Leonardo da Vinci Facts for Kids

A Statue of Leonardo da Vinci
  • Name: Leonardo da Vinci
  • Profession: Polymath
  • Born: Between April 14th and 15th, 1452 in Anchiano, Vinci, Italy
  • Died: May 2nd, 1519 in Clos Lucé, Amboise, Kingdom of France
  • Resting Place: Chapel of Saint-Hubert, Amboise, France
  • Legacy: Famous for painting, inventions and technological ingenuity

18 Leonardo da Vinci Facts for Kids

  1. Leonardo da Vinci was a polymath who had a lot of knowledge on several subjects and was a very skilled painter.
  2. Leonardo da Vinci is most famous for being considered one of the best painters of all time. He’s was also known for his notes that covered a wide variety of subjects on science and invention.
  3. Leonardo da Vinci was born between April 14th and 15th in 1452. He was born in Anchiano, Vinci, Republic of Florence.
  4. Leonardo da Vinci was the out-of-wedlock son of Antonio da Vinci and a peasant girl named Caterina.
  5. Leonardo da Vinci was never married and there are no known children fathered by him.
  6. Leonardo da Vinci died at the age of 67 on May 2nd, 1519 in Clos Lucé, Amboise, Kingdom of France.
  7. Leonardo da Vinci is believed to have died from a stroke.
  8. During da Vinci’s own time he was simply known as Leonardo or Il Florentine.
  9. Leonardo’s actual proper name was Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci.
  10. In the 1460s, Leonardo da Vinci became an apprentice of Andrea del Verrocchio. Leonardo would spend about seven years studying underneath him. Verrocchio taught da Vinci the basics of painting and sculpting. During his time at Verrocchio’s workshop he also learned engineering and technical arts.
  11. In the early 1470s, Leonardo da Vinci painted the Annunciation using oil paints. This oil painting is believed to have been created by Leonardo while he was apprenticing at Verrocchio’s workshop.
  12. In the late 1480s, Leonardo da Vinci started on the Codex Atlanticus (Atlantic Codex). The Codex Atlanticus contains thousands of pages of varies drawing and writings from da Vinci throughout his life.
  13. In the late 1490s, Leonardo da Vinci started on the mural The Last Supper at the Santa Maria delle Grazie Church in Milan, Italy. The Last Supper is one of Leonardo’s most famous paintings. The Last Supper is one of the most reproduced religious paintings in the world.
  14. In the early 1500s, Leonardo da Vinci started on his most famous painting, the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa is the most famous painting in the world. The Mona Lisa is the most valuable painting in the world. No other painting has been visited, written about or sung about more than the Mona Lisa. Art historians believe the woman painted in the Mona Lisa is Italian noblewoman Lisa Gherardin.
  15. In the early 1500s, Leonardo da Vinci started working on the Salvator Mundi oil painting. The Salvator Mundi is a famous painting by Leonardo that was thought to have been lost. In 2005, a Salvator Mundi oil painting that was thought to be a copy emerged and is believed to be the original painting by da Vinci himself.
  16. In 1510, Leonardo da Vinci published the Codex Leicester. This original manuscript of the Codex Leicester was purchased by Bill Gates on November 11th, 1994 for $30.8 million dollars. The Codex Leicester original manuscript holds the record for the second highest sale price of a book.
  17. Between 1513 and 1516, Leonardo da Vinci completed the Saint John the Baptist oil painting. The Saint John the Baptist painting is believed to be the last completed work of da Vinci before he died in 1519.
  18. Leonardo da Vinci dream of things that were possible at the time but became real in the future. He wrote about flying machines hundreds, armor vehicles, solar power and mathematics machines. At the time, these seemed like far fetched ideas, but over several hundred years they would start to become reality.

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