Leonardo first gained attention for his work on the "Baptism of Christ", painted in conjunction with Verrocchio. Two other paintings appear to date from his time at Verrocchio's workshop, both of which are Annunciations. One is small, long and high. It is a "predella" to go at the base of a larger composition, a painting by Lorenzo di Credi from which it has become separated. The other is a much larger work, long. In both Annunciations, Leonardo used a formal arrangement, like two well-known pictures by Fra Angelico of the same subject, of the Virgin Mary sitting or kneeling to the right of the picture, approached from the left by an angel in profile, with a rich flowing garment, raised wings and bearing a lily.
Early works
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci | Early works
Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context. Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context. The young angel holding Jesus' robe in a manner that was so far superior to his master's. Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
what does patterns in nature refer to?
user
They are visible regularities of form found in the natural world.
assistant
what patterns does it include?
user
It includes symmetries, trees, spirals, meanders, waves, foams, tessellations, cracks and stripes.
assistant
what is it caused by?
user
Causes can be in the mathematics that governs what patterns can physically form, and among living things in the effects of natural selection, that govern how patterns evolve.
assistant
were these indicated in any books?
user
Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
assistant
can you name anyone from history who has done such researches on this?
user
Leonardo da Vinci
assistant
where was he born?
user
In the Tuscan hill town of Vinci
assistant
was he into painting?
user
Yes his main achievement is as a painter
assistant
can you name some of his works?
user
"Baptism of Christ"
assistant
when was it painted?
user
Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
assistant
what was it about?
user
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
Nor were his designs based on particularly good science.
Early flying machines | Leonardo da Vinci
https://archive.org/details/VinciOperaArtaserseLOperaDeNancy20121110
Leonardo Vinci | External links
He was not to see this project fully realized, but gathered the "Codex Urbinas".
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Pupils
[...] From here four galleries stretched like a fan, that is to say a series of undergrounds which, it is said, extends under the whole surface of the garden in front of the western front of the Rusca house and which perhaps corresponds with the tower B. This construction recalls a drawing made by Leonardo da Vinci in a manuscript of the «Bibliothèque de l'Instituit» (Ravaisson Mollien, Les manuscrits de Leonardo da Vinci B & D de la bibliothèque de l'Instituit - Paris 1883 fol 37 recto ) The issue was no longer explored by Rahn or by the then head of the department of public education Eligio Pometta, remaining a de facto curiosity in itself.
Leonardo's Rivellino | Early modern studies
Leonardo first gained attention for his work on the "Baptism of Christ", painted in conjunction with Verrocchio. Two other paintings appear to date from his time at Verrocchio's workshop, both of which are Annunciations. One is small, long and high. It is a "predella" to go at the base of a larger composition, a painting by Lorenzo di Credi from which it has become separated. The other is a much larger work, long. In both Annunciations, Leonardo used a formal arrangement, like two well-known pictures by Fra Angelico of the same subject, of the Virgin Mary sitting or kneeling to the right of the picture, approached from the left by an angel in profile, with a rich flowing garment, raised wings and bearing a lily.
Leonardo da Vinci | Early works
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
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was an Italian Renaissance polymath. Leonardo da Vinci may also refer to:
Leonardo da Vinci (disambiguation) | Introduction
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
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was an Italian Renaissance polymath. Da Vinci may also refer to:
Da Vinci (disambiguation) | Introduction
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
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
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
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
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
It is commonly believed that upon Leonardo's death in 1519, Salaì inherited several paintings including the "Mona Lisa". Through his estate, many of those works, notably the "Mona Lisa", passed into the possession of Francis I of France. While Leonardo left all personal belongings, paintings, drawings and notes to Francesco Melzi in his will, it is unclear whether this included the "Mona Lisa".
Salaì | Early life
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
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
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
Little is known about Leonardo's intimate relationships from his own writing. Some evidence of Leonardo's personal relationships emerges both from historic records and from the writings of his many biographers.
