Leonardo da Vinci was a super-genius and one of the greatest painters of the Italian Renaissance. Leonardo was also an architect, engineer, scientist, mathematician and philosopher. Sadly, Leonardo only had a limited amount of completed paintings, and he made many important scientific discoveries, yet he never published any of them for the world to see. He was a vegetarian who loved animals and detested war, yet he got a job as a military engineer and invented many advanced and deadly weapons. Leonardo's most famous painting is the Mona Lisa, and there lies a mystery behind who the woman in the painting is, and why she has a peculiar smile on her face. .
Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 in the small hill town of Vinci. His father was a successful notary and his mother a peasant woman. Vinci was a beautiful place that nature-loving Leonardo was free to explore as a child. He spent time in the woods and near streams studying insects, birds, and animals, which he later sketched in great detail. These observations influenced his aspiring life as an artist. .
Leonardo lived in Vinci until the age of 14, when he and his family moved to the lively city of Florence. Immediately he started an apprenticeship in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio in 1466. Verrocchio was the most gifted and popular artist in Florence at that time, and Verrocchio had influenced Leonardo greatly (http://www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/LeoHomePage.html). Verrocchio gave him a place in his workshop because he was impressed with young Leonardo's drawings. Leonardo worked at the workshop of Verrocchio with other famous artists such as Botticelli, Perugino and Lorenzo di Credi. In the studio Leonardo how to do many things, such as preparing canvases, making brushes, and grinding and mixing paints. He learned to paint with oils, a technique the Dutch artists developed. Verrocchio also taught him to sculpt wood, stone, and clay, and how to cast metal objects in silver and gold.
