Leonardo da Vinci (; 14/15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time. The "Mona Lisa" is the most famous of his works and the most famous portrait ever made. "The Last Supper" is the most reproduced religious painting of all time and his "Vitruvian Man" drawing is also regarded as a cultural icon. He is also known for his notebooks, in which he made drawings and notes on science and invention; these involve a variety of subjects including anatomy, cartography, painting, and palaeontology.
Introduction
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci | Introduction
Mona Lisa, The Last Supper The Last Supper and Mona Lisa "Mona Lisa" Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and Vitruvian Man
when was the first man made diamond made
user
1954
assistant
what are the materials required to make this?
user
Pure carbon, the belt press, the cubic press and the split-sphere (BARS) press.
assistant
what temperature-pressure conditions are required fopr this?
user
High pressure, high temperature.
assistant
can you mention any of its uses?
user
Machine tools and cutting tools; as a Thermal conductor; as an Optical material; semiconductors ; gemstones
assistant
what is the first one?
user
A machine for handling or machining metal or other rigid materials, usually by cutting, boring, grinding, shearing, or other forms of deformation
assistant
can you provide me the historical background for such tools?
user
Forerunners of machine tools included bow drills and potter's wheels, which had existed in ancient Egypt prior to 2500 BC, and lathes, known to have existed in multiple regions of Europe since at least 1000 to 500 BC.
assistant
can you name any prominent figure involved in this background?
user
Leonardo da Vinci
assistant
where was he born?
user
Tuscan hill town of Vinci, Republic of Florence.
assistant
what was his profession?
user
Painter, engineer
assistant
can you name any such painted work by him?
user
Leonardo da Vinci (; 14/15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time. The "Mona Lisa" is the most famous of his works and the most famous portrait ever made. "The Last Supper" is the most reproduced religious painting of all time and his "Vitruvian Man" drawing is also regarded as a cultural icon. He is also known for his notebooks, in which he made drawings and notes on science and invention; these involve a variety of subjects including anatomy, cartography, painting, and palaeontology.
Leonardo da Vinci | Introduction
Nevertheless, these few works together with his notebooks, which contain drawings, scientific diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting, comprise a contribution to later generations of artists rivalled only by that of his contemporary, Michelangelo.
List of works by Leonardo da Vinci | Introduction
All these qualities come together in his most famous painted works, the "Mona Lisa", the "Last Supper", and the "Virgin of the Rocks".
Leonardo da Vinci | Painting
Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian Renaissance painter and polymath who achieved legendary fame and iconic status within his own lifetime. His renown primarily rests upon his brilliant achievements as a painter, the "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper", being two of the most famous artworks ever created, but also upon his diverse skills as a scientist and inventor. He became so highly valued during his lifetime that the King of France bore him home like a trophy of war, supported him in his old age and, according to legend, cradled his head as he died.
Cultural references to Leonardo da Vinci | Introduction
The manuscript, which now appears to be incomplete, is considered a particularly useful source for the study of the history of Italian art since it is the most comprehensive biographical source before the 1550 edition of Vasari's Lives, which was being compiled over the same period. The account of the life of Leonardo da Vinci is especially detailed, and much used by later authors. One particular point, a later addition to the manuscript, has been much discussed. This states that Leonardo painted a portrait from life of "Piero Francesco del Giocondo" (or possibly just "Francesco del Giocondo"), respectively the son and the husband of Lisa del Giocondo, usually considered the sitter for the "Mona Lisa".
Anonimo Gaddiano | Contents
It is attributed to Leonardo by a number of historians of Art: Prof. Hoehnsttatt Peter (University of Parma), Alessandro Tomei (D'Annunzio University of Chieti–Pescara), Maria Cristina Paoluzzi (D'Annunzio University of Chieti–Pescara and Milan), Jan Royt (University of Prague), David Bershad (University of Calgary) and Orest Kormashov (University of Tallinn)..
Lucan portrait of Leonardo da Vinci | Attribution
He was not to see this project fully realized, but gathered the "Codex Urbinas".
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Pupils
It is thought that Leonardo never made a painting from it, the closest similarity being to "The Virgin and Child with St. Anne" in the Louvre. Other drawings of interest include numerous studies generally referred to as "caricatures" because, although exaggerated, they appear to be based upon observation of live models. Vasari relates that if Leonardo saw a person with an interesting face he would follow them around all day observing them. There are numerous studies of beautiful young men, often associated with Salaì, with the rare and much admired facial feature, the so-called "Grecian profile." These faces are often contrasted with that of a warrior.
Leonardo da Vinci | Drawings
https://archive.org/details/VinciOperaArtaserseLOperaDeNancy20121110
Leonardo Vinci | External links
Vasari also says: In the normal course of events many men and women are born with various remarkable qualities and talents; but occasionally, in a way that transcends nature, a single person is marvellously endowed by heaven with beauty, grace and talent in such abundance that he leaves other men far behind... Everyone acknowledged that this was true of Leonardo da Vinci, an artist of outstanding physical beauty who displayed infinite grace in everything he did and who cultivated his genius so brilliantly that all problems he studied were solved with ease. While painting "The Last Supper", Leonado wrote, "Wine is good, but water is preferable at table.
