Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was born on the 15th of April 1452 near the Tuscan hill town of Vinci. His father, a notary named Ser Piero, and his mother, a lower-class woman called Caterina, never married. The traditional account suggests he arrived in a hamlet called Anchiano to ensure privacy for an illegitimate birth. Tax records from 1457 show him living with his paternal grandfather Antonio da Vinci. He received only basic education in writing and mathematics while his family focused attention on his artistic talents.
His earliest recorded memory appears in the Codex Atlanticus. As an infant, a kite came to his cradle and opened his mouth with its tail. Commentators still debate whether this anecdote represents a real memory or a fantasy. By the mid-1460s, his family moved to Florence, the center of Christian Humanist thought. At age fourteen, Leonardo became a garzone, or studio boy, in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio. He remained there for seven years until he qualified as a master in the Guild of Saint Luke by 1472.
In 1482, Leonardo traveled to Milan carrying a silver string instrument shaped like a horse's head. He wrote a letter to Duke Ludovico Sforza claiming he could build machines for city defense and siege warfare before mentioning his ability to paint. This move marked the beginning of his first Milanese period which lasted until 1499. The Duke commissioned him to create the Virgin of the Rocks and The Last Supper for the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie.
Leonardo also designed floats and pageants for special occasions. He created a wooden model for a competition to design the cupola for Milan Cathedral. A massive equestrian monument known as the Gran Cavallo was another project that surpassed existing statues by Donatello and Verrocchio. In November 1494, however, Ludovico gave the bronze intended for the statue to his brother-in-law to cast cannons against Charles VIII of France. Contemporary correspondence records show Leonardo and his assistants painted the Sala delle Asse with trompe-l'œil decorations featuring sixteen mulberry trees.
The painting known as the Mona Lisa or La Gioconda became Leonardo's best-known work during the early 1500s. It depicts Lisa del Giocondo seated in an unadorned dress with a landscape background where the world seems to be in flux. The shadowy quality around her mouth and eyes is called sfumato, meaning smoke. Vasari wrote that the smile seemed more divine than human and was considered wondrous because it appeared as lively as the original living woman.
Other characteristics include subdued coloring and extremely smooth brushwork where strokes are indistinguishable. The painting remains in perfect state without signs of repair or overpainting. Another significant work from this period is Virgin and Child with Saint Anne which features two obliquely set figures superimposed. Mary sits on the knee of her mother while restraining the Christ Child who plays roughly with a lamb. This composition influenced Michelangelo, Raphael, and Andrea del Sarto before spreading to Venetian painters like Tintoretto and Veronese.
Leonardo received permission to dissect human corpses at the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence and later at hospitals in Milan and Rome. Between 1510 and 1511 he collaborated with doctor Marcantonio della Torre, professor of Anatomy at the University of Pavia. He produced more than 240 detailed drawings and wrote about 13,000 words toward a treatise on anatomy. Only a small amount of material on anatomy was published during his lifetime within Treatise on Painting.
His anatomical drawings included studies of the heart and vascular system making one of the first scientific drawings of a foetus in utero. Leonardo created models of cerebral ventricles using melted wax and constructed a glass aorta to observe blood circulation through the valve. He used water and grass seed to watch flow patterns inside the glass model. He documented that humours were not located in cerebral spaces or ventricles but defined the circulatory system by the heart itself. These observations prefigured modern science of biomechanics and physiology.
Leonardo studied flight for much of his life producing many plans including Codex on the Flight of Birds from 1505. His designs included a flapping ornithopter and a machine with a helical rotor. A team of engineers built ten machines designed by him in a 2009 American television series called Doing DaVinci. Some proved successful while others fared less well when tested. Research by Marc van den Broek revealed older prototypes for more than 100 inventions ascribed to Leonardo suggesting he combined functions from existing drafts rather than creating entirely new concepts.
His journals also include hydraulic pumps, reversible crank mechanisms, finned mortar shells, and a steam cannon. In 1493 he stated the laws of sliding friction which were never published until rediscovered by Guillaume Amontons in 1699. When fleeing Milan to Venice in 1499 he devised a system of moveable barricades to protect the city from attack. Later he created schemes for diverting the flow of rivers like the Arno and the Loire.
Leonardo's notebooks contain 13,000 pages of notes and drawings that fuse art and natural philosophy. Most writings appear in mirror-image cursive because he wrote with his left hand making it easier to write from right to left. He used shorthand and symbols intending to prepare them for publication but they remained unpublished during his lifetime. After his death in 1519 these loose papers were entrusted to his pupil Francesco Melzi who planned their release.
Melzi died in 1570 leaving the collection to his son Orazio who initially took little interest. A household tutor named Lelio Gavardi took thirteen manuscripts to Pisa where architect Giovanni Magenta reproached him for illicitly removing them. Orazio later gifted volumes to Magenta while others distributed works to various collectors. The Codex Atlanticus now resides in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan holding twelve volumes. The Codex Leicester remains privately owned by Bill Gates and is displayed once a year in different cities around the world.
Historians regard Leonardo as the prime exemplar of the Universal Genius or Renaissance Man due to his unquenchable curiosity and feverishly inventive imagination. Baldassare Castiglione wrote in 1528 that another greatest painter looked down on this art in which he was unequalled. Vasari opened his chapter on Leonardo stating nature worked a miracle on his behalf endowing him with beauty, grace, and talent in abundance. Henry Fuseli wrote in 1801 that such dawn of modern art distanced former excellence through elements constituting genius itself.
In 2019 the Louvre arranged the largest ever single exhibit called Leonardo between November and February. It included more than 100 paintings, drawings, and notebooks though eleven completed paintings were shown. Five belonged to the Louvre but the Mona Lisa remained on display elsewhere due to demand. More than a decade of genetic genealogy analysis concluded in mid-2021 determining the artist has fourteen living male relatives. This work could help determine authenticity of remains thought to belong to Leonardo himself.
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Common questions
When and where was Leonardo da Vinci born?
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was born on the 15th of April 1452 near the Tuscan hill town of Vinci. He arrived in a hamlet called Anchiano to ensure privacy for his illegitimate birth.
What did Leonardo da Vinci write about anatomy between 1510 and 1511?
Between 1510 and 1511 he collaborated with doctor Marcantonio della Torre to produce more than 240 detailed drawings and wrote about 13,000 words toward a treatise on anatomy. His anatomical drawings included studies of the heart and vascular system making one of the first scientific drawings of a foetus in utero.
Which paintings did Duke Ludovico Sforza commission from Leonardo da Vinci?
The Duke commissioned him to create the Virgin of the Rocks and The Last Supper for the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Leonardo also designed floats and pageants for special occasions during this period.
Where are the Codex Atlanticus and the Codex Leicester located today?
The Codex Atlanticus now resides in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan holding twelve volumes. The Codex Leicester remains privately owned by Bill Gates and is displayed once a year in different cities around the world.
How many living male relatives does Leonardo da Vinci have according to genetic analysis?
More than a decade of genetic genealogy analysis concluded in mid-2021 determining the artist has fourteen living male relatives. This work could help determine authenticity of remains thought to belong to Leonardo himself.