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Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 in a small town called Vinci, in Italy.
As a boy he loved to draw the hills, rivers, and animals around his home.
When he was about fourteen, his father took him to the city of Florence.
There Leonardo became a student in the workshop of a well-known artist.
He learned to paint, make statues, and work with metal.
Leonardo grew into one of the most famous painters in history.
His picture of a woman with a quiet smile, the Mona Lisa, may be the best-known painting in the world.
Another work, The Last Supper, covers a whole wall in Milan.
Hundreds of years later, people still stand in long lines to see them.
But painting was only one part of his life.
Leonardo filled thousands of notebook pages with questions, drawings, and ideas.
He studied dead bodies to learn how muscles and bones work.
He watched birds for hours and drew plans for flying machines — four hundred years before the first airplane.
He designed bridges, war machines, and even a robot knight.
Strangely, he wrote his notes backward, from right to left.
The easiest way to read them is in a mirror.
Leonardo moved from city to city and worked for rich and powerful people.
He often started projects and left them unfinished, because a new question always pulled him away.
In his last years, the King of France invited him to live in a castle near the royal palace,
where he could think and draw in peace.
He died there in 1519.
Today people call someone with many talents a 'Renaissance man' — and Leonardo is the reason.
His life still teaches a clear lesson: stay curious, look closely at the world, and never stop asking why.