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Character
Despite the recent awareness and admiration of Leonardo as a scientist and inventor, for the better part of four hundred years his fame rested on his achievements as a painter. A handful of works that are either authenticated or attributed to him have been regarded as among the great masterpieces. These paintings are famous for a variety of qualities that have been much imitated by students and discussed at great length by connoisseurs and critics. By the 1490s Leonardo had already been described as a "Divine" painter. Among the qualities that make Leonardo's work unique are his innovative techniques for laying on the paint; his detailed knowledge of anatomy, light, botany and geology; his interest in physiognomy and the way humans register emotion in expression and gesture; his innovative use of the human form in figurative composition; and his use of subtle gradation of tone.
Leonardo da Vinci | Painting
It is a complex composition, of about Leonardo did numerous drawings and preparatory studies, including a detailed one in linear perspective of the ruined classical architecture that forms part of the background. In 1482 Leonardo went to Milan at the behest of Lorenzo de' Medici in order to win favour with Ludovico il Moro, and the painting was abandoned.
Leonardo da Vinci | Paintings of the 1480s
There are compositions for paintings, studies of details and drapery, studies of faces and emotions, of animals, babies, dissections, plant studies, rock formations, whirlpools, war machines, flying machines and architecture. These notebooks—originally loose papers of different types and sizes, were largely entrusted to Leonardo's pupil and heir Francesco Melzi after the master's death. These were to be published, a task of overwhelming difficulty because of its scope and Leonardo's idiosyncratic writing. Some of Leonardo's drawings were copied by an anonymous Milanese artist for a planned treatise on art . After Melzi's death in 1570, the collection passed to his son, the lawyer Orazio, who initially took little interest in the journals.
Leonardo da Vinci | Journals and notes
Leonardo da Vinci chose only very handsome boys, as was Francesco, to be his pupils and cared for them considerably as if they were family. In addition to Francesco Melzi, some of his pupils were Cesare da Sesto, Boltraffio and Andrea Salaí. However, as they were chosen based on attractiveness rather than talent, they were not very skilled painters, and therefore it is easy to identify paintings they worked on based on their lower quality. Because of the general workshop practice where multiple artists work on one painting, it has become common practice to ascribe Leonardo's pupils to his less known (or lower quality) works.
Francesco Melzi | Selected works
In 1482, he casted a silver stringed instrument from a horse's skull and ram horns to bring to Sforza, whom he wrote a letter describing the diverse things that he could achieve in the fields of engineering and weapon design, and mentioning that he could paint. With Alberti, Leonardo visited the home of the Medici and through them came to know the older Humanist philosophers of whom Marsiglio Ficino, proponent of Neo Platonism; Cristoforo Landino, writer of commentaries on Classical writings, and John Argyropoulos, teacher of Greek and translator of Aristotle were the foremost. Also associated with the Platonic Academy of the Medici was Leonardo's contemporary, the brilliant young poet and philosopher Pico della Mirandola.
Leonardo da Vinci | Professional life
Baldassare Castiglione, author of "Il Cortegiano" ("The Courtier"), wrote in 1528: "...Another of the greatest painters in this world looks down on this art in which he is unequalled..." while the biographer known as "Anonimo Gaddiano" wrote, : "His genius was so rare and universal that it can be said that nature worked a miracle on his behalf..." Vasari, in the enlarged edition of "Lives of the Artists" (1568) introduced his chapter on Leonardo with the following words: The 19th century brought a particular admiration for Leonardo's genius, causing Henry Fuseli to write in 1801: "Such was the dawn of modern art, when Leonardo da Vinci broke forth with a splendour that distanced former excellence: made up of all the elements that constitute the essence of genius..." This is echoed by A.E.
Leonardo da Vinci | Fame and reputation
In particular, he studied the human form, dissecting thirty or more unclaimed cadavers from a hospital in order to understand muscles and sinews. More than any other artist, he advanced the study of "atmosphere". In his paintings such as the "Mona Lisa" and "Virgin of the Rocks", he used light and shade with such subtlety that, for want of a better word, it became known as Leonardo's "sfumato" or "smoke".
Florentine painting | Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was an Italian Renaissance polymath. Leonardo da Vinci may also refer to:
Leonardo da Vinci (disambiguation) | Introduction
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was an Italian Renaissance polymath. Da Vinci may also refer to:
Da Vinci (disambiguation) | Introduction
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was one of the leading artists of the High Renaissance. Fifteen artworks are generally attributed either in whole or in large part to him. However, it is believed that he made many more, only for them to be lost over the years or remain unidentified. The authorship of several paintings traditionally attributed to Leonardo is disputed. Two major works are known only as copies. Works are regularly attributed to Leonardo with varying degrees of credibility. None of Leonardo's paintings are signed. The attributions here draw on the opinions of various scholars. The small number of surviving paintings is due in part to Leonardo's frequently disastrous experimentation with new techniques and his chronic procrastination.
