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Leonardo da Vinci
This portrait attributed to Francesco Melzi, c. 1515–1518, is the only certain contemporary depiction of Leonardo.[1][2]
Born	Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci 15 April 1452 (Anchiano?)[a] Vinci, Republic of Florence
Died	2 May 1519 (aged 67) Clos Lucé, Amboise, Kingdom of France
Education	Studio of Andrea del Verrocchio
Known for	Painting drawing engineering science sculpture architecture
Notable work	Virgin of the Rocks (c. 1483–1493) Lady with an Ermine (c. 1489–1491) The Vitruvian Man (c. 1490) The Last Supper (c. 1495–1498) Mona Lisa (c. 1503–1516)
Movement	High Renaissance
Signature

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci^[b] (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect.^[3] While his fame initially rested on his achievements as a painter, he also became known for his notebooks, in which he made drawings and notes on a variety of subjects, including anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, painting, and paleontology. Leonardo is widely regarded to have been a genius who epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal,^[4] and his collective works comprise a contribution to later generations of artists matched only by that of his younger contemporary, Michelangelo.^[3][4]

Born out of wedlock to a successful notary and a lower-class woman in, or near, Vinci, he was educated in Florence by the Italian painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio. He began his career in the city, but then spent much time in the service of Ludovico Sforza in Milan. Later, he worked in Florence and Milan again, as well as briefly in Rome, all while attracting a large following of imitators and students. Upon the invitation of Francis I, he spent his last three years in France, where he died in 1519. Since his death, there has not been a time where his achievements, diverse interests, personal life, and empirical thinking have failed to incite interest and admiration,^[3][4] making him a frequent namesake and subject in culture.

Leonardo is identified as one of the greatest painters in the history of art and is often credited as the founder of the High Renaissance.^[3] Despite having many lost works and less than 25 attributed major works—including numerous unfinished works—he created some of the most influential paintings in Western art.^[3] His magnum opus, the Mona Lisa, is his best known work and often regarded as the world’s most famous painting. The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting of all time and his Vitruvian Man drawing is also regarded as a cultural icon. In 2017, Salvator Mundi, attributed in whole or part to Leonardo,^[5] was sold at auction for US$450.3 million, setting a new record for the most expensive painting ever sold at public auction.

Revered for his technological ingenuity, he conceptualized flying machines, a type of armored fighting vehicle, concentrated solar power, a ratio machine that could be used in an adding machine,^[6][7] and the double hull. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or even feasible during his lifetime, as the modern scientific approaches to metallurgy and engineering were only in their infancy during the Renaissance. Some of his smaller inventions, however, entered the world of manufacturing unheralded, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire. He made substantial discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, hydrodynamics, geology, optics, and tribology, but he did not publish his findings and they had little to no direct influence on subsequent science.^[8]

Biography

Early life (1452–1472)

Birth and background

Leonardo da Vinci,^[b] properly named Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (Leonardo, son of ser Piero from Vinci),^[9][10][c] was born on 15 April 1452 in, or close to, the Tuscan hill town of Vinci, 20 miles from Florence.^[11][12][d] He was born out of wedlock to Piero da Vinci [it] (Ser Piero da Vinci d’Antonio di ser Piero di ser Guido; 1426–1504),^[16] a Florentine legal notary,^[11] and Caterina [it] (c. 1434 – 1494), from the lower-class.^[17][18][e] It remains uncertain where Leonardo was born; the traditional account, from a local oral tradition recorded by the historian Emanuele Repetti,^[21] is that he was born in Anchiano, a country hamlet that would have offered sufficient privacy for the illegitimate birth, though it is still possible he was born in a house in Florence that Ser Piero almost certainly had.^[22][a] Leonardo’s parents both married separately the year after his birth. Caterina—who later appears in Leonardo’s notes as only «Caterina» or «Catelina»—is usually identified as the Caterina Buti del Vacca who married the local artisan Antonio di Piero Buti del Vacca, nicknamed «L’Accattabriga» («the quarrelsome one»).^[17][21] Other theories have been proposed, particularly that of art historian Martin Kemp, who suggested Caterina di Meo Lippi, an orphan who married purportedly with aid from Ser Piero and his family.^[23][f] Ser Piero married Albiera Amadori—having been betrothed to her the previous year—and after her death in 1464, went on to have three subsequent marriages.^[21][24][g] From all the marriages, Leonardo eventually had 16 half-siblings (of whom 11 survived infancy)^[25] who were much younger than he (the last was born when Leonardo was 46 years old)^[25] and with whom he had very little contact.^[h]

Very little is known about Leonardo’s childhood and much is shrouded in myth, partially because of his biography in the frequently apocryphal Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1550) by the 16th-century art historian Giorgio Vasari.^[28][29] Tax records indicate that by at least 1457 he lived in the household of his paternal grandfather, Antonio da Vinci,^[11] but it is possible that he spent the years before then in the care of his mother in Vinci, either Anchiano or Campo Zeppi in the parish of San Pantaleone.^[30][31] He is thought to have been close to his uncle, Francesco da Vinci,^[3] but his father was probably in Florence most of the time.^[11] Ser Piero, who was the descendant of a long line of notaries, established an official residence in Florence by at least 1469 and had a successful career.^[11] Despite his family history, Leonardo only received a basic and informal education in (vernacular) writing, reading and mathematics, possibly because his artistic talents were recognised early, so his family decided to focus their attention there.^[11]

Later in life, Leonardo recorded his earliest memory, now in the Codex Atlanticus.^[32] While writing on the flight of birds, he recalled as an infant when a kite came to his cradle and opened his mouth with its tail; commentators still debate whether the anecdote was an actual memory or a fantasy.^[33]

Verrocchio’s workshop

In the mid-1460s, Leonardo’s family moved to Florence, which at the time was the centre of Christian Humanist thought and culture.^[34] Around the age of 14,^[26] he became a garzone (studio boy) in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, who was the leading Florentine painter and sculptor of his time.^[34] This was about the time of the death of Verrocchio’s master, the great sculptor Donatello.^[i] Leonardo became an apprentice by the age of 17 and remained in training for seven years.^[36] Other famous painters apprenticed in the workshop or associated with it include Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Botticelli, and Lorenzo di Credi.^[37][38] Leonardo was exposed to both theoretical training and a wide range of technical skills,^[39] including drafting, chemistry, metallurgy, metal working, plaster casting, leather working, mechanics, and woodwork, as well as the artistic skills of drawing, painting, sculpting, and modelling.^[40][j]

Leonardo was a contemporary of Botticelli, Ghirlandaio and Perugino, who were all slightly older than he was.^[41] He would have met them at the workshop of Verrocchio or at the Platonic Academy of the Medici.^[37] Florence was ornamented by the works of artists such as Donatello’s contemporaries Masaccio, whose figurative frescoes were imbued with realism and emotion, and Ghiberti, whose Gates of Paradise, gleaming with gold leaf, displayed the art of combining complex figure compositions with detailed architectural backgrounds. Piero della Francesca had made a detailed study of perspective,^[42] and was the first painter to make a scientific study of light. These studies and Leon Battista Alberti’s treatise De pictura were to have a profound effect on younger artists and in particular on Leonardo’s own observations and artworks.^[35][43]

Much of the painting in Verrocchio’s workshop was done by his assistants. According to Vasari, Leonardo collaborated with Verrocchio on his The Baptism of Christ, painting the young angel holding Jesus’ robe in a manner that was so far superior to his master’s that Verrocchio put down his brush and never painted again,^{[‡ 1]} although this is believed to be an apocryphal story.^[14] 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.^[44] 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.^[14]

Vasari tells a story of Leonardo as a very young man: a local peasant made himself a round shield and requested that Ser Piero have it painted for him. Leonardo, inspired by the story of Medusa, responded with a painting of a monster spitting fire that was so terrifying that his father bought a different shield to give to the peasant and sold Leonardo’s to a Florentine art dealer for 100 ducats, who in turn sold it to the Duke of Milan.^{[‡ 2]}

First Florentine period (1472–c. 1482)

By 1472, at the age of 20, Leonardo qualified as a master in the Guild of Saint Luke, the guild of artists and doctors of medicine,^[k] but even after his father set him up in his own workshop, his attachment to Verrocchio was such that he continued to collaborate and live with him.^[37][45] Leonardo’s earliest known dated work is a 1473 pen-and-ink drawing of the Arno valley.^[38][46][l] According to Vasari, the young Leonardo was the first to suggest making the Arno river a navigable channel between Florence and Pisa.^[47]

In January 1478, Leonardo received an independent commission to paint an altarpiece for the Chapel of Saint Bernard in the Palazzo Vecchio,^[48] 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.^[14][m] In March 1481, he received a commission from the monks of San Donato in Scopeto for The Adoration of the Magi.^[49] Neither of these initial commissions were completed, being abandoned when Leonardo went to offer his services to Duke of Milan Ludovico Sforza. Leonardo wrote Sforza a letter which described the diverse things that he could achieve in the fields of engineering and weapon design, and mentioned that he could paint.^[38][50] He brought with him a silver string instrument—either a lute or lyre—in the form of a horse’s head.^[50]

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 Neoplatonism; 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.^[41][43][51] In 1482, Leonardo was sent as an ambassador by Lorenzo de’ Medici to Ludovico il Moro, who ruled Milan between 1479 and 1499.^[41][14]

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  Landscape of the Arno Valley (1473)

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First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

Leonardo worked in Milan from 1482 until 1499. He was commissioned to paint the Virgin of the Rocks for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception and The Last Supper for the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie.^[52] In the spring of 1485, Leonardo travelled to Hungary (on behalf of Sforza) to meet king Matthias Corvinus, and was commissioned by him to paint a Madonna.^[53] In 1490 he was called as a consultant, together with Francesco di Giorgio Martini, for the building site of the cathedral of Pavia^[54][55] and was struck by the equestrian statue of Regisole, of which he left a sketch.^[56] Leonardo was employed on many other projects for Sforza, such as preparation of floats and pageants for special occasions; a drawing of, and wooden model for, a competition to design the cupola for Milan Cathedral;^[57] and a model for a huge equestrian monument to Ludovico’s predecessor Francesco Sforza. This would have surpassed in size the only two large equestrian statues of the Renaissance, Donatello’s Gattamelata in Padua and Verrocchio’s Bartolomeo Colleoni in Venice, and became known as the Gran Cavallo.^[38] Leonardo completed a model for the horse and made detailed plans for its casting,^[38] but in November 1494, Ludovico gave the metal to his brother-in-law to be used for a cannon to defend the city from Charles VIII of France.^[38]

Contemporary correspondence records that Leonardo and his assistants were commissioned by the Duke of Milan to paint the Sala delle Asse in the Sforza Castle. The decoration was completed in 1498. The project became a trompe-l’œil decoration that made the great hall appear to be a pergola created by the interwoven limbs of sixteen mulberry trees,^[58] whose canopy included an intricate labyrinth of leaves and knots on the ceiling.^[59]

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Second Florentine period (1500–1508)

When Ludovico Sforza was overthrown by France in 1500, Leonardo fled Milan for Venice, accompanied by his assistant Salaì and friend, the mathematician Luca Pacioli.^[61] In Venice, Leonardo was employed as a military architect and engineer, devising methods to defend the city from naval attack.^[37] On his return to Florence in 1500, he and his household were guests of the Servite monks at the monastery of Santissima Annunziata and were provided with a workshop where, according to Vasari, Leonardo created the cartoon of The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist, a work that won such admiration that «men [and] women, young and old» flocked to see it «as if they were going to a solemn festival.»^{[‡ 3][n]}

In Cesena in 1502, Leonardo entered the service of Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI, acting as a military architect and engineer and travelling throughout Italy with his patron.^[61] Leonardo created a map of Cesare Borgia’s stronghold, a town plan of Imola in order to win his patronage. Upon seeing it, Cesare hired Leonardo as his chief military engineer and architect. Later in the year, Leonardo produced another map for his patron, one of Chiana Valley, Tuscany, so as to give his patron a better overlay of the land and greater strategic position. He created this map in conjunction with his other project of constructing a dam from the sea to Florence, in order to allow a supply of water to sustain the canal during all seasons.

Leonardo had left Borgia’s service and returned to Florence by early 1503,^[63] where he rejoined the Guild of Saint Luke on 18 October of that year. By this same month, Leonardo had begun working on a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, the model for the Mona Lisa,^[64][65] which he would continue working on until his twilight years. In January 1504, he was part of a committee formed to recommend where Michelangelo’s statue of David should be placed.^[66] He then spent two years in Florence designing and painting a mural of The Battle of Anghiari for the Signoria,^[61] with Michelangelo designing its companion piece, The Battle of Cascina.^[o]

In 1506, Leonardo was summoned to Milan by Charles II d’Amboise, the acting French governor of the city.^[69] There, Leonardo took on another pupil, Count Francesco Melzi, the son of a Lombard aristocrat, who is considered to have been his favourite student.^[37] The Council of Florence wished Leonardo to return promptly to finish The Battle of Anghiari, but he was given leave at the behest of Louis XII, who considered commissioning the artist to make some portraits.^[69] Leonardo may have commenced a project for an equestrian figure of d’Amboise;^[70] a wax model survives and, if genuine, is the only extant example of Leonardo’s sculpture. Leonardo was otherwise free to pursue his scientific interests.^[69] Many of Leonardo’s most prominent pupils either knew or worked with him in Milan,^[37] including Bernardino Luini, Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, and Marco d’Oggiono. In 1507, Leonardo was in Florence sorting out a dispute with his brothers over the estate of his father, who had died in 1504.

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Second Milanese period (1508–1513)

By 1508, Leonardo was back in Milan, living in his own house in Porta Orientale in the parish of Santa Babila.^[71]

In 1512, Leonardo was working on plans for an equestrian monument for Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, but this was prevented by an invasion of a confederation of Swiss, Spanish and Venetian forces, which drove the French from Milan. Leonardo stayed in the city, spending several months in 1513 at the Medici’s Vaprio d’Adda villa.^[72]

Rome and France (1513–1519)

In March of 1513, Lorenzo de’ Medici’s son Giovanni assumed the papacy (as Leo X); Leonardo went to Rome that September, where he was received by the pope’s brother Giuliano.^[72] From September 1513 to 1516, Leonardo spent much of his time living in the Belvedere Courtyard in the Apostolic Palace, where Michelangelo and Raphael were both active.^[71] Leonardo was given an allowance of 33 ducats a month, and according to Vasari, decorated a lizard with scales dipped in quicksilver.^[74] 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.^[74][p] Leonardo became ill, in what may have been the first of multiple strokes leading to his death.^[74] 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.^[75] He also dissected cadavers, making notes for a treatise on vocal cords;^[76] these he gave to an official in hopes of regaining the pope’s favor, but was unsuccessful.^[74]

In October 1515, King Francis I of France recaptured Milan.^[49] Leonardo was present at the 19 December meeting of Francis I and Leo X, which took place in Bologna.^[37][77][78] In 1516, Leonardo entered Francis’ service, being given the use of the manor house Clos Lucé, near the king’s residence at the royal Château d’Amboise. Being frequently visited by Francis, he drew plans for an immense castle town the king intended to erect at Romorantin, and made a mechanical lion, which during a pageant walked toward the king and—upon being struck by a wand—opened its chest to reveal a cluster of lilies.^{[79][‡ 3][q]} Leonardo was accompanied during this time by his friend and apprentice Francesco Melzi, and supported by a pension totalling 10,000 scudi.^[71] At some point, Melzi drew a portrait of Leonardo; the only others known from his lifetime were a sketch by an unknown assistant on the back of one of Leonardo’s studies (c. 1517)^[81] and a drawing by Giovanni Ambrogio Figino depicting an elderly Leonardo with his right arm wrapped in clothing.^[82][r] The latter, in addition to the record of an October 1517 visit by Louis d’Aragon,^[s] confirms an account of Leonardo’s right hand being paralytic when he was 65,^[85] which may indicate why he left works such as the Mona Lisa unfinished.^[83][86][87] He continued to work at some capacity until eventually becoming ill and bedridden for several months.^[85]

Death

Leonardo died at Clos Lucé on 2 May 1519 at the age of 67, possibly of a stroke.^[88][87][89] Francis I had become a close friend. Vasari describes Leonardo as lamenting on his deathbed, full of repentance, that «he had offended against God and men by failing to practice his art as he should have done.»^[90] Vasari states that in his last days, Leonardo sent for a priest to make his confession and to receive the Holy Sacrament.^{[‡ 4]} Vasari also records that the king held Leonardo’s head in his arms as he died, although this story may be legend rather than fact.^[t][u] In accordance with his will, sixty beggars carrying tapers followed Leonardo’s casket.^[51][v] Melzi was the principal heir and executor, receiving, as well as money, Leonardo’s paintings, tools, library and personal effects. Leonardo’s other long-time pupil and companion, Salaì, and his servant Baptista de Vilanis, each received half of Leonardo’s vineyards.^[92] His brothers received land, and his serving woman received a fur-lined cloak. On 12 August 1519, Leonardo’s remains were interred in the Collegiate Church of Saint Florentin at the Château d’Amboise.^[93]

Salaì, or Il Salaino («The Little Unclean One», i.e., the devil), entered Leonardo’s household in 1490 as an assistant. After only a year, Leonardo made a list of his misdemeanours, calling him «a thief, a liar, stubborn, and a glutton,» after he had made off with money and valuables on at least five occasions and spent a fortune on clothes.^[94] Nevertheless, Leonardo treated him with great indulgence, and he remained in Leonardo’s household for the next thirty years.^[95] Salaì executed a number of paintings under the name of Andrea Salaì, but although Vasari claims that Leonardo «taught him many things about painting,»^{[‡ 3]} his work is generally considered to be of less artistic merit than others among Leonardo’s pupils, such as Marco d’Oggiono and Boltraffio.

Salaì owned the Mona Lisa at the time of Leonardo’s death in 1524, and in his will it was assessed at 505 lire, an exceptionally high valuation for a small panel portrait.^[96] Some 20 years after Leonardo’s death, Francis was reported by the goldsmith and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini as saying: «There had never been another man born in the world who knew as much as Leonardo, not so much about painting, sculpture and architecture, as that he was a very great philosopher.»^[97]

Personal life

Despite the thousands of pages Leonardo left in notebooks and manuscripts, he scarcely made reference to his personal life.^[2]

Within Leonardo’s lifetime, his extraordinary powers of invention, his «great physical beauty» and «infinite grace,» as described by Vasari,^{[‡ 5]} as well as all other aspects of his life, attracted the curiosity of others. One such aspect was his love for animals, likely including vegetarianism and according to Vasari, a habit of purchasing caged birds and releasing them.^{[99][‡ 6]}

Leonardo had many friends who are now notable either in their fields or for their historical significance, including mathematician Luca Pacioli,^[100] with whom he collaborated on the book Divina proportione in the 1490s. 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.^[101] 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.^[37]

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.^[102] Leonardo’s most intimate relationships were perhaps with his pupils Salaì and Melzi. Melzi, writing to inform Leonardo’s brothers of his death, described Leonardo’s feelings for his pupils as both loving and passionate. It has been claimed since the 16th century that these relationships were of a sexual or erotic nature. Court records of 1476, when he was aged twenty-four, show that Leonardo and three other young men were charged with sodomy in an incident involving a well-known male prostitute. The charges were dismissed for lack of evidence, and there is speculation that since one of the accused, Lionardo de Tornabuoni, was related to Lorenzo de’ Medici, the family exerted its influence to secure the dismissal.^[103] Since that date much has been written about his presumed homosexuality^[104] 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.^[105][98]

Paintings

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.^[106]

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. All these qualities come together in his most famous painted works, the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, and the Virgin of the Rocks.^[w]

Early works

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, 59 centimetres (23 in) long and 14 cm (5.5 in) 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, 217 cm (85 in) long.^[107] 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. Although previously attributed to Ghirlandaio, the larger work is now generally attributed to Leonardo.^[108]

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.^[35] 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.

