Leonardo's Horse is an unfinished sculpture by artist, Leonardo da Vinci. During 1482, the Duke of Milan Ludovico il Moro commision da Vinci to develop the largest equestrian statue in the world. The monument would be a dedication to the Dukes father, Francesco. Leonardo set about constructing the clay model of the horse. But as with most of his work he was very slow to completed it. Eventually Leonardo completed a 24 foot clay model of the horse. A massive 70 tons of bronze were made available for the sculpture, but the bronze had to be used to make cannons to defend against invading French troops. Some five hundred years later, in 1977, Charles Dent started work to finish the sculpture. It should be noted that although a number of Leonardo`s drawings on the horse remain, many others were lost. As such, there was no real drawing of the final model. So only an interpretation of Leonardo's horse was able to be constructed. It was eventually finished and gifted to the city of Milan in 1999.

Leonardo's Robot was a humanoid automaton that was designed by Leonardo da Vinci sometime around 1495. It is unknown if Leonardo actually attempted to construct the robot, and it was not the 1950`s that the design notes were rediscovered. Since then a model of Leonardo's Robot has been constructed. If da Vinci did construct his humanoid robot, it would have been the constructed in Western civilization.

When Leonardo Da Vinci passed away, his manuscripts were inherited by his pupil Francesco Melzi. Francesco brought these manuscripts from France to Italy. In 1570 when Francesco Melzi passed away, the manuscripts were inherited by his son, Orazio. It is from this point on that many of the manuscripts disappeared, possibly lost, stolen or destroyed. Today, it is thought only around one fifth have survived. The Codex Arundel manuscripts is a bound collection of contains 283 paper leaves written by Leonardo da Vinci. Some of the pages are blank, but most have notes. The notes were written mostly between 1480 to 1518. During the early 17th century, Thomas Howard, the 2nd Earl of Arundel purchased the manuscripts. In 1681, the Codex Arundel manuscripts were catalogued by librarian, William Perry. The British Museum from the Royal Society purchased the manuscripts in 1831. The Codex Atlanticus (Atlantic Codex) is a twelve-volume (1,119 pages), bound set of drawings and writings by Leonardo da Vinci. The codex was gathered by sculptor Pompeo Leoni n the late 16th century. The Codex was restored and rebound by the Basilian monks from 1968 to 1972. The manuscript, Codex on the Flight of Birds, by Leonardo da Vinci comprises of 18 folios and measures 21 × 15 centimetres. The Codex is housed at the Biblioteca Reale in Turin, Italy. The Manuscript, Codex Leicester, by Leonardo da Vinci is a collection of mostly scientific writings about observations and theories on astronomy; the properties of water, rocks, fossils, air, and celestial light. The Codex Trivulzianus is a manuscript by Leonardo da Vinci. It originally contained 62 sheets, but today only 55 remain. The Codex is housed at Sforza Castle in Milan, Italy. A Treatise on Painting is a collection of Leonardo da Vinci's writings entered in his notebooks under the general heading "On Painting".

The Baptism of Christ

Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci

Ginevra de' Benci by Leonardo da Vinci

Benois Madonna by Leonardo da Vinci

Madonna of the Carnation by Leonardo da Vinci

St. Jerome by Leonardo da Vinci

Adoration of the Magi by Leonardo da Vinci

Virgin of the Rocks by Leonardo da Vinci

Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci

Madonna Litta by Leonardo da Vinci

Portrait of a Musician by Leonardo da Vinci

La belle ferronnière by Leonardo da Vinci

The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci

Sala delle Asse by Leonardo da Vinci

The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist

Madonna of the Yarnwinder by Leonardo da Vinci

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci

The Virgin and Child with St. Anne by Leonardo da Vinci

Bacchus

Lost Paintings of Leonardo da Vinci:

St. John the Baptist by Leonardo da Vinci

The Battle of Anghiari by Leonardo da Vinci

Leda and the Swan by Leonardo da Vinci

Disputed Paintings:

Tobias and the Angel

The Dreyfus Madonna

The Holy Infants Embracing

Christ Carrying the Cross

Madonna and Child with St Joseph

Dedicated to the life of artist Leonardo da Vinci