Annunciation (1471): 104×217 cm, oil on panel, Florence Uffizi Gallery. Da Vinci was the most outstanding figure of Italy's Golden Age of the Renaissance, a versatile painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, and scientist, as well as a scholar with profound academic knowledge. He pursued excellence in music, natural sciences, optics, medicine, mathematics, mechanics, physics, machinery, civil engineering, and more, achieving perfection and earning the title of a once-in-a-generation genius. It was precisely his extensive scholarship and exquisite skills that allowed him to forge a unique style, reaching perfection between intellect and emotion, form and spirit, art and science, thus becoming a great artistic master of his era. Da Vinci was the first artist to demonstrate an ideal form of excellence. Possessing a thoughtful nature from childhood, he immersed himself in the humanist world of Florence. He was seven years younger than Botticelli and three years younger than Ghirlandaio, yet twenty-three years older than Michel-Ange and thirty-one years older than Raphäel. His early mentor was the renowned artist Verrocchio. In 1483 (the year Raphael was born), Da Vinci traveled far from home (possibly due to a longing for freedom and democracy, or based on opposition to the Medici family's dictatorship) to Milan, where he was a guest at the house of Duke Ludovic Sforza. There, acting as a painter (leaving his immortal masterpieces The Last Supper (1495–96) and Lady with an Ermine (1485–90)), sculptor, and engineer (designing roads, canals, and fortresses), he studied weapons and manufactured musical instruments, among other pursuits. During this period, Da Vinci further researched anatomy, optics, perspective, and kinesiology, bringing his artistic attainment to its peak. It was not until 1499, when King Louis XII of France invaded northern Italy and occupied Milan, that he returned to his hometown of Florence. During this time, Da Vinci completed his world-renowned masterpiece Mona Lisa (1503–06), two versions of the Virgin of the Rocks (1483 and 1505–06), and Saint Anne and the Virgin Child (1510). Of note during this Florentine period is the fresco competition in October 1503 between Da Vinci and the young Michelangelo, commissioned by the Florentine government to paint frescoes in the Hall of the Five Hundred of the Palazzo Vecchio. Da Vinci chose the Battle of Anghiari as his theme, while the young Michelangelo chose the Battle of Cascina. Both depicted the brutal war from different perspectives. Unfortunately, this masterpiece was destroyed in a fire in 1512, becoming an unprecedentedly famous legend in the history of Western art. In 1506, invited by the French governor stationed in Milan, Da Vinci returned to Milan again, becoming the court painter for King Louis XII of France. Until 1513, invited by Cardinal Jules de Médicis, he came to Rome, the capital of world art, feeling that he had already become someone unable to keep up with the times. In 1516, under the invitation of King Francis I of France, he quietly wandered to France. Finally, on May 2, 1519, he passed away at the Château d'Amboise in France.