Paintings of the 1480s

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.»^[37] Although the painting is barely begun, the composition can be seen and is very unusual.^[x] Jerome, as a penitent, occupies the middle of the picture, set on a slight diagonal and viewed somewhat from above. 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.^[109] 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. It is a complex composition, of about 250 x 250 centimetres. 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.^[14]

The third important work of this period is the Virgin of the Rocks, commissioned in Milan for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception. The painting, to be done with the assistance of the de Predis brothers, was to fill a large complex altarpiece.^[110] Leonardo chose to paint an apocryphal moment of the infancy of Christ when the infant John the Baptist, in protection of an angel, met the Holy Family on the road to Egypt. The painting demonstrates an eerie beauty as the graceful figures kneel in adoration around the infant Christ in a wild landscape of tumbling rock and whirling water.^[111] While the painting is quite large, about 200×120 centimetres, it is not nearly as complex as the painting ordered by the monks of San Donato, having only four figures rather than about fifty and a rocky landscape rather than architectural details. The painting was eventually finished; in fact, two versions of the painting were finished: one remained at the chapel of the Confraternity, while Leonardo took the other to France. The Brothers did not get their painting, however, nor the de Predis their payment, until the next century.^[38][61]

Leonardo’s most remarkable portrait of this period is the Lady with an Ermine, presumed to be Cecilia Gallerani (c. 1483–1490), lover of Ludovico Sforza.^[112][113] The painting is characterised by the pose of the figure with the head turned at a very different angle to the torso, unusual at a date when many portraits were still rigidly in profile. The ermine plainly carries symbolic meaning, relating either to the sitter, or to Ludovico who belonged to the prestigious Order of the Ermine.^[112]

Paintings of the 1490s

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.^[38]

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.^[114] This was beyond the comprehension of the prior of the convent, who hounded him until Leonardo asked Ludovico to intervene. 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.^{[‡ 7]}

The painting was acclaimed as a masterpiece of design and characterization,^{[‡ 8]} but it deteriorated rapidly, so that within a hundred years it was described by one viewer as «completely ruined.»^[115] 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.^[116] Despite this, the painting remains one of the most reproduced works of art; countless copies have been made in various mediums.

Toward the end of this period, in 1498 da Vinci’s trompe-l’œil decoration of the Sala delle Asse was painted for the Duke of Milan in the Castello Sforzesco.

Paintings of the 1500s

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.^[117]

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. In the present era, it is arguably the most famous painting in the world. Its fame rests, in particular, on the elusive smile on the woman’s face, its mysterious quality perhaps due to the subtly shadowed corners of the mouth and eyes such that the exact nature of the smile cannot be determined. The shadowy quality for which the work is renowned came to be called «sfumato», or Leonardo’s smoke. Vasari wrote that the smile was «so pleasing that it seems more divine than human, and it was considered a wondrous thing that it was as lively as the smile of the living original.»^{[‡ 9]}

Other characteristics of the painting are the unadorned dress, in which the eyes and hands have no competition from other details; the dramatic landscape background, in which the world seems to be in a state of flux; the subdued colouring; and the extremely smooth nature of the painterly technique, employing oils laid on much like tempera, and blended on the surface so that the brushstrokes are indistinguishable.^[118] Vasari expressed that the painting’s quality would make even «the most confident master … despair and lose heart.»^{[‡ 10]} 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.^[119]

In the painting Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, the composition again picks up the theme of figures in a landscape, which Wasserman describes as «breathtakingly beautiful»^[120] and harkens back to the Saint Jerome with the figure set at an oblique angle. What makes this painting unusual is that there are two obliquely set figures superimposed. Mary is seated on the knee of her mother, Saint Anne. She leans forward to restrain the Christ Child as he plays roughly with a lamb, the sign of his own impending sacrifice.^[38] This painting, which was copied many times, influenced Michelangelo, Raphael, and Andrea del Sarto,^[121] and through them Pontormo and Correggio. The trends in composition were adopted in particular by the Venetian painters Tintoretto and Veronese.

Drawings

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.^[122] 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.^[37][122][y]

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 Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist in the National Gallery, London.^[122] This drawing employs the subtle sfumato technique of shading, in the manner of the Mona Lisa. It is thought that Leonardo never made a painting from it, the closest similarity being to The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne in the Louvre.^[123]

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 Leonardo would look for interesting faces in public to use as models for some of his work.^{[‡ 7]} 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».^[z] These faces are often contrasted with that of a warrior.^[122] 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.^[122] In his notes, Leonardo recorded the colours of the robes that Baroncelli was wearing when he died.

Like the two contemporary architects Donato Bramante (who designed the Belvedere Courtyard) and Antonio da Sangallo the Elder, Leonardo experimented with designs for centrally planned churches, a number of which appear in his journals, as both plans and views, although none was ever realised.^[41][124]

Journals and notes

Renaissance humanism recognised no mutually exclusive polarities between the sciences and the arts, and Leonardo’s studies in science and engineering are sometimes considered as impressive and innovative as his artistic work.^[38] These studies were recorded in 13,000 pages of notes and drawings, which fuse art and natural philosophy (the forerunner of modern science). They were made and maintained daily throughout Leonardo’s life and travels, as he made continual observations of the world around him.^[38] Leonardo’s notes and drawings display an enormous range of interests and preoccupations, some as mundane as lists of groceries and people who owed him money and some as intriguing as designs for wings and shoes for walking on water. 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.^[38]

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.^[125] These were to be published, a task of overwhelming difficulty because of its scope and Leonardo’s idiosyncratic writing.^[126] Some of Leonardo’s drawings were copied by an anonymous Milanese artist for a planned treatise on art c. 1570.^[127] After Melzi’s death in 1570, the collection passed to his son, the lawyer Orazio, who initially took little interest in the journals.^[125] In 1587, a Melzi household tutor named Lelio Gavardi took 13 of the manuscripts to Pisa; there, the architect Giovanni Magenta reproached Gavardi for having taken the manuscripts illicitly and returned them to Orazio. Having many more such works in his possession, Orazio gifted the volumes to Magenta. News spread of these lost works of Leonardo’s, and Orazio retrieved seven of the 13 manuscripts, which he then gave to Pompeo Leoni for publication in two volumes; one of these was the Codex Atlanticus. The other six works had been distributed to a few others.^[128] After Orazio’s death, his heirs sold the rest of Leonardo’s possessions, and thus began their dispersal.^[129]

Some works have found their way into major collections such as the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, the Louvre, the Biblioteca Nacional de España, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, which holds the 12-volume Codex Atlanticus, and the British Library in London, which has put a selection from the Codex Arundel (BL Arundel MS 263) online.^[130] Works have also been at Holkham Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and in the private hands of John Nicholas Brown I and Robert Lehman.^[125] The Codex Leicester is the only privately owned major scientific work of Leonardo; it is owned by Bill Gates and displayed once a year in different cities around the world.

Most of Leonardo’s writings are in mirror-image cursive.^[46][131] Since Leonardo wrote with his left hand, it was probably easier for him to write from right to left.^[132][aa] Leonardo used a variety of shorthand and symbols, and states in his notes that he intended to prepare them for publication.^[131] In many cases a single topic is covered in detail in both words and pictures on a single sheet, together conveying information that would not be lost if the pages were published out of order.^[135] Why they were not published during Leonardo’s lifetime is unknown.^[38]

Science and inventions

Leonardo’s approach to science was observational: he tried to understand a phenomenon by describing and depicting it in utmost detail and did not emphasise experiments or theoretical explanation. Since he lacked formal education in Latin and mathematics, contemporary scholars mostly ignored Leonardo the scientist, although he did teach himself Latin. His keen observations in many areas were noted, such as when he wrote «Il sole non si move.» («The Sun does not move.»)^[136]

In the 1490s he studied mathematics under Luca Pacioli and prepared a series of drawings of regular solids in a skeletal form to be engraved as plates for Pacioli’s book Divina proportione, published in 1509.^[38] While living in Milan, he studied light from the summit of Monte Rosa.^[69] Scientific writings in his notebook on fossils have been considered as influential on early palaeontology.^[137]

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.^[138] 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,^[139] with engravings based upon drawings by the Classical painter Nicolas Poussin.^[4] 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.»^[38]

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.^[140]

Anatomy and physiology

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.^[141] 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, professor of Anatomy at the University of Pavia.^[142] Leonardo made over 240 detailed drawings and wrote about 13,000 words toward a treatise on anatomy.^[143] Only a small amount of the material on anatomy was published in Leonardo’s Treatise on painting.^[126] During the time that Melzi was ordering the material into chapters for publication, they were examined by a number of anatomists and artists, including Vasari, Cellini and Albrecht Dürer, who made a number of drawings from them.^[126]

Leonardo’s anatomical drawings include many studies of the human skeleton and its parts, and of muscles and sinews. He studied the mechanical functions of the skeleton and the muscular forces that are applied to it in a manner that prefigured the modern science of biomechanics.^[144] He drew the heart and vascular system, the sex organs and other internal organs, making one of the first scientific drawings of a fetus in utero.^[122] The drawings and notation are far ahead of their time, and if published would undoubtedly have made a major contribution to medical science.^[143]

Leonardo also closely observed and recorded the effects of age and of human emotion on the physiology, studying in particular the effects of rage. He drew many figures who had significant facial deformities or signs of illness.^[38][122] Leonardo also studied and drew the anatomy of many animals, dissecting cows, birds, monkeys, bears, and frogs, and comparing in his drawings their anatomical structure with that of humans. He also made a number of studies of horses.^[122]

Leonardo’s dissections and documentation of muscles, nerves, and vessels helped to describe the physiology and mechanics of movement. He attempted to identify the source of ’emotions’ and their expression. He found it difficult to incorporate the prevailing system and theories of bodily humours, but eventually he abandoned these physiological explanations of bodily functions. He made the observations that humours were not located in cerebral spaces or ventricles. He documented that the humours were not contained in the heart or the liver, and that it was the heart that defined the circulatory system. He was the first to define atherosclerosis and liver cirrhosis. He created models of the cerebral ventricles with the use of melted wax and constructed a glass aorta to observe the circulation of blood through the aortic valve by using water and grass seed to watch flow patterns.^[145]

Engineering and inventions

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.^[146] 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. When he fled from Milan to Venice in 1499, he found employment as an engineer and devised a system of moveable barricades to protect the city from attack. In 1502, he created a scheme for diverting the flow of the Arno river, a project on which Niccolò Machiavelli also worked.^[147][148] He continued to contemplate the canalization of Lombardy’s plains while in Louis XII’s company^[69] and of the Loire and its tributaries in the company of Francis I.^[149] Leonardo’s journals include a vast number of inventions, both practical and impractical. They include musical instruments, a mechanical knight, hydraulic pumps, reversible crank mechanisms, finned mortar shells, and a steam cannon.^[37][38]

Leonardo was fascinated by the phenomenon of flight for much of his life, producing many studies, including Codex on the Flight of Birds (c. 1505), as well as plans for several flying machines, such as a flapping ornithopter and a machine with a helical rotor.^[38] A 2003 documentary by British television station Channel Four, titled Leonardo’s Dream Machines, various designs by Leonardo, such as a parachute and a giant crossbow, were interpreted and constructed.^[150][151] Some of those designs proved successful, whilst others fared less well when tested.

Research performed by Marc van den Broek revealed older prototypes for more than 100 inventions that are ascribed to Leonardo. Similarities between Leonardo’s illustrations and drawings from the Middle Ages and from Ancient Greece and Rome, the Chinese and Persian Empires, and Egypt suggest that a large portion of Leonardo’s inventions had been conceived before his lifetime. Leonardo’s innovation was to combine different functions from existing drafts and set them into scenes that illustrated their utility. By reconstituting technical inventions he created something new.^[152]

In his notebooks, Leonardo first stated the ‘laws’ of sliding friction in 1493.^[153] His inspiration for investigating friction came about in part from his study of perpetual motion, which he correctly concluded was not possible.^[154] His results were never published and the friction laws were not rediscovered until 1699 by Guillaume Amontons, with whose name they are now usually associated.^[153] For this contribution, Leonardo was named as the first of the 23 «Men of Tribology» by Duncan Dowson.^[155]

Legacy

Although he had no formal academic training,^[156] many historians and scholars regard Leonardo as the prime exemplar of the «Universal Genius» or «Renaissance Man», an individual of «unquenchable curiosity» and «feverishly inventive imagination.»^[157] He is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived.^[158] 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.»^[157] Scholars interpret his view of the world as being based in logic, though the empirical methods he used were unorthodox for his time.^[159]

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.^[38]

The continued admiration that Leonardo commanded from painters, critics and historians is reflected in many other written tributes. 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…»^[160] while the biographer known as «Anonimo Gaddiano» wrote, c. 1540: «His genius was so rare and universal that it can be said that nature worked a miracle on his behalf…»^[161] Vasari, in his Lives of the Artists (1568), opens his chapter on Leonardo:^{[‡ 11]}

In the normal course of events many men and women are born with remarkable 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, all his actions seem inspired and indeed everything he does clearly comes from God rather than from human skill. Everyone acknowledged that this was true of Leonardo da Vinci, an artist of outstanding physical beauty, who displayed infinite grace in everything that he did and who cultivated his genius so brilliantly that all problems he studied he solved with ease.

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…»^[162] This is echoed by A.E. Rio who wrote in 1861: «He towered above all other artists through the strength and the nobility of his talents.»^[163]

By the 19th century, the scope of Leonardo’s notebooks was known, as well as his paintings. Hippolyte Taine wrote in 1866: «There may not be in the world an example of another genius so universal, so incapable of fulfilment, so full of yearning for the infinite, so naturally refined, so far ahead of his own century and the following centuries.»^[164] Art historian Bernard Berenson wrote in 1896: «Leonardo is the one artist of whom it may be said with perfect literalness: Nothing that he touched but turned into a thing of eternal beauty. Whether it be the cross section of a skull, the structure of a weed, or a study of muscles, he, with his feeling for line and for light and shade, forever transmuted it into life-communicating values.»^[165]

The interest in Leonardo’s genius has continued unabated; experts study and translate his writings, analyse his paintings using scientific techniques, argue over attributions and search for works which have been recorded but never found.^[166] Liana Bortolon, writing in 1967, said: «Because of the multiplicity of interests that spurred him to pursue every field of knowledge…Leonardo can be considered, quite rightly, to have been the universal genius par excellence, and with all the disquieting overtones inherent in that term. Man is as uncomfortable today, faced with a genius, as he was in the 16th century. Five centuries have passed, yet we still view Leonardo with awe.»^[37] The Elmer Belt Library of Vinciana is a special collection at the University of California, Los Angeles.^[167]

Twenty-first-century author Walter Isaacson based much of his biography of Leonardo^[103] on thousands of notebook entries, studying the personal notes, sketches, budget notations, and musings of the man whom he considers the greatest of innovators. Isaacson was surprised to discover a «fun, joyous» side of Leonardo in addition to his limitless curiosity and creative genius.^[168]

On the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death, the Louvre in Paris arranged for the largest ever single exhibit of his work, called Leonardo, between November 2019 and February 2020. The exhibit includes over 100 paintings, drawings and notebooks. Eleven of the paintings that Leonardo completed in his lifetime were included. Five of these are owned by the Louvre, but the Mona Lisa was not included because it is in such great demand among general visitors to the Louvre; it remains on display in its gallery. Vitruvian Man, however, is on display following a legal battle with its owner, the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice. Salvator Mundi ^[ab] was also not included because its Saudi owner did not agree to lease the work.^[171][172]

The Mona Lisa, considered Leonardo’s magnum opus, is often regarded as the most famous portrait ever made.^[3][173] The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting of all time,^[157] and Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man drawing is also considered a cultural icon.^[174]

More than a decade of analysis of Leonardo’s genetic genealogy, conducted by Alessandro Vezzosi and Agnese Sabato, came to a conclusion in mid-2021. It was determined that the artist has 14 living male relatives. The work could also help determine the authenticity of remains thought to belong to Leonardo.^[175]

Location of remains

While Leonardo was certainly buried in the collegiate church of Saint Florentin at the Château d’Amboise in 12 August 1519, the current location of his remains is unclear.^[176][177] Much of Château d’Amboise was damaged during the French Revolution, leading to the church’s demolition in 1802.^[176] Some of the graves were destroyed in the process, scattering the bones interred there and thereby leaving the whereabouts of Leonardo’s remains subject to dispute; a gardener may have even buried some in the corner of the courtyard.^[176]

In 1863, fine-arts inspector general Arsène Houssaye received an imperial commission to excavate the site and discovered a partially complete skeleton with a bronze ring on one finger, white hair, and stone fragments bearing the inscriptions «EO», «AR», «DUS», and «VINC»—interpreted as forming «Leonardus Vinci».^{[93][176][178]} The skull’s eight teeth corresponds to someone of approximately the appropriate age and a silver shield found near the bones depicts a beardless Francis I, corresponding to the king’s appearance during Leonardo’s time in France.^[178]

Houssaye postulated that the unusually large skull was an indicator of Leonardo’s intelligence; author Charles Nicholl describes this as a «dubious phrenological deduction».^[176] At the same time, Houssaye noted some issues with his observations, including that the feet were turned toward the high altar, a practice generally reserved for laymen, and that the skeleton of 1.73 metres (5.7 ft) seemed too short.^[178] Art historian Mary Margaret Heaton wrote in 1874 that the height would be appropriate for Leonardo.^[179] The skull was allegedly presented to Napoleon III before being returned to the Château d’Amboise, where they were re-interred in the chapel of Saint Hubert in 1874.^[178][180] A plaque above the tomb states that its contents are only presumed to be those of Leonardo.^[177]

It has since been theorized that the folding of the skeleton’s right arm over the head may correspond to the paralysis of Leonardo’s right hand.^{[82][88][178]} In 2016, it was announced that DNA tests would be conducted to determine whether the attribution is correct.^[180] The DNA of the remains will be compared to that of samples collected from Leonardo’s work and his half-brother Domenico’s descendants;^[180] it may also be sequenced.^[181]

In 2019, documents were published revealing that Houssaye had kept the ring and a lock of hair. In 1925, his great-grandson sold these to an American collector. Sixty years later, another American acquired them, leading to them being displayed at the Leonardo Museum in Vinci beginning on 2 May 2019, the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death.^[93][182]

Notes

General

Dates of works

References

Citations

Early

Modern

Works cited

Early

Modern

Books

Journals and encyclopedia articles

Further reading

See Kemp (2003) and Bambach (2019, pp. 442–579) for extensive bibliographies

External links

General

• Universal Leonardo, a database of Leonardo’s life and works maintained by Martin Kemp and Marina Wallace
• Leonardo da Vinci on the National Gallery website

Works

• Biblioteca Leonardiana, online bibliography (in Italian)
• e-Leo: Archivio digitale di storia della tecnica e della scienza, archive of drawings, notes and manuscripts
• Works by Leonardo da Vinci at Project Gutenberg
• Works by Leonardo da Vinci at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Complete text and images of Richter’s translation of the Notebooks
• The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci
This portrait attributed to Francesco Melzi, c. 1515–1518, is the only certain contemporary depiction of Leonardo.[1][2]
Born	Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci 15 April 1452 (Anchiano?)[a] Vinci, Republic of Florence
Died	2 May 1519 (aged 67) Clos Lucé, Amboise, Kingdom of France
Education	Studio of Andrea del Verrocchio
Known for	Painting drawing engineering science sculpture architecture
Notable work	Virgin of the Rocks (c. 1483–1493) Lady with an Ermine (c. 1489–1491) The Vitruvian Man (c. 1490) The Last Supper (c. 1495–1498) Mona Lisa (c. 1503–1516)
Movement	High Renaissance
Signature

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci^[b] (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect.^[3] While his fame initially rested on his achievements as a painter, he also became known for his notebooks, in which he made drawings and notes on a variety of subjects, including anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, painting, and paleontology. Leonardo is widely regarded to have been a genius who epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal,^[4] and his collective works comprise a contribution to later generations of artists matched only by that of his younger contemporary, Michelangelo.^[3][4]

Born out of wedlock to a successful notary and a lower-class woman in, or near, Vinci, he was educated in Florence by the Italian painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio. He began his career in the city, but then spent much time in the service of Ludovico Sforza in Milan. Later, he worked in Florence and Milan again, as well as briefly in Rome, all while attracting a large following of imitators and students. Upon the invitation of Francis I, he spent his last three years in France, where he died in 1519. Since his death, there has not been a time where his achievements, diverse interests, personal life, and empirical thinking have failed to incite interest and admiration,^[3][4] making him a frequent namesake and subject in culture.

Leonardo is identified as one of the greatest painters in the history of art and is often credited as the founder of the High Renaissance.^[3] Despite having many lost works and less than 25 attributed major works—including numerous unfinished works—he created some of the most influential paintings in Western art.^[3] His magnum opus, the Mona Lisa, is his best known work and often regarded as the world’s most famous painting. The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting of all time and his Vitruvian Man drawing is also regarded as a cultural icon. In 2017, Salvator Mundi, attributed in whole or part to Leonardo,^[5] was sold at auction for US$450.3 million, setting a new record for the most expensive painting ever sold at public auction.