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Personal relationships
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
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 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
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
Anne is a full generation older than Mary. Freud also points out that, in the painting, the outline of a vulture can be seen. This is connected to the original fantasy involving the vulture in Leonardo da Vinci's crib.
Leonardo da Vinci, A Memory of His Childhood | Interpretation of "The Virgin and Child with St. Anne"
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
Leonardo received an informal education in Latin, geometry and mathematics. In later life, Leonardo recorded few distinct childhood incidents. One was of a kite coming to his cradle and opening his mouth with its tail; he regarded this as an omen of his writing on the subject. The second occurred while he was exploring in the mountains: he discovered a cave and was both terrified that some great monster might lurk there and driven by curiosity to find out what was inside. He also seems to have remembered some of his childhood observations of water, writing and crossing out the name of his hometown in one of his notebooks on the formation of rivers.
Leonardo da Vinci | Early life
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"
Leonardo sent the following letter to Ludovico Sforza, the ruler of Milan, in 1482:
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Résumé
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
In addition to operas, Vinci wrote a few cantatas, sonatas, a serenata, and two oratorios ("Oratorio di Maria dolorata" ca. 1723 and "Oratorio per la Santissima Vergine del Rosario" ca. 1730). His sonata in D major for flute and basso continuo is still played today. He composed two sonatas for the recorder in addition to a recorder concerto in a minor.
Leonardo Vinci | Other works
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
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
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
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
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
Despite his great appreciation for painting, Ghiberti asked Malatesta for leave. In 1401 he headed back to Florence to participate in a competition that was being held for the commission to make a pair of bronze doors for the Baptistery of the Cathedral of Florence.
Lorenzo Ghiberti | Early life
In the 1480s, Leonardo received two very important commissions and commenced another work that was of ground-breaking importance in terms of composition. Two of the three were never finished, and the third took so long that it was subject to lengthy negotiations over completion and payment. One of these paintings was "Saint Jerome in the Wilderness", which Bortolon associates with a difficult period of Leonardo's life, as evidenced in his diary: "I thought I was learning to live; I was only learning to die." Although the painting is barely begun, the composition can be seen and is very unusual. Jerome, as a penitent, occupies the middle of the picture, set on a slight diagonal and viewed somewhat from above.
Leonardo da Vinci | Paintings of the 1480s
He was tall, strong and a fine athlete who could ride the wildest horse and jump over a man's head. He distinguished himself as a writer while he was still a child at school, and by the age of twenty had written a play which was successfully passed off as a genuine piece of Classical literature. In 1435, he began his first major written work, "Della pittura," which was inspired by the burgeoning pictorial art in Florence in the early 15th century. In this work he analyses the nature of painting and explores the elements of perspective, composition and colour.
Leon Battista Alberti | Early life
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
As an adult, Leonardo had only two childhood memories, one of which was the finding of a cave in the Apennines. Although fearing that he might be attacked by a wild beast, he ventured in driven "by the burning desire to see whether there might be any marvelous thing within." Leonardo's earliest dated drawing is a study of the Arno valley, strongly emphasizing its geological features. His notebooks contain landscapes with a wealth of geological observation from the regions of both Florence and Milan, often including atmospheric effects such as a heavy rainstorm pouring down on a town at the foot of a mountain range.
Science and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci | Geology
Art historians place the work within Leonardo's First Milanese period (), given similarities to his "Lady with an Ermine" found via X-ray testing, the treatment of chiaroscuro in "Virgin of the Rocks", and sketches for a bronze horse sculpture. Modern scholars have also noted that it was likely not made much later than 1487, since the work has been seen to lack some of the refinements and realism of his later works, such as "Lady with an Ermine"; Leonardo would engage in a study of human anatomy, especially the skull, in the late 1480s. The painting is therefore likely likely to have been completed during the mid–1480s, with a majority of opinion placing it as between 1483 and 1487.