List of works by Leonardo da Vinci | Introduction
Vasari describes how Leonardo, troubled over his ability to adequately depict the faces of Christ and the traitor Judas, told the Duke that he might be obliged to use the prior as his model. When finished, the painting was acclaimed as a masterpiece of design and characterization, but it deteriorated rapidly, so that within a hundred years it was described by one viewer as "completely ruined." Leonardo, instead of using the reliable technique of fresco, had used tempera over a ground that was mainly gesso, resulting in a surface subject to mould and to flaking. Despite this, the painting remains one of the most reproduced works of art; countless copies have been made in various mediums.
Leonardo da Vinci | Paintings of the 1490s
Leonardo's collective works compose a contribution to later generations of artists rivalled only by that of his contemporary Michelangelo. Properly named Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, Leonardo was born out of wedlock to a notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman, Caterina, in Vinci, in the region of Florence, Italy. Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Italian painter Andrea del Verrocchio. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan, and he later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice. He spent his last three years in France, where he died in 1519.
Leonardo da Vinci | Introduction
C. Pedretti (ed.), "Leonardo Da Vinci on Painting: A Lost Book (Libro A)" (Los Angeles, 1964). C. Pedretti, "Leonardo: A Study in Chronology and Style" (Los Angeles, 1973). C. Pedretti, "Leonardo: The Machines" (Florence, 1999) (transl. Catherine Frost).
Carlo Pedretti | Selected bibliography
Rio who wrote in 1861: "He towered above all other artists through the strength and the nobility of his talents."
Leonardo da Vinci | Fame and reputation
This image was repeated in the woodcut designed for the first edition of Vasari's "Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects". In a 2008 TED talk, artist Siegfried Woldhek, based on Leonardo's features allegedly featured in Andrea del Verrocchio's bronze statue of "David", proposed that Leonardo may have done three self-portraits: "Portrait of a Musician", the "Vitruvian Man", and the aforementioned "Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk".
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Portraits
Leonardo was accepted for apprenticeship and "soon proved himself a first class geometrician". Vasari says that during his youth Leonardo made a number of clay heads of smiling women and children from which casts were still being made and sold by the workshop some 80 years later. Among his earliest significant known paintings are the "Annunciation" in the Uffizi, the angel that he painted as a collaboration with Verrocchio in "The Baptism of Christ", and a small predella of the "Annunciation" to go beneath an altarpiece by Lorenzo di Credi. The little predella picture is probably the earliest. The diversity of Leonardo's interests, remarked on by Vasari as apparent in his early childhood, was to express itself in his journals which record his scientific observations of nature, his meticulous dissection of corpses to understand anatomy, his experiments with machines for flying, for generating power from water and for besieging cities, his studies of geometry and his architectural plans, as well as personal memos and creative writing including fables.
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Interests
Leonardo (1452–1519) spent his formative years training in the Florence workshop of Verrocchio before moving to Milan, where he worked from 1482 to 1499 before spending 1500 to 1506 back in Florence. Because of the scope of his interests and the extraordinary degree of talent that he demonstrated in so many diverse areas, he is regarded as the archetypal "Renaissance man". But it was first and foremost as a painter that he was admired in his own time, and as a painter, he drew on the knowledge he gained from his other interests. Leonardo was a scientific observer. He learned by looking at things.
Italian Renaissance painting | Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo was a prolific draughtsman, keeping journals full of small sketches and detailed drawings recording all manner of things that took his attention. As well as the journals there exist many studies for paintings, some of which can be identified as preparatory to particular works such as "The Adoration of the Magi", "The Virgin of the Rocks" and "The Last Supper". His earliest dated drawing is a "Landscape of the Arno Valley", 1473, which shows the river, the mountains, Montelupo Castle and the farmlands beyond it in great detail. According to art historian Ludwig Heydenreich, this is "The first true landscape in art." Massimo Polidoro says that it was the first landscape "not to be the background of some religious scene or a portrait.
Leonardo da Vinci | Drawings
His kneeling form takes on a trapezoid shape, with one arm stretched to the outer edge of the painting and his gaze looking in the opposite direction. J. Wasserman points out the link between this painting and Leonardo's anatomical studies. Across the foreground sprawls his symbol, a great lion whose body and tail make a double spiral across the base of the picture space. The other remarkable feature is the sketchy landscape of craggy rocks against which the figure is silhouetted. The daring display of figure composition, the landscape elements and personal drama also appear in the great unfinished masterpiece, the "Adoration of the Magi", a commission from the Monks of San Donato a Scopeto.
Leonardo da Vinci | Paintings of the 1480s
Leonardo, because of the scope of his interests and the extraordinary degree of talent that he demonstrated in so many diverse areas, is regarded as the archetypal "Renaissance man". But it was first and foremost as a painter that he was admired within his own time, and as a painter, he drew on the knowledge that he gained from all his other interests. Leonardo was a scientific observer. He learned by looking at things. He studied and drew the flowers of the fields, the eddies of the river, the form of the rocks and mountains, the way light reflected from foliage and sparkled in a jewel.
Florentine painting | Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo started his study in the anatomy of the human body under the apprenticeship of Verrocchio, who demanded that his students develop a deep knowledge of the subject. As an artist, he quickly became master of "topographic anatomy", drawing many studies of muscles, tendons and other visible anatomical features. As a successful artist, Leonardo was given permission to dissect human corpses at the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence and later at hospitals in Milan and Rome. From 1510 to 1511 he collaborated in his studies with the doctor Marcantonio della Torre. Leonardo made over 240 detailed drawings and wrote about 13,000 words towards a treatise on anatomy.
