LEONARDO DA VINCI, the great genius, whose works in painting are classed with those of Raphael and Michael Angelo, was also a sculptor, architect and engineer, and he cultivated successfully anatomy, botany, mathematics, astronomy, poetry, and music. He was born in 1452, at Vinci, in the Val. d" Arno, near Florence; his father Pietro da Vinci, notary to the signiory of Florence, placed him in good time with Andrea Verrocchio, who was an able sculptor and a good painter; but in painting, his pupil soon surpassed him. In 1483, he went to Milan, and the duke of Lodovico il Moro conferred on him an annual pension. Besides performing various services for the duke, particularly as an engineer, he instituted an academy of arts in 1485. This academy, of which he was named director, was attended by many eminent artists, and influenced most beneficially the Lombard school of painting. It was in 1497, when 45 years of age that he executed his famous fresco, "The Last Supper," which was painted in oil on the wall of the refectory of the Dominican convent of Santa Maria-delle-Gracie. In 1503, he was employed by Soderini Gonfaloniere of Florence, to paint one end of the council hall of the Palazzo Vecchio. For this, Leonardo only completed the celebrated illustration, called the "Battle of the Standard;" another cartoon for a painting in the same apartment, the equally celebrated design of Pisa, having been executed at the same time by Michael Angelo. He returned to Milan in 1506. On the pressing invitation of Francis I, he accompanied that monarch to France in 1516, along with his pupils Salai and Melzi. In bad health during the whole period he was in France, he executed no paintings there, being chiefly engaged in engineering. His death occurred at Amboise, May 2nd 1519. The genius of Leonardo was universal; painting was not his sole occupation. He imparted to his work certain qualities of the highest kind, for his drawing evinces very great delicacy and elevation of style, not modeled on the antique, but framed on a profound knowledge of nature; and in his treatment of light and shadow, he infused a degree of power combined with softness, into his productions that invests them with a peculiar charm.