Leonardo da Vinci

Name

Leonardo da Vinci

Life Dates

1452 - 1519

Country

Italy

Movement

High Renaissance

Leonardo da Vinci Biography

Leonardo da Vinci was the embodiment of the Renaissance ideal of the universal man, the first artist to attain complete mastery over all branches of art. He was a painter, sculptor, architect and engineer besides being a scholar in the natural sciences, medicine and philosophy.

He was born on the 15th of April, 1452 as an illegitimate son of the notary Ser Piero di Antonio da Vinci and his mother, a peasant woman Caterina, in a small town called Vinci, near Empoli, Tuscany. The first four years of his life were spent in a small village near Vinci with his mother. After 1457, he lived in his father's family, which soon moved to Florence. At the age of 15 he became an apprentice of the Florentine painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio and although in 1472 he entered the San Luca guild of painters in Florence, which would indicate that he had attained a degree of professional independence, he remained with Andrea del Verrocchio until 1480.

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Leonardo da Vinci 35 Most Important Paintings and Artworks

• 
  The Baptism Of Christ.
  

  c.1472-1475. Oil and tempera on wood. Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy. Read Note.

• 
  The Annunciation.
  

  c.1472-1475. Oil and tempera on wood. Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy. Read Note.

• 
  Antique Warrior.
  

  c.1472. Metalpoint on prepared paper. British Museum, London, UK.

• 
  Arno Landscape.
  

  1473. Pen and ink over a partially erased pencil sketch. Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.

• 
  Madonna With The Carnation.
  

  c.1475. Oil on wood. Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany.

• 
  Madonna Benois.
  

  c.1475-1478. Oil on canvas, transferred from panel. The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.

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  Portrait Of Ginevra De'benci.
  

  c.1478-1480. Oil and tempera on wood. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA.

• 
  St. Hieronymus.
  

  c.1480-1482. Oil on wood. Vaticano, Pinacoteca Apostolica Vaticano, Rome. Read Note.

• 
  Adoration Of The Magi.
  

  1481-1482. Oil on wood. Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy. Read Note.

• 
  Madonna Of The Rocks.
  

  1482-1486. Oil on wood. Louvre, Paris, France.

• 
  Battle Cart With Mobile Scythes.
  

  c.1485. Pen and ink with wash on paper. Biblioteca Reale, Turin, Italy.

• 
  Drawing Of A Flying Machine.
  

  c.1486. Pen and ink on paper. Bibliotheque de l'Institut de France, Paris, France.

• 
  Two Views Of The Skull.
  

  1489. Pen, ink over black chalk on paper. Windsor Castle, Windsor, UK.

• 
  Portrait Of Cecilia Gallerani (Lady With An Ermine).
  

  c.1490. Oil on wood. Czartorychi Muzeum, Cracow, Poland. Read Note.

• 
  Portrait Of A Young Man (Portrait Of The Musician Franchino Guffurio?).
  

  c.1490. Oil on wood. Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan, Italy.

• 
  Madonna Litta.
  

  c.1490. Oil on panel, transferred to canvas. The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.

• 
  The Proportions Of The Human Figure (Vitruvian Man).
  

  1490. Pen, ink and watercolour over metalpoint. Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice, Italy.

• 
  Head Measured, And Horsemen.
  

  c. 1490 and 1504. Pen, ink and red chalk on paper. Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice, Italy.

• 
  Five Grotesque Heads.
  

  c.1490. Pen and ink on paper. Windsor Castle, Windsor, UK.

• 
  Portrait Of An Unknown Woman (La Belle Ferroniere).
  

  c.1490. Oil on wood. Louvre, Paris, France.