Birth of Leonardo da Vinci
While Leonardo da Vinci is best known as one of the greatest painters of the Italian Renaissance, he left only a handful of completed paintings.
He was also a scientist and an inventor.
He applied the scientific method to every aspect of his life, including art and music.
Leonardo da Vinci conducted dozens of carefully thought out experiments, and created futuristic inventions that were groundbreaking for the time.
da Vinci’s interests ranged far beyond fine art.
He studied nature, mechanics, anatomy, physics, architecture, weaponry and more, often creating accurate, workable designs for machines like the bicycle, helicopter, submarine and military tank that would not come to fruition for centuries.
Sigmund Freud wrote –
“da Vinci was like a man who awoke too early in the darkness, while the others were all still asleep.”
Today he remains best known for two of his paintings, “Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper.”
The Mona Lisa draws thousands of visitors to the Louvre Museum each day, many of whom are mesmerised by her mysterious gaze and enigmatic smile.
Leonardo da Vinci, properly named Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, was born on 15th April 1452 in, or close to, the town of Vinci, 20 miles from Florence.
He was born out of wedlock to Piero da Vinci and Caterina di Meo Lippi.
Very little is known about da Vinci’s childhood.
Tax records indicate that by at least 1457 he lived in the household of his paternal grandfather, Antonio da Vinci, but it is possible that he spent the years before that, in the care of his mother.
Around the age of 14, da Vinci became a ‘garzone’ (studio boy) in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, who was the leading Florentine painter and sculptor of his time.
By 1472, at the age of 20, da Vinci qualified as a master in the Guild of St Luke ~ the guild of artists and doctors of medicine.
At some point in the early 1490s, da Vinci began filling notebooks related to four broad themes,
painting, architecture, mechanics and human anatomy.
He created thousands of pages of neatly drawn illustrations and commentary, some of which was coded and indecipherable to others.
da Vinci’s anatomical studies of the human skeleton, muscles, brain, and digestive and reproductive systems, brought new understanding of the human body to a wider audience.
However, because they weren’t published in the 1500s, da Vinci’s notebooks had little influence on the Renaissance period at the time.
da Vinci worked in Milan from 1482 until 1499, and in 1500, da Vinci left Milan for Venice.
In Venice, Leonardo was employed as a military architect and engineer, devising methods to defend the city from naval attack.
In 1502, da Vinci entered the service of Ceasare Borgia, acting as a military architect and engineer and travelling throughout Italy with him.
da Vinci left Borgia’s service and returned to Florence by early 1503.
Here he began working on a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, the model for the Mona Lisa – which he would continue to work on in his twilight years.
da Vinci continued to work at some capacity until eventually becoming ill and bedridden for several months.
da Vinci died possibly of a stroke, on 2nd May 1519, at the age of 67.
King Francis I had become a close friend of da Vinci’s and there are reports that the king held da Vinci head in his arms as he died.
Leonardo da Vinci’s remains were interred in the Collegiate Church of Saint Florentin, at the Château d’Amboise.
The French Revolution nearly obliterated the church, and its remains were completely demolished in the early 1800s, making it impossible to identify da Vinci’s exact gravesite.
Despite the thousands of pages da Vinci left in notebooks and manuscripts, he scarcely made reference to his personal life.
Leonardo had many notable friends, but appears to have had no close relationships with women, except for his friendship with Cecilia Gallerani and his sisters, Beatrice and Isabella Este.
Beyond friendship, Leonardo kept his private life secret.
His sexuality has been the subject of satire, analysis, and speculation.
Court records of 1476, when he was aged twenty-four, show that da Vinci and three other young men were charged with sodomy, in an incident involving a well-known male prostitute.
The Mona Lisa~Leonardo da Vinci
