Leonardo da Vinci
sariebearie asked: Leonardo da Vinci! or Salai. :D

Sounds like we have an Assassins Creed fan, hmm? No? Maybe? Well, either way, we definitely need to get Leo in this blog right now. He really was quite a gorgeous man, with a beautifully sculpted nose and very pretty eyes. And if you have ever played the Assassins Creed games, you would know he’s downright adorable in them.

Leo played a huge role in the Italian Renaissance. He was not only an artist and sculptor, but an inventor, scientist and engineer as well. Great looks and a creative genius, what more could you want? Well, unfortunately, ladies, there’s a good chance he was gay. So very sorry.

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15th, 1452 near the Tuscan town of Vinci, hence his last name. He was merely an illegitimate son of a local lawyer, but his talents became known when he began an apprenticeship under Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence. It wasn’t long before he became an independent master, and in about 1483 he moved to Milan to work for the ruling Sforza family. From 1495 to 1497 he produced a mural of The Last Supper in the refectory of the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.

In 1499 the French invaded Milan and forced the Sforza family and Leo to get the hell out of there. Leo wandered around Venice and Florence for a while, and, you know, just painted that unpopular Mona Lisa painting. Nothing big or anything. From there he returned to Milan for a while until 1517 when, at the invitation of the French king Francis I, Leo moved to the Château of Cloux, near Amboise in France. It was there he died on May 2nd, 1519.

I just need to reinforce the fact that this guy was not just an amazing artist, but a pioneering scientist. The guy wrote and drew all about geology, anatomy, optics, gravity, even flight. Many argue this badass invented the parachute, tank, helicopter, bicycle and airplane a good 500 years ahead of their time. Oh yeah, and he wrote this all in left-handed mirrored script. Yeah. Try it. It’s not easy.

One of my favorite da Vinci stories, however, was when Florence hired him to paint a scene of Milan and Florence forces fighting. Oh god, what a mess. The painting was called the Battle of Anghiari. Leo planned this painting for two freaking years, and when he finally began working on it on the Palazzo Vecchio, he thought it would be a good idea to use wax to bind it to the wall. So he’s painting this thing and then a huge storm hits Florence and gets the wall all wet. But Leo is all like “hey, no worries, I’ll just dry this baby off and be back in business!” He takes all these heating pots and sets them around the room to dry out the walls, but uh, Leo, man, you were painting with wax. So yeah, you guessed it. Leo comes back to see his whole painting has just melted off the wall and into a puddle. He was so frustrated he ended up only finishing a tiny bit of it. Never tried to paint it again. Awww. Even a genius makes mistakes!