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Art of Loving Italy

Art of Loving Italy

Art & Beauty are all around us.

Happy 568th Birthday Leo!

April 15, 2020 by Melissa Muldoon Leave a Comment

Leonardo-da-vinci-birthday-april-15-1452
Image Credit: Pinterest

Today, April 15, 2020
Leonardo turns 568 years old!

Buon compleanno, Maestro!


Leonardo-da-vinci-birthday-april-15-1452
Image Credit: Pinterest

One could wax on and on about the genius of Leonardo (and over the years many people have!) how he was an inventor, painter, sculptor, architect, and military engineer. He was a gifted man with a curious mind. His intellect knew no bound. Many of the inventions he brought to life, other designs based on sound engineering principles never made it past the drafting stage as he was distracted by another fantastic idea.

Leonardo-da-vinci-birthday-april-15-1452
Image Credit: Pinterest

Born in 1452 in a farmhouse outside Cerreto Guidi in the town of Vinci to a young peasant woman named Caterina, Leonardo was raised by his father and his stepmother. At the age of fourteen, he began his apprenticeship with the noted artist Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence.

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

According to Giorgio Vasari, his contemporary who wrote the Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, Verrocchio was so humbled by the superior talent of his pupil that he never picked up a paintbrush again. This, of course, was most likely an embellishment on the part of Vasari… but still, it indicates that at a very early age, Leonardo was quite gifted.

A beautiful body perishes, but a work of art dies not.

At the age of twenty, he qualified for membership as a master artist in Florence’s Guild of Saint Luke and established his own workshop. Throughout his long life, he continued to astonish the world with inventions and paintings that are still revered today. Namely, La Gioconda, The Last Supper, and his sketch of the Vitruvian Man.

Blinding ignorance does mislead us.
O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!

Leonardo is a fascinating character, and he even makes a guest appearance in my novel “Dreaming Sophia” as one of Sophia’s muses.

To learn more about the town of Cerreto Guidi, just a mile away from where Leonardo was born and what happened in a Medici Villa there, I invite you to read “Waking Isabella.”

You can find my books in print and digital on Amazon.

To celebrate Leo’s day,
let’s eat cake!!

Leonardo-da-vinci-birthday-april-15-1452
Leonardo-da-vinci-birthday-april-15-1452
Leonardo-da-vinci-birthday-april-15-1452
Birthday Cakes, Pinterest

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Grazie Antonio @notapioneer per una serata fantast Grazie Antonio @notapioneer per una serata fantastica a Vistamare ti auguro un futuro pieno della fortuna! 💙💛 #portasantospirito💙💛 lol ci sentiamo. Alla prossimo !
Love this place! Dinner with a spectacular view!!! Love this place! Dinner with a spectacular view!!! Vista Mare! Situazione attuale mi piace!!! 👍
Al ristorante VistaMare ! Che vista!!!! @vistamare Al ristorante VistaMare ! Che vista!!!! @vistamare
The Matta Book Club returns this fall with a new n The Matta Book Club returns this fall with a new novel!! 

More details and the big reveal of the title and the author and details how to sign up for the book club will come next week in a post on the StudentessaMatta.com website... so stay tuned. 

Currently, I'm still in Italy wrapping up a very successful language program in Arezzo! We had a wonderful time!

Now I'm at the beach and currently finishing up the next book club read! LOL

What I can tell you about the novel is that it is a contemporary adventure/murder mystery set in Italy, that takes you from Monte Carlo to London and to France where two thieves board the Orient Express to Venice as they track down Casanova's diary. 

Next week you will have the chance to sign up for group book club meetings of up to 3 or 4 readers, or individual sessions. The novel is available in print and audio and it is my recommendation, with plenty of lead time to read the novel during the summer months prior to the October start date, so that we can really dive into the story, and plot, and work on grammar and idioms.

Stay tuned! State sintonizzati! A presto!
This guy has all his ducks in a row! Al mare in Ca This guy has all his ducks in a row! Al mare in Castiglione della Pescaia
Buongiorno principessa! Siamo pronti per il mare! Buongiorno principessa! Siamo pronti per il mare! 😃

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