Revered for his technological ingenuity, he conceptualized flying machines, a type of armored fighting vehicle, concentrated solar power, a ratio machine that could be used in an adding machine,^[6][7] and the double hull. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or even feasible during his lifetime, as the modern scientific approaches to metallurgy and engineering were only in their infancy during the Renaissance. Some of his smaller inventions, however, entered the world of manufacturing unheralded, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire. He made substantial discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, hydrodynamics, geology, optics, and tribology, but he did not publish his findings and they had little to no direct influence on subsequent science.^[8]

Biography

Early life (1452–1472)

Birth and background

Leonardo da Vinci,^[b] properly named Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (Leonardo, son of ser Piero from Vinci),^[9][10][c] was born on 15 April 1452 in, or close to, the Tuscan hill town of Vinci, 20 miles from Florence.^[11][12][d] He was born out of wedlock to Piero da Vinci [it] (Ser Piero da Vinci d’Antonio di ser Piero di ser Guido; 1426–1504),^[16] a Florentine legal notary,^[11] and Caterina [it] (c. 1434 – 1494), from the lower-class.^[17][18][e] It remains uncertain where Leonardo was born; the traditional account, from a local oral tradition recorded by the historian Emanuele Repetti,^[21] is that he was born in Anchiano, a country hamlet that would have offered sufficient privacy for the illegitimate birth, though it is still possible he was born in a house in Florence that Ser Piero almost certainly had.^[22][a] Leonardo’s parents both married separately the year after his birth. Caterina—who later appears in Leonardo’s notes as only «Caterina» or «Catelina»—is usually identified as the Caterina Buti del Vacca who married the local artisan Antonio di Piero Buti del Vacca, nicknamed «L’Accattabriga» («the quarrelsome one»).^[17][21] Other theories have been proposed, particularly that of art historian Martin Kemp, who suggested Caterina di Meo Lippi, an orphan who married purportedly with aid from Ser Piero and his family.^[23][f] Ser Piero married Albiera Amadori—having been betrothed to her the previous year—and after her death in 1464, went on to have three subsequent marriages.^[21][24][g] From all the marriages, Leonardo eventually had 16 half-siblings (of whom 11 survived infancy)^[25] who were much younger than he (the last was born when Leonardo was 46 years old)^[25] and with whom he had very little contact.^[h]

Very little is known about Leonardo’s childhood and much is shrouded in myth, partially because of his biography in the frequently apocryphal Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1550) by the 16th-century art historian Giorgio Vasari.^[28][29] Tax records indicate that by at least 1457 he lived in the household of his paternal grandfather, Antonio da Vinci,^[11] but it is possible that he spent the years before then in the care of his mother in Vinci, either Anchiano or Campo Zeppi in the parish of San Pantaleone.^[30][31] He is thought to have been close to his uncle, Francesco da Vinci,^[3] but his father was probably in Florence most of the time.^[11] Ser Piero, who was the descendant of a long line of notaries, established an official residence in Florence by at least 1469 and had a successful career.^[11] Despite his family history, Leonardo only received a basic and informal education in (vernacular) writing, reading and mathematics, possibly because his artistic talents were recognised early, so his family decided to focus their attention there.^[11]

Later in life, Leonardo recorded his earliest memory, now in the Codex Atlanticus.^[32] While writing on the flight of birds, he recalled as an infant when a kite came to his cradle and opened his mouth with its tail; commentators still debate whether the anecdote was an actual memory or a fantasy.^[33]

Verrocchio’s workshop

In the mid-1460s, Leonardo’s family moved to Florence, which at the time was the centre of Christian Humanist thought and culture.^[34] Around the age of 14,^[26] he became a garzone (studio boy) in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, who was the leading Florentine painter and sculptor of his time.^[34] This was about the time of the death of Verrocchio’s master, the great sculptor Donatello.^[i] Leonardo became an apprentice by the age of 17 and remained in training for seven years.^[36] Other famous painters apprenticed in the workshop or associated with it include Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Botticelli, and Lorenzo di Credi.^[37][38] Leonardo was exposed to both theoretical training and a wide range of technical skills,^[39] including drafting, chemistry, metallurgy, metal working, plaster casting, leather working, mechanics, and woodwork, as well as the artistic skills of drawing, painting, sculpting, and modelling.^[40][j]

Leonardo was a contemporary of Botticelli, Ghirlandaio and Perugino, who were all slightly older than he was.^[41] He would have met them at the workshop of Verrocchio or at the Platonic Academy of the Medici.^[37] Florence was ornamented by the works of artists such as Donatello’s contemporaries Masaccio, whose figurative frescoes were imbued with realism and emotion, and Ghiberti, whose Gates of Paradise, gleaming with gold leaf, displayed the art of combining complex figure compositions with detailed architectural backgrounds. Piero della Francesca had made a detailed study of perspective,^[42] and was the first painter to make a scientific study of light. These studies and Leon Battista Alberti’s treatise De pictura were to have a profound effect on younger artists and in particular on Leonardo’s own observations and artworks.^[35][43]

Much of the painting in Verrocchio’s workshop was done by his assistants. According to Vasari, Leonardo collaborated with Verrocchio on his The Baptism of Christ, painting the young angel holding Jesus’ robe in a manner that was so far superior to his master’s that Verrocchio put down his brush and never painted again,^{[‡ 1]} although this is believed to be an apocryphal story.^[14] 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.^[44] 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.^[14]

Vasari tells a story of Leonardo as a very young man: a local peasant made himself a round shield and requested that Ser Piero have it painted for him. Leonardo, inspired by the story of Medusa, responded with a painting of a monster spitting fire that was so terrifying that his father bought a different shield to give to the peasant and sold Leonardo’s to a Florentine art dealer for 100 ducats, who in turn sold it to the Duke of Milan.^{[‡ 2]}

First Florentine period (1472–c. 1482)

By 1472, at the age of 20, Leonardo qualified as a master in the Guild of Saint Luke, the guild of artists and doctors of medicine,^[k] but even after his father set him up in his own workshop, his attachment to Verrocchio was such that he continued to collaborate and live with him.^[37][45] Leonardo’s earliest known dated work is a 1473 pen-and-ink drawing of the Arno valley.^[38][46][l] According to Vasari, the young Leonardo was the first to suggest making the Arno river a navigable channel between Florence and Pisa.^[47]

In January 1478, Leonardo received an independent commission to paint an altarpiece for the Chapel of Saint Bernard in the Palazzo Vecchio,^[48] 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.^[14][m] In March 1481, he received a commission from the monks of San Donato in Scopeto for The Adoration of the Magi.^[49] Neither of these initial commissions were completed, being abandoned when Leonardo went to offer his services to Duke of Milan Ludovico Sforza. Leonardo wrote Sforza a letter which described the diverse things that he could achieve in the fields of engineering and weapon design, and mentioned that he could paint.^[38][50] He brought with him a silver string instrument—either a lute or lyre—in the form of a horse’s head.^[50]

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 Neoplatonism; 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.^[41][43][51] In 1482, Leonardo was sent as an ambassador by Lorenzo de’ Medici to Ludovico il Moro, who ruled Milan between 1479 and 1499.^[41][14]

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  Landscape of the Arno Valley (1473)

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First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

Leonardo worked in Milan from 1482 until 1499. He was commissioned to paint the Virgin of the Rocks for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception and The Last Supper for the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie.^[52] In the spring of 1485, Leonardo travelled to Hungary (on behalf of Sforza) to meet king Matthias Corvinus, and was commissioned by him to paint a Madonna.^[53] In 1490 he was called as a consultant, together with Francesco di Giorgio Martini, for the building site of the cathedral of Pavia^[54][55] and was struck by the equestrian statue of Regisole, of which he left a sketch.^[56] Leonardo was employed on many other projects for Sforza, such as preparation of floats and pageants for special occasions; a drawing of, and wooden model for, a competition to design the cupola for Milan Cathedral;^[57] and a model for a huge equestrian monument to Ludovico’s predecessor Francesco Sforza. This would have surpassed in size the only two large equestrian statues of the Renaissance, Donatello’s Gattamelata in Padua and Verrocchio’s Bartolomeo Colleoni in Venice, and became known as the Gran Cavallo.^[38] Leonardo completed a model for the horse and made detailed plans for its casting,^[38] but in November 1494, Ludovico gave the metal to his brother-in-law to be used for a cannon to defend the city from Charles VIII of France.^[38]

Contemporary correspondence records that Leonardo and his assistants were commissioned by the Duke of Milan to paint the Sala delle Asse in the Sforza Castle. The decoration was completed in 1498. The project became a trompe-l’œil decoration that made the great hall appear to be a pergola created by the interwoven limbs of sixteen mulberry trees,^[58] whose canopy included an intricate labyrinth of leaves and knots on the ceiling.^[59]

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Second Florentine period (1500–1508)

When Ludovico Sforza was overthrown by France in 1500, Leonardo fled Milan for Venice, accompanied by his assistant Salaì and friend, the mathematician Luca Pacioli.^[61] In Venice, Leonardo was employed as a military architect and engineer, devising methods to defend the city from naval attack.^[37] On his return to Florence in 1500, he and his household were guests of the Servite monks at the monastery of Santissima Annunziata and were provided with a workshop where, according to Vasari, Leonardo created the cartoon of The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist, a work that won such admiration that «men [and] women, young and old» flocked to see it «as if they were going to a solemn festival.»^{[‡ 3][n]}

In Cesena in 1502, Leonardo entered the service of Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI, acting as a military architect and engineer and travelling throughout Italy with his patron.^[61] Leonardo created a map of Cesare Borgia’s stronghold, a town plan of Imola in order to win his patronage. Upon seeing it, Cesare hired Leonardo as his chief military engineer and architect. Later in the year, Leonardo produced another map for his patron, one of Chiana Valley, Tuscany, so as to give his patron a better overlay of the land and greater strategic position. He created this map in conjunction with his other project of constructing a dam from the sea to Florence, in order to allow a supply of water to sustain the canal during all seasons.

Leonardo had left Borgia’s service and returned to Florence by early 1503,^[63] where he rejoined the Guild of Saint Luke on 18 October of that year. By this same month, Leonardo had begun working on a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, the model for the Mona Lisa,^[64][65] which he would continue working on until his twilight years. In January 1504, he was part of a committee formed to recommend where Michelangelo’s statue of David should be placed.^[66] He then spent two years in Florence designing and painting a mural of The Battle of Anghiari for the Signoria,^[61] with Michelangelo designing its companion piece, The Battle of Cascina.^[o]

In 1506, Leonardo was summoned to Milan by Charles II d’Amboise, the acting French governor of the city.^[69] There, Leonardo took on another pupil, Count Francesco Melzi, the son of a Lombard aristocrat, who is considered to have been his favourite student.^[37] The Council of Florence wished Leonardo to return promptly to finish The Battle of Anghiari, but he was given leave at the behest of Louis XII, who considered commissioning the artist to make some portraits.^[69] Leonardo may have commenced a project for an equestrian figure of d’Amboise;^[70] a wax model survives and, if genuine, is the only extant example of Leonardo’s sculpture. Leonardo was otherwise free to pursue his scientific interests.^[69] Many of Leonardo’s most prominent pupils either knew or worked with him in Milan,^[37] including Bernardino Luini, Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, and Marco d’Oggiono. In 1507, Leonardo was in Florence sorting out a dispute with his brothers over the estate of his father, who had died in 1504.

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Second Milanese period (1508–1513)

By 1508, Leonardo was back in Milan, living in his own house in Porta Orientale in the parish of Santa Babila.^[71]

In 1512, Leonardo was working on plans for an equestrian monument for Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, but this was prevented by an invasion of a confederation of Swiss, Spanish and Venetian forces, which drove the French from Milan. Leonardo stayed in the city, spending several months in 1513 at the Medici’s Vaprio d’Adda villa.^[72]

Rome and France (1513–1519)

In March of 1513, Lorenzo de’ Medici’s son Giovanni assumed the papacy (as Leo X); Leonardo went to Rome that September, where he was received by the pope’s brother Giuliano.^[72] From September 1513 to 1516, Leonardo spent much of his time living in the Belvedere Courtyard in the Apostolic Palace, where Michelangelo and Raphael were both active.^[71] Leonardo was given an allowance of 33 ducats a month, and according to Vasari, decorated a lizard with scales dipped in quicksilver.^[74] 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.^[74][p] Leonardo became ill, in what may have been the first of multiple strokes leading to his death.^[74] 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.^[75] He also dissected cadavers, making notes for a treatise on vocal cords;^[76] these he gave to an official in hopes of regaining the pope’s favor, but was unsuccessful.^[74]

In October 1515, King Francis I of France recaptured Milan.^[49] Leonardo was present at the 19 December meeting of Francis I and Leo X, which took place in Bologna.^[37][77][78] In 1516, Leonardo entered Francis’ service, being given the use of the manor house Clos Lucé, near the king’s residence at the royal Château d’Amboise. Being frequently visited by Francis, he drew plans for an immense castle town the king intended to erect at Romorantin, and made a mechanical lion, which during a pageant walked toward the king and—upon being struck by a wand—opened its chest to reveal a cluster of lilies.^{[79][‡ 3][q]} Leonardo was accompanied during this time by his friend and apprentice Francesco Melzi, and supported by a pension totalling 10,000 scudi.^[71] At some point, Melzi drew a portrait of Leonardo; the only others known from his lifetime were a sketch by an unknown assistant on the back of one of Leonardo’s studies (c. 1517)^[81] and a drawing by Giovanni Ambrogio Figino depicting an elderly Leonardo with his right arm wrapped in clothing.^[82][r] The latter, in addition to the record of an October 1517 visit by Louis d’Aragon,^[s] confirms an account of Leonardo’s right hand being paralytic when he was 65,^[85] which may indicate why he left works such as the Mona Lisa unfinished.^[83][86][87] He continued to work at some capacity until eventually becoming ill and bedridden for several months.^[85]

Death

Leonardo died at Clos Lucé on 2 May 1519 at the age of 67, possibly of a stroke.^[88][87][89] Francis I had become a close friend. Vasari describes Leonardo as lamenting on his deathbed, full of repentance, that «he had offended against God and men by failing to practice his art as he should have done.»^[90] Vasari states that in his last days, Leonardo sent for a priest to make his confession and to receive the Holy Sacrament.^{[‡ 4]} Vasari also records that the king held Leonardo’s head in his arms as he died, although this story may be legend rather than fact.^[t][u] In accordance with his will, sixty beggars carrying tapers followed Leonardo’s casket.^[51][v] Melzi was the principal heir and executor, receiving, as well as money, Leonardo’s paintings, tools, library and personal effects. Leonardo’s other long-time pupil and companion, Salaì, and his servant Baptista de Vilanis, each received half of Leonardo’s vineyards.^[92] His brothers received land, and his serving woman received a fur-lined cloak. On 12 August 1519, Leonardo’s remains were interred in the Collegiate Church of Saint Florentin at the Château d’Amboise.^[93]

Salaì, or Il Salaino («The Little Unclean One», i.e., the devil), entered Leonardo’s household in 1490 as an assistant. After only a year, Leonardo made a list of his misdemeanours, calling him «a thief, a liar, stubborn, and a glutton,» after he had made off with money and valuables on at least five occasions and spent a fortune on clothes.^[94] Nevertheless, Leonardo treated him with great indulgence, and he remained in Leonardo’s household for the next thirty years.^[95] Salaì executed a number of paintings under the name of Andrea Salaì, but although Vasari claims that Leonardo «taught him many things about painting,»^{[‡ 3]} his work is generally considered to be of less artistic merit than others among Leonardo’s pupils, such as Marco d’Oggiono and Boltraffio.

Salaì owned the Mona Lisa at the time of Leonardo’s death in 1524, and in his will it was assessed at 505 lire, an exceptionally high valuation for a small panel portrait.^[96] Some 20 years after Leonardo’s death, Francis was reported by the goldsmith and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini as saying: «There had never been another man born in the world who knew as much as Leonardo, not so much about painting, sculpture and architecture, as that he was a very great philosopher.»^[97]

Personal life

Despite the thousands of pages Leonardo left in notebooks and manuscripts, he scarcely made reference to his personal life.^[2]

Within Leonardo’s lifetime, his extraordinary powers of invention, his «great physical beauty» and «infinite grace,» as described by Vasari,^{[‡ 5]} as well as all other aspects of his life, attracted the curiosity of others. One such aspect was his love for animals, likely including vegetarianism and according to Vasari, a habit of purchasing caged birds and releasing them.^{[99][‡ 6]}

Leonardo had many friends who are now notable either in their fields or for their historical significance, including mathematician Luca Pacioli,^[100] with whom he collaborated on the book Divina proportione in the 1490s. 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.^[101] 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.^[37]

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.^[102] Leonardo’s most intimate relationships were perhaps with his pupils Salaì and Melzi. Melzi, writing to inform Leonardo’s brothers of his death, described Leonardo’s feelings for his pupils as both loving and passionate. It has been claimed since the 16th century that these relationships were of a sexual or erotic nature. Court records of 1476, when he was aged twenty-four, show that Leonardo and three other young men were charged with sodomy in an incident involving a well-known male prostitute. The charges were dismissed for lack of evidence, and there is speculation that since one of the accused, Lionardo de Tornabuoni, was related to Lorenzo de’ Medici, the family exerted its influence to secure the dismissal.^[103] Since that date much has been written about his presumed homosexuality^[104] 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.^[105][98]

Paintings

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.^[106]

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. All these qualities come together in his most famous painted works, the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, and the Virgin of the Rocks.^[w]

Early works

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, 59 centimetres (23 in) long and 14 cm (5.5 in) 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, 217 cm (85 in) long.^[107] 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. Although previously attributed to Ghirlandaio, the larger work is now generally attributed to Leonardo.^[108]

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.^[35] 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.

Paintings of the 1480s

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.»^[37] Although the painting is barely begun, the composition can be seen and is very unusual.^[x] Jerome, as a penitent, occupies the middle of the picture, set on a slight diagonal and viewed somewhat from above. 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.^[109] 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. It is a complex composition, of about 250 x 250 centimetres. 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.^[14]

The third important work of this period is the Virgin of the Rocks, commissioned in Milan for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception. The painting, to be done with the assistance of the de Predis brothers, was to fill a large complex altarpiece.^[110] Leonardo chose to paint an apocryphal moment of the infancy of Christ when the infant John the Baptist, in protection of an angel, met the Holy Family on the road to Egypt. The painting demonstrates an eerie beauty as the graceful figures kneel in adoration around the infant Christ in a wild landscape of tumbling rock and whirling water.^[111] While the painting is quite large, about 200×120 centimetres, it is not nearly as complex as the painting ordered by the monks of San Donato, having only four figures rather than about fifty and a rocky landscape rather than architectural details. The painting was eventually finished; in fact, two versions of the painting were finished: one remained at the chapel of the Confraternity, while Leonardo took the other to France. The Brothers did not get their painting, however, nor the de Predis their payment, until the next century.^[38][61]

Leonardo’s most remarkable portrait of this period is the Lady with an Ermine, presumed to be Cecilia Gallerani (c. 1483–1490), lover of Ludovico Sforza.^[112][113] The painting is characterised by the pose of the figure with the head turned at a very different angle to the torso, unusual at a date when many portraits were still rigidly in profile. The ermine plainly carries symbolic meaning, relating either to the sitter, or to Ludovico who belonged to the prestigious Order of the Ermine.^[112]

Paintings of the 1490s

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.^[38]

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.^[114] This was beyond the comprehension of the prior of the convent, who hounded him until Leonardo asked Ludovico to intervene. 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.^{[‡ 7]}

The painting was acclaimed as a masterpiece of design and characterization,^{[‡ 8]} but it deteriorated rapidly, so that within a hundred years it was described by one viewer as «completely ruined.»^[115] 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.^[116] Despite this, the painting remains one of the most reproduced works of art; countless copies have been made in various mediums.

Toward the end of this period, in 1498 da Vinci’s trompe-l’œil decoration of the Sala delle Asse was painted for the Duke of Milan in the Castello Sforzesco.

Paintings of the 1500s

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.^[117]

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. In the present era, it is arguably the most famous painting in the world. Its fame rests, in particular, on the elusive smile on the woman’s face, its mysterious quality perhaps due to the subtly shadowed corners of the mouth and eyes such that the exact nature of the smile cannot be determined. The shadowy quality for which the work is renowned came to be called «sfumato», or Leonardo’s smoke. Vasari wrote that the smile was «so pleasing that it seems more divine than human, and it was considered a wondrous thing that it was as lively as the smile of the living original.»^{[‡ 9]}

Other characteristics of the painting are the unadorned dress, in which the eyes and hands have no competition from other details; the dramatic landscape background, in which the world seems to be in a state of flux; the subdued colouring; and the extremely smooth nature of the painterly technique, employing oils laid on much like tempera, and blended on the surface so that the brushstrokes are indistinguishable.^[118] Vasari expressed that the painting’s quality would make even «the most confident master … despair and lose heart.»^{[‡ 10]} 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.^[119]

In the painting Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, the composition again picks up the theme of figures in a landscape, which Wasserman describes as «breathtakingly beautiful»^[120] and harkens back to the Saint Jerome with the figure set at an oblique angle. What makes this painting unusual is that there are two obliquely set figures superimposed. Mary is seated on the knee of her mother, Saint Anne. She leans forward to restrain the Christ Child as he plays roughly with a lamb, the sign of his own impending sacrifice.^[38] This painting, which was copied many times, influenced Michelangelo, Raphael, and Andrea del Sarto,^[121] and through them Pontormo and Correggio. The trends in composition were adopted in particular by the Venetian painters Tintoretto and Veronese.

