Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the greatest painters of the Italian Renaissance.  He was born outside the village of Vinci, near Florence in central Italy illegitimately to Ser Peiro da Vinci, a legal specialist and a peasant girl.   

Being raised by his father, Leonardo was educated at the local school.  There he excelled in music, drawing, and mathematics. At 15, Leonardo’s father had his son apprentice for a master artist named Verrochio.   Upon completing his training, Leonardo went to work for the duke of Milan as military engineer, architect, sculptor and painter, but he left behind an unfinished Adoration of the Magi.

Toward the end of his stay in Milan, Leonardo began a fresco painting of the Last Supper. In this painting he experimented with a rough version of oil painting by mixing oil and tempera. Unfortunately the mixture did not adhere to the wall very well and the painting began to deteriorate within a few years.  Even with deterioration, individuals today can still see the use of a vanishing point (located behind Christ’s head) as well as the personality of each disciple.

After the duchy of Milan fell to the French, Leonardo returned to Florence but it was not as he remembered. The Medici had been expelled and Florence was a republic again. It was here that Leonardo completed his most famous painting of the Mona Lisa.

In the later years of his life, Leonardo devoted most of his time to scientific interests. He believed that the artist must know all the laws of nature and to him the eye was the perfect instrument for gaining that knowledge. Leonardo explored everything in great detail and made sketches of everything. His genius led him into explorations of the human body and he began to study corpses to find out more about the human body and how it worked. He did the first real autopsy of a very old man to find out what he died of and his sketches include one very accurate drawing of an Embryo in a Womb. 

Leonardo died in 1519 after having suffered a stroke.

Additional Resources
	Leonardo da Vinci – Scientist, Inventor, Artists: http://www.mos.org/leonardo/ or http://www.ms.org/sln/Leonardo/
	Leonardo da Vanci: http://www.kausal.com/
	WebMeuseum: Leonardo Da Vinci: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/vinci/
	Leonardo Museum: http://www.leonardo.net/
	Wikipedia:  Leonardo da Vinci: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci
	Leonardo: http://www.museoscienza.org/english/leonardo/leonardo.html
	Vinci – Leonardo’s Home Town: http://www.leonet.it/comuni/vinci/
	Leonardo Da Vinci: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/leonardo/