Special Presentation: DA VINCI & THE CODE HE LIVED BY on The History Channel(R)

Special Presentation: DA VINCI & THE CODE HE LIVED BY on The History Channel(R)

December 4, 2005 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT

"Never be limited by what has been done before, or by what others might think."

NEW YORK, Oct. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Born in obscurity and illegitimate in a tiny Italian village in 1452, young Leonardo da Vinci seemed destined for a life of peasantry. But early mastery of art and a personal code for success that he developed catapulted him to the highest levels of Italian society and ultimately made him one of the most important figures of the Renaissance and one of the world's truly immortal minds. A fierce intellect made Leonardo the master of whatever he set his mind to, and his ability to see far beyond the limits and violence of his time continues to feed his popularity to this day. Re-visit the life, accomplishments, and vision of Leonardo da Vinci with The History Channel special presentation, DA VINCI & THE CODE HE LIVED BY, airing Sunday, December 4th at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20051011/NYTU176 )

Florence, Italy was at the epicenter of the explosion of ideas and culture that was the Renaissance, and it was there that Leonardo da Vinci became a student of the artist Andrea del Verrocchio at age twelve. He learned all the finer points of painting and sculpture, but engineering and mechanical training as well, constantly sketching what he saw to feed his development. By age 21, Leonardo had joined the artists' guild and Verrocchio enlisted his help with a portion of an important painting of the baptism of Christ. It has been said that da Vinci's work on the painting was so technically perfect that Verrocchio never wanted to paint again after seeing it.

As the bastard child of unmarried parents, Leonardo was still considered something of an outcast and never received formal education. But unending curiosity for how things worked fueled his talents and set him apart from his peers. He had a love of nature, was fascinated with military strategy, flight, death, and creating large objects of a scale thought impossible in his day. He was also said to possess extraordinary good looks, charisma, strength, and personality, all of which was reflected in his work. A passion and determination to succeed far above his humble beginnings, led him to develop and live by a code for success ... a road that would carry him to a greatness that is still recognized today.

DA VINCI & THE CODE HE LIVED BY is a series of highlights that show the fruits of a stunningly advanced mind at work far ahead of its time. Among the major points of da Vinci's life explored in this special presentation:

-- A re-creation of the brutal Easter Sunday attack on the Medici family in a Florence Cathedral, which ultimately led to war in Florence and gave rise to da Vinci's fascination with designing advanced military equipment; he would eventually design scuba suits for underwater warfare and sketch tank designs that were used in World War I.

-- The Adoration of the Magi, the first in a string of unfinished masterworks which led to lawsuits, a questionable reputation, and ultimately being passed over for the job of decorating the Sistine Chapel.

-- Da Vinci's seventeen-year sojourn to Milan, during which he began keeping his famous notebooks, which carry the bulk of his legacy and reached 15,000 pages by the time he died; in Milan, he also painted the 29-foot mural "The Last Supper" and was commissioned to create 24-foot statue of the father of the Duke of Milan on a horse, another of his great unfinished works.

-- His bitter jealousy toward Michelangelo, who had taken over as the preeminent artist in Florence during da Vinci's time away.

-- Finally finding acceptance as a military man under the brutal Cesare Borgia, only to later denounce the horrors of war when Borgia had a friend of his executed.

-- His two obsessions late in life: flight and death. He created fixed- wing flying machines that closely resembled those that would come centuries later and performed secret autopsies in hospital basements, determining causes of death and developing the first three-dimensional charts of the human anatomy.

-- His most famous work, the Mona Lisa, which he worked on until the day he died but never finished, never leaving a clue as to who the mysterious woman was.

Executive Producer for The History Channel is Carl H. Lindahl. DA VINCI & THE CODE HE LIVED BY is produced for The History Channel by Gardner Films.

Now reaching more than 88 million Nielsen subscribers, The History Channel(R), "Where the Past Comes Alive(R)," brings history to life in a powerful manner and provides an inviting place where people experience history personally and connect their own lives to the great lives and events of the past. In 2004, The History Channel earned five News and Documentary Emmy(R) Awards and previously received the prestigious Governor's Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for the network's "Save Our History(R)" campaign dedicated to historic preservation and history education. The History Channel web site is located at http://www.historychannel.com/ .

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20051011/NYTU176 AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/ PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com Source: The History Channel

CONTACT: Jennifer Farkas, +1-212-210-9184, jenna.farkas@aetn.com, for The History Channel

Web site: http://www.historychannel.com/

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