Leonardo da Vinci

Self-portrait by Leonardo da Vinci, chalk drawing,

1512; in the Palazzo Reale, Turin, Italy.Alinari/Art Resource, New York
Leonardo da Vinci, ( Italian: Leonardo from Vinci) (born April 15, 1452, Anchiano, near Vinci,
Republic of Florence [Italy]died May 2, 1519, Cloux [now Clos-Luc], France), Italian painter,
draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other
figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. His Last Supper (149598) and Mona Lisa (c.
150306) are among the most widely popular and influential paintings of the Renaissance. His
notebooks reveal a spirit of scientific inquiry and a mechanical inventiveness that were centuries
ahead of their time.
The unique fame that Leonardo enjoyed in his lifetime and that, filtered by historical criticism, has
remained undimmed to the present day rests largely on his unlimited desire for knowledge, which
guided all his thinking and behaviour. An artist by disposition and endowment, he considered his
eyes to be his main avenue to knowledge; to Leonardo, sight was mans highest sense because it
alone conveyed the facts of experience immediately, correctly, and with certainty. Hence, every
phenomenon perceived became an object of knowledge, and saper vedere (knowing how to see)
became the great theme of his studies. He applied his creativity to every realm in which graphic
representation is used: he was a painter, sculptor, architect, and engineer. But he went even beyond
that. He used his superb intellect, unusual powers of observation, and mastery of the art of drawing
to study nature itself, a line of inquiry that allowed his dual pursuits of art and science to flourish.

Life and works

Early period: Florence
Leonardos parents were unmarried at the time of his birth. His father, Ser Piero, was a Florentine
notary and landlord, and his mother, Caterina, was a young peasant woman who shortly thereafter
married an artisan. Leonardo grew up on his fathers familys estate, where he was treated as a
legitimate son and received the usual elementary education of that day: reading, writing, and
arithmetic. Leonardo did not seriously study Latin, the key language of traditional learning, until
much later, when he acquired a working knowledge of it on his own. He also did not apply himself
to higher mathematicsadvanced geometry and arithmeticuntil he was 30 years old, when he
began to study it with diligent tenacity.
Leonardos artistic inclinations must have appeared early. When he was about 15, his father, who
enjoyed a high reputation in the Florence community, apprenticed him to artist Andrea del
Verrocchio. In Verrocchios renowned workshop Leonardo received a multifaceted training that
included painting and sculpture as well as the technical-mechanical arts. He also worked in the
next-door workshop of artist Antonio Pollaiuolo. In 1472 Leonardo was accepted into the painters
guild of Florence, but he remained in his teachers workshop for five more years, after which time
he worked independently in Florence until 1481. There are a great many superb extant pen and
pencil drawings from this period, including many technical sketchesfor example, pumps, military
weapons, mechanical apparatusthat offer evidence of Leonardos interest in and knowledge of
technical matters even at the outset of his career.

First Milanese period (148299)

In 1482 Leonardo moved to Milan to work in the service of the citys dukea surprising step when
one realizes that the 30-year-old artist had just received his first substantial commissions from his
native city of Florence: the unfinished panel painting The Adoration of the Magi for the monastery
of San Donato a Scopeto and an altar painting for the St. Bernard Chapel in the Palazzo della
Signoria, which was never begun. That he gave up both projects seems to indicate that he had
deeper reasons for leaving Florence. It may have been that the rather sophisticated spirit of
Neoplatonism prevailing in the Florence of the Medici went against the grain of Leonardos
experience-oriented mind and that the more strict, academic atmosphere of Milan attracted him.
Moreover, he was no doubt enticed by Duke Ludovico Sforzas brilliant court and the meaningful
projects awaiting him there.
Leonardo spent 17 years in Milan, until Ludovicos fall from power in 1499. He was listed in the
register of the royal household as pictor et ingeniarius ducalis (painter and engineer of the duke).
Leonardos gracious but reserved personality and elegant bearing were well-received in court
circles. Highly esteemed, he was constantly kept busy as a painter and sculptor and as a designer of
court festivals. He was also frequently consulted as a technical adviser in the fields of architecture,
fortifications, and military matters, and he served as a hydraulic and mechanical engineer. As he
would throughout his life, Leonardo set boundless goals for himself; if one traces the outlines of his
work for this period, or for his life as a whole, one is tempted to call it a grandiose unfinished

