Breve biografia di Leonardo da Vinci

A child was born near the small Italian town of Vinci on April 15, 1452. His name was Leonardo. The words “da Vinci” simply showed that he came from Vinci. No one could guess what his future would hold. Even now, five hundred years later, everyone still knows his name. As an adult, he painted famous faces, explored rivers and the inside of the human body, and dreamed of flight. At the beginning of his life, however, he was just a curious child among Tuscany’s green hills.

Leonardo's parents were unmarried. His father, Ser Piero, was a notary, a man who prepared official documents. His mother was a young woman called Caterina. Later, each of his parents started another family. Leonardo grew up in his father's home, but his position in the family was unusual. We know very little about his feelings during those years.

The hills and streams around Vinci may have helped Leonardo develop an interest in nature. His later notebooks show that he carefully observed water, birds, clouds, and living things. He wanted to understand how they moved and changed. Why did water move in circles? How did a bird manage to stay in the air? Leonardo continued to observe everything closely for the rest of his life.

Leonardo learned to read, write, and do simple calculations, but he did not have much advanced education. He did not know Latin and Greek as well as many educated men of his time. Later, he described himself as a man without a traditional education. Instead, he learned by observing, doing practical work, and drawing. He trusted what he could see with his own eyes. His early work shows that he studied shapes and movement very carefully.

When Leonardo was a teenager, he moved to Florence. The city was rich, full of life, and full of new ideas. Artists worked for churches, merchant families, and powerful people. Today, we call that period the Renaissance, a time when art grew and people learned many new things across Europe. Thanks to his father’s connections, Leonardo joined the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, one of the most important artists in Florence.

A workshop was much more than a room where people painted. It was a school and a workplace, and many different objects were made there. Leonardo learned to mix colours, prepare wood, work with metal, and make clay models. He also studied light, shadows, plants, clothes, and the human body. At first, the most experienced artists gave him small jobs, but soon his tasks became more important. He learned that making a great painting required a lot of patience and work before using the brush.

One of Verrocchio’s paintings showed the Baptism of Christ. Leonardo probably painted an angel and part of the landscape in this work. The angel has soft hair, a calm face, and a body that looks alive. A story told later says that Verrocchio found Leonardo’s angel so beautiful that he stopped painting forever. This story is probably not true, because Verrocchio continued to work in different kinds of art. However, the story shows that Leonardo’s talent greatly impressed writers in later centuries.