Leonardo da Vinci | Anatomy and physiology
He excelled in portraiture, and painted a portrait of Gabriel Bocangel, the poet. The date and place of his death is uncertain.
Agustín Leonardo | Introduction
This is a list of things named after Leonardo da Vinci.
List of things named after Leonardo da Vinci | Introduction
Here we have Leonardo depicted as a middle-aged, blue-eyed man." Since that time the focus of attention and research has been directed at proving the painting to be the work of Leonardo da Vinci. The Vaglia Basilicata City Council then funded an investigation by a team of scientists, many of whom were from non-art related disciplines, to report upon anything which could be tested to either support or deny the attribution to Leonardo.
Lucan portrait of Leonardo da Vinci | Analysis
The Death of Leonardo da Vinci is an 1818 painting by the French artist Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, showing the painter Leonardo da Vinci dying, with Francis I of France holding his head. It was commissioned by the Pierre Louis Jean Casimir de Blacas, the French ambassador in Rome, and now hangs in the Petit Palais in Paris.
The Death of Leonardo da Vinci | Introduction
He studied and drew the flowers of the fields, the eddies of the river, the form of the rocks and mountains, the way light reflected from foliage and sparkled in a jewel. In particular, he studied the human form, dissecting thirty or more unclaimed cadavers from a hospital in order to understand muscles and sinews. Leonardo achieved a degree of realism in the expression of human emotion, prefigured by Giotto but unknown since Masaccio's "Adam and Eve". Leonardo's "Last Supper", painted from 1495 to 1498 in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie (Milan), became the benchmark for religious narrative painting for the next half millennium.
Italian Renaissance painting | Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci and A Memory of His Childhood () is a 1910 essay by Sigmund Freud about Leonardo da Vinci. It consists of a psychoanalytic study of Leonardo's life based on his paintings.
Leonardo da Vinci, A Memory of His Childhood | Introduction
These might be referenced to as paintings done by his pupils that Leonardo touched up as opposed to the inverse. Francesco Melzi, in contrast to his peers, actually does have a handful of completed, high quality paintings attributed to him, as well as drawings and studies. He is responsible for the red chalk portrait, from approximately 1515, of da Vinci's profile which depicts him as very classically handsome and regal. This is most likely the portrait to which Vasari and , as well as other later writers, refer to in describing Leonardo as having such "grace and beauty." There are several other drawings attributed to him in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan.
Francesco Melzi | Selected works
During his lifetime, Leonardo was also valued as an engineer. With the same rational and analytical approach that moved him to represent the human body and to investigate anatomy, Leonardo studied and designed many machines and devices. He drew their “anatomy” with unparalleled mastery, producing the first form of the modern technical drawing, including a perfected "exploded view" technique, to represent internal components. Those studies and projects collected in his codices fill more than 5,000 pages. In a letter of 1482 to the lord of Milan Ludovico il Moro, he wrote that he could create all sorts of machines both for the protection of a city and for siege.
Leonardo da Vinci | Engineering and inventions
It is the first [documented] time where a landscape was drawn just for the sake of it." Among his famous drawings are the "Vitruvian Man", a study of the proportions of the human body; the "Head of an Angel", for "The Virgin of the Rocks" in the Louvre; a botanical study of "Star of Bethlehem"; and a large drawing (160×100 cm) in black chalk on coloured paper of "The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist" in the National Gallery, London. This drawing employs the subtle "sfumato" technique of shading, in the manner of the "Mona Lisa".
Leonardo da Vinci | Drawings
Leonardo Coccorante (1680–1750) was an Italian painter known for his "capricci" depicting imaginary landscapes with ruins of classical architecture.
Leonardo Coccorante | Introduction
In 30 years, Leonardo dissected 30 male and female corpses of different ages. Together with Marcantonio, he prepared to publish a theoretical work on anatomy and made more than 200 drawings. However, his book was published only in 1680 (161 years after his death) under the heading "A Treatise on Painting".
Science and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci | Dissection
Vasari expressed the opinion that the manner of painting would make even "the most confident master...despair and lose heart." The perfect state of preservation and the fact that there is no sign of repair or overpainting is rare in a panel painting of this date.
Leonardo da Vinci | Paintings of the 16th century
Leonardo sent the following letter to Ludovico Sforza, the ruler of Milan, in 1482:
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Résumé
The drawings and notation are far ahead of their time, and if published would undoubtedly have made a major contribution to medical science.
Leonardo da Vinci | Anatomy and physiology
A prologue opens by asking, "Why did Leonardo da Vinci choose to paint the portrait of the second wife of an unimportant Florentine merchant when dukes and duchesses ... were begging for a portrait by his hand?" It introduces Salai by five quotations from Leonardo's notebooks and his will. Early narrative chapters establish those two characters and their relationship. The son of a poor shoemaker, Salai is a cutpurse caught in the act by the master, whose grasp and visage he mistakes for the hand and face of God. Leonardo takes him as an apprentice, at no fee, and practically as a servant.