Portrait of a Musician | Dating
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
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
The personal life of Leonardo da Vinci (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) has been a subject of interest, inquiry, and speculation since the years immediately following his death. Leonardo has long been regarded as the archetypal Renaissance man, described by the Renaissance biographer Giorgio Vasari as having qualities that "transcended nature" and being "marvellously endowed with beauty, grace and talent in abundance". Interest in and curiosity about Leonardo has continued unabated for five hundred years. Modern descriptions and analysis of Leonardo's character, personal desires and intimate behavior have been based upon various sources: records concerning him, his biographies, his own written journals, his paintings, his drawings, his associates, and commentaries that were made concerning him by contemporaries.
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Introduction
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
He also wrote "Intellectual passion drives out sensuality. ... Whoso curbs not lustful desires puts himself on a level with the beasts." The only historical document concerning Leonardo's sexual life is an accusation of sodomy made in 1476, while he was still at the workshop of Verrocchio. Florentine court records show that on April9, 1476, an anonymous denunciation was left in the "tamburo" (letter box) in the Palazzo della Signoria (town hall) accusing a young goldsmith and male prostitute, Jacopo Saltarelli (sometimes referred to as an artist's model) of being "party to many wretched affairs and consents to please those persons who request such wickedness of him".
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Sexuality
In January 1478, Leonardo received an independent commission to paint an altarpiece for the Chapel of St. Bernard in the Palazzo Vecchio, an indication of his independence from Verrocchio's studio. An anonymous early biographer, known as Anonimo Gaddiano, claims that in 1480 Leonardo was living with the Medici and often worked in the garden of the Piazza San Marco, Florence, where a Neoplatonic academy of artists, poets and philosophers organized by the Medici met. In March 1481, he received a commission from the monks of for "The Adoration of the Magi". Neither of these initial commissions were completed, being abandoned when Leonardo went to offer his services to Duke of Milan Ludovico Sforza.
Leonardo da Vinci | Professional life
While this date has gained wide acceptance, the association with Louis XII has not. More recent historians have dated the work as early as the mid 1490s and, in the case of Carlo Pedretti and Kenneth Clark, as late as 1508–1510. Martin Kemp notes that the hydraulic engineering in the preparatory drawing in the British Museum dates the composition to around 1507–1508, when Leonardo was making similar studies in the Codex Atlanticus. In the 17th century the drawing belonged to the Counts Arconati of Milan. In 1721 it passed to the Casnedis, then to the Sagredo in Venice. In 1763 it was acquired by Robert Udny.
The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist | History
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
In an early example of ichnology, he explains that the fossils of marine shells would have been scattered in such a deluge, and not gathered in groups, which were in fact left at various times on mountains in Lombardy. He discredits pagan mythology as well, saying that gods the size of planets would appear as mere specks of light in the universe—also calling these personifications "mortal ... putrid and corrupt in their sepulchers."
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Philosophy and religion
... 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
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
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
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
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
On the 10 October 1517, he was visited by the Cardinal Luigi d’Aragona, who was so impressed by his artwork that he described them in his "Itinerario", as “rare perfection”. These include his three most famous pieces of work : The Mona Lisa, The Virgin and Child, with St. Anne and St John the Baptist.
Clos Lucé | Leonardo da Vinci’s years at the Clos Lucé
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
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
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
He painted as late as 1694.
Sigismondo Caula | Introduction
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
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
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
The date and place of execution of the cartoon is disputed. The earliest reference to it is by the biographer Giorgio Vasari who, writing in the mid 16th century, says that the work was created while Leonardo was in Florence, as a guest of the Servite Monastery. Vasari says that for two days people young and old flocked to see the drawing as if they were attending a festival. This would date the cartoon to about 1500. A date of 1498–99 is put on the work by Padre Sebastiano Resta who wrote to Giovanni Pietro Bellori saying that Leonardo had drawn the cartoon in Milan at the request of Louis XII of France.
The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist | History
Leonardo always loved nature. One of the reasons was because of his childhood environment. Near his childhood house were mountains, trees, and rivers. There were also many animals. This environment gave him the perfect chance to study the surrounding area; it also may have encouraged him to have interest in painting. Later in life he recalls his exploration of an ominous cavern in the mountains as formative.
Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci | Love of nature
Other portraits of Leonardo by himself and other hands exist, presenting a different image of Leonardo to the man as represented in the red chalk drawing. Another red chalk drawing, a profile portrait at Windsor, is attributed to his pupil Francesco Melzi. A sketch by an unknown assistant on the back of one of Leonardo's studies (c. 1517) has also been determined to be a portrait. A self-portrait from Leonardo's "Codex on the Flight of Birds" depicts the artist at age 53. Leonardo may have also included a self-portrait in Luca Pacioli's "Divina proportione", which he illustrated. A 1471 painting of Gabriel bears an inscription indicating that it is a self-portrait of Leonardo; this would be the earliest depiction of the artist.
Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk | Other portraits
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
The publishing did not take place in Melzi's lifetime, and the writings were eventually bound in different forms and dispersed. Some of his works were published as "A Treatise on Painting" 165 years after his death.
Science and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci | Leonardo's notes and journals
Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was born the illegitimate son of Messer Piero, a notary, and Caterina, a peasant woman. His early life was spent in the region of Vinci, in the valley of the Arno River near Florence, firstly with his mother and in later childhood in the household of his father, grandfather and uncle Francesco. His curiosity and interest in scientific observation were stimulated by his uncle Francesco, while his grandfather's keeping of journals set an example which he was to follow for most of his life, diligently recording in his own journals both the events of the day, his visual observations, his plans and his projects.
Science and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci | Condensed biography
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
1506–1508 based on stylistic similarities to other works by Leonardo, namely "The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist" and the London "Virgin of the Rocks". In 2016, Bambach dated the painting to c. 1500–1505 since she believes Leonardo was commissioned by Agostino Vespucci at this time.
La Scapigliata | Attribution and date
The outlines of this painting are very bold compared to his other works and it features detailed drapery. His early works are generally characterized by the use of trachyte marble architecture and a particular positioning of the Virgin's hand, showing the middle and ring-finger touching and widely separated from the index and pinky finger. They also are usually distinguished by their symmetry, organization, equally distributed light, and plastic-like quality to the figures.
Bartolomeo Montagna | Early Works (1480s-1499)
The details of its commission and its early history remain obscure. In 1869, following Gustav Waagen methods, Baron Liphart identified this "Annunciation", newly arrived in the Uffizi Gallery from the church of San Bartolomeo a Monte Oliveto in Florence, as by the young Leonardo, still working in the studio of his master, Andrea del Verrocchio. Before Liphart the painting had been attributed to Domenico Ghirlandaio.
Annunciation (Leonardo) | Introduction
This is a list of things named after Leonardo da Vinci.
List of things named after Leonardo da Vinci | Introduction
One of his best historical themes was "Maria Stuarda", (Mary Stuart at the battlefield of Langside) painted between 1858 and 1860, based on his reading of Walter Scott. In the early 1850s Fattori began frequenting the Caffè Michelangiolo on via Larga, a popular gathering place for Florentine artists who carried on lively discussions of politics and new trends in art. Several of these artists would discover the work of the painters of the Barbizon school while visiting Paris for the Exposition of 1855, and would bring back to Italy an enthusiasm for the then-novel practice of painting outdoors, directly from nature.
Giovanni Fattori | Early paintings (to 1860)
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
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
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
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was trained in anatomy by Andrea del Verrocchio. He made use of his anatomical knowledge in his artwork, making many sketches of skeletal structures, muscles and organs of humans and other vertebrates that he dissected. Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564) (Latinized from Andries van Wezel), professor of anatomy at the University of Padua, is considered the founder of modern human anatomy. Originally from Brabant, Vesalius published the influential book "De humani corporis fabrica" ("the structure of the human body"), a large format book in seven volumes, in 1543. The accurate and intricately detailed illustrations, often in allegorical poses against Italianate landscapes, are thought to have been made by the artist Jan van Calcar, a pupil of Titian.
