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Leonardo was born at Vinci, a small town near Florence, Italy.
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Leonardo da Vinci did many drawings. The best-known is Vitruvian Man. It is done in pen and ink on paper and is based on the ideal proportions of a man's body.
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The subject of the portrait is Cecilia Gallerani, the mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan. The ermine was a symbol of purity for Leonardo.
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The Last Supper is also a very famous painting. It is a picture of the last supper of Jesus and his disciples. It shows how they reacted when Jesus said that one of them would betray him.
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The cartoon (a drawing that is a plan for the painting) showed the Virgin Mary sitting on the knee of her mother, St Anne. Mary holds the baby Jesus in her arms. Jesus stretches out his hands to his young cousin John the Baptist.Like many of Leonardo's projects, the painting was never done.
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In 1516, Francis I invited Leonardo to go to France with him. He gave Leonardo a beautiful house called Clos Lucé. It is near the king's palace, Chateau Amboise.
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The Mona Lisa is the most famous painting in the world. Lisa was the wife of Francesco del Giocondo a rich silk merchant, who lived in Florence.
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Leonardo died at Clos Lucé, on May 2, 1519.
