da Vinci Leonardo

Born near Vinci in Tuscany on April 15, 1452, Leonardo da Vinci trained in Florence in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio. He became famous as a painter, but his interests ranged far beyond painting: he filled notebooks with studies of anatomy, engineering, flight, water, plants, and the human body.

His surviving paintings are few, yet several became some of the most celebrated images in Western art, including The Last Supper and Mona Lisa. Museums and art historians also remember him for the way he brought careful observation into art, using light, expression, and natural detail with remarkable subtlety.

Leonardo spent his later years in France and died in 1519 at Amboise. Today he is remembered not just as a master artist, but as a rare all-around genius whose curiosity still feels modern.