Anatomy | Medieval to early modern
In 1516 at aged 64 Leonardo da Vinci left Rome and traveled through Italy, armed with his sketchbooks and 3 of his most famous paintings: "Mona Lisa", "The Virgin and Child", "with St. Anne" and "St. John the Baptist". They are now conserved in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. His disciples Francesco Melzi and Salaì followed him throughout his travels, as did his servant, Batista of Vilanis. Benvenuto Cellini wrote that king Francis I gave Leonardo da Vinci a pension of 700 gold ecus, as well as buying his artwork allowing him to live and work in the Clos Lucé.
Clos Lucé | Leonardo da Vinci’s years at the Clos Lucé
His initial works were in the idiom of his master Abraham Janssens who was one of the earliest Flemish artists to paint in a Caraveggio influenced style combined with strong Classicist tendencies. This is clear in the early composition "" (Hermitage Museum, 1610s) which was painted before the artist left for Italy. In its three-dimensionality and use of Classical forms this composition is clearly indebted to Janssens. The composition "" (Spencer Museum of Art) likely dates from the artist's Italian period. The typically Italian costumes, the rather mannered poses, the vague indication of space and stereotypical rendering of heads, hands and drapery point to a style preceding that of the genre scenes he painted after 1625.
Theodoor Rombouts | Early work
Science and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci
Marcantonio della Torre | See also
The Adoration of the Magi is an unfinished early painting by Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo was given the commission by the Augustinian monks of in Florence in 1481, but he departed for Milan the following year, leaving the painting unfinished. It has been in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence since 1670.
Adoration of the Magi (Leonardo) | Introduction
We will see how he is going to do it regarding the great council chamber, the thing which he has just come to terms about with the gonfaloniere. October 1503.") In the comment Vespucci notes a similarity of style between Leonardo and the renowned ancient Greek painter Apelles, in that both artists would first render the head and shoulders of subjects in extraordinary detail before continuing with the rest of the painting. As an example Vespucci lists Leonardo's work on the portrait of "Lisa del Giocondo," and dates his comment "October 1503." The inclusion of the name and date allowed validation with a later known (but often unreliable) source published in 1550 and written by art historian Giorgio Vasari, who states that during this period Leonardo had taken a commission from Francesco del Giocondo to paint his wife, "'." Here "Mona" was not intended as a name, but as an abbreviation of ', the Italian literary form of "Lady".
Agostino Vespucci | "Mona Lisa"
This, his first visit to Italy, developed his interest in depicting the life of ancient Greece and Rome, especially the latter since he found new inspiration in the ruins of Pompeii, which fascinated him and would inspire much of his work in the coming decades.
Lawrence Alma-Tadema | Early works
The content of his journals suggest that he was planning a series of treatises on a variety of subjects. A coherent treatise on anatomy is said to have been observed during a visit by Cardinal Louis d'Aragon's secretary in 1517. Aspects of his work on the studies of anatomy, light and the landscape were assembled for publication by Melzi and eventually published as "A Treatise on Painting" in France and Italy in 1651 and Germany in 1724, with engravings based upon drawings by the Classical painter Nicolas Poussin. According to Arasse, the treatise, which in France went into 62 editions in fifty years, caused Leonardo to be seen as "the precursor of French academic thought on art." While Leonardo's experimentation followed scientific methods, a recent and exhaustive analysis of Leonardo as a scientist by Fritjof Capra argues that Leonardo was a fundamentally different kind of scientist from Galileo, Newton and other scientists who followed him in that, as a "Renaissance Man", his theorising and hypothesising integrated the arts and particularly painting.
Leonardo da Vinci | Scientific studies
In 1621 a picture-buying agent of Ferdinando Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua bought him a painting said to be a Botticelli out of historical interest "as from the hand of an artist by whom Your Highness has nothing, and who was the master of Leonardo da Vinci". That mistake is perhaps understandable, as although Leonardo was only some six years younger than Botticelli, his style could seem to a Baroque judge to be a generation more advanced. The "Birth of Venus" was displayed in the Uffizi from 1815, but is little mentioned in travellers' accounts of the gallery over the next two decades.