Drawings

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.^[122] 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.^[37][122][y]

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 Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist in the National Gallery, London.^[122] This drawing employs the subtle sfumato technique of shading, in the manner of the Mona Lisa. It is thought that Leonardo never made a painting from it, the closest similarity being to The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne in the Louvre.^[123]

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 Leonardo would look for interesting faces in public to use as models for some of his work.^{[‡ 7]} 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».^[z] These faces are often contrasted with that of a warrior.^[122] 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.^[122] In his notes, Leonardo recorded the colours of the robes that Baroncelli was wearing when he died.

Like the two contemporary architects Donato Bramante (who designed the Belvedere Courtyard) and Antonio da Sangallo the Elder, Leonardo experimented with designs for centrally planned churches, a number of which appear in his journals, as both plans and views, although none was ever realised.^[41][124]

Journals and notes

Renaissance humanism recognised no mutually exclusive polarities between the sciences and the arts, and Leonardo’s studies in science and engineering are sometimes considered as impressive and innovative as his artistic work.^[38] These studies were recorded in 13,000 pages of notes and drawings, which fuse art and natural philosophy (the forerunner of modern science). They were made and maintained daily throughout Leonardo’s life and travels, as he made continual observations of the world around him.^[38] Leonardo’s notes and drawings display an enormous range of interests and preoccupations, some as mundane as lists of groceries and people who owed him money and some as intriguing as designs for wings and shoes for walking on water. 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.^[38]

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.^[125] These were to be published, a task of overwhelming difficulty because of its scope and Leonardo’s idiosyncratic writing.^[126] Some of Leonardo’s drawings were copied by an anonymous Milanese artist for a planned treatise on art c. 1570.^[127] After Melzi’s death in 1570, the collection passed to his son, the lawyer Orazio, who initially took little interest in the journals.^[125] In 1587, a Melzi household tutor named Lelio Gavardi took 13 of the manuscripts to Pisa; there, the architect Giovanni Magenta reproached Gavardi for having taken the manuscripts illicitly and returned them to Orazio. Having many more such works in his possession, Orazio gifted the volumes to Magenta. News spread of these lost works of Leonardo’s, and Orazio retrieved seven of the 13 manuscripts, which he then gave to Pompeo Leoni for publication in two volumes; one of these was the Codex Atlanticus. The other six works had been distributed to a few others.^[128] After Orazio’s death, his heirs sold the rest of Leonardo’s possessions, and thus began their dispersal.^[129]

Some works have found their way into major collections such as the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, the Louvre, the Biblioteca Nacional de España, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, which holds the 12-volume Codex Atlanticus, and the British Library in London, which has put a selection from the Codex Arundel (BL Arundel MS 263) online.^[130] Works have also been at Holkham Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and in the private hands of John Nicholas Brown I and Robert Lehman.^[125] The Codex Leicester is the only privately owned major scientific work of Leonardo; it is owned by Bill Gates and displayed once a year in different cities around the world.

Most of Leonardo’s writings are in mirror-image cursive.^[46][131] Since Leonardo wrote with his left hand, it was probably easier for him to write from right to left.^[132][aa] Leonardo used a variety of shorthand and symbols, and states in his notes that he intended to prepare them for publication.^[131] In many cases a single topic is covered in detail in both words and pictures on a single sheet, together conveying information that would not be lost if the pages were published out of order.^[135] Why they were not published during Leonardo’s lifetime is unknown.^[38]

Science and inventions

Leonardo’s approach to science was observational: he tried to understand a phenomenon by describing and depicting it in utmost detail and did not emphasise experiments or theoretical explanation. Since he lacked formal education in Latin and mathematics, contemporary scholars mostly ignored Leonardo the scientist, although he did teach himself Latin. His keen observations in many areas were noted, such as when he wrote «Il sole non si move.» («The Sun does not move.»)^[136]

In the 1490s he studied mathematics under Luca Pacioli and prepared a series of drawings of regular solids in a skeletal form to be engraved as plates for Pacioli’s book Divina proportione, published in 1509.^[38] While living in Milan, he studied light from the summit of Monte Rosa.^[69] Scientific writings in his notebook on fossils have been considered as influential on early palaeontology.^[137]

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.^[138] 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,^[139] with engravings based upon drawings by the Classical painter Nicolas Poussin.^[4] 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.»^[38]

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.^[140]

Anatomy and physiology

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.^[141] 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, professor of Anatomy at the University of Pavia.^[142] Leonardo made over 240 detailed drawings and wrote about 13,000 words toward a treatise on anatomy.^[143] Only a small amount of the material on anatomy was published in Leonardo’s Treatise on painting.^[126] During the time that Melzi was ordering the material into chapters for publication, they were examined by a number of anatomists and artists, including Vasari, Cellini and Albrecht Dürer, who made a number of drawings from them.^[126]

Leonardo’s anatomical drawings include many studies of the human skeleton and its parts, and of muscles and sinews. He studied the mechanical functions of the skeleton and the muscular forces that are applied to it in a manner that prefigured the modern science of biomechanics.^[144] He drew the heart and vascular system, the sex organs and other internal organs, making one of the first scientific drawings of a fetus in utero.^[122] The drawings and notation are far ahead of their time, and if published would undoubtedly have made a major contribution to medical science.^[143]

Leonardo also closely observed and recorded the effects of age and of human emotion on the physiology, studying in particular the effects of rage. He drew many figures who had significant facial deformities or signs of illness.^[38][122] Leonardo also studied and drew the anatomy of many animals, dissecting cows, birds, monkeys, bears, and frogs, and comparing in his drawings their anatomical structure with that of humans. He also made a number of studies of horses.^[122]

Leonardo’s dissections and documentation of muscles, nerves, and vessels helped to describe the physiology and mechanics of movement. He attempted to identify the source of ’emotions’ and their expression. He found it difficult to incorporate the prevailing system and theories of bodily humours, but eventually he abandoned these physiological explanations of bodily functions. He made the observations that humours were not located in cerebral spaces or ventricles. He documented that the humours were not contained in the heart or the liver, and that it was the heart that defined the circulatory system. He was the first to define atherosclerosis and liver cirrhosis. He created models of the cerebral ventricles with the use of melted wax and constructed a glass aorta to observe the circulation of blood through the aortic valve by using water and grass seed to watch flow patterns.^[145]

Engineering and inventions

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.^[146] 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. When he fled from Milan to Venice in 1499, he found employment as an engineer and devised a system of moveable barricades to protect the city from attack. In 1502, he created a scheme for diverting the flow of the Arno river, a project on which Niccolò Machiavelli also worked.^[147][148] He continued to contemplate the canalization of Lombardy’s plains while in Louis XII’s company^[69] and of the Loire and its tributaries in the company of Francis I.^[149] Leonardo’s journals include a vast number of inventions, both practical and impractical. They include musical instruments, a mechanical knight, hydraulic pumps, reversible crank mechanisms, finned mortar shells, and a steam cannon.^[37][38]

Leonardo was fascinated by the phenomenon of flight for much of his life, producing many studies, including Codex on the Flight of Birds (c. 1505), as well as plans for several flying machines, such as a flapping ornithopter and a machine with a helical rotor.^[38] A 2003 documentary by British television station Channel Four, titled Leonardo’s Dream Machines, various designs by Leonardo, such as a parachute and a giant crossbow, were interpreted and constructed.^[150][151] Some of those designs proved successful, whilst others fared less well when tested.

Research performed by Marc van den Broek revealed older prototypes for more than 100 inventions that are ascribed to Leonardo. Similarities between Leonardo’s illustrations and drawings from the Middle Ages and from Ancient Greece and Rome, the Chinese and Persian Empires, and Egypt suggest that a large portion of Leonardo’s inventions had been conceived before his lifetime. Leonardo’s innovation was to combine different functions from existing drafts and set them into scenes that illustrated their utility. By reconstituting technical inventions he created something new.^[152]

In his notebooks, Leonardo first stated the ‘laws’ of sliding friction in 1493.^[153] His inspiration for investigating friction came about in part from his study of perpetual motion, which he correctly concluded was not possible.^[154] His results were never published and the friction laws were not rediscovered until 1699 by Guillaume Amontons, with whose name they are now usually associated.^[153] For this contribution, Leonardo was named as the first of the 23 «Men of Tribology» by Duncan Dowson.^[155]

Legacy

Although he had no formal academic training,^[156] many historians and scholars regard Leonardo as the prime exemplar of the «Universal Genius» or «Renaissance Man», an individual of «unquenchable curiosity» and «feverishly inventive imagination.»^[157] He is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived.^[158] 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.»^[157] Scholars interpret his view of the world as being based in logic, though the empirical methods he used were unorthodox for his time.^[159]

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.^[38]

The continued admiration that Leonardo commanded from painters, critics and historians is reflected in many other written tributes. 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…»^[160] while the biographer known as «Anonimo Gaddiano» wrote, c. 1540: «His genius was so rare and universal that it can be said that nature worked a miracle on his behalf…»^[161] Vasari, in his Lives of the Artists (1568), opens his chapter on Leonardo:^{[‡ 11]}

In the normal course of events many men and women are born with remarkable 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, all his actions seem inspired and indeed everything he does clearly comes from God rather than from human skill. Everyone acknowledged that this was true of Leonardo da Vinci, an artist of outstanding physical beauty, who displayed infinite grace in everything that he did and who cultivated his genius so brilliantly that all problems he studied he solved with ease.

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…»^[162] This is echoed by A.E. Rio who wrote in 1861: «He towered above all other artists through the strength and the nobility of his talents.»^[163]

By the 19th century, the scope of Leonardo’s notebooks was known, as well as his paintings. Hippolyte Taine wrote in 1866: «There may not be in the world an example of another genius so universal, so incapable of fulfilment, so full of yearning for the infinite, so naturally refined, so far ahead of his own century and the following centuries.»^[164] Art historian Bernard Berenson wrote in 1896: «Leonardo is the one artist of whom it may be said with perfect literalness: Nothing that he touched but turned into a thing of eternal beauty. Whether it be the cross section of a skull, the structure of a weed, or a study of muscles, he, with his feeling for line and for light and shade, forever transmuted it into life-communicating values.»^[165]

The interest in Leonardo’s genius has continued unabated; experts study and translate his writings, analyse his paintings using scientific techniques, argue over attributions and search for works which have been recorded but never found.^[166] Liana Bortolon, writing in 1967, said: «Because of the multiplicity of interests that spurred him to pursue every field of knowledge…Leonardo can be considered, quite rightly, to have been the universal genius par excellence, and with all the disquieting overtones inherent in that term. Man is as uncomfortable today, faced with a genius, as he was in the 16th century. Five centuries have passed, yet we still view Leonardo with awe.»^[37] The Elmer Belt Library of Vinciana is a special collection at the University of California, Los Angeles.^[167]

Twenty-first-century author Walter Isaacson based much of his biography of Leonardo^[103] on thousands of notebook entries, studying the personal notes, sketches, budget notations, and musings of the man whom he considers the greatest of innovators. Isaacson was surprised to discover a «fun, joyous» side of Leonardo in addition to his limitless curiosity and creative genius.^[168]

On the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death, the Louvre in Paris arranged for the largest ever single exhibit of his work, called Leonardo, between November 2019 and February 2020. The exhibit includes over 100 paintings, drawings and notebooks. Eleven of the paintings that Leonardo completed in his lifetime were included. Five of these are owned by the Louvre, but the Mona Lisa was not included because it is in such great demand among general visitors to the Louvre; it remains on display in its gallery. Vitruvian Man, however, is on display following a legal battle with its owner, the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice. Salvator Mundi ^[ab] was also not included because its Saudi owner did not agree to lease the work.^[171][172]

The Mona Lisa, considered Leonardo’s magnum opus, is often regarded as the most famous portrait ever made.^[3][173] The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting of all time,^[157] and Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man drawing is also considered a cultural icon.^[174]

More than a decade of analysis of Leonardo’s genetic genealogy, conducted by Alessandro Vezzosi and Agnese Sabato, came to a conclusion in mid-2021. It was determined that the artist has 14 living male relatives. The work could also help determine the authenticity of remains thought to belong to Leonardo.^[175]

Location of remains

While Leonardo was certainly buried in the collegiate church of Saint Florentin at the Château d’Amboise in 12 August 1519, the current location of his remains is unclear.^[176][177] Much of Château d’Amboise was damaged during the French Revolution, leading to the church’s demolition in 1802.^[176] Some of the graves were destroyed in the process, scattering the bones interred there and thereby leaving the whereabouts of Leonardo’s remains subject to dispute; a gardener may have even buried some in the corner of the courtyard.^[176]

In 1863, fine-arts inspector general Arsène Houssaye received an imperial commission to excavate the site and discovered a partially complete skeleton with a bronze ring on one finger, white hair, and stone fragments bearing the inscriptions «EO», «AR», «DUS», and «VINC»—interpreted as forming «Leonardus Vinci».^{[93][176][178]} The skull’s eight teeth corresponds to someone of approximately the appropriate age and a silver shield found near the bones depicts a beardless Francis I, corresponding to the king’s appearance during Leonardo’s time in France.^[178]

Houssaye postulated that the unusually large skull was an indicator of Leonardo’s intelligence; author Charles Nicholl describes this as a «dubious phrenological deduction».^[176] At the same time, Houssaye noted some issues with his observations, including that the feet were turned toward the high altar, a practice generally reserved for laymen, and that the skeleton of 1.73 metres (5.7 ft) seemed too short.^[178] Art historian Mary Margaret Heaton wrote in 1874 that the height would be appropriate for Leonardo.^[179] The skull was allegedly presented to Napoleon III before being returned to the Château d’Amboise, where they were re-interred in the chapel of Saint Hubert in 1874.^[178][180] A plaque above the tomb states that its contents are only presumed to be those of Leonardo.^[177]

It has since been theorized that the folding of the skeleton’s right arm over the head may correspond to the paralysis of Leonardo’s right hand.^{[82][88][178]} In 2016, it was announced that DNA tests would be conducted to determine whether the attribution is correct.^[180] The DNA of the remains will be compared to that of samples collected from Leonardo’s work and his half-brother Domenico’s descendants;^[180] it may also be sequenced.^[181]

In 2019, documents were published revealing that Houssaye had kept the ring and a lock of hair. In 1925, his great-grandson sold these to an American collector. Sixty years later, another American acquired them, leading to them being displayed at the Leonardo Museum in Vinci beginning on 2 May 2019, the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death.^[93][182]

Notes

General

Dates of works

References

Citations

Early

Modern

Works cited

Early

Modern

Books

Journals and encyclopedia articles

Further reading

See Kemp (2003) and Bambach (2019, pp. 442–579) for extensive bibliographies

External links

General

• Universal Leonardo, a database of Leonardo’s life and works maintained by Martin Kemp and Marina Wallace
• Leonardo da Vinci on the National Gallery website

Works

• Biblioteca Leonardiana, online bibliography (in Italian)
• e-Leo: Archivio digitale di storia della tecnica e della scienza, archive of drawings, notes and manuscripts
• Works by Leonardo da Vinci at Project Gutenberg
• Works by Leonardo da Vinci at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Complete text and images of Richter’s translation of the Notebooks
• The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci

ЭНЦИКЛОПЕДИЧЕСКИЙ СЛОВАРЬ

БОЛЬШОЙ ЭНЦИКЛОПЕДИЧЕСКИЙ СЛОВАРЬ

ЭНЦИКЛОПЕДИЯ КОЛЬЕРА

ИЛЛЮСТРИРОВАННЫЙ ЭНЦИКЛОПЕДИЧЕСКИЙ СЛОВАРЬ

АФОРИЗМЫ

ГРАММАТИЧЕСКИЙ СЛОВАРЬ

ПОЛЕЗНЫЕ СЕРВИСЫ

ЛЕОНА́РДО ДА ВИ́НЧИ (Leonardo da Vin­ci) (15.4.1452, Ан­киа­но, близ Вин­чи, Тос­ка­на – 2.5.1519, за­мок Кло-Лю­се, Ам­бу­аз, Фран­ция), итал. жи­во­пи­сец, гра­фик, скульп­тор, пи­са­тель, учё­ный и изо­бре­та­тель.

Л. да В. был не­за­кон­но­ро­ж­дён­ным сы­ном но­та­риу­са Пье­ро да Вин­чи и кре­сть­ян­ки Ка­та­ри­ны; све­де­ния о его жиз­ни до нач. 1470-х гг. край­не скуд­ны; в 1469 он пе­ре­ехал с от­цом во Фло­рен­цию. Ста­нов­ле­ние Л. да В. как ху­дож­ни­ка про­ис­хо­ди­ло в мас­тер­ской А. дель Вер­рок­кьо, где он про­вёл б. ч. 1-го фло­рен­тий­ско­го пе­рио­да (1472 – ок. 1482). Вер­рок­кьо по­мог мо­ло­до­му уче­ни­ку раз­вить его ана­ли­тич. спо­соб­но­сти и по­слу­жил для не­го об­раз­цом уни­вер­са­лиз­ма, став­ше­го в даль­ней­шем от­ли­чит. чер­той твор­че­ст­ва Л. да В. В чис­ле др. ас­си­стен­тов Вер­рок­кьо ху­дож­ник при­ни­мал уча­стие в ра­бо­те над ал­тар­ным об­ра­зом «Кре­ще­ние Хри­ста» [кон. 1460-х гг. (?) – ок. 1476, га­ле­рея Уф­фи­ци, Фло­рен­ция], в ко­то­ром Дж. Ва­за­ри при­пи­сы­ва­ет ему фи­гу­ру ле­во­го ан­ге­ла и частично пейзаж (см. илл. к ст. Верроккьо).

В ран­них ра­бо­тах Л. да В. на­ме­ча­ют­ся ха­рак­тер­ные чер­ты его творч. ме­то­да, пре­ж­де все­го пре­иму­ще­ст­вен­ный ин­те­рес к ста­дии раз­ра­бот­ки за­мыс­ла, вслед­ст­вие че­го мно­гие его про­из­ве­де­ния ос­та­ва­лись не­за­кон­чен­ны­ми. «По­кло­не­ние вол­хвов» для ц. Сан-До­на­то-а-Ско­пе­то бы­ло не за­вер­ше­но, за­каз пе­ре­дан Фи­лип­пи­но Лип­пи (1481–82, на­ча­тая Л. да В. ра­бо­та – в га­ле­рее Уф­фи­ци). На ста­дии пе­ре­хо­да от ри­сун­ка к жи­во­пи­си был ос­тав­лен и «Свя­той Ие­ро­ним» (ок. 1481–82, Пи­на­ко­те­ка, Ва­ти­кан). В це­лом ра­бо­ты это­го вре­ме­ни от­ме­че­ны сти­ли­сти­кой кват­ро­чен­то и не­сут на се­бе сле­ды влия­ния учи­те­ля: «Ма­дон­на с Мла­ден­цем» (ок. 1474–76, Ста­рая пи­на­ко­те­ка, Мюн­хен), «Ма­дон­на с цвет­ком» («Ма­дон­на Бе­нуа»; 1470-е гг.; см. илл. к ст. Воз­рож­де­ние), «Ма­дон­на Лит­та» (ок. 1480–85, обе – Эр­ми­таж, С.-Пе­тер­бург), «Порт­рет Джи­нев­ры деи Бен­чи» (ок. 1476, Нац. га­ле­рея иск-в, Вашинг­тон) и при­пи­сы­вае­мое Л. да В. «Бла­го­ве­ще­ние» (1473, га­ле­рея Уф­фи­ци). В них за­ме­тен пре­об­ла­даю­щий ин­те­рес к скульп­тур­но­му объ­ё­му, к све­товым эф­фек­там, к эмо­цио­наль­ным ха­рак­те­ри­сти­кам пер­со­на­жей. В пе­ри­од пре­бы­ва­ния в мас­тер­ской Вер­рок­кьо Л. да В. за­ни­мал­ся скульп­ту­рой и, по­доб­но др. уче­ни­кам мас­те­ра, соз­да­вал тер­ра­ко­то­вые рель­е­фы и бюс­ты, од­на­ко без­ус­лов­но при­над­ле­жа­щих ему скульп­тур­ных ра­бот не со­хра­ни­лось.

Уже в этот пе­ри­од ри­су­нок ста­но­вит­ся для Л. да В. уни­вер­саль­ным ин­ст­ру­мен­том как в ху­до­же­ст­вен­ной, так и в на­уч­ной сфе­ре. Л. да В. – пер­вый мас­тер, в чьём твор­че­ст­ве ри­су­нок (пре­ж­де имев­ший в осн. вспо­мо­гат. зна­че­ние) за­нял клю­че­вое ме­сто, за­мет­но по­тес­нив др. ви­ды изо­бра­зит. иск-ва. До­шед­шие лис­ты де­мон­ст­ри­ру­ют как со­вер­шен­ст­во вла­де­ния разл. тех­ни­ка­ми ри­сун­ка, так и раз­но­об­ра­зие спо­со­бов его ис­поль­зо­ва­ния. На­ря­ду с под­го­то­вит. этю­да­ми («Этюд дра­пи­ров­ки», ок. 1477, Нац. га­ле­рея, Рим; «На­бро­ски про­фи­лей», Ко­ро­лев­ская б-ка, Винд­зор) и эс­ки­за­ми для жи­во­пис­ных про­из­ве­де­ний (эс­киз зад­не­го пла­на «По­кло­не­ния вол­хвов», 1481, га­ле­рея Уф­фи­ци), Л. да В. соз­да­ёт ав­то­ном­ные ри­сун­ки: «Порт­рет вои­на в фан­та­сти­че­ских дос­пе­хах» (ме­ж­ду 1478 и 1480, Бри­тан­ский му­зей, Лон­дон), где по­сред­ст­вом се­реб­ря­но­го ка­ран­да­ша с юве­лир­ной точ­но­стью вос­соз­да­ёт мно­же­ст­во мел­ких де­та­лей; «Тос­кан­ский пей­заж» (1473, га­ле­рея Уф­фи­ци) – пер­вый на­тур­ный пей­заж­ный ри­су­нок в ев­роп. ис­кус­ст­ве.

