Early Life
Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, near the village of Vinci about 25 miles west of Florence, Italy. When he was born his parents were not married, he was an “illegitimate” child according to terms of the times he lived. His father was a notary, writing about all legal actions that went on in the city, his mother was simply a local woman with little to no importance. When Da Vinci was 15 years old, his father apprenticed him to Andrea del Verrocchio, the leading artist of Florence at the time. Studying the tactics of Del Verrocchio, Leonardo came to be one of the most talented painters, as well as sculptors, and many other things too.