Leonardo da Vinci - Biography

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo was born in 1452, at Vinci, in the Val d’Arno, as the illegitimate son of a notary, Ser Piero, and a peasant girl named Catherina. His early years already began to uncover the inquiring mind which stamps the future man of science.  Vasari says that, "In arithmetic, he often confounded the master who taught him, by his reasonings and the difficulty of the problems he proposed". But the world was in the infancy of science; it was in the maturity of art. Science was then a suspicious occupation; art, a profitable one; and the art of that time covered a far greater area of intellectual ground than it does now.

In 1466, his father decided to apprentice his son to the distinguished Florentine artist, Andrea di Cione, called Verrocchio. It has been usual to depreciate the merit of this master in order, unnecessarily, to exalt that of his scholar. But the familiar appellation of "Verrocchio", or the "True Eye", implies that quality for which Leonardo became most famed, and which it is fair to believe the teacher contributed to form. In other respects, too, Verrocchio occupies that stage which led upwards to Leonardo. He was not only sculptor, goldsmith, carver, and painter, but also a student of perspective and a musician. One of Verrocchio’s creations related to Leonardo is the bronze statue of David. It is believed that the well built youth actually represents the apprentice, Leonardo. And this is quite possible, as the tradition and Vasari himself are asserting Leonardo’s beauty. Beside his physical beauty, the young Leonardo was an accomplished dancer, a musician, an "improvisatore", and a poet, but also a sportsman, delighting himself in mastering the wildest horse, and boasting a strength that could bend the horse shoe. Leonardo da Vinci did not quit Verrocchio until 1477 when he set up a bottega (workshop) for himself.

His first great composition, Adoration of the Magi (1481), was a commission from the Monks of St. Donato a Scopeto. It is a very complex composition, for which Leonardo did numerous drawings and preparatory studies, including a study in the perspective of the ruined staircase in the background. But in 1482 Leonardo went to Milan, and the painting was abandoned.

There are many speculations regarding the possible reasons Leonardo had to leave Florence. The strange neglect of the Medici (he does not seem to have had a single commission from any one of them) would tend to show that Leonardo was not properly appreciated in his native city. Added to this, there may have been family difficulties, money matters, and maybe, a desire for change. Another possible reason would be simply the lack of sympathy between Leonardo and the Medici. Leonardo was first a scientist, while the Medici were ardent Platonists. That he rested his claim and patronage far less on his art than on his mechanical inventions, is obvious from the letter—supposed to have been written about 1481—addressed by him to Lodovico Sforza, called Il Moro, third son of the condottiere Francesco Sforza—the regent, and ultimately the usurper, of the Milanese Duchy. This letter is remarkable in every way, as a marvelous prospectus of his own powers, a characteristic page in the Italian history of the 15th Century, where the demands of war and of peace stand in curious disproportion, and where his art of painting comes in apparently as an afterthought.

This letter seems to have obtained for Leonardo the desired invitation to the court of Milan, accompanied with a salary. In the pages dedicated to Leonardo's biography, Vasari says that this happened chiefly because the Duke wished to hear him singing, an accomplishment of which the letter makes no profession. There can be no doubt, however, that music was one of Leonardo’s acquirements, and musical instruments among his inventions; new forms of the lyre, and improvements of sounding-board are sketched and described in his manuscripts. Arnoretti also speaks of the frontispiece to a treatise on music, dedicated by a Florentine priest to Ascanio Sforza, brother to Lodovico, in which Leonardo is represented with a guitar in his hand. Doubtless the profligate Duke and his court were not slow to discover that Leonardo’s gifts and powers of attraction were by no means all enumerated in this letter, and that they had drawn a prize as valuable for idle hours as for more serious uses. Each and every Leonardo da Vinci biography, be it by Vasari or others, is mentioning his great popularity with the court, and we can readily believe in the fascination of his personal beauty, in the admiration excited by his feats of horsemanship and muscular strength, and in the pastime afforded to the courtiers by the wonder of his inventions and the fun of his caricatures. In his double character, also, as artist and mechanician, there was no one to rival him in the invention and direction of those frequent shows and pageants which formed part of the policy of a bad ruler and of a doubtful throne, but which unfortunately left no trace of the genius wasted upon them.

An important work of this period is the Virgin of the Rocks which was commissioned in Milan for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception

In 1483, Leonardo began to model the grandiose equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza, and was engaged upon this task for more than ten years, reading ancient writers, studying classic statuary, and above all closely examining every movement of live horses and every muscle of dead ones. He made a vast number of drawings, exhibiting horses in repose, as if on parade, in the fierce action of the charge, and in various other positions. Many of these drawings are still preserved, especially at Windsor Castle. No one knows what the design for Francesco’s monument was, for after the master had devoted ten years to making the clay model, it was not put into bronze, and twenty years later it had disappeared. A beautiful little wax model was destroyed; and also the master’s book of studies on the anatomy of horses. As a sculptor Leonardo won great fame; and Jovius and Paciolo, his contemporaries, held that he was better in that department than in painting. Lomazzo writes of the divine expression and adorable grace of the heads which he modeled; and Houssaye, speaking of Leonardo’s head of wax, in the Lille Museum, says, " I know of nothing more beautiful in Greek art." His anatomical studies were long and careful, as regards both men and animals, and gave him a vast fund of knowledge.

