Leonardo Da Vinci

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Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15,1452 in the village of Anchiano, close to the town of Vinci. His illegitimately father was Ser Piero, a notary a lawyer and Leonardo's mother was Caterina, a peasant girl (Costantino 9). Born during a time when it was possible to believe that man can do all things, and Leonardo proved the Renaissance correct. Around 1466 he occupied himself to the leading Florentine painter and sculptor, Andrea del Verrocchio, as a studio boy.

As a boy Leonardo had a fundamental understanding on how machines worked which introduced him to a great skill of reasoning. In the exploration to find the simple function of a machine he applied rules to improve or invent other machines (later in life) for other tasks that might be carried out. His unbelievable talent to manipulate simple machines surpassed normal men's intellect that they mistook it for magic (Cooper 15).

He learned mathematics as a young boy, but amazingly he was bad at arithmetic. Found in some of his notes was an error in multiplying (8).

Many more areas of productive traits Leonardo excelled at, leading him to become a famous painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, and scientist. His most recognizable talent that he is commonly remembered for is painting, which in where he mastered the two techniques of sfumato and chiaroscuro. Sfumato is the technique to transition color, into a smoky or hazy effect. Chiaroscuro is the mastery of shadows and shading (Encarta-96). He uses these techniques very well in his most famous painting, the 'Mona Lisa'. Combining science and techniques at times left his works into technical disaster, yet left the work itself marvellous. The best example for that was possibly Leonardo da Vinci's last piece, 'The Last Supper' (Costantino 18). By his understanding and involvement of...