Leonardo Da Vinci 2 Essay, Research Paper

Leonardo da Vinci

It started long ago as a little boy. I discovered I had many unique talents. I was born in the small town of Vinci, in Tuscany, near Florence of Italy in the year 1452. I was the son of a wealthy Florentine notary and a peasant woman. When we moved to Florence, in the mid-1460s, I was given a wonderful education. I was a fine musician and improviser. But in 1466, I began painting.

Painting became one of my beloved hobbies and it started to become my life. Andrea del Verrocchio, a leading Florentine painter and sculptor took me under his belt. In Verrocchio’s workshop I was shown many activities and paintings from altarpieces to panel pictures. In 1478, I became an independent master.

My first commission was to paint an altarpiece for the chapel of the Palazzo Vecchio. It was the Florentine town hall. The Adoration of the Magi was my first large painting though but was unfinished and was ordered in 1481 for a monastery that I just can not remember. I painted another picture also called the Benois Madonna and a few others but my mind is old and I have lost most my memory.

In a year around 1482, I began to give service to the Duke of Milan. After writing him a letter explaining to him my ideas of building portable bridges and other techniques I knew he made me principal engineer of his numerous military enterprises. I also acted as an architect and assisted the Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli in the work Divina Proportione. During my long stay in Milan, I created drawings and paintings models for the dome of Milan Cathedral and architectural drawings. My largest commission was for a colossal bronze monument Francesco Sforza, father of Ludovico, in the courtyard of Castello Sforzesco. Unfortunately in 1499, the Sforza family was driven from Milan by French forces. I left the statue unfinished and French archers destroyed it before I went back home to Florence in 1500.

Returning home in 1502 I entered the service of Cesare Borgia, the duke of Romagna. There I worked as the chief architect and engineer. I supervised work on the fortresses. I also took part in the war against Pisa as an engineer. I painted several paintings while I was on my return in Florence. But I bet that none will probably be better known then the Mona Lisa. I take the Mona Lisa everywhere I go and it will hang next to my bed when I die.

I traveled to Milan one last time in 1506, at the summons of its French governor, Charles d’Amboise. The next year I was named court painter to King Louis Xll of France. Then for the next six years I would go between Milan and Florence when I would visit family and friends. In Milan I continued to engineer projects and completed many drawing and sketches.

I guess that is all I have to tell you. I am an old and crippled man so please leave and allow me to get my rest. Without I will surely end up dying in a short amount of time .