LEONARDO DA VINCI GENIUS, ARTIST, ENGINEER, VEGETARIAN, DANDY, GEOLOGIST, ASTRONOMER, CARTOGRAPHER, ENTREPRENEUR, INVENTOR, HYDROLOGIST, HOMOSEXUAL (OR ASEXUAL), CONSULTANT, MODEL, ANATOMIST, GEOMETER, ORNITHOLOGIST, PAGEANT DESIGNER, ARCHITECT, HORSEMAN, MURALIST, BOOK COLLECTOR, INTERIOR DECORATOR, BACHELOR, MUSICIAN, FICTION WRITER, HERETIC, AVIATOR (ATTEMPTED?), BASTARD, STUDIO SUPERVISOR, COURTIER, TOILET DESIGNER, PAINTER, STRONGMAN, ECOLOGIST, DISSECTOR, HELIOCENTRIST, EXPERIMENTER, PRANKSTER, SCULPTOR, LEFT-HANDER, MILITARY ADVISOR, CANAL DIGGER, PROCRASTINATOR ….
LEONARDO’S STRANGE CAREERS
Giotto di Bondone, 1266-1337 Filippo Brunelleschi, 1377-1446 Jan van Eyck, 1380?-1441 Donatello, 1386?-1466 Rogier van der Weyden, 1390-1464 Masaccio, 1401-1428? Piero della Francesca, 1416-1492 Andrea Verrocchio, 1435-1488 Hugo van der Goes, 1440-1482 Sandro Botticelli, 1444-1510 Hieronymous Bosch, 1450-1516
LEONARDO DA VINCI, 1452-1519 Albrecht Dürer, 1471-1528 Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475-1564 Raphael, 1483-1520 Giorgio Vasari, 1511-1574
Vinci
Birthplace, Anchiano near Vinci
LEONARDO DA VINCI CHRONOLOGY 1452, 15 April: born in Vinci 1469: Apprenticed in Verrocchio’s workshop in Florence 1472: Enrolls in Florence painters’ guild 1473: Earliest dated work: “Arno landscape drawing” 1476: Accused of sodomy 1481-: “Adoration of the Magi” 1481: Moves to Milan, works for Lodovico Sforza 1483-1508: “Virgin of the Rocks” 1489-1494: Sforza horse monument 1495-1498: “Last Supper” 1499: In Mantua, Venice, and Florence 1500: “Virgin and Child and St. Anne” 1502: Military engineer for Cesare Borgia 1503: Returns to Florence; “Battle of Anghiari”; “Mona Lisa” 1508: Returns to Milan 1513-1516: Based in Rome 1516: Moves to Amboise as court painter to Francis I 1519, 2 May: dies at Cloux in Amboise.
“Drawn by my eager desire, wishing to see the great manifestation of the various and strange shapes made by formative nature, I wandered some way among gloomy rocks, coming to the entrance of a great cavern, in front of which I stood for some time, stupefied and uncomprending such a thing…. Suddenly two things arose in me, fear and desire: fear of the menacing darkness of the cavern; desire to see if there was any marvelous thing within.” Leonardo da Vinci, ca. 1480
Andrea Verrocchio and Leonardo da Vinci: Baptism of Christ, ca. 1472-1475, Florence: Uffizi
“In the earliest memory of my childhood, it seemed to me that as I lay in my cradle, a kite came down to me and opened my mouth with its tail, and struck me many times with its tail between my lips.”
Lorenzo di Credi: Portrait of Andrea Verrocchio, 1504 Florence: Uffizi
Verrocchio: David, 1460s, Florence: Bargello
Verrocchio: Condottiere Bartolomeo Colleoni, 1483, Venice: Campo SS Giovanni e Paolo
Verrocchio: Condottiere Bartolomeo Colleoni, 1483, Venice: Campo SS Giovanni e Paolo
Andrea Verrocchio: Portrait of a Woman, 1475-1480, Florence, Bargello
Young Christ (Christo Fanciullo), ca. 1496, private collection
376’
FLORENCE DUOMO LANTERN BALL, 376’ UP, 8’ diameter, 4 tons 1468-1471
Florence Duomo Lantern Ball, 376’ Up Great Crane, Milan: Biblioteca Ambrosiana
Andrea Verrocchio and Leonardo: Baptism of Christ, ca. 1472-1475, Florence: Uffizi
Baptism of Christ, ca. 1472-1475, Florence: Uffizi
Annunciation, 1472-1475, Florence: Uffizi
Leonardo and Lorenzo di Credi: Annunciation, Pistoia Altarpiece, ca. 1478-1485, Paris: Louvre
“On the day of Santa Maria della Neve, 5 August 1473”
Arno Landscape, 1473, Florence: Uffizi
Verrocchio and Leonardo: Tobias and the Angel, ca. 1473, London: National Gallery
Verrocchio and Leonardo: Tobias and the Angel, ca. 1473, London: National Gallery
Verrocchio and Leonardo: Tobias and the Angel, ca. 1473, London: National Gallery
Madonna with a Carnation, ca. 1475, Munich: Alte Pinakothek
Ginevra de Benci, ca. 14781508, Washington: National Gallery
St. Jerome, ca. 14801482, Vatican: Pinacoteca
Adoration of the Magi, ca. 14811482, Florence: Uffizi
LEONARDO DA VINCI CHRONOLOGY 1452, 15 April: born in Vinci 1469: Apprenticed in Verrocchio’s workshop in Florence 1472: Enrolls in Florence painters’ guild 1473: Earliest dated work: “Arno landscape drawing” 1476: Accused of sodomy 1481-: “Adoration of the Magi” 1481: Moves to Milan, works for Lodovico Sforza 1483-1508: “Virgin of the Rocks” 1489-1494: Sforza horse monument 1495-1498: “Last Supper” 1499: In Mantua, Venice, and Florence 1500: “Virgin and Child and St. Anne” 1502: Military engineer for Cesare Borgia 1503: Returns to Florence; “Battle of Anghiari”; “Mona Lisa” 1508: Returns to Milan 1513-1516: Based in Rome 1516: Moves to Amboise as court painter to Francis I 1519, 2 May: dies at Cloux in Amboise.
INVERTED
ORIGINAL
Skull-shaped Lyre, 1482, Paris: Institut de France
Ludovico Sforza, 1495, Milan: Sforza Altarpiece
Bonifacio Bembo: Francesco Sforza, ca. 1460, Milan: Pinacoteca di Brera
Study for Sforza monument, Windsor: Royal Library
Study for the Trivulzio Monument, ca. 15071509, Windsor: Royal Library
Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio: Francesco Melzi, ca. 1510
Head of a Youth in Right Profile, ca. 1510, Windsor: Royal Library: Salai
Portrait of a Musician, ca. 1490, Milan: Pinacoteca Ambrosiana
Lady with an Ermine (Cecilia Gallerani), ca. 1490, Cracow: Czartorychi Museum