Early life, 1452–1466
Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452, "at the third hour of the night"[al]
in the Tuscan hill town of Vinci, in the lower valley of the Arno River in the
territory of Florence, and lived for his first five years in the nearby hamlet
of Anchiano.[3] He was the illegitimate son of Messer Piero Fruosino di Antonio
da Vinci, a Florentine notary, and Caterina, a peasant.[4][5] There is some
evidence that Caterina may have been a slave from the Middle East,[e] but many
experts question this evidence.[6] Leonardo had no surname in the modern sense,
"da Vinci" simply meaning "of Vinci": his full birth name
was "Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci", meaning "Leonardo, son
of (Mes)ser Piero from Vinci." Little is known about his early life, which
has been the subject of historical conjecture by Vasari and others.[7][3] At
the age of five, he went to live in the household of his father, grandparents
and uncle, Francesco, in the small town of Vinci, where his father had married
a sixteen-year-old girl named Albiera, who loved Leonardo but unfortunately
died young.[8]
Leonardo's earliest known drawing, the Arno Valley, 1473 - UffiziLeonardo was
later to record only two incidents of his childhood. One, which he regarded
as an omen, was when a kite dropped from the sky and hovered over his cradle,
its tail feathers brushing his face.[8] The second incident occurred while he
was exploring in the mountains. He discovered a cave and recorded his emotions
at being, on one hand, terrified that some great monster might lurk there and
on the other, driven by curiosity to find out what was inside.[8]
Vasari, the 16th century biographer of Renaissance painters, tells the story of how a local peasant requested that Ser Piero ask his talented son to paint a picture on a round plaque. Leonardo responded with a painting of snakes spitting fire which was so terrifying that Ser Piero sold it to a Florentine art dealer, who sold it to the Duke of Milan. Meanwhile, having made a profit, Ser Piero bought a plaque decorated with a heart pierced by an arrow which he gave to the peasant.[9]
Verrocchio's workshop, 1466–1476