symphony.
As a painter, Leonardo completed six works in the 17 years in Milan. (According to contemporary
sources, Leonardo was commissioned to create three more pictures, but these works have since
disappeared or were never done.) From about 1483 to 1486, he worked on the altar painting The
Virgin of the Rocks, a project that led to 10 years of litigation between the Confraternity of the
Immaculate Conception, which commissioned it, and Leonardo; for uncertain purposes, this legal
dispute led Leonardo to create another version of the work in about 1508. During this first Milanese
period he also made one of his most famous works, the monumental wall painting The Last Supper
(149598) in the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie (for more analysis of this
work, see below The Last Supper). Also of note is the decorative ceiling painting (1498) he made
for the Sala delle Asse in the Milan Castello Sforzesco.
During this period Leonardo worked on a grandiose sculptural project that seems to have been the
real reason he was invited to Milan: a monumental equestrian statue in bronze to be erected in
honour of Francesco Sforza, the founder of the Sforza dynasty. Leonardo devoted 12 yearswith
interruptionsto this task. In 1493 the clay model of the horse was put on public display on the
occasion of the marriage of Emperor Maximilian to Bianca Maria Sforza, and preparations were
made to cast the colossal figure, which was to be 16 feet (5 metres) high. But, because of the
imminent danger of war, the metal, ready to be poured, was used to make cannons instead, causing
the project to come to a halt. Ludovicos fall in 1499 sealed the fate of this abortive undertaking,
which was perhaps the grandest concept of a monument in the 15th century. The ensuing war left
the clay model a heap of ruins.
As a master artist, Leonardo maintained an extensive workshop in Milan, employing apprentices
and students. Among Leonardos pupils at this time were Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, Ambrogio de
Predis, Bernardino de Conti, Francesco Napoletano, Andrea Solari, Marco dOggiono, and Salai.
The role of most of these associates is unclear, leading to the question of Leonardos so-called
apocryphal works, on which the master collaborated with his assistants. Scholars have been unable
to agree in their attributions of these works.

Second Florentine period (150008)

In December 1499 or, at the latest, January 1500shortly after the victorious entry of the French
into MilanLeonardo left that city in the company of mathematician Lucas Pacioli. After visiting
Mantua in February 1500, in March he proceeded to Venice, where the Signoria (governing council)
sought his advice on how to ward off a threatened Turkish incursion in Friuli. Leonardo
recommended that they prepare to flood the menaced region. From Venice he returned to Florence,
where, after a long absence, he was received with acclaim and honoured as a renowned native son.
In that same year he was appointed an architectural expert on a committee investigating damages to
the foundation and structure of the church of San Francesco al Monte. A guest of the Servite order
in the cloister of Santissima Annunziata, Leonardo seems to have been concentrating more on
mathematical studies than painting, or so Isabella dEste, who sought in vain to obtain a painting
done by him, was informed by Fra Pietro Nuvolaria, her representative in Florence.
Perhaps because of his omnivorous appetite for life, Leonardo left Florence in the summer of 1502