По­сту­п­ле­ние Л. да В. на служ­бу к ми­лан­ско­му гер­цо­гу Ло­до­ви­ко Сфор­ца от­кры­ва­ет 1-й ми­лан­ский пе­ри­од его твор­че­ст­ва (ок. 1482–99). В пись­ме к гер­цо­гу Л. да В. опи­сы­ва­ет раз­но­об­ра­зие сво­их воз­мож­но­стей, де­лая ак­цент на спо­соб­но­стях во­ен. ин­же­не­ра. При дво­ре он вы­сту­пал уст­рои­те­лем и офор­ми­те­лем празд­неств, соз­да­вал эс­ки­зы кос­тю­мов для тур­ни­ров. По опи­са­ни­ям со­вре­мен­ни­ков и ри­сун­кам Л. да В. из­вест­ны ме­ха­низ­мы и де­ко­ра­ции для пред­став­ле­ний «Рай» (1490) и «Да­ная» (1496). Ар­хит. и инж. идеи Л. да В. на­шли от­ра­же­ние в его ри­сун­ках: про­ек­ты фо­на­ря над сре­до­кре­сти­ем ми­лан­ско­го со­бо­ра, проект иде­аль­но­го уст­рой­ст­ва г. Вид­же­ва­но с под­зем­ной ка­на­ли­за­ци­ей и др. Су­ще­ст­вен­ный вклад в раз­ви­тие про­бле­мы цен­траль­но-ку­поль­но­го со­ору­же­ния вне­сли его эс­ки­зы цен­трич. церк­вей (Б-ка Ин-та Фран­ции, Па­риж; Нац. б-ка, Мад­рид). На­уч. зна­ния бы­ли не­об­хо­ди­мы и для раз­ра­бот­ки про­ек­та кон­но­го мо­ну­мен­та Фран­че­ско Сфор­ца (1490), ко­то­рый был до­ве­дён до ста­дии пол­но­мас­штаб­ной гли­ня­ной мо­де­ли, про­де­мон­ст­ри­ро­ван­ной в 1494 на бра­ко­со­че­та­нии Бьян­ки Ма­рии Сфор­ца и имп. Мак­си­ми­лиа­на I Габс­бур­га. О раз­ру­шен­ной мо­де­ли мож­но су­дить по ри­сун­кам, ос­тав­лен­ным Л. да В. опи­са­ни­ям пред­по­ла­гае­мой тех­но­ло­гии от­лив­ки и брон­зо­вой ста­ту­эт­ке, соз­дан­ной по мо­де­ли ху­дож­ни­ка (Му­зей изо­бра­зит. ис­кусств, Бу­да­пешт).

В жи­во­пис­ных про­из­ве­де­ни­ях это­го пе­рио­да за­кла­ды­ва­ют­ся ос­но­вы сти­ля Вы­со­ко­го Воз­ро­ж­де­ния. В этом от­но­ше­нии осо­бен­но важ­на «Ма­дон­на в ска­лах» («Ма­дон­на в гро­те», 1483–86, Лувр), за­ка­зан­ная брат­ст­вом Не­по­роч­но­го За­ча­тия как центр. часть по­лип­ти­ха для ка­пел­лы в ц. Сан-Фран­че­ско-Гран­де (ме­ж­ду 1495 и 1508 Л. да В. ис­пол­нил по­вто­ре­ние этой кар­ти­ны – Нац. га­ле­рея, Лон­дон): пи­ра­мидаль­ная ком­по­зи­ция, в ко­то­рую впи­са­ны фи­гу­ры, под­чёрк­ну­та взаи­мо­дей­ст­ви­ем жес­тов и взгля­дов; то­наль­ный строй, соз­дан­ный по­сред­ст­вом сфу­ма­то, пре­об­ла­да­ет над ко­ло­ри­сти­че­ским; ланд­шаф­ты на­пи­са­ны на ос­но­ве гео­ло­гич. и бо­та­нич. за­ри­со­вок ху­дож­ни­ка.

Во фре­ске «Тай­ная ве­че­ря» в ре­фек­то­рии ми­лан­ского мон. Сан­та-Ма­рия-дел­ле-Гра­цие (1495–97) Л. да В., тща­тель­но раз­ра­ба­ты­вая по­зы, жес­ты и вы­ра­же­ния лиц пер­со­на­жей, до­би­ва­ет­ся те­ат­ра­ли­зов. дра­ма­тиз­ма всей сце­ны, впи­сан­ной в ма­те­ма­ти­че­ски рас­счи­тан­ное пер­спек­тив­ное про­стран­ст­во, точ­ка схо­да ко­то­ро­го яв­ля­ет­ся од­но­вре­мен­но точ­кой схо­да ре­аль­но­го про­стран­ст­ва тра­пез­ной. Экс­пе­ри­мен­ты ху­дож­ни­ка по при­ме­не­нию мас­ля­ной жи­во­пи­си в сте­но­пи­си обу­сло­ви­ли пло­хое со­стоя­ние фре­ски уже во вре­мя её соз­да­ния; впо­след­ст­вии рос­пись силь­но по­стра­да­ла при об­стре­ле Ми­ла­на на­по­ле­о­нов­ски­ми вой­ска­ми.

Уча­стие Л. да В. в ра­бо­те всё боль­ше ог­ра­ни­чи­ва­ет­ся соз­да­ни­ем за­мыс­ла (в мно­го­числ. под­го­то­вит. ри­сун­ках сан­ги­ной и итал. ка­ран­да­шом он раз­ра­ба­ты­вал об­ра­зы отд. пер­со­на­жей и схе­мы их взаи­мо­дей­ст­вия), жи­во­пис­ное осу­ще­ст­в­ле­ние ко­то­ро­го во мно­гом пре­по­ру­ча­лось по­мощ­ни­кам. В это вре­мя на­уч. изы­ска­ния Л. да В. на­чи­на­ют всё силь­нее вли­ять на ха­рак­тер его ху­дож. про­из­ве­де­ний. Оп­ти­ка, бо­та­ни­ка, гео­ло­гия, гео­мет­рия, ана­то­мия, ко­то­рые изу­чал мас­тер, на­хо­дят пря­мое от­ра­же­ние в его жи­во­пис­ных ра­бо­тах. За­ла дел­ле-Ас­се в ми­лан­ском Кас­тел­ло-Сфор­це­ско бы­ла рас­пи­са­на (1498) в ви­де пер­го­лы, об­ра­зо­ван­ной пе­ре­пле­тён­ны­ми вет­вя­ми де­ревь­ев: ство­лы, кро­ны и поч­ва, из ко­торой они про­из­ра­ста­ют, на­пи­са­ны с на­уч­ной дос­то­вер­но­стью. В то же вре­мя его ис­сле­до­ва­тель­ские ри­сун­ки все­гда от­ли­ча­ют­ся вы­со­чай­шим ху­дож. ка­че­ст­вом («Сбор­ка пуш­ки», ок. 1487; за­ри­сов­ки рас­те­ний и скал, ри­су­нок че­ре­па и мн. др.; все – Ко­ро­лев­ская б-ка, Винд­зор). Об ин­те­ре­се Л. да В. к пе­ре­да­че че­ло­ве­че­ских эмо­ций и со­стоя­ния ду­ши сви­де­тель­ст­ву­ют фи­зи­ог­но­мич. шту­дии, в т. ч. ка­ри­ка­ту­ры (лист из Га­ле­реи Ака­де­мии, Ве­не­ция, 1490-е гг.). Соз­дан­ные им порт­ре­ты («Да­ма с гор­но­ста­ем» – порт­рет Че­чи­лии Гал­ле­ра­ни, ок. 1490–1491, Нац. му­зей, Кра­ков; «Му­зы­кант» и «Жен­ский порт­рет в про­филь», оба – Б-ка Ам­бро­зиа­на, Ми­лан) так­же от­ли­ча­ет бо­лее при­сталь­ное, чем в пред­ше­ст­вую­щей тра­ди­ции, вни­ма­ние к ха­рак­те­ри­сти­кам мо­де­лей.

В 1499 Л. да В. по­ки­нул Ми­лан и, по­сле крат­ко­го пре­бы­ва­ния в Ман­туе (где был соз­дан ри­со­ван­ный порт­рет Иза­бел­лы Д’Эсте, Лувр) и Ве­не­ции, в апр. 1500 вер­нул­ся во Фло­рен­цию. Клю­че­вым для 2-го фло­рен­тий­ско­го пе­рио­да (1500 – сер. 1508) стал за­каз на сце­ну «Бит­ва при Ан­гиа­ри» (1504–05) для За­ла Боль­шо­го со­ве­та в Па­лац­цо дел­ла-Синь­о­рия (Па­лац­цо Век­кьо; на про­ти­во­по­лож­ной сте­не долж­на бы­ла раз­ме­щать­ся «Бит­ва при Ка­ши­не» Ми­ке­ланд­же­ло). Оба мас­те­ра ис­пол­ни­ли кар­то­ны, ны­не ут­ра­чен­ные. Центр. сце­на кар­то­на Л. да В. («Бит­ва за зна­мя») из­вест­на по ко­пи­ям (наи­бо­лее эф­фект­ная из них при­над­ле­жит П. П. Ру­бен­су, 1603, Лувр; см. илл. к ст. Ко­пия) и под­го­то­вит. ри­сун­кам («Го­ло­ва кри­ча­ще­го че­ло­ве­ка», Му­зей изо­бра­зит. ис­кусств, Бу­да­пешт), ко­то­рые де­мон­стриру­ют на­ту­ра­ли­сти­че­ски пе­ре­дан­ную экс­прес­сию. Не­за­вер­шён­ная рос­пись, ис­пор­чен­ная не­удач­ной тех­ни­кой, бы­ла раз­ру­ше­на (или скры­та) позд­ней­ши­ми за­пи­ся­ми (1560). Вто­рым мо­ну­мен­таль­ным ри­сун­ком это­го пе­рио­да яв­ля­ет­ся кар­тон «Ма­дон­на с Мла­ден­цем, св. Ан­ной и ма­лень­ким Ио­ан­ном Кре­сти­те­лем» (ок. 1499–1500 или ок. 1508, Нац. га­ле­рея, Лон­дон). Вы­пол­нен­ный уг­лём и чёр­ным ме­лом, он от­ли­ча­ет­ся жи­во­пис­но­стью и за­вер­шён­но­стью са­мо­сто­ят. про­из­ве­де­ния (см. илл. к ст. Гра­фи­ка). В са­мой зна­ме­ни­той из сво­их ра­бот – «Порт­ре­те Ли­зы Ге­рар­ди­ни, же­ны Фран­че­ско дель Джо­кон­до» («Мо­на Ли­за», или «Джо­кон­да», ме­ж­ду 1503 и 1506, Лувр) Л. да В. пе­ре­ра­ба­ты­ва­ет из­вест­ную как в ни­дер­ланд­ском, так и в итал. иск-ве схе­му по­яс­но­го порт­ре­та в трёх­чет­верт­ном раз­во­ро­те, в ар­хит. ок­ру­же­нии на фо­не пей­за­жа, на­де­лив её ра­нее не встре­чав­шей­ся мо­ну­мен­таль­но­стью, эмо­цио­наль­ной свя­зью ме­ж­ду пей­за­жем и че­ло­ве­ком и при­дав мо­де­ли не­уло­ви­мое вы­ра­же­ние ли­ца (зна­ме­ни­тая «улыб­ка Джо­кон­ды»), от­ра­жаю­щее из­мен­чи­вость её ду­шев­но­го со­стоя­ния.

На­хо­дясь с 1502 на служ­бе Че­за­ре Борд­жиа (см. Борд­жиа) в ка­че­ст­ве ар­хи­тек­то­ра и ин­же­не­ра, Л. да В. по­се­тил Ур­би­но и др. го­ро­да Ср. Ита­лии, соз­да­вая гео­гра­фич. кар­ты («Кар­та Имо­лы», ок. 1502, «Вид Арец­цо и до­ли­ны Кья­на с вы­со­ты птичь­е­го по­лё­та», 1502, обе – Ко­ро­лев­ская б-ка, Винд­зор). Во Фло­рен­ции Л. да В. соз­дал так­же ряд ут­ра­чен­ных впо­след­ст­вии жи­во­пис­ных про­из­ве­де­ний, из­вест­ных по его ри­сун­кам и по­вто­ре­ни­ям др. ху­дож­ни­ков: «Ма­дон­на с ве­ре­те­ном», «Ле­да и ле­бедь», «Бла­го­ве­ст­вую­щий Ан­гел».

2-й ми­лан­ский пе­ри­од (сер. 1508–13) Л. да В. про­вёл на служ­бе у франц. пра­ви­те­ля го­ро­да Шар­ля д’Амбуаза, по за­ка­зам ко­то­ро­го за­ни­мал­ся оформ­ле­ни­ем те­ат­ра­ли­зов. действ, соз­дал ряд ар­хит. про­ек­тов (дво­рец д’Амбуаза, из­вест­ный по мно­го­числ. ри­сун­кам и опи­са­ни­ям са­мо­го Л. да В.), а так­же про­ект кон­но­го па­мят­ни­ка Джан Джа­ко­мо Три­вуль­цио (се­рия пе­ро­вых ри­сун­ков, Ко­ро­лев­ская б-ка, Винд­зор). Жи­во­пис­ные ра­бо­ты это­го вре­ме­ни («Св. Ио­анн Кре­сти­тель», ок. 1509, «Ма­дон­на с Мла­ден­цем, св. Ан­ной и агн­цем», ок. 1515, обе – Лувр) свои­ми мяг­ки­ми кон­ту­ра­ми, пре­уве­ли­чен­ным сфу­ма­то и ха­рак­тер­ны­ми вы­раже­ния­ми лиц пред­вос­хи­ща­ют приё­мы мань­е­риз­ма.

По­сле двух­лет­не­го пре­бы­ва­ния в Ри­ме Л. да В. по при­гла­ше­нию франц. ко­ро­ля Фран­ци­ска I ме­ж­ду авг. 1516 и ма­ем 1517 от­был во Фран­цию. Не­смот­ря на то, что в по­след­ние го­ды жиз­ни мас­тер ра­бо­тал ма­ло, его про­из­ве­де­ния ока­за­ли су­ще­ст­вен­ное влия­ние на франц. иск-во: не­осу­ще­ст­в­лён­ный про­ект ко­ро­лев­ской вил­лы в Ро­мо­ран­те­не, за­ду­ман­ной как иде­аль­ный го­род с гео­мет­ри­че­ски пра­виль­ной пла­ни­ров­кой, – на раз­ви­тие ар­хи­тек­ту­ры, а при­ве­зён­ные из Ита­лии его кар­ти­ны – на франц. жи­во­пись. Наи­бо­лее зна­чи­тель­ны­ми из позд­них ра­бот Л. да В. пред­став­ля­ют­ся ри­сун­ки при­род­ных ка­так­лиз­мов (Ко­ро­лев­ская б-ка, Винд­зор).

В Ми­ла­не во­круг Л. сло­жил­ся ши­ро­кий круг по­сле­до­ва­те­лей и под­ра­жа­те­лей: А. Со­ла­рио, Б. Луи­ни, М. д’Од­жо­не, Дж. А. Больт­раф­фио, Дж. Ам­брод­жо де Пре­дис, Че­за­ре да Сес­то, Ф. Мель­ци, Дж. Дж. Ка­прот­ти, впо­след­ст­вии по­лу­чив­шие назв. «ле­о­нар­де­сков». В раз­ное вре­мя и по-раз­но­му со­труд­ни­чав­шие с мас­те­ром, они рас­про­стра­ня­ли его жи­во­пис­ные и гра­фич. идеи. Л. да В., один из ос­но­во­по­лож­ни­ков сти­ля Вы­соко­го Воз­ро­ж­де­ния, ока­зал­ся в чис­ле наи­бо­лее влия­тель­ных ху­дож­ни­ков в ис­то­рии иск-ва. Его мно­го­гран­ная лич­ность, со­еди­няю­щая в се­бе чер­ты учё­но­го и ху­дож­ни­ка, ста­ла сим­во­лом куль­ту­ры Воз­ро­ж­де­ния.

Объ­ём ру­ко­пис­но­го на­сле­дия Л. да В., пол­но­стью опуб­ли­ко­ван­но­го лишь в 19 в. (ок. 7 тыс. лис­тов в за­пис­ных книж­ках, по­лу­чив­ших назв. «ко­дек­сы»: «Ат­лан­ти­че­ский», «Три­вуль­ци­ев», «Арун­дель­ский», «Фос­те­ров­ский», «Хам­ме­ров­ский», «Мад­рид­ский» и др.), зна­чи­тель­но пре­вос­хо­дит объ­ём его жи­во­пис­ных и гра­фич. ра­бот. Для ру­ко­пи­сей Л. да В. ха­рак­тер­ны ка­лей­до­ско­пич­ность, не­ожи­дан­ная сме­на тем и ре­ги­ст­ров; эс­киз­ность, не­окон­чен­ность. В со­ста­ве ру­ко­пи­сей вы­де­ля­ет­ся неск. соб­ст­вен­но лит. со­чи­не­ний: бас­ни, фа­це­ции и про­ро­че­ст­ва, а так­же «Бес­тиа­рий» (ус­лов­ное назв.). Про­ро­че­ст­ва Л. да В. чрез­вы­чай­но раз­но­род­ны и час­то пред­став­ля­ют со­бой по­про­сту за­гад­ки. Бас­ня ста­но­вит­ся у Л. да В. спо­со­бом по­сти­же­ния за­ко­нов при­ро­ды и их ис­поль­зо­ва­ния для оп­ти­маль­ной ор­га­ни­за­ции че­ло­ве­че­ско­го бы­тия. «Бес­тиа­рий» (ско­рее все­го, он дол­жен был слу­жить под­го­то­вит. ма­те­риа­лом для ри­сун­ков Л. да В., а так­же «Да­мы с гор­но­ста­ем») пе­ре­кли­ка­ет­ся с ши­ро­ко рас­про­стра­нён­ным в куль­ту­ре Воз­ро­ж­де­ния жан­ром кни­ги эмб­лем (впол­не пол­но­цен­ные эмб­ле­мы, со­че­таю­щие эниг­ма­тич. ри­су­нок с ла­ко­нич­ным тек­стом, встре­ча­ют­ся в разл. ру­ко­пи­сях Л. да В.). Ис­точ­ни­ками «Бес­тиа­рия» по­слу­жи­ли ано­ним­ный трак­тат «Цвет доб­ро­де­те­ли», по­эма «L’Acer­ba» Чек­ко д’Асколи, «Со­кро­ви­ще» Бру­нет­то Ла­ти­ни, «Ес­те­ст­вен­ная ис­то­рия» Пли­ния Стар­ше­го в пе­ре­во­де Кри­сто­фо­ро Лан­ди­но (1476), а так­же очень по­пу­ляр­ная в эпо­ху Воз­ро­ж­де­ния «Ие­рог­ли­фи­ка» Го­ра­пол­ло­на (опубл. в 1505).

Для мн. фраг­мен­тов Л. да В., вклю­чая зна­ме­ни­тый, уни­каль­ный по сво­ей рит­мич. ор­га­ни­за­ции ре­естр из 64 тер­ми­нов, от­но­ся­щих­ся к дви­же­нию во­ды, ха­рак­тер­но со­че­та­ние по­этич­но­сти с ин­же­нер­ной и на­уч. точ­но­стью. К наи­бо­лее по­этич­ным фраг­мен­там Л. да В. от­но­сит­ся так­же фраг­мент о бу­ре, где воз­ника­ет и мо­тив Пе­ще­ры, пе­ре­кли­каю­щий­ся с из­вест­ным об­ра­зом Пла­то­на, но трак­то­ван­ный на но­вый лад, как сим­вол за­га­доч­ной и в то же вре­мя бес­ко­неч­но при­тя­га­тель­ной При­ро­ды.

