Leonardo Da Vinci is one of the greatest and most ingenious men that history has produced. His contributions in the areas of art, science, and humanity are still among the most important that a single man has put forth, definitely making his a life worth knowing. Da Vinci, born on April 15, 1452, is credited with being a master painter, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer, and scientist. He was born an illegitimate child to Catherina, a peasant girl. His father was Ser Piero da Vinci, a public notary for the city of Florence, Italy. For the first four years of his life he lived with his mother in the small village of Vinci, directly outside of the great center of the Renaissance, Florence. Catherina was a poor woman, with possible artistic talent, the genetic basis of Leonardos talents. Upon the realization of Leonardos potential, his father took the boy to live with him and his wife in Florence (Why did). This was the start of the boys education and his quest for knowledge. Leonardo was recognized by many to be a "Renaissance child" because of his many talents. As a boy, Leonardo was described as being handsome, strong, and agile. He had keen powers of observation, an imagination, and the ability to detach himself from the world around him. At an early age Leonardo became interested in subjects such as botany, geology, animals (specifically birds), the motion of water, and shadows (About Leonardo). At the age of 17, in about 1469, Leonardo was apprenticed as a garzone (studio boy) to Andrea del Verrocchio, the leading Florentine painter and sculptor of his day. In Verrocchios workshop Leonardo was introduced to many techniques, from the painting of altarpieces and panel pictures to the creation of large sculptural projects in marble and bronze. In 1472 he was accepted in the painters guild of Florence, and worked there for about six years. While there, Leonardo often painted portions of Verrocchios paintings for him, such as the ...
