Giuliano was fascinated by mechanical devices and Leonardo built many toys and machines to amuse him. Among them was a machine to turn copper metal into strips of uniform size. He also completed another great painting of John the Baptist as a young man. .
Leonardo had wished to keep studying human anatomy, but the Church would not allow him to examine and cut up dead bodies. Instead he studied animal parts obtained from a butcher's shop. From these he produced brilliant models of how the heart works. .
In Rome he also studied optics, and he attempted to make giant, rounded mirrors in his workshop. They were similar to the mirrors used in modern telescopes, and some scholars think he hoped to observe the moon and stars. .
Leonardo also studied botany, and he observed that the same patterns exist in many natural things. For example, the rings in a tree trunk resemble the ripples made by a stone dropped in water. He was always happy when repeating patterns appeared in nature, because they showed evidence of universal natural laws. Modern scientists continue thrilled to discover such patterns, often at a microscopic level, and Leonardo would certainly have been. thrilled. .
When he was about 12 years old, Leonardo moved to the bustling city of Florence with his father. Because young Leonardo demonstrated a great talent for drawing, his father later made him an apprentice in the studio of Andrea del Verrocchio, a leading artist in Florence. .
In Verrocchio's studio Leonardo learned the painters craft of preparing canvases, making brushes, and grinding and mixing paints. Verrocchio also taught him to sculpt in wood, stone and clay, and how to cast metal objects in silver and gold. .
Artists in the fifteenth century Italy were more than just expert painters and sculptors however. Verrocchio was hired by wealthy patrons to create furniture, musical instruments, navigational compasses, and bronze bells for cathedrals among other things.