В за­пис­ках Л. да В. рас­сея­ны мно­го­числ. рас­су­ж­де­ния о жи­во­пи­си и др. изо­бра­зит. ис­кус­ст­вах. По­сле смер­ти ху­дож­ни­ка они бы­ли объ­е­ди­не­ны (пред­по­ло­жи­тель­но Ф. Мель­ци) в «Трак­тат о жи­во­пи­си», со­стоя­щий из те­ма­тич. раз­де­лов, по­свя­щён­ных т. н. спо­ру ис­кусств (срав­не­нию жи­во­пи­си со скульп­ту­рой, му­зы­кой и по­эзи­ей), про­бле­мам пер­спек­ти­вы, све­то­те­ни и цве­та, изо­бра­же­нию че­ло­ве­ка и при­ро­ды, обу­че­нию жи­во­пис­ца и др.

Как учё­ный и изо­бре­та­тель Л. да В. при­зна­вал един­ст­вен­ным кри­те­ри­ем ис­ти­ны опыт; он про­ти­во­пос­тав­лял «книж­ной учё­но­сти» ос­но­ван­ное на экс­пе­ри­мен­те ес­те­ст­во­зна­ние. Ин­те­ре­сы Л.-учё­но­го ох­ва­ты­ва­ли ма­те­ма­ти­ку, ме­ха­ни­ку, гид­рав­ли­ку, ана­то­мию и фи­зио­ло­гию че­ло­ве­ка и жи­вот­ных, бо­та­ни­ку, гео­ло­гию и др. «Ра­ем» ма­те­ма­тич. на­ук он на­зывал ме­ха­ни­ку и ши­ро­ко поль­зо­вал­ся ма­те­ма­тич. ап­па­ра­том в экс­пе­ри­мен­таль­но-ис­сле­до­ва­тель­ской дея­тель­но­сти (ра­бо­ты по оп­ре­де­ле­нию ко­эф. тре­ния и сколь­же­ния, цен­тров тя­же­сти фи­гур и тел, по за­ко­нам ры­ча­га и др.). В об­лас­ти гид­рав­ли­ки Л. да В. впер­вые опи­сал рав­но­ве­сие жид­ко­сти в со­об­щаю­щих­ся со­су­дах, вплот­ную при­бли­зив­шись к от­кры­то­му толь­ко в 17 в. за­ко­ну Пас­ка­ля. В за­мет­ках Л. да В. со­дер­жат­ся по­пыт­ки объ­яс­не­ния при­ро­ды би­но­ку­ляр­но­го зре­ния как ус­ло­вия объ­ём­но­го вос­при­ятия про­стран­ст­ва. На про­тя­же­нии всей жиз­ни Л. да В. за­ни­мал­ся ана­то­ми­ей че­ло­ве­ка и жи­вот­ных. Он обоб­щил ре­зуль­та­ты сво­их ана­то­мич. ис­сле­до­ва­ний в се­рии де­та­ли­зи­ров. ри­сун­ков, за­ло­жив ос­но­вы совр. на­уч. ил­лю­ст­ра­ции; впер­вые опи­сал ряд кос­тей и нер­вов; за­ни­мал­ся во­про­са­ми эм­брио­ло­гии и срав­нит. ана­то­мии. Пер­вым ис­сле­до­вал за­ко­ны фил­ло­так­сии (о рас­по­ло­же­нии ли­сть­ев на стеб­ле рас­те­ний), ге­лио­тро­пиз­ма и гео­тро­пиз­ма (со­от­вет­ст­вен­но о влия­нии сол­н­ца и гра­ви­та­ции на рас­те­ния), пред­ло­жил спо­соб оп­ре­де­ле­ния воз­рас­та де­ревь­ев по го­дич­ным коль­цам. Ин­те­рес­ны его ра­бо­ты в об­лас­ти гео­ло­гии: он опи­сал оса­доч­ные по­ро­ды и объ­яс­нил про­ис­хо­ж­де­ние мор­ских от­ло­же­ний в го­рах Ита­лии.

Изо­бре­те­ния и кон­ст­рук­тив­ные до­гад­ки Л. да В. на­мно­го опе­ре­ди­ли эпо­ху. Един­ст­вен­ным изо­бре­те­ни­ем, по­лу­чив­шим при­зна­ние при его жиз­ни, был ко­лес­цо­вый за­мок для пис­то­ле­та – уст­рой­ст­во для вос­пла­ме­не­ния по­ро­хо­во­го за­ря­да (при­ме­нял­ся до 19 в.). Уни­каль­ны ис­сле­до­ва­ния Л. да В. в об­лас­ти кон­ст­руи­ро­ва­ния ЛА. В ре­зуль­та­те тща­тель­но­го изу­че­ния по­лё­та и пла­ни­ро­ва­ния птиц, строе­ния их крыль­ев он соз­дал мо­дель т. н. ор­ни­топ­те­ра – ЛА с ма­шу­щи­ми крыль­я­ми. В его за­пис­ках есть схе­ма ЛА с возд. вин­том – про­то­тип совр. вер­то­лё­та. По­сколь­ку по­пыт­ки Л. да В. вос­про­из­ве­сти кры­ло, соз­дан­ное при­ро­дой, не при­ве­ли к ус­пе­ху, он раз­ра­бо­тал кон­ст­рук­цию пла­нё­ра – пред­те­чу дель­та­пла­на (вос­соз­дан по чер­те­жам в 2002 в Ве­ли­ко­бри­та­нии, со­вер­шил ис­пы­тат. по­лёт). В 1483 Л. да В. сде­лал чер­тёж  пи­ра­ми­даль­но­го па­ра­шю­та (ис­пы­тан в 2000 англ. па­ра­шю­ти­стом А. Ни­ко­ла­сом в пры­ж­ке с вы­со­ты 3000 м). В Ко­дек­сах Л. да В. есть про­ек­ты во­до­лаз­но­го кос­тю­ма, спа­са­тель­но­го кру­га, пе­ре­пон­ча­тых пер­ча­ток (про­то­тип ласт), ве­ло­си­пе­да, ме­тал­лич. по­воз­ки для пе­ре­воз­ки сол­дат (про­то­тип тан­ка), ка­та­пуль­ты, про­жек­то­ра, лёг­ких пе­ре­нос­ных мос­тов для ар­мии, вра­щаю­ще­го­ся подъ­ём­но­го кра­на, разл. стан­ков (для из­го­тов­ле­ния иго­лок, ве­рё­вок, зер­кал), дис­тил­ля­то­ра с во­дя­ным ох­ла­ж­де­ни­ем, ме­ха­нич. одо­мет­ра (уст­рой­ст­ва для из­ме­ре­ния прой­ден­но­го рас­стоя­ния), ма­ши­ны для рез­ки бу­ма­ги, гиг­ро­мет­ра, возд. вен­ти­ля­то­ра и др.

В 1502 Л. да В. по за­ка­зу ос­ман­ско­го сул­та­на Бая­зи­да II соз­дал про­ект ка­мен­но­го мос­та с про­лё­том 240 м (об­щая дли­на 346 м, макс. выс. 40 м) че­рез зал. Зо­ло­той Рог. По за­мыс­лу ав­то­ра, мос­то­вое по­лот­но долж­ны бы­ли под­дер­жи­вать 3 очень по­ло­гие ар­ки, ос­но­ва­ния ко­то­рых на­по­ми­на­ли бы хвост ле­тя­щей пти­цы. Про­ект ка­зал­ся на­столь­ко фан­та­сти­че­ским (на то вре­мя са­мый боль­шой про­лёт имел мост че­рез р. Ад­да в Трец­цо – 72 м с выс. 21 м), что сул­тан не ре­шил­ся на его осу­ще­ст­в­ле­ние. Пе­ше­ход­ный мост (мень­ше­го раз­ме­ра, с про­лё­том 100 м) по эс­ки­зам Л. да В. был по­стро­ен в Нор­ве­гии в 2001 (арх. В. Санн). В зам­ке Кло-Лю­се (Фран­ция) ны­не – му­зей, где хра­нят­ся мо­де­ли разл. изо­бре­те­ний, вос­соз­дан­ных по про­ек­там Ле­о­нар­до да Вин­чи.

Леонардо да Винчи
Портрет приписывают Франческо Мельци, c. 1515–18[1]
Родившийся	Леонардо ди сер Пьеро да Винчи[2] 14/15 апреля 1452 г. Анчиано, Винчи, Республика Флоренция (современная Италия)
Умер	2 мая 1519 (67 лет) Clos Lucé, Амбуаз, Королевство Франция
Известен	Живопись, рисунок, скульптура, наука, инженерия, архитектура, анатомия
Известная работа	Мадонна в скалах (c. 1483–1493) Дама с горностаем (c. 1489–1491) Витрувианский человек (c. 1490) Тайная вечеря (c. 1492–1498) Сальватор Мунди (c. 1499–1510) Мона Лиза (c. 1503–1516)
Движение	Высокое Возрождение
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Леонардо да Винчи (;^[а] 14/15 апреля 1452 г.^[b] — 2 мая 1519 г.)^[4] был итальянцем эрудит из Высокое Возрождение который считается одним из величайших художников всех времен. В Мона Лиза самый известный из его работы и самый известный портрет из когда-либо созданных.^[5] Тайная вечеря самая воспроизводимая религиозная картина всех времен^[6] и его Витрувианский человек рисунок также считается культурным символом.^[7] Он также известен его записные книжки, в котором он делал рисунки и заметки о наука и изобретения; они включают множество предметов, включая анатомию, картографию, живопись и палеонтологию. Коллективные работы Леонардо представляют собой вклад в развитие последующих поколений художников, с которым может соперничать только его современник. Микеланджело.^[8]

Правильно названный Леонардо ди сер Пьеро да Винчи,^[c] Леонардо родился вне брака нотариусу Пьеро да Винчи и крестьянке Катерине в Винчи, в районе Флоренция, Италия. Леонардо получил образование в мастерской известного итальянского художника. Андреа дель Верроккьо. Большую часть своей ранней трудовой жизни он провел на службе у Людовико иль Моро в Милане, а позже работал в Рим, Болонья и Венеция. Последние три года жизни он провел во Франции, где и умер в 1519 году.

Хотя у него не было формального академического образования,^[9] многие историки и ученые считают Леонардо главным образцом «человека эпохи Возрождения» или «универсального гения», человека «неутолимого любопытства» и «лихорадочно изобретательного воображения».^[6] Он широко считается одним из самых талантливых людей, которые когда-либо жили.^[10] По мнению искусствоведа Хелен Гарднер, масштабы и глубина его интересов не имели прецедентов в зарегистрированной истории, и «его ум и личность кажутся нам сверхчеловеческими, в то время как сам человек загадочен и далек ».^[6] Ученые интерпретируют его взгляд на мир как основанный на логике, хотя эмпирические методы, которые он использовал, были неортодоксальными для его времени.^[11]

Леонардо почитается за его технологическую изобретательность. Он концептуализировал летательные аппараты, тип боевой бронированной машины, концентрированную солнечную энергию, счетную машину,^[12] и двойной корпус. Относительно немногие из его проектов были сконструированы или даже осуществимы при его жизни, поскольку современные научные подходы к металлургии и инженерии были только в зачаточном состоянии в период его жизни. эпоха Возрождения. Однако некоторые из его небольших изобретений неожиданно вошли в мир производства, например, автоматическая намоточная машина и машина для испытания проволоки на разрыв. Ему также иногда приписывают изобретения парашюта, вертолета и танка.^[13][14] Он сделал существенные открытия в анатомии, гражданском строительстве, геологии, оптике и гидродинамика, но он не публиковал свои открытия, и они практически не повлияли на последующую науку.^[15]

биография

Ранние годы

Леонардо родился 14/15 апреля 1452 г.^[b] в Тосканский холм город Винчи, в нижней долине р. Арно река на территории Медичи -правил Республика Флоренция.^[18] Он был внебрачным сыном мессера Пьеро Фруозино ди Антонио да Винчи, богатого флорентийца. юридический нотариус, и крестьянин по имени Катерина,^[d] идентифицированный как Катерина Бути дель Вакка, а в последнее время как Катерина ди Мео Липпи историком Мартин Кемп. Было много теорий относительно личности матери Леонардо, в том числе о том, что она была рабыней иностранного происхождения или обедневшей местной молодежью.^{[17][20][21][22][e]} Леонардо не имел фамилии в современном смысле слова — да Винчи просто означал «Винчи»; его полное имя при рождении было Лионардо ди сер Пьеро да Винчи,^[2][25] что означает «Леонардо, (сын) сира Пьеро (от) Винчи».^[18][c]

Леонардо провел свои первые годы в Гамлет из Анчиано в доме его матери, и по крайней мере с 1457 года жил в доме своего отца, бабушки, дедушки и дяди в маленьком городке Винчи.^[26] Его отец женился на 16-летней девушке по имени Альбиера Амадори, которая любила Леонардо, но умерла молодой.^[27] в 1465 г. без детей. В 1468 году, когда Леонардо было 16 лет, его отец снова женился на 20-летней Франческе Ланфредини, которая также умерла бездетной. Законные наследники Пьеро были рождены от его третьей жены Маргариты ди Гульельмо, которая родила ему шестерых детей, и его четвертой и последней жены Лукреции Кортигиани, которая родила ему еще шесть наследников.^[28][29] Всего у Леонардо было 12 сводных братьев и сестер, которые были намного моложе его (последний родился, когда Леонардо было 40 лет) и с которыми у него было очень мало контактов.^[f]

Леонардо получил неформальное образование на латыни, геометрия и математика. Позднее Леонардо записал несколько отчетливых детских инцидентов. Один был из летающий змей подходит к колыбели и хвостом открывает рот; он расценил это как предзнаменование своих писаний на эту тему.^[31][32] Второе произошло, когда он исследовал горы: он обнаружил пещеру и был одновременно напуган тем, что там может скрываться какое-то огромное чудовище, и был движим любопытством, чтобы узнать, что находится внутри.^[27] Он также, кажется, вспомнил некоторые из своих детских наблюдений за водой, когда писал и вычеркивал название своего родного города в одном из его записные книжки по образованию рек.^[26]

Ранняя жизнь Леонардо была предметом исторических предположений.^[33] Джорджио Вазари, биограф художников эпохи Возрождения XVI века, рассказывает историю Леонардо, когда он был очень молодым: местный крестьянин сделал себе круглый щит и попросил сера Пьеро нарисовать его для него. Леонардо, вдохновленный историей о Медуза, ответил картина монстра извергая огонь, который был настолько ужасен, что его отец купил другой щит, чтобы передать крестьянину, и продал Леонардо флорентийскому торговцу произведениями искусства за 100 дукатов, который, в свою очередь, продал его крестьянину. Герцог Миланский.^[34]

Мастерская Верроккьо

В середине 1460-х годов семья Леонардо переехала во Флоренцию, которая в то время была центром христианской жизни. Гуманист мысль и культура.^[35] Примерно 14 лет,^[30] он стал Гарцона (мальчик-студия) в мастерской Андреа дель Верроккьо, который был ведущим флорентийским художником и скульптором своего времени.^[35] Это было примерно во время смерти мастера Верроккьо, великого скульптора Донателло.^[грамм] Леонардо стал учеником в возрасте 17 лет и продолжал обучение в течение семи лет.^[37][38] Другие известные художники, обучающиеся в мастерской или связанные с ней, включают: Гирландайо, Перуджино, Боттичелли, и Лоренцо ди Креди.^[27][39] Леонардо получил как теоретическую подготовку, так и широкий спектр технических навыков,^[40] включая черчение, химию, металлургию, металлообработку, гипсовое литье, обработку кожи, механику и деревообработку, а также художественные навыки рисования, живописи, лепки и моделирования.^[41][час]

Леонардо был современником Боттичелли, Гирландайо и Перуджино, которые были немного старше его.^[42] Он бы встретил их в мастерской Верроккьо или в Платоническая академия из Медичи.^[27] Украшали Флоренцию работы таких художников, как современники Донателло. Мазаччо, образный фрески были проникнуты реализмом и эмоциями, а Гиберти, чей Врата рая, сверкающий сусальное золото, продемонстрировал искусство сочетания сложных фигурных композиций с подробным архитектурным фоном. Пьеро делла Франческа подробно изучил перспектива,^[43] и был первым художником, который провел научное исследование света. Эти исследования и Леон Баттиста Альберти трактат De pictura должны были оказать глубокое влияние на молодых художников и, в частности, на собственные наблюдения и произведения Леонардо.^[36][44][45]

Большая часть живописи в мастерской Верроккьо была написана его помощниками. По словам Вазари, Леонардо сотрудничал с Верроккьо над его Крещение Христа Он рисует юного ангела, держащего одежду Иисуса, манерой, которая настолько превосходила манеру своего хозяина, что Верроккьо отложил кисть и больше никогда не писал, хотя это считается апокрифическим рассказом.^[46] При внимательном рассмотрении выявляются участки работы, которые были закрашены или подкрашены поверх темпера, используя новую технику масляная краска, включая пейзаж, скалы, просматриваемые через бурый горный ручей, и большую часть фигуры Иисуса, свидетельствующей о руке Леонардо.^[47] Леонардо, возможно, был моделью для двух работ Верроккьо: бронзовой статуи Дэйвид в Барджелло, а Архангел Рафаил в Товиас и ангел.^[20]

К 1472 году, в возрасте 20 лет, Леонардо получил квалификацию мастера в Гильдия Святого Луки, гильдия художников и докторов медицины,^[я] но даже после того, как отец устроил его в своей мастерской, его привязанность к Верроккьо была такой, что он продолжал сотрудничать и жить с ним.^[27][48] Самая ранняя известная датированная работа Леонардо — Рисунок пером и тушью 1473 года из Арно Долина,^[39] который был назван первым «чистым» ландшафтом на Западе.^[j][49] По словам Вазари, молодой Леонардо первым предложил сделать реку Арно судоходным каналом между Флоренцией и Пиза.^[50]

Профессиональная жизнь

В январе 1478 года Леонардо получил независимое поручение расписать алтарь для часовни св. Бернара в Палаццо Веккьо,^[51] указание на его независимость от студии Верроккьо. Анонимный ранний биограф, известный как Анонимо Гаддиано, утверждает, что в 1480 году Леонардо жил с Медичи и часто работал в саду Площадь Сан-Марко, Флоренция, где собралась неоплатоническая академия художников, поэтов и философов, организованная Медичи.^[20][k] В марте 1481 г. он получил заказ от монахов Сан-Донато-ин-Скопето за Поклонение волхвов.^[52] Ни одно из этих начальных заказов не было завершено, и они были оставлены, когда Леонардо предложил свои услуги Герцог Миланский Людовико Сфорца. Леонардо написал Сфорце письмо, в котором описал различные вещи, которых он мог достичь в области инженерии и дизайна оружия, и упомянул, что умеет рисовать.^[39][53][54] Он принес с собой серебро струнный инструмент (либо лютня или же лира ) в виде головы лошади.^[53]

Вместе с Альберти Леонардо посетил дом Медичи и через них познакомился со старшими философами-гуманистами, из которых Марсильо Фичино, сторонник Неоплатонизм; Кристофоро Ландино, автор комментариев к классическим произведениям, и Джон Аргиропулос, преподаватель греческого языка и переводчик Аристотель были первыми. С Платонической академией Медичи также связан современник Леонардо, блестящий молодой поэт и философ. Пико делла Мирандола.^[42][45][55] В 1482 году Леонардо был посланником Лоренцо Медичи к Людовико иль Моро, кто правил Милан между 1479 и 1499 гг.^[42][20][56]

Леонардо работал в Милане с 1482 по 1499 год. Ему было поручено нарисовать Мадонна в скалах за Братство Непорочного зачатия и Тайная вечеря для монастыря Санта-Мария-делле-Грацие.^[57] Весной 1485 года Леонардо отправился в Венгрия от имени Сфорца на встречу с королем Матиас Корвинус, и был уполномочен им нарисовать Мадонна.^[58] Леонардо был задействован во многих других проектах для Сфорца, в том числе в подготовке платформ и конкурсов для особых случаев, чертеж и деревянная модель для конкурса на проектирование купол за Миланский собор (который он отозвал),^[59] и модель для огромного конный памятник предшественнику Людовико Франческо Сфорца. Это превзошло бы по размеру две единственные большие конные статуи эпохи Возрождения, Донателло с Гаттамелата в Падуе и Верроккьо Бартоломео Коллеони в Венеции и стал известен как Гран Кавалло.^[39] Леонардо создал модель лошади и подробно расписал ее Кастинг,^[39] но в ноябре 1494 года Людовико передал бронзу его зять использоваться для пушки для защиты города от Карл VIII Франции.^[39]

Салаи, или Il Salaino («Маленький нечистый», то есть дьявол), вошел в дом Леонардо в 1490 году в качестве помощника. Спустя всего год Леонардо составил список своих проступков, назвав его «вором, лжецом, упрямым и обжорой» после того, как он убегал с деньгами и ценностями по крайней мере пять раз и потратил целое состояние на одежду.^[61] Тем не менее Леонардо относился к нему снисходительно, и он оставался в доме Леонардо в течение следующих тридцати лет.^[62] Салаи написал несколько картин под именем Андреа Салаи, но, хотя Вазари утверждает, что Леонардо «многому научил его в живописи»,^[63] его работы обычно считаются менее художественными, чем другие среди учеников Леонардо, такие как Марко д’Оджоно и Boltraffio.

