Leonardo da Vinci Biography for Kids – makemegenius.com – MakeMeGenius.Com | Science Videos For Kids

• Leonardo was born in Vinci, a short distance from Florence.
• His father married four times and had 11 children – but Leonardo was 20 before the 2nd child was born

Training

• His father apprenticed him to Andrea del Verrocchio (True Eyes) in Florence.
• Leonardo was likely the model for Verrocchio’s David.

A Young Master

• By the age of 20 he surpassed his master, painting The Baptism of Christ in 1472.
• It is rumored that Verrochio never painted again after this.

• By 1474 he had his own workshop, producing The Adoration of the Magi, which artists studied from his time onward.

A Genius Man

• There was little that Leonardo did not excel at.
• He was a painter, a sculptor, an engineer, a musician, a singer, a mathematician, a physicist, a botanist, an anatomist, a cartographer, a geologist, a geographer, a poet, a town planner and an athlete.

A Universal Man

• He always wanted to write a treatise on painting (like Alberti), but never did.
• He seems to have not mastered Latin, the language of scholarship.
• – or perhaps he was simply too busy.

Mona Lisa

Leonardo Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa on a piece of pine wood in the year 1506. Never in the history of Art has one painting been so admired. This is due largely to the enigmatic smile, which has caused much speculation. Some people have even suggested that it is a self-portrait.

The Last Supper

Considered by many to be Leonardo’s greatest painting, The Last Supper employs all of his anatomical work in the expressions of Christ and the Apostles.

The Notebooks

• Leonardo kept notes on everything.
• Around 5,000 pages still exist.
• However, he used mirror-writing to ensure privacy while and after he wrote.
• More mundanely, perhaps he did so because he was left-handed and found this easier.

The Codes

Leonardo wrote in Italian using a special kind of shorthand that he invented himself. People who study his notebooks have long been puzzled by something else, however. He usually used “mirror writing,” starting at the right side of the page and moving to the left. Only when he was writing something intended for other people did he write in the normal direction.

Poor Completion Record

• He had a reputation for not completing works.
• Involved in so many things, he could not manage his time.
• When given the commission for the Virgin of the Rocks, he promised it within 7 months but did not deliver it until 25 years later.