1. By David Ochoa

2.  Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in Vinci, Italy.  He was born out of wedlock and was the son of a notable noble and a peasant girl and was raised by his father and stepmothers.  He learned skills such as metalworking, leather arts, carpentry, drawing, and sculpting.  By 20 he qualified as a master artist by the Guild of St. Luke and opened up his own workshop in Florence.

3.  Da Vinci was commissioned by Lorenzo de’ Medici to create a silver lyre and give it to the Duke of Milan as a peace offering.  The duke offered him a job as his artist from 1482 until 1499, the task was to make a bronze sculpture of Francesco Sforza.  He never got past a small clay model.  Under the Duke’s orders Leonardo painted The Last Supper.

4.  Leonardo was extremely lazy and quite the perfectionist.  He once took 14 years to paint a picture for a Florentine church.  He painted the Mona Lisa from 1505-1507.  The Mona Lisa’s model is believed to be Lisa Gioconda, the wife of a merchant.  He spent two years trying to make the painting perfect.  Leonardo finished the painting and when he finally gave it to the merchant he rejected it saying, “It looked terrible”.  Leonardo carried the painting with him until he died.

5.  Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia) wanted a statue of the biblical hero, David, to be created.  For the job he asked for the visions of both Leonardo da Vinci, who saw a heroic David standing over the defeated Goliath, and Michelangelo, who saw a humble and peaceful icon.  The Pope chose Michelangelo for the job, greatly upsetting Leonardo.  Days prior Leonardo broke Michelangelo’s nose after Michelangelo insulted Leonardo.

6.  Leonardo was commissioned by Cesare Borgia, Pope Alexander VI’s son, to create several machines useable in his conquest to unite Italy.  Leonardo ended up designing a mobile headquarters and the tank.  The projects eventually became far too expensive to be mass produced.

7.  Leonardo was as much an inventor and scientist as he was a painter.  He recorded his inventions and scientific theories in 13,000 pages of notes.  He designed the first flying machine 400 years before the Wright Brothers took flight.  He would dissect deceased humans (illegal due to the Catholic Church during this time) and drew notable images such as a fetus in its embryo, bones, and reproductive organs, some being the first known drawings/sketches in human history.

8.  Leonardo da Vinci was arrested, charged, and acquitted of sodomy in c.a. 1474.  He disappeared until 1476.  Leonardo is believed to have been a closet homosexual, his lover being his assistant, Francesco Melzi.  Leonardo often used Francesco as a model for some of his works, mostly women.  When Leonardo died on May 2, 1519 Francesco inherited all of Leonardo’s projects, notes, artworks, and estate.

9.  Leonardo was commissioned to create a statue of a lion that could walk and open its chest to reveal a bouquet of lilies, arguably the first robot.  Leonardo finished the product prior to his death and is now on exhibit.

10. Leonardo da Vinci is the most recognized artist in all of history. His notes and inventions paved the way for modern inventions ranging from the plane and the helicopter to the bicycle and tank. Leonardo created the most recognized piece of artwork, The Mona Lisa, and other iconic ones such as The Last Supper and The Vitruvian man. He is the most essential man to the modern age seeing as how his ideas were made real and are now our luxuries.