The first four years of his life were spent in a village near Vinci with his mother.
After 1457, he lived with his father's family, which soon moved to Florence.
Leonardo showed promise early on, with an innate talent in art and music
and excellent social skills. In 1467, at the age of 15, he became an apprentice to the Florentine painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio, the foremost artist of his day.
Leonardo entered the San Luca guild of painters in Florence in 1472, indicating
that he had attained a degree of professional independence
but he remained with Andrea del Verrocchio until as late as 1480.
His first known work, which he painted as an assistant, is the angel kneeling on the left of Verrocchio's picture The Baptism of Christ (c.1472-1475). Verrocchio, it is said
was so impressed by the implications of his pupil's genius that he gave up painting.