to enter the service of Cesare Borgia as senior military architect and general engineer. Borgia, the
notorious son of Pope Alexander VI, had, as commander in chief of the papal army, sought with
unexampled ruthlessness to gain control of the Papal States of Romagna and the Marches. When he
enlisted the services of Leonardo, he was at the peak of his power and, at age 27, was undoubtedly
the most compelling and most feared person of his time. Leonardo, twice his age, must have been
fascinated by his personality. For 10 months Leonardo traveled across the condottieres territories
and surveyed them. In the course of his activity, he sketched some of the city plans and
topographical maps, creating early examples of aspects of modern cartography. At the court of
Cesare Borgia, Leonardo also met Niccol Machiavelli, who was temporarily stationed there as a
political observer for the city of Florence.
In the spring of 1503 Leonardo returned to Florence to make an expert survey of a project that
attempted to divert the Arno River behind Pisa so that the city, then under siege by the Florentines,
would be deprived of access to the sea. The plan proved unworkable, but Leonardos activity led
him to consider a plan, first advanced in the 13th century, to build a large canal that would bypass
the unnavigable stretch of the Arno and connect Florence by water with the sea. Leonardo
developed his ideas in a series of studies; using his own panoramic views of the riverbank, which
can be seen as landscape sketches of great artistic charm, and using exact measurements of the
terrain, he produced a map in which the route of the canal (with its transit through the mountain
pass of Serravalle) was shown. The project, considered time and again in subsequent centuries, was
never carried out, but centuries later the express highway from Florence to the sea was built over
the exact route Leonardo chose for his canal.
Also in 1503 Leonardo received a prized commission to paint a mural for the council hall in
Florences Palazzo Vecchio; a historical scene of monumental proportions (at 23 56 feet [7 17
metres], it would have been twice as large as The Last Supper). For three years he worked on this
Battle of Anghiari; like its intended complementary painting, Michelangelos Battle of Cascina, it
remained unfinished. During these same years Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa (c. 150306). (For
more analysis of the work, see below The Mona Lisa and other works.)
The second Florentine period was also a time of intensive scientific study. Leonardo did dissections
in the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova and broadened his anatomical work into a comprehensive
study of the structure and function of the human organism. He made systematic observations of the
flight of birds, about which he planned a treatise. Even his hydrological studies, on the nature and
movement of water, broadened into research on the physical properties of water, especially the
laws of currents, which he compared with those pertaining to air. These were also set down in his
own collection of data, contained in the so-called Codex Hammer (formerly known as the Leicester
Codex, now in the property of software entrepreneur Bill Gates in Seattle, Washington, U.S.).

Second Milanese period (150813)

In May 1506 Charles dAmboise, the French governor in Milan, asked the Signoria in Florence if
Leonardo could travel to Milan. The Signoria let Leonardo go, and the monumental Battle of
Anghiari remained unfinished. Unsuccessful technical experiments with paints seem to have
impelled Leonardo to stop working on the mural; one cannot otherwise explain his abandonment of
this great work. In the winter of 150708 Leonardo went to Florence, where he helped the sculptor

Giovanni Francesco Rustici execute his bronze statues for the Florence Baptistery, after which time
he settled in Milan.
Honoured and admired by his generous patrons in Milan, Charles dAmboise and King Louis XII,
Leonardo enjoyed his duties, which were limited largely to advice in architectural matters. Tangible
evidence of such work exists in plans for a palace-villa for Charles, and it is believed that he made
some sketches for an oratory for the church of Santa Maria alla Fontana, which Charles funded.
Leonardo also looked into an old project revived by the French governor: the Adda River that
would link Milan with Lake Como by water.
During this second period in Milan, Leonardo created very little as a painter. Again Leonardo
gathered pupils around him. Of his older disciples, Bernardino de Conti and Salai were again in his
studio; new students came, among them Cesare da Sesto, Giampetrino, Bernardino Luini, and the
young nobleman Francesco Melzi, Leonardos most faithful friend and companion until the artists
death.
An important commission came Leonardos way during this time. Gian Giacomo Trivulzio had
returned victoriously to Milan as marshal of the French army and as a bitter foe of Ludovico Sforza.
He commissioned Leonardo to sculpt his tomb, which was to take the form of an equestrian statue
and be placed in the mortuary chapel donated by Trivulzio to the church of San Nazaro Maggiore.
After years of preparatory work on the monument, for which a number of significant sketches have
survived, the marshal himself gave up the plan in favour of a more modest one. This was the second
aborted project Leonardo faced as a sculptor.
Leonardos scientific activity flourished during this period. His studies in anatomy achieved a new
dimension in his collaboration with Marcantonio della Torre, a famous anatomist from Pavia.
Leonardo outlined a plan for an overall work that would include not only exact, detailed
reproductions of the human body and its organs but would also include comparative anatomy and
the whole field of physiology. He even planned to finish his anatomical manuscript in the winter of
151011. Beyond that, his manuscripts are replete with mathematical, optical, mechanical,
geological, and botanical studies. These investigations became increasingly driven by a central idea:
the conviction that force and motion as basic mechanical functions produce all outward forms in
organic and inorganic nature and give them their shape. Furthermore, he believed that these
functioning forces operate in accordance with orderly, harmonious laws.

