Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452 and died May 2, 1519 due to a stroke. He was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance, who was active as a painter, engineer, scientist, sculptor, and architect. Leonardo first gained attention for his work on the Baptism of Christ, painted in conjunction with Verrocchio. Around in the 1480’s, Leonardo received two very important commissions and commenced another work that was of ground-breaking importance in terms of composition. Two of the three were never finished, and the third took so long that it was subject to lengthy negotiations over completion and payment. One of these paintings was Saint Jerome in the Wilderness, which Bortolon associates with a difficult period of Leonardo’s life, as evidenced in his diary, “I thought I was learning to live, I was only learning to die. ”

His artwork is one of my favorites when it comes to very old artists from history. It’s so realistic to me, that it feels like I’m actually looking at a real photo of someone/people. It’s sad that he died too soon and didn’t continue to creative many more paintings, sculptors, and drawings for the world to see.