Leonardo Di Ser Peiro Da Vinci

He spent his first five years in the hamlet of Anchiano, then lived in the household of his father, grandparents and uncle.

In later life, Leonardo only record two childhood incidents. One, which he regarded as an omen, was when a kite  dropped from the sky and hovered his cradle, its tail feathers brushing his face. The second occurred while exploring in the mountain. He discovered a cave and was both terrified that some great monster might lurk there and driven by curiosity to find out what was inside.

He was an Italian polymath, having been a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer.

Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Florentine painter, Verrocchio.

Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the “Renaissance man”, a man whose seemingly infinite curiosity was equalled only by his powers of invention. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.

In 1466, at the age of fourteen, Leonardo was apprenticed to one of the most successful artists of his day, Andrea di Cione, known as Verrocchio. Verrocchio's workshop was at the centre of the intellectual currents of Florence, assuring the young Leonardo of an education in the humanities. Other famous painters apprenticed or associated with the workshop include Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Botticelli, and Lorenzo di Credi. Leonardo would have been exposed to a vast range of technical skills and had the opportunity to learn drafting, chemistry, metallurgy, metal working, plaster casting, leather working, mechanics and carpentry as well as the artistic skills of drawing, painting, sculpting and modeling.

Leonardo himself may have been the model for two works by Verrocchio, including the bronze statue of David in the Bargello and the Archangel Michael in Tobias and the Angel.

By 1472, at the age of twenty, Leonardo qualified as a master in the Guild of St Luke, the guild of artists and doctors of medicine, but even after his father set him up in his own workshop, his attachment to Verrocchio was such that he continued to collaborate with him. Leonardo's earliest known dated work is a drawing in pen and ink of the Arno valley, drawn on 5 August 1473.

Myth

Narcissus

Is to beware the trap of vanity or self-adoration

Unconditional love

Even the lovely nymph Echo could not manage to tempt him from his self-absorption

Cephissus (the personification of the Boeotian river of the same name)

Narcissus was born in Thespiae in Boeotia