Last years (151319)

In 1513 political eventsthe temporary expulsion of the French from Milancaused the now 60year-old Leonardo to move again. At the end of the year, he went to Rome, accompanied by his
pupils Melzi and Salai as well as by two studio assistants, hoping to find employment there through
his patron Giuliano de Medici, brother of the new pope, Leo X. Giuliano gave him a suite of rooms
in his residence, the Belvedere, in the Vatican. He also gave Leonardo a considerable monthly
stipend, but no large commissions followed. For three years Leonardo remained in Rome at a time
of great artistic activity: Donato Bramante was building St. Peters, Raphael was painting the last
rooms of the popes new apartments, Michelangelo was struggling to complete the tomb of Pope
Julius II, and many younger artists, such as Timoteo Viti and Sodoma, were also active. Drafts of

embittered letters betray the disappointment of the aging master, who kept a low profile while he
worked in his studio on mathematical studies and technical experiments or surveyed ancient
monuments as he strolled through the city. Leonardo seems to have spent time with Bramante, but
the latter died in 1514, and there is no record of Leonardos relations with any other artists in Rome.
A magnificently executed map of the Pontine Marshes suggests that Leonardo was at least a
consultant for a reclamation project that Giuliano de Medici ordered in 1514. He also made
sketches for a spacious residence to be built in Florence for the Medici, who had returned to power
there in 1512. However, the structure was never built.
Perhaps stifled by this scene, at age 65 Leonardo accepted the invitation of the young King Francis I
to enter his service in France. At the end of 1516 he left Italy forever, together with Melzi, his most
devoted pupil. Leonardo spent the last three years of his life in the small residence of Cloux (later
called Clos-Luc), near the kings summer palace at Amboise on the Loire. He proudly bore the title
Premier peintre, architecte et mchanicien du Roi (First painter, architect, and engineer to the
King). Leonardo still made sketches for court festivals, but the king treated him in every respect as
an honoured guest and allowed him freedom of action. Decades later, Francis I talked with the
sculptor Benvenuto Cellini about Leonardo in terms of the utmost admiration and esteem. For the
king, Leonardo drew up plans for the palace and garden of Romorantin, which was destined to be
the widows residence of the Queen Mother. But the carefully worked-out project, combining the
best features of Italian-French traditions in palace and landscape architecture, had to be halted
because the region was threatened with malaria.
Leonardo did little painting while in France, spending most of his time arranging and editing his
scientific studies, his treatise on painting, and a few pages of his anatomy treatise. In the so-called
Visions of the End of the World, or Deluge, series (c. 151415), he depicted with overpowering
imagination the primal forces that rule nature, while also perhaps betraying his growing pessimism.
Leonardo died at Cloux and was buried in the palace church of Saint-Florentin. The church was
devastated during the French Revolution and completely torn down at the beginning of the 19th
century; his grave can no longer be located. Melzi was heir to Leonardos artistic and scientific
estate.

