|
|
|
|
| Birth Name(s) : Leonardo da Vinci |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
|
Partner:
|
| Profession:
N/A |
| << Add Leonardo da Vinci To Your Favorites |
|
Full Leonardo da Vinci Biography
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (pronunciation (help·info)), April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was a Tuscan (Italian) polymath: scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician, poet and writer. Born at Vinci in the region of Florence, the illegitimate son of a notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant girl, Caterina, Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Florentine painter, Verrocchio. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan where several of his major works were created. He also worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice, spending his final years in France at the home given him by King François I.
It is assumed that Leonardo had his own workshop in Florence between 1476 and 1481. Court records of 1476 show that, with three other young men, he was charged with sodomy, of which charges all were acquitted. From this date there is no record of his work or even his whereabouts until 1478.
In 1506 he returned to Milan, which was in the hands of Maximilian Sforza after Swiss mercenaries had driven out the French. Many of Leonardo’s most prominent pupils or followers in painting either knew or worked with him in Milan, including Bernardino Luini, Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio and Marco D'Oggione. However, he did not stay in Milan for long, as his father died in 1504, and in 1507 he was back in Florence trying to sort out problems with his brothers over his fathers estate. By 1508 he was living in his own house in Milan, in Porta Orientale in the parish of Santa Babila.
The novelist 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. This, according to Vasari, was beyond the comprehension of the prior, who hounded him until Leonardo ask Ludovico to intervene. Vasari describes how Leonardo troubled over his ability to adequately depict the faces of Christ and the traitor Judas, telling the Duke that he might be obliged to use the prior as his model.The Last Supper (1498)—Convent of Sta. Maria delle Grazie, Milan, Italy.
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 The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist in the National Gallery, London. 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 St. Anne in the Louvre.
The journals are mostly written in mirror-image cursive. The reason may have been more a practical expediency than for reasons of secrecy as is often suggested. Since Leonardo wrote with his left hand, it is probable that it was easier for him to write from right to left.A page from Leonardo's journal showing his study of a foetus in the womb (c.1510) Royal Library, Windsor Castle
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. Liana Bortolon, writing in 1967, says: "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."
Of the following paintings, the first two are cited by Angela Ottino della Chiesa as having more general acceptance than the others. All have been claimed at some time to be Leonardos.
- La belle Ferronière (1495–1498)—Louvre, Paris, France
- Portrait of a Musician (c. 1490)—Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan, Italy
- Madonna Litta (1490–91)—Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia, thought perhaps to be by Marco d'Oggiono
- Madonna of the Yarnwinder 1501. Three versions exist, apparently by different hands, perhaps copies of a lost work that is described by Leonardo.
- The Dreyfus Madonna, previously attributed to Verrocchio or Lorenzo di Credi. The anatomy of the Christ Child is so poor as to discourage firm attribution by most critics while some believe that it is a work of Leonardo's youth.
- Bacchus (or St. John in the Wilderness) (1515)—Louvre, Paris, France, is generally considered to be a workshop copy of a drawing.Recent attribution
- The Holy Infants Embracing c. 1486–1490 several versions in private collections.
- Madonna and Child with St Joseph, Borghese Gallery, previously attributed to Fra Bartolomeo.
- Mary Magdalene, recently attributed as a Leonardo by Carlo Pedretti. Previously regarded as the work of Giampietrino who painted a number of similar Magdalenes.
- Christ Carrying the Cross, date unknown, private collection. Attribution by Carlo Pedretti.Known only as a copy
- Leda and the Swan (1508)—(Only copies survive—best-known example in Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy. Another is in Wilton House, England.) |
|
|
| Add Leonardo da Vinci Biography (SuperUSERS) + |
| Add Leonardo da Vinci Review/Comment
|
HQ Leonardo da Vinci Pictures (1) | Random Leonardo da Vinci Picture
|
| << Back to the Leonardo da Vinci Homepage |
|