While in Milan, Leonardo painted the Last Supper, a masterpiece which stands alone as the keystone of Christian pictorial art. The work was commissioned by Lodovico il Moro for the refectory of the Convent of Dominican friars at Santa Maria delle Grazzie. It was probably begun in 1495 and finished in 1498.

Early in the year 1500, Leonardo re-entered Florence, after an absence of nineteen years. Old lights of art vanished, — Baccio della Porta into a convent, and Lorenzo di Credi under clouds of despair, — and new ones had risen,— Francia, Signorelli, Filippino Lippi, Sandro Botticelli, Perugino; and Michelangelo and Raphael were advancing into fame. But Leonardo was recognized as the foremost of all these, for the renown of his works at Milan had long preceded him. He settled in the city, and shared his house with his old friend, Fra Paciolo, and the beautiful youth, Salai.
Perugino visited his old comrade at this time, and perhaps led with him his bright pupil, Raphael of Urbino. The youth came under Leonardo’s influence, and his pictures of this period strongly reflect the manner of the elder artist. There is a portrait of a young man, in the Uffizi Gallery, which has often been referred to Leonardo’s hand; and Bottari is highly of the opinion that this youth was Raphael.
Another artist whom Leonardo often met was Sandro Botticelli, his senior by a few years, and already celebrated for his frescos in the Sistine Chapel. Fra Bartolommeo also came under Leonardo’s influence, soon afterwards, and derived the greatest benefit from studying his manner of painting. During this period, between 1503 and 1506, Leonardo painted the exquisitely lovely portrait known as Mona Lisa.

Early in 1503 Leonardo acted on the committee to choose a fitting place for Michelangelo’s great statue of David.

Leonardo da Vinci - Annunciation, 1472-1475

It was also during this period, in 1502, when Cesar Borgia, the usurping Duke of Romagna and Urbino, who was ambitious of being King of Italy, appointed Leonardo his general engineer, and sent him out to inspect the fortresses in his domains, bearing the following commission : — "Cesar Borgia of France: By the Grace of God, Duke of Romagna and Valentinois, Prince of Adria, and Lord of Piombino: To all our lieutenants, castellans, captains, free-lances, officials, soldiers, and subjects, to whom this notice shall come, we commit and command that to our most skilful and worthy Architect and Engineer-General, Leonardo Vinci, who by our commission is to examine the strong places and fortresses of our States, in order that we may provide for them according to their need and his judgment, they may give free passage and exemption from the public tax-duties, both for him and his company, and that they shall receive him as a friend, and allow him to see, measure, and examine as much as he will. And to this effect let men be summoned to his requisition, and lend him whatever assistance, aid and favor he may wish."
Well compensated and honored by this liberal ruffian, the master made extensive and profitable travels throughout Central Italy, of which he left many notes. In the summer of 1502, he designed new stairways and ramparts to the Citadel of Urbino; and after that time we find him at Pesaro, devising machinery; at Rimini, admiring the music of its fountains; and at Cesena, planning better methods of transporting grapes. He returned to Florence by way of Imola, Faenza, and Forli; and thence undertook an excursion to Chiusi, Perugia, and Foligno, making careful studies of a clock at Siena, and noting the regular cadence of the waves on the sea-shore at Piombino. He probably did something at this time in an art which he had successfully practiced in Lombardy,— that of founding cannon. It appears that Leonardo also painted Borgia’s portrait.

In the summer of 1506, Leonardo returned to Milan. In March, 1509, he made a visit to Florence, probably to take care of new litigations with his brothers. It is supposed that he returned to Milan by June, and superintended the splendid celebrations which took place there when Louis XII. returned from his victory over the Venetians, at Agnadello. In common with the Milanese citizens, he now always spoke of Louis as "Our most Christian King." Caterina di San Celso was now the reigning beauty at Milan, famous for her songs, her dancing, and her fascinating face, which had conquered even King Louis himself.

Frequent journeys now took place between Florence and Milan, while he continued his contest with the Da Vincis. In March, 1510, he designed a wharf on the Great Canal, at Milan; and a few months later he wrote from Florence, telling of the progress of the lawsuit. However this contest in the courts may have terminated, Leonardo was afterwards reconciled with his brothers, and bequeathed to them his property at Florence.

The most familiar portrait of Leonardo is that which he made of himself, in the year 1512, showing a venerable old man, with long and flowing hair, thick gray beard, large and mobile black eyes, and an aquiline nose. This is the picture now in the Uffizi Gallery, from which so many engravings have been made.

In 1515 Francis I. took Milan and Leonardo was commissioned to make an automated lion for the ceremonies accompanying the peace talks with Pope Leo X. The Lion walked into the king’s presence and opened his breast filled with French lilies.  From now on, he remained true to the French service, openly showed himself in the suite of Francis at Bologna on the meeting between that monarch and the Pope, and revenged himself for all supposed slights by caricaturing the papal courtiers. In 1516 Leonardo accepted the invitation of Francisc I. to settle in France, where he was to receive a salary and protection from the French king. Francisc I. did that only to enjoy the pleasure of conversation with Leonardo, as he asked for no single work in return.

Leonardo da Vinci died at the Château of Cloux (now Clos-Lucé), at Amboise, in 1519. The world will probably never see another artist of his stature and of such polyvalence.