Leonardo da Vinci was born in Vinci near Anchiano, a small village about 30 km away from Florence, on April 15th, 1452, the illegitimate son of notary Piero and maid Caterina. He was occasionally fostered by his grandparents.
His full name was Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (Leonardo of Sir Piero from Vinci). As an illegitimate child he used only his first name, and likewise signed his works. His illegitimacy did not entitle him to a full-blown school education and so Leonardo, who was extremely inquisitive by nature, started to accumulate for himself the wealth of knowledge he later became renowned for. He was self-taught in everything except his pictorial skills.
His father soon recognized in his creative son a talent for graphic art and sent him to the studio of Andrea di Michele Cione, alias Andrea del Verrocchio, the most important Florentine sculptor and painter of the time who, years later in 1468, also taught Sandro Botticelli. There, Leonardo soon mastered the more advanced techniques and took over a large part of his master's painting tasks.
By about 1477, Leonardo had made himself a solid reputation and so he left Verrocchio´s studio to take up a number of commissions. Among the work he carried out were the altar of the chapel of San Bernardo in the Palazzo Vecchio of Florence and the ´Adoration of the Magi' at the monastery of San Donato a Scopeto. It was at this time that he got the patronage of the Florentine ruler Lorenzo de Medici.
Soon his fame travelled way beyond the walls of Florence. In 1487 Leonardo accepted a call to the court of Ludovico Sforza, regent and later Duke of Milan, to whom he also volunteered himself as engineer for weapons and fortress building. Sforza´s commission, the construction of a monument in the form of a colossal horseman, occupied Leonardo for many years. By the time he finished the prototype and delved into the technology of bronze casting, huge amounts of bronze had already been used up. However, in view of the war against France, the material was needed to be worked into cannon, and so the monument was never realized.
At that time Leonardo produced both versions of 'The Virgin on the Rocks' and what was in those days his most important work yet, 'The Last Supper'. In Milan, he befriended mathematician Luca Pacioli, who first invented what is nowadays known as double entry bookkeeping. Pacioli taught Leonardo the basics of math, and the artist, to return the favour, illustrated Pacioli's work 'Divinae Proportionae' (Divine Proportions).
Due to the political disturbances caused by the invasion of the troops of the French King Louis XII in Milan, about 1500 Leonardo returned to and settled in Florence. There, he was, amongst others, engaged in the mural of ´The Battle of Anghiari´ in the Grand Council Chamber of the Palazzo Vecchio, which was competing opposite a painting by Michelangelo, but remained incomplete and can no longer be viewed.
After being in the service of Cesare Borgia for a short time in 1503 as a military engineer and touring northern Italy, Leonardo accepted a call by the French commandant Marshal Charles d'Amboise in 1506 and returned to Milan which was now occupied by the French. Here he took up employment as a court painter and engineer for Louis XII, although, owing to his father´s death, his stay here was disturbed by constant hereditary conflicts.
After yet another change of rule in Milan, Leonardo was employed in 1513 by Pope Leo X in Rome. There he began 'St. John the Baptist' and stepped up his anatomical studies, but he was obstructed by a Vatican spy.
After the death of Louis XII, Leonardo met Francis I, the new king of France. The latter was so delighted by the artist that he offered him an estate in France. Leonardo settled in Castle Cloux near Amboise, which was assigned to him together with a sumptuous pension. There he lived, worked and studied until his death.
