Description
Before he was the archetype of the Renaissance Man, he was a boy in a Tuscan hill town. Early Life and Artistic Beginnings: Leonardo’s Childhood in Vinci traces the formative years of Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (1452–1519) — born out of wedlock in or near Vinci, raised in the household of his paternal grandfather, and drawn from childhood to the close observation of nature.
This concise ebook explores what little history can tell us about Leonardo’s youth: a basic, informal education; an early intimacy with the Tuscan landscape that would later fill his notebooks with botanical studies; and the famous (if debated) childhood memory of a kite descending to his cradle, recorded in the Codex Atlanticus. Around the age of fourteen, the boy from Vinci entered the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence — the leading painter and sculptor of the day — beginning seven years of training in drafting, metalwork, chemistry, and painting alongside future masters like Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, and Perugino.
What this volume explores:
- Leonardo’s birth and family background in Vinci, Tuscany
- The Tuscan countryside as his first teacher of nature and observation
- His entry into Verrocchio’s Florentine workshop around age fourteen
- The skills and influences that shaped the future polymath
An accessible introduction to the origins of genius, for readers of art history and Renaissance biography.
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