Leonardo Da Vinci

Book excerpt: Leonardo da Vinci achieved great things in the areas of Renaissance painting and sculpture, engineering, cartography, astronomy, geology, botany, human anatomy, history and many other areas. Uncharacteristically for the time, he traveled quite widely and worked in many disparate subject areas, because he did not really consider himself to be primarily a painter, even though he is best remembered today as the painter of two of the most critical pieces of renaissance art.Inside you'll read about Early life Apprenticeship with Verrocchio Leonardo, Master of his Craft Mastery of Chiaroscuro Working in Milan Human Anatomy Flight from Milan Return to Florence Military Engineer for Cesare Borgia The Battle of Anchiaro Sojourn in Milan Rome Final Years Leonardo's Private Life And much more!Leonardo had some strange attributes: he was left-handed at a time when this was not widely accepted as appropriate, he was gay at a time when it was not only socially unacceptable but illegal, and he was a free thinker at a time when northern Italian society was extremely stratified. We are about to embark on a journey through the known life and work of the world's greatest creative genius, examining many of the lesser known facts of his creative and personal life.