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Early life
Leonardo was born in the village of Anchiano, a few miles from the small town of Vinci, in Tuscany, near Florence. He was the son of a wealthy Florentine notary and a peasant woman. In the mid-1460s the family settled in Florence, where Leonardo was given the best education that Florence, a major intellectual and artistic centre of Italy, could offer. He rapidly advanced socially and intellectually. He was handsome, persuasive in conversation, and a fine musician and improviser.
About 1466 he was apprenticed as a garzone (studio boy) to Andrea Del Verrocchio, the leading Florentine painter and sculptor of his day. In Verrocchio's workshop Leonardo was introduced to many activities, from the painting of altarpieces and panel pictures to the creation of large sculptural projects in marble and bronze. In 1472 he was entered in the painter's guild of Florence, and in 1476 he was still considered Verrocchio's assistant. In Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ, in 1470, the kneeling angel at the left of the painting is by Leonardo.
In 1478 Leonardo became an independent master at the age of 26. His first commission, to paint an altarpiece for the chapel of the Palazzo Vecchio, the Florentine town hall, was never started. His first large painting, The Adoration of the Magi, which he started in 1481 and was never completed, was ordered for the Monastery of San Donato a Scopeto, Florence.
The first known biography of Leonardo was published in 1550 by Giorgio Vasari who wrote Vite de' più eccelenti architettori, pittori e scultori italiani ("The lives of the most excellent Italian architects, painters and sculptors"), and later became an independent painter in Florence. Most of the information collected by Vasari was from first-hand accounts of Leonardo's contemporaries (Vasari was only a child when Leonardo died), and it remains the first reference in studying Leonardo's life.
Professional life
The earliest known dated work of Leonardo's is a drawing done in pen and ink of the Arno valley, drawn on the 5th of August, 1473. It is assumed that he had his own workshop between 1476 and 1478, receiving two orders during this time.
From around 1482 to 1499, Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan [1], employed Leonardo and permitted him to operate his own workshop, complete with apprentices. It was here that seventy tons of bronze that had been set aside for Leonardo's "Gran Cavallo" horse statue (see below) were cast into weapons for the Duke in an attempt to save Milan from the French under Charles VIII in 1495.
When the French returned under Louis XII in 1498, Milan fell without a fight, overthrowing Sforza [2]. Leonardo stayed in Milan for a time, until one morning when he found French archers using his life-size clay model of the "Gran Cavallo" for target practice. He left with Salai, his assistant and intimate, and his friend Luca Pacioli (the first man to describe double-entry bookkeeping) for Mantua, moving .. 2 months to Venice (where he was hired as a military engineer), then briefly returning to Florence at the end of April 1500.
In Florence he entered the services of Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI, acting as a military architect and engineer; with Cesare he travelled throughout Italy. In 1506 he returned to Milan, now in the hands of Maximilian Sforza after Swiss mercenaries had driven out the French.
From 1513 to 1516, he lived in Rome, where painters like Raphael and Michelangelo were active at the time, though he did not have much contact with these artists. However, he was probably of pivotal importance in the relocation of David (in Florence), one of Michelangelo's masterpieces, against the artist's will.
In 1515, Francis I of France retook Milan, and Leonardo was commissioned to make a centrepiece (a mechanical lion) for the peace talks between the French king and Pope Leo X in Bologna, where he must have first met the King. In 1516, he entered Francis' service, being given the use of the manor house Clos Lucé (also called "Cloux"; now a museum open to the public) next to the king's residence at the royal Chateau Amboise, where he spent the last three years of his life.
The King granted Leonardo and his entourage generous pensions: the surviving document lists 1,000 écus for the artist, 400 for Count Francesco Melzi, (his pupil and allegedly one of the great loves of his life, named as "apprentice"), and 100 for Salai ("servant"). In 1518 Salai left Leonardo and returned to Milan, where he eventually perished in a duel. Francis became a close friend.
Some twenty years after Leonardo's death, Francis told the artist Benevenuto Cellini that he believed that "No man had ever lived who had learned as much about sculpture, painting, and architecture, but still more that he was a very great philosopher."
Leonardo died at Clos Lucé, France, on 2nd May, 1519 (Romantic legend said that he died in Francis' arms). According to his wish, 60 beggars followed his casket. He was buried in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert in the castle of Amboise. Although Melzi was his principal heir and executor, Salai was not forgotten; he received half of Leonardo's vineyards.