The Second Mrs. Giaconda | Summary
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was an Italian polymath, regarded as the epitome of the "Renaissance Man", displaying skills in numerous diverse areas of study. Whilst most famous for his paintings such as the "Mona Lisa" and the "Last Supper", Leonardo is also renowned in the fields of civil engineering, chemistry, geology, geometry, hydrodynamics, mathematics, mechanical engineering, optics, physics, pyrotechnics, and zoology. While the full extent of his scientific studies has only become recognized in the last 150 years, during his lifetime he was employed for his engineering and skill of invention. Many of his designs, such as the movable dikes to protect Venice from invasion, proved too costly or impractical.
Science and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci | Introduction
The journals of Leonardo contain matters as mundane as grocery lists and as remarkable as diagrams for the construction of a flying machine. In 1466, Leonardo was sent to Florence to the workshop of the artist Verrocchio, in order to learn the skills of an artist. At the workshop, as well as painting and drawing, he learnt the study of topographical anatomy. He was also exposed to a very wide range of technical skills such as drafting, set construction, plasterworking, paint chemistry, and metallurgy. Among the older artists whose work stimulated Leonardo's scientific interest was Piero della Francesca, then a man in his 60s, who was one of the earliest artists to systematically employ linear perspective in his paintings, and who had a greater understanding of the science of light than any other artist of his date.
Science and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci | Condensed biography
Close examination reveals areas of the work that have been painted or touched-up over the tempera, using the new technique of oil paint, including the landscape, the rocks seen through the brown mountain stream, and much of the figure of Jesus, bearing witness to the hand of Leonardo. Leonardo may have been the model for two works by Verrocchio: the bronze statue of "David" in the Bargello, and the Archangel Raphael in "Tobias and the Angel".
Leonardo da Vinci | Verrocchio's workshop
He was "striking and handsome" and "marvellously endowed by heaven with beauty, grace [and] outstanding physical beauty", and "displayed infinite grace in everything he did".
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Physical characteristics
While Leonardo's teacher, Verrocchio, largely ignored Piero's scientifically disciplined approach to painting, Leonardo and Domenico Ghirlandaio, who also worked at Verrocchio's workshop, did not. Two of Leonardo's earliest paintings, both scenes of the Annunciation show his competent understanding of the linear perspective.
Science and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci | Condensed biography
At the request of della Faille's family, the Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck painted a portrait of the mathematician in 1629. The portrait shows the mathematician in his Jesuit outfit with a set of tools (including a compass, a t-square and a globe).
Jean-Charles della Faille | Introduction
Leonardo's fame within his own lifetime was such that the King of France carried him away like a trophy, and was claimed to have supported him in his old age and held him in his arms as he died. Interest in Leonardo and his work has never diminished. Crowds still queue to see his best-known artworks, T-shirts still bear his most famous drawing, and writers continue to hail him as a genius while speculating about his private life, as well as about what one so intelligent actually believed in. The continued admiration that Leonardo commanded from painters, critics and historians is reflected in many other written tributes.
Leonardo da Vinci | Fame and reputation
The Lucan portrait of Leonardo da Vinci is a late 15th- or early 16th-century portrait of a man that was discovered in 2008 in a cupboard of a private house in Italy. It strongly resembles a portrait of Leonardo da Vinci by Cristofano dell'Altissimo held by the Uffizi Gallery. The painting was previously thought by its owners to represent Galileo but on its discovery a claim was made that it is a self-portrait by Leonardo da Vinci. Alessandro Vezzosi, director of the Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci at Vinci said in 2011 that he had excluded the possibility that it was a self-portrait, but that the painting "remains intriguing because it adds a new element to the Leonardo puzzle".
Lucan portrait of Leonardo da Vinci | Introduction
In 1505 Leonardo was commissioned to paint "The Battle of Anghiari" in the Salone dei Cinquecento (Hall of the Five Hundred) in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. Leonardo devised a dynamic composition depicting four men riding raging war horses engaged in a battle for possession of a standard, at the Battle of Anghiari in 1440. Michelangelo was assigned the opposite wall to depict the Battle of Cascina. Leonardo's painting deteriorated rapidly and is now known from a copy by Rubens. Among the works created by Leonardo in the 16th century is the small portrait known as the "Mona Lisa" or "La Gioconda", the laughing one.
Leonardo da Vinci | Paintings of the 16th century
Upon its discovery by Nicola Barbatelli, the painting was subjected to an initial examination by Alessandro Vezzosi, director of the Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci at Vinci, who confirmed that the painting appeared to be from the Renaissance period. Vezzosi was reported, in February 2009, as investigating whether the painting was the work of a minor 16th-century artist Cristofano dell'Altissimo. Altissimo executed numerous portraits of famous men for Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, some of them after the Giovio Series, including a profile of Leonardo based on the red chalk profile drawing in the Royal Collection attributed to Leonardo's companion Francesco Melzi.
Lucan portrait of Leonardo da Vinci | Analysis
It is likely that Leonardo da Vinci was already familiar with this work before he painted his own Last Supper in a more dramatic form to contrast with the stillness of these works, so that more emotion would be displayed.
