born April 15, 1452, Anchiano, Republic of Florence
died May 2, 1519, Cloux, France
Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, draftsman, architect, engineer, and scientist.
The son of a landowner and a peasant, he received training in painting, sculpture, and mechanical arts as an apprentice to Cesare Borgia , he helped lay the groundwork for modern cartography. After five years of painting and scientific study back in Florence (1503–08), he returned to Milan, where his scientific work flourished. In 1516, after an interlude under {{link=Medici family">Medici patronage in Rome, he entered the service of Francis I of France; he never returned to Italy. Though only some 17 completed paintings survive, they are universally seen as masterpieces. The power of The Last Supper (1495–97) comes in part from its masterly composition. In the Mona Lisa (с 1503–06) the features and symbolic overtones of the subject achieve a complete synthesis. The unique fame that Leonardo enjoyed in his lifetime and that, filtered by historical criticism, has remained undimmed to the present day rests largely on his unlimited desire for knowledge, a trait that guided all his thinking and behaviour.
Self-portrait by Leonardo da Vinci, chalk drawing, 1512; in the Palazzo Reale, Turin, Italy.
Alinari/Art Resource, New York