Artist

Leonardo da Vinci

HYPERLINK "http /en .wikipedia .org /wiki /Giorgio_Vasari " \o "Giorgio Vasari " Giorgio Vasari , in the enlarged edition of Lives of the Artists , 1568 , introduced his chapter on Leonardo da Vinci with the following words

In the normal course of events many men and women are born with remarkable talents but occasionally , in a way that transcends nature , a single person is marvellously endowed by Heaven with beauty , grace and talent in such abundance that he leaves other men far behind , all his actions seem inspired and indeed everything he

does clearly comes from God rather than from human skill . Everyone acknowledged that this was true of Leonardo da Vinci , an artist of outstanding physical beauty , who displayed infinite grace in everything that he did and who cultivated his genius so brilliantly that all problems he studied he solved with ease

In 1469 , Leonardo 's father apprenticed him to the fabled workshop of Verocchio . Leonardo quickly masters the challenges of fine nuances of Verocchio 's art , which other painters were still struggling to grasp . In the painting "Baptism of Christ , Leonardo was assigned to paint one angel , while Verrocchio painted the other . Da Vinci chose to paint his angel in the relatively new medium of oil , while Verrocchio painted his in the usual tempera medium . The young Leonardo clearly upstaged his master , and left the studio of Verrocchio in 1477 to work in his own

In fact , Leonardo quickly surpassed Verocchio , and by the time he was in his...