Andrea del Castagno | "The Last Supper"
Salaì is often depicted in fancy-dress costume. Leonardo is known to have designed sets for pageants with which these may be associated. Other, often meticulous, drawings show studies of drapery. A marked development in Leonardo's ability to draw drapery occurred in his early works. Another often-reproduced drawing is a macabre sketch that was done by Leonardo in Florence in 1479 showing the body of Bernardo Baroncelli, hanged in connection with the murder of Giuliano, brother of Lorenzo de' Medici, in the Pazzi conspiracy. In his notes, Leonardo recorded the colours of the robes that Baroncelli was wearing when he died.
Leonardo da Vinci | Drawings
Vezzosi later dismissed the early conjecture that it was by dell'Altisimo. In February 2009, two months after the painting's discovery, Vezzosi had been erroneously quoted by "The Times" as saying he had excluded the possibility that the work was "a self-portrait painted by Leonardo himself" and that examination of the inscription ""pinxit mea"" on the reverse of the panel indicated that it was "a later addition". Vezzosi was later to say "We need to find out the exact dating of this portrait. I have excluded the possibility that we are dealing with a self-portrait painted by Leonardo himself. Nevertheless, the Acerenza portrait is intriguing because it adds a new element to the Leonardo's puzzle.
Lucan portrait of Leonardo da Vinci | Analysis
Although he had no formal academic training, many historians and scholars regard Leonardo as the prime exemplar of the "Renaissance Man" or "Universal Genius", an individual of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination." He is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived. According to art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent in recorded history, and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, while the man himself mysterious and remote." Scholars interpret his view of the world as being based in logic, though the empirical methods he used were unorthodox for his time.
Leonardo da Vinci | Introduction
Leonardo's most famous painting of the 1490s is "The Last Supper", commissioned for the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan. It represents the last meal shared by Jesus with his disciples before his capture and death, and shows the moment when Jesus has just said "one of you will betray me", and the consternation that this statement caused. The writer Matteo Bandello observed Leonardo at work and wrote that some days he would paint from dawn till dusk without stopping to eat and then not paint for three or four days at a time. This was beyond the comprehension of the prior of the convent, who hounded him until Leonardo asked Ludovico to intervene.
Leonardo da Vinci | Paintings of the 1490s
Science and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci
Marcantonio della Torre | See also
He and Yáñez produced several copies after works of Leonardo da Vinci, including:
Hernando de los Llanos | Introduction
This indicates that Leonardo had been in the possession of Roberto's work.
Roberto Valturio | Introduction
Illustrations Select list of paintings Paintings
Cesare Biseo | Work
He also painted numerous canvases. Only a limited number of his architectural projects were built but nonetheless they are as distinctive and as inventive as those of his rivals.
Pietro da Cortona | Introduction
Leonardo's portrait was used, within his own lifetime, as the iconic image of Plato in Raphael's "School of Athens". His biography was written in superlative terms by Vasari. He has been repeatedly acclaimed the greatest genius to have lived. His painting of the "Mona Lisa" has been the most imitated artwork of all time and his drawing the "Vitruvian Man" iconically represents the fusion of Art and Science. Leonardo's biography has appeared in many forms, both scholarly and fictionalized. Every known aspect of his life has been scrutinized and analyzed. His paintings, drawings and notebooks have been studied, reproduced and analyzed for five centuries.
Cultural references to Leonardo da Vinci | Introduction
Since that date much has been written about his presumed homosexuality and its role in his art, particularly in the androgyny and eroticism manifested in "Saint John the Baptist" and "Bacchus" and more explicitly in a number of erotic drawings.
Leonardo da Vinci | Personal life
The interest in and appreciation of the character of Leonardo and his talents has never waned.
Cultural references to Leonardo da Vinci | Introduction
As Leonardo became successful as an artist, he was given permission to dissect human corpses at the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence. Later he dissected in Milan at the hospital Maggiore, and in Rome at the Ospedale di Santo Spirito (the first mainland Italian hospital). From 1510 to 1511 he collaborated in his studies with the doctor Marcantonio della Torre. I have removed the skin from a man who was so shrunk by illness that the muscles were worn down and remained in a state like thin membrane, in such a way that the sinews instead of merging in muscles ended in wide membrane; and where the bones were covered by the skin they had very little over their natural size.
Science and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci | Dissection
In 2005 in Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci presented the discovery of professor James Beck a marble self-portrait of Michelangelo Buonarroti.
Alessandro Vezzosi | Introduction
The latter Constantijn received in 1690; he mended and mounted it, believing it to be a Leonardo original, though it is more likely by either Bernardino Campi or Carlo Urbino. According to Huygens, Romeyn de Hooghe illustrated " La puttana errante", an erotic book by Pietro Aretino.
Constantijn Huygens Jr. | Drawings and paintings
Although previously attributed to Ghirlandaio, the larger work is now generally attributed to Leonardo. In the smaller painting, Mary averts her eyes and folds her hands in a gesture that symbolised submission to God's will. Mary is not submissive, however, in the larger piece. The girl, interrupted in her reading by this unexpected messenger, puts a finger in her bible to mark the place and raises her hand in a formal gesture of greeting or surprise. This calm young woman appears to accept her role as the Mother of God, not with resignation but with confidence. In this painting, the young Leonardo presents the humanist face of the Virgin Mary, recognising humanity's role in God's incarnation.
