Local Characters

Leonardo Da Vinci
The illegitimate son of a lawyer and a peasant girl, Leonardo Da Vinci took his name from Vinci, the small Tuscan hill town outside of Florence where he was born on April 15, 1452. The archetypal 'Renaissance Man', Da Vinci was one of the most diversely talented individuals that ever lived and was among other things, a painter, sculptor, scientist, mathematician, architect, musician and inventor. His paintings, Mona Lisa and Last Supper, are beyond iconic. After making a huge name for himself in Milan the artist returned to Florence in 1500 and in 1502 entered the services of Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI, acting as a military architect and engineer. Leonardo died at Clos Luc, France, on May 2, 1519 aged 67.

Niccolo Machiavelli
One of the area's most notable characters, Niccolo Machiavelli was born on May 3rd 1469, and in his day not only found the time to be an Italian diplomat, political philosopher, playwright, musician and poet but also wrote The Prince, a hugely influential political treatise on the acquisition, perpetuation, and use of political power. Today the adjective 'Machiavellian' describes a person who deceives and manipulates others for their own gain. Machiavelli lived to the ripe old age of 58.

Michelangelo
A contemporary of Machiavelli, the artist Michelangelo was just six years younger than the statesman and was born on March 6th 1475 in the town of Caprese just outside Arezzo. The son of a local magistrate, he was raised in Florence and apprenticed to two local artists who in 1489 introduced him to the Florentine ruler, Lorenzo De Medici, who subsequently enrolled him in his school of arts. After a brief sojourn in Rome he came back to Florence aged 24 and completed the colossal statue of David, begun some 40 years earlier by Agostino di Duccio. Using the extraordinary white crystalline marble cut from the mountains of Carrerra behind Pisa, the artist completed the job in 1504, which along with his Sistine Chapel masterpiece placed him alongside Da Vinci as one of the key figures of the Renaissance period.