Unit 133 Leonardo da Vinci

M: When most people hear the name Leonardo da Vinci, they think of art.

But in fact, he was a man of many talents. He was a scientist, an inventor, and an artist. Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 in Vinci, Italy. When he was 14, his father sent him to Florence to train under Andrea del Verrocchio, one of the best artists in the area. Leonardo became better than Verrocchio. By his early twenties, Leonardo was famous for his painting. He was especially good at painting colors and details. This made his paintings very lifelike. His most famous paintings are the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Leonardo was also a great scientist. He was a good observer of life and nature. He would ask himself simple questions like, “How do birds fly?” Then he would try to find the answers. He was interested in everything. For example, he studied the inner workings of the human body. He would cut up dead bodies to examine their insides. Leonardo was also a talented inventor. He believed that by understanding how each part of a machine worked, the parts could be changed and combined in different ways to make new machines. Using his artistic talent, Leonardo drew pictures of many inventions. However, few of them were built and tested during his lifetime. For example, his parachute wasn't built until 1783. Also, his war tank wasn't used until World War I in 1917.