Когда Людовико Сфорца был свергнутый Францией в 1500 году Леонардо бежал из Милана, чтобы Венеция в сопровождении своего помощника Салаи и друга математика Лука Пачоли.^[64] В Венеции Леонардо работал военным архитектором и инженером, изобретая методы защиты города от нападения с моря.^[27] По возвращении во Флоренцию в 1500 году он и его домашние были гостями монахов-сервитов в монастыре Сантиссима Аннунциата и предоставили мастерскую, где, по словам Вазари, Леонардо создал карикатуру на Богородица с младенцем и святыми Анной и Иоанном Крестителем, работа, которая завоевала такое восхищение, что «мужчины и женщины, молодые и старые» собрались посмотреть на нее, «как если бы они присутствовали на большом фестивале».^[65][l]

В Чезена в 1502 году Леонардо поступил на службу к Чезаре Борджиа, сын Папа Александр VI, выступая в роли военного архитектора и инженера и путешествуя по Италии со своим покровителем.^[64] Леонардо создал карту цитадели Чезаре Борджиа, план города Имола чтобы завоевать его покровительство. Увидев это, Чезаре нанял Леонардо своим начальником. военный инженер и архитектор. Позже в том же году Леонардо изготовил для своего покровителя еще одну карту, одну из Долина Чиана, Тоскана, чтобы дать своему покровителю лучшее покрытие земли и более выгодное стратегическое положение. Он создал эту карту вместе со своим другим проектом строительства плотины от моря до Флоренции, чтобы обеспечить подачу воды для поддержания канала в любое время года.

Леонардо оставил службу Борджиа и вернулся во Флоренцию в начале 1503 г.^[67] где он воссоединился с Гильдия Святого Луки 18 октября того же года. К этому же месяцу Леонардо начал работу над портретом Лиза дель Джокондо, модель для Мона Лиза,^[68][69] над которым он продолжал работать до своих сумеречных лет. В январе 1504 года он был частью комитета, сформированного, чтобы рекомендовать, где статуя Микеланджело Дэйвид следует разместить.^[70] Затем он провел два года во Флоренции, создавая и раскрашивая фрески Битва при Ангиари для Синьории,^[64] с Микеланджело, разрабатывающим его спутник, Битва при Кашине.^[м]

В 1506 году Леонардо был вызван в Милан. Карл II д’Амбуаз, действия Французский губернатор города.^[73] Там Леонардо взял другого ученика, графа Франческо Мельци, сын Ломбард аристократ, который считается его любимым учеником.^[27] В Совет Флоренции пожелал Леонардо поскорее вернуться, чтобы закончить Битва при Ангиари, но ему дали отпуск по указанию Людовик XII, который рассматривал возможность поручить художнику сделать несколько портретов.^[73] Леонардо, возможно, начал проект конной фигуры д’Амбуаза;^[74] восковая модель сохранился и, если он подлинный, является единственным сохранившимся образцом скульптуры Леонардо. В остальном Леонардо был свободен преследовать свои научные интересы.^[73] Многие из самых выдающихся учеников Леонардо знали или работали с ним в Милане.^[27] включая Бернардино Луини, Джованни Антонио Больтраффио, и Марко д’Оджоно. В 1507 году Леонардо был во Флоренции, разбирая спор со своими братьями из-за поместья своего отца, который умер в 1504 году. К 1508 году Леонардо вернулся в Милан и жил в своем собственном доме в Порта Ориентале в приходе Санта-Бабила. .^[75]

Старость и смерть

В 1512 году Леонардо работал над планом конного памятника для Джан Джакомо Тривульцио, но этому помешало вторжение конфедерации швейцарских, испанских и венецианских войск, которое изгнало французов из Милана. Леонардо остался в городе, проведя несколько месяцев в 1513 году у Медичи. Vaprio d’Adda вилла.^[77] В марте того же года сын Лоренцо Медичи Джованни принял папство (как Лев X); В сентябре того же года Леонардо отправился в Рим, где его принял брат папы. Джулиано.^[77] С сентября 1513 по 1516 год Леонардо большую часть времени проводил в Бельведерский двор в Апостольский дворец, где Микеланджело и Рафаэль оба были активны.^[75] Леонардо получил пособие в размере 33 дукаты в месяц, и, по словам Вазари, украсил ящерицу чешуей, обмакнутой в ртуть.^[78] Папа дал ему заказ на рисование неизвестной тематики, но отменил его, когда художник приступил к разработке нового вида живописи. лак.^[78][n] Леонардо заболел, что, возможно, было первым из множества удары что привело к его смерти.^[78] Он занимался ботаникой в Сады Ватикана, и ему было поручено составить план предложенного Папой осушения Понтийские болота.^[79] Он также рассек трупы, делая заметки для трактата о голосовые связки;^[80] их он дал чиновнику в надежде вернуть расположение папы, но безуспешно.^[78]

В октябре 1515 г. король Франциск I Франции отбил Милан.^[52] Леонардо присутствовал на встрече Франциска I и Льва X, состоявшейся 19 декабря в Болонье.^[27][81][82] В 1516 году Леонардо поступил на службу к Франциску, получив в пользование особняк. Clos Lucé, возле королевской резиденции в королевском Шато д’Амбуаз. Фрэнсис часто навещал его, и он строил планы огромного замковый город король намеревался возвести в Роморантин, и сделал механического льва, который во время представления подошел к королю и — после удара жезлом — открыл грудь, обнажив гроздь лилий.^[83][63][o] Леонардо в это время сопровождал его друг и ученик Франческо Мельци, и ему была выплачена пенсия в размере 10 000 человек.скуди.^[75] В какой-то момент Мельци нарисовал портрет Леонардо; то известны только другие из его жизни были зарисовки неизвестного ассистента на обороте одного из кабинетов Леонардо (c. 1517)^[85] и рисунок Джованни Амброджо Фигино изображающий пожилого Леонардо с правой рукой, обтянутой тканью.^[86][п][q] Последний, в дополнение к записи о визите в октябре 1517 г. Луи д’Арагон,^[р] подтверждает отчет о том, что правая рука Леонардо была парализована в возрасте 65 лет,^[89] что может указывать на то, почему он оставил такие работы, как Мона Лиза незавершенный.^[87][90][91] Он продолжал работать, пока в конце концов не заболел и не приковал к постели несколько месяцев.^[89]

Леонардо умер в Clos Lucé 2 мая 1519 г. в возрасте 67 лет, возможно, от инсульта.^[92][91] Фрэнсис I стал близким другом. Вазари описывает Леонардо как оплакивающего на смертном одре, полного раскаяния, что «он оскорбил Бога и людей, не проявив своего искусства так, как должен был».^[93] Вазари утверждает, что в свои последние дни Леонардо послал за священником, чтобы он исповедался и получил Святое Таинство.^[94] Вазари также пишет, что король держал голову Леонардо на руках, когда умер, хотя эта история может быть легендой, а не фактом.^[s][т] По его воле за гробом Леонардо следовали шестьдесят нищих, несущих свечки.^[55][u] Мельци был главным наследником и исполнителем, получая не только деньги, но и картины Леонардо, инструменты, библиотеку и личные вещи. Другой давний ученик и соратник Леонардо, Салаи, и его слуга Баптиста де Виланис, получили по половине виноградники.^[96] Его братья получили землю, а его служанка — подбитый мехом плащ. 12 августа 1519 г. Останки Леонардо были похоронены в Соборной церкви Сен-Флорентин в Шато д’Амбуаз.^[97]

Салаи владел Мона Лиза на момент его смерти в 1524 году, и в его завещании он был оценен в 505 лир, что является исключительно высокой оценкой для небольшого панельного портрета.^[98] Примерно через 20 лет после смерти Леонардо о Фрэнсисе сообщил ювелир и скульптор. Бенвенуто Челлини как говорят: «Никогда в мире не было другого человека, который знал бы столько, как Леонардо, не столько о живописи, скульптуре и архитектуре, сколько о том, что он был очень великим философом».^[99]

Личная жизнь

При жизни Леонардо его необыкновенная изобретательность, его «выдающаяся физическая красота», «бесконечная грация», «великая сила и щедрость», «царственный дух и невероятная широта ума», как описал Вазари,^[100] как и все другие аспекты его жизни, привлекали любопытство окружающих. Одним из таких аспектов была его любовь к животным, вероятно, включая вегетарианство и, согласно Вазари, привычка покупать птиц в клетках и выпускать их на волю.^[101][102]

У Леонардо было много друзей, которые теперь известны либо в своих областях, либо благодаря своему историческому значению. Среди них математик Лука Пачоли,^[103] с кем он сотрудничал над книгой Divina пропорционально в 1490-х гг. Леонардо, похоже, не имел близких отношений с женщинами, за исключением дружбы с Сесилия Галлерани и две сестры Эсте, Беатрис и Изабелла.^[104] Во время путешествия, в котором он прошел Мантуя, он нарисовал портрет Изабеллы, который, похоже, использовался для создания нарисованного портрета, который теперь утерян.^[27]

Помимо дружбы, Леонардо держал в секрете свою личную жизнь. Его сексуальность была предметом сатиры, анализа и спекуляций. Эта тенденция зародилась в середине 16 века и возродилась в 19 и 20 веках, в первую очередь благодаря Зигмунд Фрейд в его Леонардо да Винчи, Воспоминания о его детстве.^[105] Самые близкие отношения Леонардо были, пожалуй, с его учениками Салаем и Мельци. Мельци, писавший, чтобы сообщить братьям Леонардо о его смерти, описал чувства Леонардо к своим ученикам как любящие и страстные. С 16 века утверждалось, что эти отношения носили сексуальный или эротический характер. Судебные протоколы 1476 года, когда ему было двадцать четыре года, показывают, что Леонардо и трое других молодых людей были обвинены в содомия в инциденте с участием известного мужчины-проститутки. Обвинения были отклонены из-за отсутствия доказательств, и есть предположение, что, поскольку один из обвиняемых, Лионардо де Торнабуони, был родственником Лоренцо де Медичи, семья оказала свое влияние, чтобы добиться увольнения.^[106] С тех пор много было написано о его предполагаемой гомосексуальности и ее роли в его искусстве, особенно в андрогинность и эротика проявляется в Святой Иоанн Креститель и Вакх и более явно в ряде эротических рисунков.^[107]

Картина

Несмотря на недавнее признание и восхищение Леонардо как ученого и изобретателя, большую часть четырехсот лет его слава основывалась на его достижениях как художника. Несколько произведений, которые либо подтверждены, либо приписаны ему, считаются одними из великих шедевров. Эти картины известны множеством качеств, которым студенты часто подражали и которые подробно обсуждались знатоками и критиками. К 1490-м годам Леонардо уже описывали как «божественного» художника.^[108]

Среди качеств, которые делают работу Леонардо уникальной, можно отметить его новаторские методы нанесения краски; его подробные знания в области анатомии, света, ботаники и геологии; его интерес к физиогномика и то, как люди улавливают эмоции в выражениях и жестах; его новаторское использование человеческой формы в фигуративной композиции; и его использование тонкой градации тона. Все эти качества объединены в его самых известных живописных произведениях: Мона Лиза, то Последний ужин, а Мадонна в скалах.^[109]

Ранние работы

Леонардо впервые привлек внимание своей работой над Крещение Христа, расписанный совместно с Верроккьо. Две другие картины датируются его временами в мастерской Верроккьо, обе из них Объявления. Один маленький, 59 см (23 дюйма) долго и 14 см (5,5 дюйма) высоко. Это «Prella «в основе более крупной композиции, картины Лоренцо ди Креди, от которой она отделилась. Другая — гораздо более крупная работа, 217 см (85 дюймов) длинный.^[110] В обоих объявлениях Леонардо использовал формальную аранжировку, например, две известные картины автора. Фра Анджелико того же предмета, Дева Мария сидит или стоит на коленях справа от картины, к которому слева подошел ангел в профиль, в богатой струящейся одежде, с поднятыми крыльями и с лилией. Хотя ранее более крупная работа приписывалась Гирландайо, теперь ее обычно приписывают Леонардо.^[56]

На меньшей картине Мэри отводит глаза и складывает руки в жесте, который символизирует подчинение воле Бога. Однако в большей части Мэри не подчиняется. Девушка, которую прервал ее чтение этим неожиданным посланником, кладет палец в Библию, чтобы отметить это место, и поднимает руку в формальном жесте приветствия или удивления.^[36] Эта спокойная молодая женщина, кажется, принимает свою роль Матерь Божья не с покорностью, а с уверенностью. На этой картине молодой Леонардо представляет гуманистическое лицо Девы Марии, признавая роль человечества в воплощении Бога.

Живопись 1480-х годов

В 1480-х Леонардо получил два очень важных заказа и приступил к другой работе, имевшей новаторское значение с точки зрения композиции. Два из трех так и не были закончены, а третий занял так много времени, что потребовались длительные переговоры о завершении и оплате.

Одна из этих картин была Святой Иероним в пустыне, который Бортолон связывает с трудным периодом жизни Леонардо, о чем свидетельствует его дневник: «Я думал, что учусь жить; я только учился умирать».^[27] Хотя картина только начинается, композиция просматривается и очень необычна.^[v] Джером, как кающийся, занимает середину картинки, поставлена ​​на небольшую диагональ и видна несколько сверху. Его фигура, стоящая на коленях, приобретает форму трапеции, с одной рукой, вытянутой к внешнему краю картины, и его взгляд смотрит в противоположном направлении. Дж. Вассерман указывает на связь этой картины с анатомическими исследованиями Леонардо.^[111] На переднем плане раскинулся его символ — большой лев, тело и хвост которого образуют двойную спираль в основании изображения. Другая примечательная особенность — схематичный ландшафт скалистых скал, на фоне которых вырисовывается силуэт фигуры.

Смелая демонстрация композиции фигур, элементов пейзажа и личной драмы также проявляется в великом незаконченном шедевре, Поклонение волхвов по заказу монахов Сан-Донато-а-Скопето. Это сложная композиция, примерно 250 х 250 сантиметров. Леонардо сделал множество рисунков и подготовительных исследований, в том числе детальный в линейной перспективе разрушенного. классическая архитектура который составляет часть фона. В 1482 году Леонардо отправился в Милан по указанию Лоренцо Медичи, чтобы снискать расположение Людовико иль Моро, и картина была заброшена.^[20][56]

Третья важная работа этого периода — Мадонна в скалах, заказанный в Милане для Братства Непорочного зачатия. Картина, которая будет выполнена с помощью братья де Предис, должен был заполнить большой комплекс алтарь.^[112] Леонардо решил нарисовать апокрифический момент младенчества Христа, когда младенец Иоанн Креститель, в защиту ангела, встретил Святое Семейство по дороге в Египет. Картина демонстрирует жуткую красоту, поскольку изящные фигуры преклоняют колени в поклонении младенцу Христу в диком пейзаже с падающими камнями и кружащейся водой.^[113] Хотя картина довольно большая, около 200 × 120 см, это не так сложно, как картина, заказанная монахами Святого Донато, с четырьмя фигурами вместо пятидесяти и скалистым пейзажем, а не архитектурными деталями. В конце концов картина была закончена; Фактически были закончены две версии картины: одна осталась в часовне Братства, а Леонардо увез другую во Францию. Однако братья не получали свои картины, а де Преди — свою плату до следующего столетия.^[39][64]

Самый замечательный портрет Леонардо этого периода — Дама с горностаем, предположительно Сесилия Галлерани (c. 1483–1490), любовник Людовико Сфорца.^[114][115] Картина характеризуется позой фигуры с головой, повернутой под совершенно другим углом к ​​туловищу, что необычно для того времени, когда многие портреты все еще были строго в профиль. Горностай явно несет символическое значение, относящееся либо к няне, либо к Людовико, принадлежавшему к престижной семье. Орден Горностая.^[114]

Картины 1490-х годов

Самая известная картина Леонардо 1490-х годов — это Тайная вечеря, заказанный для трапезной монастыря Санта-Мария-делла-Грацие в Милане. Он представляет собой последний прием пищи поделился Иисусом со своими учениками перед его пленением и смертью, и показывает момент, когда Иисус только что сказал: «один из вас предаст меня», и ужас, который вызвало это заявление.^[39]

Писатель Маттео Банделло Наблюдая за Леонардо за работой, он писал, что в некоторые дни он писал от рассвета до заката, не останавливаясь, чтобы поесть, а затем не рисовал по три или четыре дня за раз.^[116] Это было за пределами понимания прежний из монастыря, который преследовал его, пока Леонардо не попросил Людовико вмешаться. Вазари описывает, как Леонардо, обеспокоенный своей способностью адекватно изобразить лица Христа и предателя Иуда, сказал герцогу, что, возможно, ему придется использовать приора в качестве модели.^[117]

Когда работа была закончена, картина была признана шедевром дизайна и характеристики.^[118] но он быстро ухудшился, так что в течение ста лет один зритель описал его как «полностью разрушенный».^[119] Леонардо, вместо того, чтобы использовать надежную технику фрески, использовал темпера на земле, которая в основном была левкас, в результате чего поверхность подвержена плесени и отслаиванию.^[120] Несмотря на это, картина остается одним из самых воспроизводимых произведений искусства; бесчисленные копии были сделаны на различных носителях.

Записано, что в 1492 году Леонардо с помощниками нарисовал Sala delle Asse в Замок Сфорца в Милане, с trompe-l’œil изображающие деревья, с запутанным лабиринтом из листьев и сучков на потолке.^[121]

Картины 16 века

В 1505 году Леонардо получил задание нарисовать Битва при Ангиари в Salone dei Cinquecento (Зал пятисот) в Палаццо Веккьо, Флоренция. Леонардо разработал динамическую композицию, изображающую четырех мужчин верхом на разъяренных боевых конях, сражающихся за обладание штандартом в Битва при Ангиари в 1440 г. Микеланджело поставили противоположную стену, чтобы изобразить Битва при Кашине. Картина Леонардо быстро испортилась и теперь известна по копии Рубенс.^[122]

Среди работ, созданных Леонардо в 16 веке, есть небольшой портрет, известный как Мона Лиза или же ДжокондаСмеющийся. В настоящее время это, пожалуй, самая известная картина в мире. Его слава основана, в частности, на неуловимой улыбке на лице женщины, ее таинственное качество, возможно, из-за слегка затененных уголков рта и глаз, так что точный характер улыбки не может быть определен. Призрачное качество, которым славится работа, было названо «сфумато, или дым Леонардо. Вазари, который, как принято считать, знал картину только по репутации, сказал, что «улыбка была настолько приятной, что казалась скорее божественной, чем человеческой; и те, кто видел его, были поражены, обнаружив, что он был таким же живым, как и оригинал ».^[123][w]

Другие характеристики картины — это платье без украшений, в котором глаза и руки не конкурируют с другими деталями; драматический пейзажный фон, на котором кажется, что мир находится в постоянном движении; приглушенная окраска; и чрезвычайно гладкий характер живописной техники, использующей масла наложен во многом как темпера и растушевываются на поверхности, поэтому мазки невозможно различить.^[Икс] Вазари выразил мнение, что манера живописи заставит даже «самого уверенного мастера … отчаиваться и падать духом».^[126] Идеальная сохранность и отсутствие следов ремонта или перекраски — редкость для панно этой даты.^[127]

В картине Богородица с младенцем и святой Анной, композиция снова поднимает тему фигур в пейзаже, который Вассерман описывает как «потрясающе красивый».^[128] и возвращает нас к картине Святого Иеронима с фигурой, поставленной под косым углом. Что делает эту картину необычной, так это то, что на ней наложены две наклонно поставленные фигуры. Мария сидит на коленях своей матери, Святой Анны. Она наклоняется вперед, чтобы удержать Младенца Христа, который грубо играет с ягненком, что является знаком его собственной неминуемой жертвы.^[39] Эта картина, которую многократно копировали, оказала влияние на Микеланджело, Рафаэля и Андреа дель Сарто,^[129] и через них Понтормо и Корреджо. Композиционные направления были приняты, в частности, венецианскими художниками. Тинторетто и Веронезе.