Leonardo pioneered new painting techniques in many of his pieces. One of them, a colour shading technique called "Chiaroscuro", used a series of glazes custom-made by Leonardo. Chiaroscuro is a technique of bold contrast between light and dark. Another effect perfected and popularized by Leonardo is called sfumato, which creates an atmospheric haze or smoky effect.
Early works in Florence (1452–1482)
Leonardo was an apprentice to the artist Verrocchio in Florence when he was about 15. In 1476 Leonardo worked with Verrocchio to paint The Baptism of Christ for the friars of Vallombrosa. He painted the angel at the front and the landscape, and the difference between the two artists' work can be seen, with Leonardo's finer blending and brushwork. Giorgio Vasari told the story that whe
n Verrocchio saw Leonardo's work he was so amazed that he resolved never to touch a brush again.
Leonardo's first solo painting was the Madonna and Child completed in 1478; at the same time, he also painted a picture of a little boy eating sherbet. From 1480 to 1481, he created a small Annunciation painting, now in the Louvre. In 1481 he also painted an unfinished work of St. Jerome.
Between 1481 and 1482 he started painting The Adoration of the Magi. He made extensive, ambitious plans and many drawings for the painting, but it was never finished, as Leonardo's services had been accepted by the Duke of Milan.
Milan (1482–1499)
Leonardo spent 17 years in Milan in the service of Duke Ludovico (between 1482 and 1499). He did many paintings, sculptures, and drawings during these many years. He also designed court festivals, and drew many of his engineering sketches. He was given free reign to work on any project he chose, though he left many projects unfinished, completing only about six paintings during this time. These include Virgin of the Rocks in 1494 and The Last Supper (Ultima Cena or Cenacolo, in Milan) in 1498.
In 1499 he painted Madonna and Child with St. Anne. He worked on many of his notebooks between 1490 and 1495, including the Codex Trivulzianus.
He often planned grandiose paintings with many drawings and sketches, only to leave them unfinished. One of his projects involved making plans and models for a monumental seven-metre-high (24 ft) horse statue in bronze called "Gran Cavallo".
Because of war with France, the project was never finished. (In 1999 a pair of full-scale statues based on his plans were cast, one erected in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the other in Milan [3].) The bronze intended for use in the building of the statue was used to make cannon, and victorious French soldiers used the clay model of the statue for target practice.
The Hunt Museum in Limerick, Ireland has a small bronze horse thought to be the work of an apprentice from Leonardo's original design.
When the French invaded Milan in 1499, Ludovico Sforza lost control, forcing Leonardo to search for a new patron.
Nomadic Period — Italy and France (1499–1516)
Between 1499 and 1516 Leonardo worked for a number of people, travelling around Italy doing several commissions, before moving to France in 1516. This has been described as a 'Nomadic Period'. [4] He stayed in:
• Mantua (1500)
• Venice (1501)
• Florence (1501–06) known sometimes as his Second Florentine Period.
• Travelled between Florence and Milan staying in both places for short periods before settling in Milan.
• Milan (1506–13) (known sometimes as his Second Milanese Period, under the patronage of Charles d'Amboise until 1511)
• Rome (1514)
• Florence (1514)
• Pavia, Bologna, Milan (1515)
• France (1516–19) (patronage of King Francis I)
In 1500 he went to Mantua where he sketched a portrait of the Marchesa Isabella d'Este. He left for Venice in 1501, and soon after returned to Florence.
Thanks to www.wikipedia.org for the information.
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Lady with an Ermine
The Virgin and Child with St Anne c. 1510
The Adoration of the Magi
c. 1481-82
St. John the Baptist
circa 1513-16
St. Jerome
circa 1480
The Benois Madonna
circa 1478
Virgin of the Rocks
circa 1483-1486
Madonna of the Rocks circa 1495-1508
Bacchus (or St. John in the Wilderness)
circa 1515
Annunciation
circa 1472-75
Giant Catapult
Self Portrait
circa 1515
Testa di Giovinetta
Virgin
Study of a Woman's Head
Drawing Studies of Arms, Hands, and Feet
Propeller
Madonna Litta
Portrait of Ginevra de Benci c.1478-1480
The Madonna of the Yarnwinder circa 1501
Leda and the Swan circa 1508
La belle Ferronière circa 1490-1496
Madonna with the Carnation circa 1478-1480
Portrait of a Musician circa 1490
Female head (La Scapigliata) c. 1508
Military Inventions Sketches
