Painting Leonardo’s life

Painting Leonardo's life

There are very few people who are as learned as Leonardo da Vinci was. Born on April 15, 1452, Leonardo was a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer. Here's more:

Leonardo was the illegitimate son of the wealthy Messer Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci, a Florentine legal notary, and Caterina, a peasant.

He was a vegetarian and would often purchase caged birds and set them free.u00a0

Among his works, the Mona Lisa is most famous and most parodied portrait, and The Last Supper the most reproduced religious painting of all time.

Leonardo's drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also regarded as a cultural icon.

Beyond friendship, Leonardo kept his private life secret. His sexuality has been the subject of satire, and speculation. His most intimate relationships were perhaps with his pupils Salai and Melzi, both men. Court records of 1476, when he was 24, show that Leonardo and three other young men were charged with sodomy, and acquitted.

He is revered for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualised a helicopter, a tank, concentrated solar power, a calculator, the double hull and outlined a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics. But few of his designs were feasible during his lifetime.

He also made important discoveries in anatomy, optics, civil engineering, and hydrodynamics, but his failure to publish his findings limited their influence on the future course of science.

Leonardo died at Clos Luc ufffd, on May 2, 1519. Francis I had become a close friend. There are records that the King held Leonardo's head in his arms as he died, although this story may be legend rather than fact.