Рисунки

Леонардо был плодовитым рисовальщиком, ведя дневники, полные небольших набросков и подробных рисунков, фиксирующих все виды вещей, которые привлекали его внимание. Помимо журналов существует множество исследований картин, некоторые из которых можно определить как подготовительные к определенным работам, таким как Поклонение волхвов, Богородица в скалах и Тайная вечеря.^[130] Его самый ранний датированный рисунок — Пейзаж долины Арно, 1473 г., на котором очень подробно показаны река, горы, замок Монтелупо и сельские угодья за ним.^[27][130][y] По мнению искусствоведа Людвиг Гейденрайх «Первый настоящий пейзаж в искусстве».^[131] Массимо Полидоро говорит, что это был первый пейзаж, «который не был фоном какой-либо религиозной сцены или портрета. Это первый [задокументированный] раз, когда пейзаж был нарисован только ради него».^[49]

Среди его знаменитых рисунков Витрувианский человек, исследование пропорций человеческого тела; то Голова ангела, за Богородица в скалах в Лувр; ботаническое исследование Вифлеемская звезда; и большой рисунок (160 × 100 см) черным мелом на цветной бумаге Богородица с младенцем и святой Анной и Иоанном Крестителем в Национальной галерее в Лондоне.^[130] Этот рисунок использует тонкие сфумато техника штриховки, в манере Мона Лиза. Считается, что Леонардо никогда не рисовал по нему, самое близкое сходство с Богородица с младенцем и святой Анной в Лувре.^[132]

Другие интересные рисунки включают многочисленные исследования, обычно называемые «карикатурами», потому что, хотя и преувеличены, они, похоже, основаны на наблюдении за живыми моделями. Вазари рассказывает, что если Леонардо увидел человека с интересным лицом, он бы следил за ним весь день, наблюдая за ним.^[133] Существует множество исследований красивых молодых людей, часто связанных с Салаи, с редкой и вызывающей восхищение чертой лица, так называемым «греческим профилем».^[z] Эти лица часто контрастируют с лицом воина.^[130] Салаи часто изображают в маскарадном костюме. Леонардо, как известно, разработал декорации для конкурсов, с которыми они могут быть связаны. Другие, часто очень скрупулезные рисунки показывают этюды драпировки. Заметное развитие способности Леонардо рисовать драпировки произошло в его ранних работах. Другой часто воспроизводимый рисунок — жуткий эскиз, сделанный Леонардо во Флоренции в 1479 году, на котором изображено тело Бернардо Барончелли, повешенный в связи с убийством Джулиано, брата Лоренцо Медичи, в Заговор Пацци.^[130] В своих записях Леонардо записал цвета мантии, в которой Барончелли был одет, когда умер.

Как два современных архитектора Донато Браманте (который спроектировал двор Бельведер) и Антонио да Сангалло старший Леонардо экспериментировал с проектами централизованно планируемых церквей, некоторые из которых были опубликованы в его журналах как планы и представления, хотя ни один из них так и не был реализован.^[42][134]

Журналы и заметки

Гуманизм эпохи Возрождения не признает никаких взаимоисключающих полярностей между наукой и искусством, и исследования Леонардо в области науки и техники иногда считаются столь же впечатляющими и новаторскими, как и его художественные работы.^[39] Эти исследования были записаны на 13000 страницах заметок и рисунков, которые объединяют искусство и естественная философия (предшественник современной науки). Они создавались и поддерживались ежедневно на протяжении всей жизни и путешествий Леонардо, когда он постоянно наблюдал за окружающим миром.^[39] Заметки и рисунки Леонардо отображают огромный спектр интересов и забот, некоторые из которых столь же приземлены, как списки продуктов и людей, которые должны ему деньги, а некоторые столь же интригуют, как конструкции крыльев и обуви для ходьбы по воде. Это композиции для картин, этюды деталей и драпировки, этюды лиц и эмоций, животных, младенцев, анатомии, этюды растений, скальные образования, водовороты, боевые машины, летательные аппараты и архитектуру.^[39]

Эти записные книжки — первоначально разрозненные листы разных типов и размеров — после смерти мастера в основном были переданы ученику и наследнику Леонардо Франческо Мельци.^[135] Их предстояло опубликовать, что представляло огромную трудность из-за его объема и своеобразного письма Леонардо.^[136] Некоторые рисунки Леонардо были скопированы анонимным миланским художником для запланированный трактат по искусству c. 1570.^[137] После смерти Мельци в 1570 году коллекция перешла к его сыну, юристу Орацио, который поначалу мало интересовался журналами.^[135] В 1587 году домашний наставник Мельци по имени Лелио Гаварди перевез 13 рукописей в Пизу; там архитектор Джованни Маджента упрекал Гаварди в том, что он незаконно забрал рукописи и вернул их Орацио. Имея в своем распоряжении еще много таких работ, Орацио подарил их Мадженте. Распространились новости об этих потерянных работах Леонардо, и Орацио нашел семь из 13 рукописей, которые затем передал Помпео Леони для публикации в двух томах; одним из них был Кодекс Атлантический. Остальные шесть работ были розданы еще нескольким людям.^[138] После смерти Орацио его наследники продали оставшееся имущество Леонардо и таким образом начали свое расселение.^[139]

Некоторые работы попали в крупные коллекции, такие как Королевская библиотека в Виндзорский замок, Лувр, Biblioteca Nacional de España, то Музей Виктории и Альберта, то Biblioteca Ambrosiana в Милане, где хранится 12-томный Атлантический кодекс, и Британская библиотека в Лондоне, который поставил выбор из Кодекс Арундела (BL Arundel MS 263) онлайн.^[140] Работы также были на Холкхэм Холл, то Метрополитен-музей, и в частных руках Джон Николас Браун I и Роберт Леман.^[135] В Кодекс Лестера единственная крупная научная работа Леонардо, находящаяся в частной собственности; он принадлежит Билл Гейтс и отображается один раз в год в разных городах мира.

Большинство произведений Леонардо находятся в зеркальное изображение курсив.^[141][49] Поскольку Леонардо писал левой рукой, ему, вероятно, было легче писать справа налево.^[142][аа] Леонардо использовал различные сокращения и символы и заявляет в своих заметках, что намеревался подготовить их к публикации.^[141] Во многих случаях одна тема подробно освещается как словами, так и изображениями на одном листе, вместе передавая информацию, которая не будет потеряна, если страницы будут опубликованы не по порядку.^[145] Почему они не были опубликованы при жизни Леонардо, неизвестно.^[39]

Научные исследования

Подход Леонардо к науке был наблюдательным: он пытался понять явление, описывая и изображая его во всех деталях, и не делал упор на эксперименты или теоретическое объяснение. Поскольку у него не было формального образования в латинский и математики, современные ученые по большей части игнорировали Леонардо-ученого, хотя он сам выучил латынь. В 1490-х годах он изучал математику под руководством Луки Пачоли и подготовил серию рисунков правильных твердых тел в форме скелета, которые будут выгравированы как пластины для книги Пачоли. Divina пропорционально, опубликовано в 1509 году.^[39] Живя в Милане, он изучал свет с вершины Монте-Роза.^[73] Научные труды в его записной книжке по окаменелостям считаются влиятельными ранняя палеонтология.^[146]

Содержание его журналов предполагает, что он планировал серию трактатов на самые разные темы. Последовательный трактат о анатомия Говорят, что его заметили во время визита секретаря кардинала Луи д’Арагона в 1517 году.^[147] Аспекты его работ по изучению анатомии, света и ландшафта были собраны для публикации Мельци и в конечном итоге опубликованы как Трактат о живописи во Франции и Италии в 1651 году и в Германии в 1724 году,^[148] с гравюрами по рисункам классика Николя Пуссен.^[149] По словам Арасса, благодаря этому трактату, который во Франции за пятьдесят лет был переиздан 62 издания, Леонардо стал рассматриваться как «предшественник французской академической мысли об искусстве».^[39]

Хотя эксперименты Леонардо следовали научным методам, недавний исчерпывающий анализ Леонардо как ученого, проведенный Фритьофом Капрой, доказывает, что Леонардо был принципиально другим типом ученых, нежели Леонардо. Галилео, Ньютон и другие ученые, которые последовали за ним в этом, как «Человек эпохи Возрождения «Его теоретические и гипотетические предположения объединили искусство и, в частности, живопись.^{[150][страница нужна ]}

Анатомия и психология

Леонардо начал свое обучение в анатомия из тело человека под ученичеством Верроккьо, который требовал, чтобы его ученики развили глубокие знания предмета.^[151] Как художник он быстро стал мастером топографическая анатомия, проводя множество исследований мышцы, сухожилия и другие видимые анатомические особенности.

Леонардо, как успешный художник, получил разрешение на рассекать человеческие трупы в Больница Санта Мария Нуова во Флоренции, а затем в больницах Милана и Рима. С 1510 по 1511 год он сотрудничал в учебе с врачом. Маркантонио делла Торре. Леонардо сделал более 240 подробных рисунков и написал около 13 000 слов для трактата по анатомии.^[152] Лишь небольшая часть материала по анатомии была опубликована в Леонардо. Трактат по живописи.^[136] В то время, когда Мельци систематизировал материал по главам для публикации, они были исследованы рядом анатомов и художников, включая Вазари, Челлини и Альбрехт Дюрер, сделавший с них ряд рисунков.^[136]

Анатомические рисунки Леонардо включают множество исследований скелет человека и его части, и мышцы и сухожилия. Он изучал механические функции скелета и приложенные к нему мышечные силы, что было прообразом современной науки биомеханика.^[153] Он нарисовал сердце и сосудистая система, то половые органы и других внутренних органов, сделав один из первых научных рисунков плод в утробе.^[130] Рисунки и обозначения намного опередили свое время и, если бы их опубликовали, несомненно, внесли бы большой вклад в медицинскую науку.^[152]

Леонардо также внимательно наблюдал и записывал влияние возраста и человеческих эмоций на физиологию, изучая, в частности, эффекты ярости. Он нарисовал много фигур со значительными деформациями лица или признаками болезни.^[39][130] Леонардо также изучал и рисовал анатомию многих животных, анализируя коров, птиц, обезьян, медведей и лягушек и сравнивая на своих рисунках их анатомическое строение с человеческим. Он также провел ряд исследований лошадей.^[130]

Рассечение и документация Леонардо мышц, нервов и сосудов помогли описать физиологию и механику движения. Он попытался определить источник «эмоций» и их выражение. Ему было трудно включить преобладающую систему и теории телесные чувства, но в конце концов он отказался от этих физиологических объяснений функций тела. Он заметил, что жидкости не располагаются в церебральных пространствах или желудочки. Он задокументировал, что жидкости не содержатся в сердце или печени, и что сердце определяет систему кровообращения. Он первым определил атеросклероз и печень цирроз. Он создал модели желудочков головного мозга из расплавленного воска и сконструировал стакан аорта для наблюдения за циркуляцией крови через аортальный клапан с помощью воды и семян травы для наблюдения за режимами кровотока. Везалий опубликовал свои работы по анатомии и физиологии в De humani corporis fabrica в 1543 г.^[154]

Инженерия и изобретения

При жизни Леонардо ценился и как инженер. С тем же рациональным и аналитическим подходом, который побудил его представить человеческое тело и исследовать анатомию, Леонардо изучил и сконструировал множество машин и устройств. Он нарисовал их «анатомию» с беспрецедентным мастерством, создав первую форму современного технического рисунка, включая усовершенствованную технику «покомпонентного изображения» для представления внутренних компонентов. Эти исследования и проекты, собранные в его рукописях, занимают более 5000 страниц.^[155] В письме 1482 г. миланскому сеньору Людовико иль Моро, он писал, что может создавать всевозможные машины как для защиты города, так и для осады. Когда он бежал из Милана в Венецию в 1499 году, он нашел работу инженером и разработал систему передвижных баррикад для защиты города от нападений. В 1502 году он создал схему отвода течения реки Арно, проект по которой Никколо Макиавелли тоже работал.^[156][157] Он продолжал размышлять о канализации Равнины Ломбардии в то время как в компании Людовика XII^[73] и из Луара и его притоки в компании Фрэнсиса I.^[158] Журналы Леонардо включают огромное количество изобретений, как практических, так и непрактичных. Они включают музыкальные инструменты, механический рыцарь, гидронасосы, кривошипно-реверсивные механизмы, оребрение для минометов и паровая пушка.^[27][39]

Леонардо был очарован феноменом полет большую часть своей жизни он провел множество исследований, в том числе Кодекс полета птиц (c. 1505), а также планы на несколько летательных аппаратов, например машущий орнитоптер и машина с винтовой ротор.^[39] Документальный фильм 2003 года британского телевидения. Четвертый канал под названием Машины мечты Леонардо, различные дизайны Леонардо, такие как парашют и гигантский арбалет, были интерпретированы и сконструированы.^[159][160] Некоторые из этих проектов оказались успешными, в то время как другие показали худшие результаты при тестировании.

Исследования выполнены Марк ван ден Брук выявил более старые прототипы более 100 изобретений, приписываемых Леонардо. Сходства между иллюстрациями и рисунками Леонардо из средневековья и из Древней Греции и Рима, Китайской и Персидской империй и Египта предполагают, что большая часть изобретений Леонардо была задумана до его жизни. Нововведение Леонардо заключалось в том, чтобы объединить различные функции из существующих чертежей и поместить их в сцены, иллюстрирующие их полезность. Воссоздавая технические изобретения, он создал нечто новое.^[161]

Слава и репутация

Слава Леонардо при его жизни была такова, что король Франции унес его, как трофей, и, как утверждается, поддерживал его в его старости и держал на руках, когда он умер. Интерес к Леонардо и его творчеству никогда не ослабевает. Толпы все еще выстраиваются в очередь, чтобы увидеть его самые известные работы, на футболках все еще изображен его самый известный рисунок, а писатели продолжают приветствовать его как гения, размышляя о его личной жизни, а также о том, во что на самом деле верил такой умный человек.^[39]

Непрекращающееся восхищение, которым Леонардо вызывала у художников, критиков и историков, отражено во многих других письменных памятниках. Baldassare Castiglione, автор Il Cortegiano (Придворный), писал в 1528 году: «… Другой из величайших художников в этом мире смотрит свысока на это искусство, в котором ему нет равных …»^[162] а биограф, известный как «Анонимо Гаддиано», писал: c. 1540: «Его гений был настолько редким и универсальным, что можно сказать, что природа сотворила чудо для него …»^[163] Вазари, в расширенном издании Жития художников (1568)^[164] начал свою главу о Леонардо следующими словами:

При нормальном ходе событий многие мужчины и женщины рождаются с замечательными талантами; но иногда, выходя за рамки природы, одинокий человек чудесным образом наделен Небом красотой, грацией и талантом в таком изобилии, что он оставляет других людей далеко позади, все его действия кажутся вдохновленными, и действительно, все, что он делает, явно исходит от Бога, а чем от человеческого мастерства. Все признали, что это верно в отношении Леонардо да Винчи, художника выдающейся физической красоты, который проявлял безграничную грацию во всем, что он делал, и который так блестяще культивировал свой гений, что все задачи, которые он изучал, он решал с легкостью.

XIX век вызвал особое восхищение гением Леонардо, вызвав Генри Фузели написать в 1801 году: «Таков был рассвет современного искусства, когда Леонардо да Винчи разразился великолепием, отделявшим былое превосходство: состоящим из всех элементов, составляющих сущность гения …»^[165] Это вторит А.Е. Рио, который писал в 1861 году: «Он возвышался над всеми другими художниками силой и благородством своих талантов».^[166]

К 19 веку был известен объем записных книжек Леонардо, а также его картин. Ипполит Тэн писал в 1866 году: «Не может быть в мире примера другого гения, столь универсального, столь неспособного к реализации, столь исполненного тоски по бесконечному, столь естественно утонченного, так далеко опережающего свое собственное столетие и последующие столетия».^[167] Историк искусства Бернард Беренсон писал в 1896 году: «Леонардо — единственный художник, о котором можно сказать с полной буквальностью: ничего, чего он не касался, но превратил в вещь вечной красоты. Будь то поперечный разрез черепа, структура травы или изучение мускулов, он с его чувством линии и света и тени навсегда трансформировал ее в ценности, передающие жизнь «.^[168]

Интерес к гению Леонардо не ослабевает; эксперты изучают и переводят его произведения, анализируют его картины, используя научные методы, спорят об авторстве и ищут работы, которые были записаны, но так и не были найдены.^[169] Лиана Бортолон в 1967 году писала: «Из-за множества интересов, которые побудили его заниматься всеми областями знаний … Леонардо вполне справедливо можно считать универсальным гением par excellence, и со всеми тревожными моментами. Обертоны, присущие этому термину. Человеку сегодня так же неудобно столкнуться с гением, как и в 16 веке. Прошло пять веков, но мы все еще смотрим на Леонардо с трепетом ».^[27]

Автор двадцать первого века Уолтер Исааксон основанный на большей части его биографии Леонардо^[106] на тысячах записных книжек, изучая личные записи, наброски, бюджетные обозначения и размышления человека, которого он считает величайшим новатором. Исааксон был удивлен, обнаружив в Леонардо «веселую, веселую» сторону в дополнение к его безграничному любопытству и творческому гению.^[170]

В 500-ю годовщину смерти Леонардо в Лувре в Париже была организована самая большая выставка его работ, которая когда-либо проходила. Леонардо, с ноября 2019 года по февраль 2020 года. На выставке представлено более 100 картин, рисунков и записных книжек. В него вошли одиннадцать картин, которые Леонардо завершил при жизни. Пять из них принадлежат Лувру, но Мона Лиза не был включен, потому что пользуется большим спросом среди посетителей Лувра; он остается выставленным в его галерее. Витрувианский человектем не менее, после судебной тяжбы с владельцем, Gallerie dell’Accademia в Венеции. Сальватор Мунди ^[ab] также не был включен, потому что его саудовский владелец не согласился сдать работу в аренду.^[173][174]

Расположение останков

Хотя Леонардо наверняка похоронили в коллегиальная церковь святого Флорентина в замке Амбуаз 12 августа 1519 года, текущее местонахождение его останков неясно.^[175][176] Большая часть Шато д’Амбуаз была повреждена во время французская революция, что привело к сносу церкви в 1802 году.^[175] Некоторые могилы были разрушены, в результате чего были разбросаны захороненные там кости, что оставило предметом спора о местонахождении останков Леонардо; садовник мог даже закопать их в углу двора.^[175]

В 1863 г. изобразительное искусство главный инспектор Арсен Уссай получил императорский заказ на раскопки и обнаружил частично завершенный скелет с бронзовым кольцом на одном пальце, белыми волосами и каменными фрагментами с надписями «EO», «AR», «DUS» и «VINC», интерпретируемыми как образуя «Леонардус Винчи».^{[97][175][177]} Восемь зубов черепа соответствуют человеку примерно соответствующего возраста, а серебряный щит, найденный рядом с костями, изображает безбородого человека. Франциск I, соответствующий внешнему виду короля во время Леонардо во Франции.^[177]

Хусай предположил, что необычно большой череп был показателем интеллекта Леонардо; автор Чарльз Николл описывает это как «сомнительный френологический дедукция «.^[175] В то же время Хусай отметил некоторые проблемы со своими наблюдениями, в том числе то, что ступни были повернуты к главный алтарь, практика, обычно зарезервированная для миряне и что скелет размером 1,73 метра (5,7 фута) казался слишком коротким.^[177] Историк искусства Мэри Маргарет Хитон писал в 1874 году, что высота будет подходящей для Леонардо.^[178] Череп якобы был подарен Наполеон III прежде, чем их вернули в замок Амбуаз, где они повторно похоронен в часовне Святого Юбера в 1874 году.^[177][179] Мемориальная доска над могилой гласит, что ее содержимое предположительно принадлежит Леонардо.^[176]

С тех пор было высказано предположение, что перегиб правой руки скелета над головой может соответствовать параличу правой руки Леонардо.^{[86][92][177]} В 2016 году было объявлено, что будут проведены тесты ДНК, чтобы определить правильность атрибуции.^[179] ДНК останков будет сравнена с ДНК образцов, собранных у Леонардо и потомков его сводного брата Доменико;^[179] это также может быть последовательный.^[180]

В 2019 году были опубликованы документы, свидетельствующие о том, что Хусай сохранил кольцо и прядь волос. В 1925 году его правнук продал их американскому коллекционеру. Шестьдесят лет спустя их приобрел другой американец, в результате чего они были выставлены на выставке. Музей Леонардо в Винчи начало 2 мая 2019 года, 500-летия со дня смерти художника.^[97][181]

Примечания

Для свиданий

Рекомендации

Источники

Книги

Ранние источники

Современные источники

Журналы и статьи

дальнейшее чтение

внешняя ссылка

• Универсальный Леонардо, база данных о жизни и творчестве Леонардо, поддерживаемая Мартин Кемп и Марина Уоллес
• Работы Леонардо да Винчи в Проект Гутенберг
• Леонардо да Винчи Морис Уолтер Броквелл в Проект Гутенберг
• Работы Леонардо да Винчи в LibriVox (аудиокниги в общественном достоянии)
• Работы Леонардо да Винчи или о нем в Интернет-архив
• Полный текст и изображения перевода записных книжек Рихтера
• Записные книжки Леонардо да Винчи
• Леонардо да Винчи: анатом Галерея Королевы, Букингемский дворец, пятница, 4 мая 2012 г. — воскресенье, 7 октября 2012 г. Анатомические рисунки с высоким разрешением.
• Леонардо да Винчи, мастер рисования, Каталог выставки, проходившей в Метрополитен-музее, Нью-Йорк, 22 января — 30 марта 2003 г.