Leonardo da Vinci

(1452–1519)

   Artist and Scientist.

   Leonardo was a pupil of the artist Verrocchio in Florence, Italy. Between 1483 and 1499 he lived in Milan; he then wandered for several years and finally settled in France. He was a passionate investigator into the workings of nature and his surviving notebooks contain observations on every branch of science as well as plans for the invention of guns and flying machines. As a religious painter, he is remembered for works such as The Virgin of the Rocks and the fresco of the Last Supper painted on the walls of a Dominican convent. He was a man of extraordinary genius, and his portrayals of the Virgin mary, Jesus and his disciples have imprinted themselves on Western consciousness.

   K. Clark, Leonardo da Vinci (1939);

   I.B. Hart, The World of Leonardo de Vinci (1961).