Leonardo was born at the height of the age of discovery in a background that offered little promise for either art or profound thought. On April 15, 1452, near the small Tuscan hill town of Vinci, Leonardo was born illegitimately to a peasant woman known as Caterina and a prominent Florentine notary, Ser Piero da Vinci (Wallace 6). Shortly after his birth, his mother married a local artisan. Ser Piero, however, married several times, but it wasn't until his third and fourth marriages that he had legitimate children, the first when Leonardo was already grown. Thus Leonardo was able to grow up in his father's household where he was treated as

"Leonardo da Vinci." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 1999. 1-4. Online. Internet.

Cooper, Margaret. The Inventions of Leonardo da Vinci. New York: The Macmillan

In perhaps his best known work, the "Mona Lisa," Leonardo demonstrated the full possibilities of his manner. In this portrait of the wife of a Florentine merchant, Francesco di Bartolommeo del Giocondo, "he set an example of compositional control and expressive subtlety that established a new standard of portraiture in European painting" separating him from such great artists as Rembrandt to Raphael (Rosand 235). This painting is most memorable and haunting due to the enigmatic mask of the lady. The delicate sfumato surrounding her features sets these into motion. Her slight smile seems to imply a potential expression on her bland face. Leonardo was able to create an underlying world, complementing the physical aspects of the painting, through understated and gentle inflection ("da Vinci" Britannica Online 3).

Wallace, Robert. The World of Leonardo 1452-1519. New York: Time Inc., 1966.

Leonardo was thought of by many as an extraordinary individual, not only for his talent, but for his personality as well. Throughout his life, "Leonardo's physical appearance was as much admired as his creations and his intellect. A beautiful youth, Leonardo seems always to have attracted admirers." He reflected his own features in many profile heads, which filled sheets of his drawings. As an older man, his handsome bearded face is also recorded in his own drawings. His love of nature also contributed to his admired character. He would buy caged birds only to set them free. This tenderness for life was part of the character of this man for whom war was "a most bestial madness." And yet no other Renaissance artist was as consistently concerned with depicting physical conflict. Leonardo sought to understand and record the laws of nature, and recognized and accepted them as a dynamically-necessary part of that process. His art and "profound thought reflect his constan!

21 Oct. 1999. Available: http://www.carmensandiego.com/time/davincic11/html.

Rosand, David. "Leonardo da Vinci." Encyclopedia Americana. International Edition,

By 1513, Leonardo was in Rome as the guest of Giuliano de' Medici, who offered him a studio in the Belvedere of the Vatican. In the next two years, the declining Leonardo remained in Rome, making only a few journeys outside the city. He worked on no major works and had little contact with the artistic life that was turning the city into the capital of the High Renaissance art. Finally in 1517, Leonardo moved to France at the invitation of King Francis I. Here he was proclaimed royal painter, architect, and engineer, though he was not actually active in any of these roles at the time. He was "established in his own residence at Cloux, near Amboise where he died on May 2, 1519, surrounded by an admiring court" (Rosand 229). He was laid to rest in the palace of Saint-Florentin, which was later devastated during the French Revolution.

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