Art and accomplishment

Painting and drawing
Leonardos total output in painting is really rather small; only 17 of the paintings that have survived
can be definitely attributed to him, and several of them are unfinished. Two of his most important
worksthe Battle of Anghiari and the Leda, neither of them completedhave survived only in
copies. Yet these few creations have established the unique fame of a man whom Giorgio Vasari, in
his seminal Lives of the Most Eminent Italian Architects, Painters and Sculptors (1550, 2nd ed.,
1568), described as the founder of the High Renaissance. Leonardos works, unaffected by the
vicissitudes of aesthetic doctrines in subsequent centuries, have stood out in all subsequent periods
and all countries as consummate masterpieces of painting.
The many testimonials to Leonardo, ranging from Vasari to Peter Paul Rubens to Johann Wolfgang

von Goethe to Eugne Delacroix, praise in particular the artists gift for expressionhis ability to
move beyond technique and narrative to convey an underlying sense of emotion. The artists
remarkable talent, especially his keenness of observation and creative imagination, was already
revealed in the angel he contributed to Verrocchios Baptism of Christ (c. 147275): Leonardo
endowed the angel with natural movement, presented it with a relaxed demeanour, and gave it an
enigmatic glance that both acknowledges its surroundings while remaining inwardly directed. In
Leonardos landscape segment in the same picture, he also found a new expression for what he
called nature experienced: he reproduced the background forms in a hazy fashion as if through a
veil of mist.
In the Benois Madonna (147578) Leonardo succeeded in giving a traditional type of picture a new,
unusually charming, and expressive mood by showing the child Jesus reaching, in a sweet and
tender manner, for the flower in Marys hand. In his Portrait of Ginevra de Benci (c. 1480)
Leonardo opened new paths for portrait painting with his singular linking of nearness and distance
and his brilliant rendering of light and texture. He presented the emaciated body of his St. Jerome
(unfinished; begun 1480) in a sobering light, imbuing it with a realism that stemmed from his keen
knowledge of anatomy; Leonardos mastery of gesture and facial expression gave his Jerome an
unrivalled expression of transfigured sorrow.

Linear
perspective study for The Adoration of the Magi, silverpoint, Alinari/Art Resource, New YorkThe
interplay of masterful technique and affective gesturephysical and spiritual motion, in
Leonardos wordsis also the chief concern of his first large creation containing many figures, The
Adoration of the Magi (begun 1481). Never finished, the painting nonetheless affords rich insight
into the masters subtle methods. The various aspects of the scene are built up from the base with
very delicate, paper-thin layers of paint in sfumato (the smooth transition from light to shadow)
relief. The main treatment of the Virgin and Child group and the secondary treatment of the
surrounding groups are clearly set apart with a masterful sense of compositionthe pyramid of the
Virgin Mary and Magi is demarcated from the arc of the adoring followers. Yet thematically they
are closely interconnected: the bearing and expression of the figuresmost striking in the group of
praying shepherdsdepict many levels of profound amazement.

The Virgin of the Rocks, oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci,

Giraudon/Art Resource, New YorkThe Virgin of the Rocks in its first version (148386) is the work
that reveals Leonardos painting at its purest. It depicts the apocryphal legend of the meeting in the
wilderness between the young John the Baptist and Jesus returning home from Egypt. The secret of
the pictures effect lies in Leonardos use of every means at his disposal to emphasize the visionary
nature of the scene: the soft colour tones (through sfumato), the dim light of the cave from which
the figures emerge bathed in light, their quiet attitude, the meaningful gesture with which the angel
(the only figure facing the viewer) points to John as the intercessor between the Son of God and
humanityall this combines, in a patterned and formal way, to create a moving and highly
expressive work of art.

The Last Supper

The
Last Supper, fresco by Leonardo da Vinci, 149598; in Santa SuperStockLeonardos Last Supper
(149598) is among the most famous paintings in the world. In its monumental simplicity, the
composition of the scene is masterful; the power of its effect comes from the striking contrast in the
attitudes of the 12 disciples as counterposed to Christ. Leonardo portrayed a moment of high

