Famous people from Italy

Leonardo Da Vinci

Today we went to Vinci, where we visited the Leonardiano Museo. You can already hear it, in this museum, you can find all paintings, inventions, … from Leonardo Da Vinci. It was also possible to join some workshops. Then, you were able to step into the shoes of Leonardo the artist and engineer. We have also visited the house where Leonardo was born. It is a very old house, because Da Vinci is born in 1452. There were a lot of people in that beautiful museum, so I took a brochure with some more information that I would like to share with you.

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was born on 15 April 1452 in Vinci, that is a Republic of Florence in Italy. He died at the age of 67 on 2 May 1519 in Amboise, France. He was known as an Italian polymath, painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. He had a lot of different talents. That is why he was one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most talented person ever that had lived. They called him a superhuman because he was very mysterious and introvert.

Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Florentine painter Verrocchio. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan. Later he worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice, and he spent his last years in France at a home that he awarded from Francis I.

We all know the most famous painting of Leonardo Da Vinci: Mona Lisa or "la Gioconda". They also call it ‘The laughing one’. It is the most famous painting in the world. He owes (owns) his fame to the mysterious smile on the women’s face. Vasari, who is generally thought to have known the painting only by repute, said that "the smile was so pleasing that it seemed divine rather than human; and those who saw it were amazed to find that it was as alive as the original". So if you take a closer look to the painting, maybe you can see a little smile. You can find this painting in the Louvre, Paris.

Leonardo is dead since 1519, so I was not able to ask him a signature. But in the brochure, I found a sign of him!

Sources:

http://www.museoleonardiano.it/eng/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci#Early_works http://www.famousbirthdays.com/people/leonardo-da-vinci.html