Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo da Vinci (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian man who lived in the time of the Renaissance. He was good at lots of things, but was most famous as a painter.He also was a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician, and a writer. Leonardo was curious about everything in nature. He wanted to know how everything worked. He was very good at studying, designing and making all sorts of interesting things.

Many people think that Leonardo was one of the greatest painters of all time. Other people think that he was the most talented person ever to have lived.The art historian Helen Gardner said that no-one has ever been quite like him because he was interested in so many things that he seems to have had the mind of a giant, and yet what he was like as a person is still a mystery.

Leonardo was born at Vinci which is a small town near Florence, Italy. He was trained to be an artist by the sculptor and painter Verrocchio. He spent most of his life working for rich Italian noblemen. In his last years, he lived in a beautiful home given to him by the King of France.

Leonardo could do all sorts of clever things, but he was most famous as a painter. Two of his pictures are among the best-known paintings in the world: the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. He did many drawings. The best-known drawing is Vitruvian Man. Leonardo was always thinking of new inventions. Most of his inventions were never made. However, we know his ideas, because he kept notebooks. He wrote and drew in them very often. Some of the ideas that he thought of were a helicopter, a tank, a calculator, a parachute, a robot, the telephone, evolution, and solar power.