Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, as the illegitimate son of a notary in the rural town of Vinci, near Florence, Italy. Lacking formal classical education, he apprenticed in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio around 1466, where he honed skills in painting, sculpture, and mechanics amid a bustling environment of craft and commerce. This hands-on training shaped his 'disciple of experience' philosophy, emphasizing direct observation over book learning—he sketched birds in flight for hours and dissected cadavers to study anatomy. In his early career, Leonardo moved to Milan in 1482, serving Duke Ludovico Sforza with engineering designs like war machines, bridges, and hydraulic systems, alongside paintings such as The Last Supper (1495–98). Returning to Florence around 1500, he painted the Mona Lisa (c. 1503–19) and pursued intensive scientific studies, including bird flight, water currents, and human physiology at Santa Maria Nuova hospital. His work integrated art and science, producing over 7,000 notebook pages on topics from acoustics to geology, often using mirror writing. Later years saw Leonardo in Rome (1513–16) under papal patronage, though frustrated by Michelangelo's rivalry, before King Francis I invited him to France in 1516. There, he worked on projects like canal designs and resided at Clos Lucé until his death on May 2, 1519. A perfectionist and procrastinator, he left many commissions unfinished, such as the Sforza horse statue and Battle of Anghiari mural, but his relentless curiosity across disciplines cemented his legacy as the ultimate Renaissance man.