tension when, surrounded by the Apostles as they share Passover, Jesus says, One of you will
betray me. All the Apostlesas human beings who do not understand what is about to occurare
agitated, whereas Christ alone, conscious of his divine mission, sits in lonely, transfigured serenity.
Only one other being shares the secret knowledge: Judas, who is both part of and yet excluded from
the movement of his companions. In this isolation he becomes the second lonely figurethe guilty
oneof the company.
In the profound conception of his theme, in the perfect yet seemingly simple arrangement of the
individuals, in the temperaments of the Apostles highlighted by gesture, facial expressions, and
poses, in the drama and at the same time the sublimity of the treatment, Leonardo attained a height
of expression that has remained a model of its kind. Countless painters in succeeding generations,
among them great masters such as Rubens and Rembrandt, marveled at Leonardos composition and
were influenced by it and by the paintings narrative quality. The work also inspired some of
Goethes finest pages of descriptive prose. It has become widely known through countless
reproductions and prints, the most important being that produced by Raffaello Morghen in 1800.
Thus, The Last Supper has become part of humanitys common heritage and remains today one of
the worlds outstanding paintings.
Technical deficiencies in the execution of the work have not lessened its fame. Leonardo was
uncertain about the technique he should use. He bypassed traditional fresco painting, which,
because it is executed on fresh plaster, demands quick and uninterrupted painting, in favour of
another technique he had developed: tempera on a base, which he mixed himself, on the stone wall.
This procedure proved unsuccessful, inasmuch as the base soon began to loosen from the wall.
Damage appeared by the beginning of the 16th century, and deterioration soon set in. By the middle
of the century, the work was called a ruin. Later, inadequate attempts at restoration only aggravated
the situation, and not until the most-modern restoration techniques were applied after World War II
was the process of decay halted. A major restoration campaign begun in 1980 and completed in
1999 restored the work to brilliance but also revealed that very little of the original paint remains.

Art and science: the notebooks

In the years between 1490 and 1495, the great program of Leonardo the writer (author of treatises)
began. During this period, his interest in two fieldsthe artistic and the scientificdeveloped and
shaped his future work, building toward a kind of creative dualism that sparked his inventiveness in
both fields. He gradually gave shape to four main themes that were to occupy him for the rest of his
life: a treatise on painting, a treatise on architecture, a book on the elements of mechanics, and a
broadly outlined work on human anatomy. His geophysical, botanical, hydrological, and aerological
researches also began in this period and constitute parts of the visible cosmology that loomed
before him as a distant goal. He scorned speculative book knowledge, favouring instead the
irrefutable facts gained from experiencefrom saper vedere.
From this approach came Leonardos far-reaching concept of a science of painting. Leon Battista
Alberti and Piero della Francesca had already offered proof of the mathematical basis of painting in
their analysis of the laws of perspective and proportion, thereby buttressing his claim of painting
being a science. But Leonardos claims went much further: he believed that the painter, doubly
endowed with subtle powers of perception and the complete ability to pictorialize them, was the