Sandro Botticelli | Later reputation
Salaì was born in 1480 as son of Pietro di Giovanni, a tenant of Leonardo's vineyard near the Porta Vercellina, Milan. He joined Leonardo's household at the age of ten as an assistant. Vasari describes Salaì as "a graceful and beautiful youth with curly hair, in which Leonardo greatly delighted". Although Leonardo described him as "a liar, a thief, stubborn and a glutton" and he stole from Leonardo on at least five occasions, he kept him in his household for more than 25 years, in which he trained as an artist. Salaì became a capable, although not very impressive, painter, who created several works, including the "Monna Vanna", a nude version of the "Mona Lisa" which may be based on a charcoal sketch by Leonardo.
Salaì | Early life
In 1488, Leonardo drew a hang glider design in which the inner parts of the wings are fixed, and some control surfaces are provided towards the tips (as in the gliding flight of birds). His drawings survive and are deemed flight-worthy in principle, but he himself never flew in such a craft. A model he built for a test flight in 1496 did not fly, and some other designs, such as the four-person screw-type helicopter, have severe flaws. He drew and wrote about a design for an ornithopter around 1490. Leonardo's work remained unknown until 1797, and so had no influence on developments over the next three hundred years.
Early flying machines | Leonardo da Vinci
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
The manuscripts were begun in Milan while Leonardo was under the service of Ludovico Sforza (between 1482 and 1499), being worked on substantially for the last 25 years of Leonardo's life. The works later published in this collection drew from writing of Leon Battista Alberti and Cennino Cennini. Upon Leonardo's death, he left his notebooks to his pupil and heir Francesco Melzi. to be published, a task of overwhelming difficulty because of its scope and Leonardo's idiosyncratic writing. Sometime before 1542, Melzi gathered together the papers for "A Treatise on Painting" from 18 of Leonardo's 'books' (two-thirds of which have gone missing).
A Treatise on Painting | History
It is generally agreed that the painting was originally left unfinished, and specifically that the parts of the background other than the columns were a later addition. In Colasanti's evaluation, for example, "[t]he background did not worry him, it was not Leonardo". According to Pultizer, testing of the paint indicated that the columns were part of the original work, while the background was "added in the 17th century in paints of a type used by Flemish artists", though Isbouts writes that "[s]everal tests have been made on the pigments, all confirming that the pigment components were all existing and available at the turn of the 16th century".
Isleworth Mona Lisa | Background and columns
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"
For example, "The Virgin and Christ Child with Saints Bernardino, Anthony Abbot, Francis and Sabina" and "The Lamentation Over the Dead Christ" (1462–3), a "square panel painting" altarpiece commissioned by Pope Pius II (of the noble Sienese Piccolomini family) for his recently finished cathedral.
Giovanni di Paolo | Early life and works
Kemp and others have noted that Leonardo's preferred medium was wood, asserting that he rarely painted on canvas. Others have countered that Leonardo "assiduously experimented with new ideas and technologies", and that "the artist did occasionally paint on canvas". In particular, Lorusso and Natali note that Leonardo had previous painted studies on drapery on a canvas that "had almost identical features", and that Leonardo's manuscript, "A Treatise on Painting", "describes in detail not only how to prepare the canvas for painting, but also how to paint on it". Isbouts notes that carbon dating of the canvas returned a result "consistent with a 1503-1506 execution date for the painting".
Isleworth Mona Lisa | Canvas
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
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
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
In the style of Leonardo he also painted a "St. John", which is now in the Zecca at Milan. Among his early paintings there is, besides the altar-piece, a "Last Supper" in the Dominican monastery, and a "Madonna" in fresco in Santa Anastasia at Verona. He died of the plague at Mantua. Another brother of Francesco, Fra Cherubino Bonsignori, excelled in miniature painting.
Girolamo Bonsignori | Life