Introduction
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519) was around 13 years old when his family moved to Florence from the Tuscan village of Vinci. In youth he was an apprentice of the Florentine painter and sculptor Verrocchio. In 1481 or 1482 Leonardo travelled to Milan to work for the ruling Sforza family. There he spent much of his time on “military and civil engineering projects, including both urban-renewal and fortification plans for the city”. At the same time he created few key paintings of the Renaissance: the altarpiece “The Virgin of the Rocks” (1483) for the chapel in the church of ...