Leonardo da Vinci | Early works
Kelly's study of the masters in the Louvre collection resulted in great admiration for the Renaissance painter Leonardo Da Vinci. His influence is evident in Kelly's notebooks of this time which are full of drawings for World War II battlements and weaponry which echo DaVinci's drawings for the mechanisms of war. He also shared Leonardo's fascination with science and the underlying dynamics of how things work. His interest of the nervous system and sensory aspects of human anatomy would later come important components of his abstract figures of the 1950s and '60s.
Leon Kelly | Philadelphia
The identity of the young woman in Leonardo's "Mona Lisa" had been difficult to ascertain due to a lack of decisive contemporary sources of information about the painting. This changed upon the discovery of a comment written by Vespucci in the margin of a 1477 edition of Cicero's ", now held by the Heidelberg University Library. The discovery was made by Dr. Armin Schlechter in 2005 while he was cataloguing the book for an incunabula exhibit at the library. The unabbreviated Latin text of the note is as follows: " (English: "Apelles the painter. That is the way Leonardo da Vinci does it with all of his pictures, like, for example, with the countenance of Lisa del Giocondo and that of Anne, the mother of the Virgin.
Agostino Vespucci | "Mona Lisa"
He painted as late as 1694.
Sigismondo Caula | Introduction
Giorgio Vasari, who argued that historical progress in art reached its peak in Michelangelo, emphasized Alberti's scholarly achievements, not his artistic talents: "He spent his time finding out about the world and studying the proportions of antiquities; but above all, following his natural genius, he concentrated on writing rather than on applied work." Leonardo, who ironically called himself "an uneducated person" ("omo senza lettere"), followed Alberti in the view that painting is science. However, as a scientist Leonardo was more empirical than Alberti, who was a theorist and did not have similar interest in practice. Alberti believed in ideal beauty, but Leonardo filled his notebooks with observations on human proportions, page after page, ending with his famous drawing of the Vitruvian man, a human figure related to a square and a circle.
Leon Battista Alberti | Painting
Leonardo was accompanied during this time by his friend and apprentice Francesco Melzi, and supported by a pension totalling 10,000 scudi. At some point, Melzi drew a ; the only others known from his lifetime were a sketch by an unknown assistant on the back of one of Leonardo's studies () and a drawing by Giovanni Ambrogio Figino depicting an elderly Leonardo with his right arm assuaged by cloth. The latter, in addition to the record of an October 1517 visit by Louis d'Aragon, confirms an account of Leonardo's right hand being paralytic at the age of 65, which may indicate why he left works such as the "Mona Lisa" unfinished.
Leonardo da Vinci | Old age and death
Many other Renaissance artists painted versions of the Last Supper, but only Leonardo's was destined to be reproduced countless times in wood, alabaster, plaster, lithograph, tapestry, crochet and table-carpets.
Italian Renaissance painting | Leonardo da Vinci
Vasari says of the child Leonardo "He would have been very proficient in his early lessons, if he had not been so volatile and flexible; for he was always setting himself to learn a multitude of things, most of which were shortly abandoned. When he began the study of arithmetic, he made, within a few months, such remarkable progress that he could baffle his master with the questions and problems that he raised... All the time, through all his other enterprises, Leonardo never ceased drawing..." Leonardo's father, Ser Piero, realising that his son's talents were extraordinary, took some of his drawings to show his friend, Andrea del Verrocchio, who ran one of the largest artists' workshops in Florence.
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Interests
He was employed by Ludovico from 1481 to 1499, during which time his most important works were the "Virgin of the Rocks", the "Last Supper" and a huge model of a horse for an equestrian monument which was never completed. Other important events during this time were the arrival in his studio of the boy Salaì in 1490, and in 1491 the marriage of Ludovico Sforza to Beatrice d'Este, for which he organized the celebrations. When Milan was invaded by the French in 1499, Leonardo left and spent some time in Venice, and possibly Rome and Naples before returning to Florence.
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Biography
He painted a canvas on oil of "Sacrifice of Niobe" for the Villa La Petraja.
Vincenzo Dandini | Introduction
Leonardo was given an allowance of 33 ducats a month, and according to Vasari, decorated a lizard with scales dipped in quicksilver. The pope gave him a painting commission of unknown subject matter, but cancelled it when the artist set about developing a new kind of varnish. Leonardo became ill, in what may have been the first of multiple strokes leading to his death. He practiced botany in the Gardens of Vatican City, and was commissioned to make plans for the pope's proposed draining of the Pontine Marshes. He also dissected cadavers, making notes for a treatise on vocal cords; these he gave to an official in hopes of regaining the pope's favor, but was unsuccessful.
Leonardo da Vinci | Old age and death
Leonardo Sconzani (1695-1735) was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque period.
Leonardo Sconzani | Introduction
Some of his well-known paints depicts animals in the night, but—as he said, he preferred to paint humans.
