Leonardo Da Vinci - 1452-1519
An acknowledged genius of the Renaissance period, Da Vinci was renowned in his own time and in later centuries as a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer, and scientist. With technical precision and great feeling, he drew an amazing range of subjects, including flying machines, religious subjects, caricatures, and anatomical studies of people, animals, and
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Born illegitimate in Italy, he displayed artistic talent and an interest in nature even as a child. When he was 14, he apprenticed at Verrocchio's workshop in Florence and met other artists such as Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, and Lorenzo di Credi. He was registered in the painters' guild when he was 20 years old and his workmanship is recognized in portions of Verrocchio's works.
From 1482 to 1498, Da Vinci was in Milan as Court Artist at the court of Ludovico Sforza. During this 16-year period he kept detailed notebooks on a wide variety of subjects. With an interest in town planning, he developed ideas for churches and other architectural problems, working around 1488 on a model for the tambour and dome of the cathedral at Milan. In 1490 he worked as a consulting engineer on the restoration of two cathedrals at Pavia and Piacenza. In 1483, Leonardo, with his pupil Ambrogio de Predis, began work on the famous "Madonna of the Rocks". Two versions of the painting still exist: one in the Louvre and the other in the National Gallery, London. De Vinci's fresco of the Last Supper (Milan) was begun about 1495 and completed by 1498, although it is now badly damaged. During these years, he was known to have developed several large monuments, but they have not survived the years and are known only through drawings.
In Florence, De Vinci studied and taught mathematical theory as well as continuing study of anatomy at the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, later serving Cesare Borgia as a military engineer. The engineering work involved him in swamp reclamation projects and a great deal of travel, during which he met and became friends with Niccolò Machiavelli. By 1503 he was back in Florence, where he was commissioned to execute the (uncompleted) fresco of the battle of Anghiari. This is also about the time that Da Vinci created the famous Mona Lisa, a portrait of the wife of a Florentine merchant.
In 1506, Leonardo returned to Milan, serving as architect and engineer for the French king, Louis XII. He continued with many and varied scientific investigations in geology, botany, anatomy, hydraulics, and mechanics. At the same time he was an active painter, sculptor, and teacher of art.
In 1513, in Rome, Da Vinci worked on several architectural and engineering projects at the Vatican and completed several painting commissions. Competing with a group of artists that included Michelangelo and Raphael, the master felt his age and moved to France in 1515 to continue his research until he died in 1519. He seems to have continued with projects in engineering, natural philosophy and experimental science.« see less
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