The Achievements Of Leonardo Da Vinci

Ancaiano, Tuscany, 1452 a young peasant woman named Caterina delivered a baby into a middleclass family. The first born, Leonardo da Vinci arrived during the Renaissance. His parents were never married and his dad soon became embarrassed of being with a 15 year old. He left, and Leonardo ended up with 4 step moms and at least 15 half brothers and sisters, his family became very poor. Utensils couldn’t be afforded, food soon disappeared, and children started dying.
Leonardo was considered an outsider. No one quite knows where Leonardo spent his first few years, rumors were said that he stayed with Caterina to be nursed, then she left him to be married. Others say he never had a clear home. When Leonardo was little a storm hit and destroyed everything.

For one, he was careless never once did he beg or want attention from anyone. This affected him when trying to make business dealings. When commission was available to work he never actually followed through. His first solo commission in 1478 for a painting in a chapel, he only got as far as a sketch before quitting. On another commission he was hired to create The Adoration Of The Magi, this was never finished either. Leonardo was the only artist to leave this many unfinished paintings/sketches behind. Rumors spread and word got around that Leonardo was homosexual. In this time period it was easy to get someone disliked arrested or into trouble. The rumors were believed because of his past relationships. Leonardo left no record of any relationship with a woman, not even a friendship. He was arrested at 24 with 4 other men, whom were accused of sexual activity with a male prostitute. Leonardo and his companions appeared in court and declared their innocence. They were tortured for 3 nights. Leonardo escaped the punishment with only a few bruises. Historians still argue over his love life still today. After Leonardo was released he structured his life so he was free to be

He avoided the attention and expressed painting was not a means of self-expression but “a thing of the mind.” He loved the way nature was structured. Often times he would take trips to the pet store to buy birds, just to set them free. After letting them go he would go and study the exact bird he bought and figure out how they flew, changed directions, soared, glided, and landed without breaking their legs. While Leonardo was meeting up with an old friend he met Aristotle, one of his biggest inspirations. Aristotle was an ancient Greek who studied many fields. Leonardo’s favorite, Aristotle’s fascination with wanting grand truth that explained the world, he developed a system known as Aristotelian logic. For example, Every Greek is a person: Every person is mortal, therefore Greek is mortal. Leonardo followed Aristotle, but never followed blindly. Aristotle believed the moon produced it’s own light, but Leonardo believed that it was reflected sunlight. Besides studying, he dealt with the city state at war all the time. Constantly, he was sketching machines of warfare. This was making him better money than painting even though he hated war, designing machines became his favorite thing to do. Using his love for water, he sketched machines that could be put underground as a pump and transfer water to other buildings. Having graduated from Verrocchio, he didn’t