Guido Vedovato | Introduction
Before the restoration and due to its repaint, the Prado's copy sometimes was attributed to a Flemish painter. This came about because it was long assumed that the copy's wooden frame was oak. However, during the 2010 restoration, researchers realized the frame's material is walnut, an expensive wood frequently used in works of Leonardo, such as "Lady with an Ermine", "La Belle Ferronnière" or "Saint John the Baptist". After the restoration, it was suggested that two of Leonardo's pupils, Francesco Melzi or Salaì, were among the probable painters, though others questioned this assumption; they suggest the author could have been a Spanish student of Leonardo, namely Fernando Yáñez de la Almedina or Hernando de los Llanos.
Mona Lisa (Prado) | Attribution
The "universal genius" Leonardo da Vinci was to further perfect the aspects of pictorial art (lighting, linear and atmospheric perspective, anatomy, foreshortening and characterisation) that had preoccupied artists of the Early Renaissance, in a lifetime of studying and meticulously recording his observations of the natural world. His adoption of oil paint as his primary media meant that he could depict light and its effects on the landscape and objects more naturally and with greater dramatic effect than had ever been done before, as demonstrated in the "Mona Lisa". His dissection of cadavers carried forward the understanding of skeletal and muscular anatomy, as seen in the unfinished "Saint Jerome in the Wilderness".
Renaissance art | High Renaissance in Italy, 1495–1520
In 1490 Leonardo earned recognition and a breakthrough at the court of Ludovico Sforza and because of the scale of works commissioned he was permitted to have assistants and pupils in his own studio.
Leonardeschi | Introduction
Leonardo appears to have had no close relationships with women except for his friendship with Cecilia Gallerani and the two Este sisters, Beatrice and Isabella. While on a journey that took him through Mantua, he drew a portrait of Isabella that appears to have been used to create a painted portrait, now lost. Beyond friendship, Leonardo kept his private life secret. His sexuality has been the subject of satire, analysis, and speculation. This trend began in the mid-16th century and was revived in the 19th and 20th centuries, most notably by Sigmund Freud in his "Leonardo da Vinci, A Memory of His Childhood".
Leonardo da Vinci | Personal life
... Small rooms or dwellings set the mind in the right path, large ones cause it to go astray. ... If you want money in abundance, you will end by not enjoying it." He also wrote, "He who wishes to become rich in a day is hanged in a year."
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Character
Leonardo da Pistoia, also known as Leonardo Grazia, (1502 – ca. 1548) was an Italian painter of the Mannerism school.
Leonardo da Pistoia | Introduction
According to Vasari, Verrocchio, on seeing the beauty of the angel that his young pupil had painted, never painted again. Florence was at this time a Republic, but the city was increasingly under the influence of a single powerful family, the Medici, led by Lorenzo de' Medici, who came to be known as "Lorenzo the Magnificent". In 1481 Leonardo commenced an important commission, the painting of a large altarpiece for the church of San Donato in Scopeto. The work was never completed. Leonardo left Florence and travelled to Milan carrying a gift from Lorenzo to the regent ruler, Ludovico Sforza.
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Biography
This fresco is said to have some of the figures of the Duke and his family painted by Leonardo. A Giovanni Battista da Montorfano is documented as part of team of artists, including Vincenzo Foppa and Cristoforo Moretti forming an estimate for the paintings of Stefano dei Fedeli in a chapel of the Castle of Milan.
Giovanni Donato da Montorfano | Introduction
Besides historical subjects, he painted portraits, in which he was especially successful. He died in Rome in 1821.
Giuseppe Errante | Introduction
Leonardo da Vinci had a number of powerful patrons, including the King of France. He had, over the years, a large number of followers and pupils.
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Patrons, friends and colleagues
The following works by da Vinci were also depicted in the story:
Chiaroscuro: The Private Lives of Leonardo da Vinci | Works of art
Medusa is either of two paintings described in Giorgio Vasari's "Life" of Leonardo da Vinci as being among Leonardo's earliest works. Neither painting survived.
Medusa (Leonardo) | Introduction
Among the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci is a sketch of a machine tool for the cutting of files (the chisel would make one strike, swaging a tooth, then automatically advance into position for the next tooth, and strike again).
File (tool) | History
Three inventories of the collection are known, one from 1617, a revised one from ca. 1621, and one from after his death in 1625. One piece in it is a "Cavalry Battle" by Leonardo da Vinci, now known as the "Tavola Doria" and considered a copy by Da Vinci of part of his own lost "Battle of Anghiari" fresco. Other painters represented in his collection included works by Northern artist like Jan Brueghel I, Jan Brueghel II, Antony van Dyck, Lucas van Leyden, and Jan Wildens, but also some older Italian artists like the portrait of his uncle Nicolò Doria by Jacopo Tintoretto, and works by Giorgione, Perugino, Raphael, Titian, and Veronese.
Giovanni Carlo Doria | Introduction
Eyes and chins are fitted in various shapes to form the head. Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the world’s greatest artists who drew sketches of human anatomy using grid structures. His image of the face drawn on the grid structure principle is in perfect proportion. In this genre, using the technique of pen and ink, Leonardo created a sketch which is a "Study on the proportions of head and eyes" (pictured).
Head | Art