person best qualified to achieve true knowledge, as he could closely observe and then carefully
reproduce the world around him. Hence, Leonardo conceived the staggering plan of observing all
objects in the visible world, recognizing their form and structure, and pictorially describing them
exactly as they are.
It was during his first years in Milan that Leonardo began the earliest of his notebooks. He would
first make quick sketches of his observations on loose sheets or on tiny paper pads he kept in his
belt; then he would arrange them according to theme and enter them in order in the notebook.
Surviving in notebooks from throughout his career are a first collection of material for a painting
treatise, a model book of sketches for sacred and profane architecture, a treatise on elementary
theory of mechanics, and the first sections of a treatise on the human body.
Leonardos notebooks add up to thousands of closely written pages abundantly illustrated with
sketchesthe most voluminous literary legacy any painter has ever left behind. Of more than 40
codices mentionedsometimes inaccuratelyin contemporary sources, 21 have survived; these in
turn sometimes contain notebooks originally separate but now bound so that 32 in all have been
preserved. To these should be added several large bundles of documents: an omnibus volume in the
Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, called Codex Atlanticus because of its size, was collected by the
sculptor Pompeo Leoni at the end of the 16th century; after a roundabout journey, its companion
volume fell into the possession of the English crown in the 17th century and was placed in the
Royal Library in Windsor Castle. Finally, the Arundel Manuscript in the British Museum in London
contains a number of Leonardos fascicles on various themes.
One special feature that makes Leonardos notes and sketches unusual is his use of mirror writing.
Leonardo was left-handed, so mirror writing came easily and naturally to himalthough it is
uncertain why he chose to do so. While somewhat unusual, his script can be read clearly and
without difficulty with the help of a mirroras his contemporaries testifiedand should not be
looked on as a secret handwriting. But the fact that Leonardo used mirror writing throughout the
notebooks, even in his copies drawn up with painstaking calligraphy, forces one to conclude that,
although he constantly addressed an imaginary reader in his writings, he never felt the need to
achieve easy communication by using conventional handwriting. His writings must be interpreted
as preliminary stages of works destined for eventual publication that Leonardo never got around to
completing. In a sentence in the margin of one of his late anatomy sketches, he implores his
followers to see that his works are printed.
Another unusual feature in Leonardos writings is the relationship between word and picture in the
notebooks. Leonardo strove passionately for a language that was clear yet expressive. The vividness
and wealth of his vocabulary were the result of intense independent study and represented a
significant contribution to the evolution of scientific prose in the Italian vernacular. Despite his
articulateness, Leonardo gave absolute precedence to the illustration over the written word in his
teaching method. Hence, in his notebooks, the drawing does not illustrate the text; rather, the text
serves to explain the picture. In formulating his own principle of graphic representationswhich he
called dimostrazione (demonstrations)Leonardos work was a precursor of modern scientific
illustration.

The Mona Lisa and other works

Virgin and Child with St. Anne, oil on wood panel by Leonardo da
Vinci, c. 150216. In Photograph, courtesy of GiraudonArt Resource, New YorkIn the
Florence years between 1500 and 1506, Leonardo began three great works that confirmed and
heightened his fame: Virgin and Child with St. Anne (c. 150216), Mona Lisa (c. 150306), and
Battle of Anghiari (unfinished; begun 1503). Even before it was completed, the Virgin and Child
with St. Anne won the critical acclaim of the Florentines; the monumental, three-dimensional quality
of the group and the calculated effects of dynamism and tension in the composition made it a model
that inspired Classicists and Mannerists in equal measure.

Mona Lisa, oil on wood panel by Leonardo da Vinci, c. Scala/Art

Resource, New YorkThe Mona Lisa set the standard for all future portraits. The painting presents a
woman revealed in the 21st century to have been Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of the Florentine
merchant Francesco del Giocondohence, the alternative title to the work, La Gioconda. The
picture presents a half-body portrait of the subject, with a distant landscape visible as a backdrop.
Although utilizing a seemingly simple formula for portraiture, the expressive synthesis that
Leonardo achieved between sitter and landscape has placed this work in the canon of the mostpopular and most-analyzed paintings of all time. The sensuous curves of the womans hair and

clothing, created through sfumato, are echoed in the undulating valleys and rivers behind her. The
sense of overall harmony achieved in the paintingespecially apparent in the sitters faint smile
reflects Leonardos idea of the cosmic link connecting humanity and nature, making this painting an
enduring record of Leonardos vision and genius. The young Raphael sketched the work in
progress, and it served as a model for his Portrait of Maddalena Doni (c. 1506).
Leonardos art of expression reached another high point in the unfinished Battle of Anghiari. The
preliminary drawingsmany of which have been preservedreveal Leonardos lofty conception of
the science of painting; he put to artistic use the laws of equilibrium that he had probed in his
studies of mechanics. The centre of gravity in the work lies in the group of flags fought for by all
the horsemen. For a moment the intense and expanding movement of the swirl of riders seems
frozen. Leonardos studies in anatomy and physiology influenced his representation of human and
animal bodies, particularly when they are in a state of excitement. He studied and described
extensively the baring of teeth and puffing of lips as signs of animal and human anger. On the
painted canvas, rider and horse, their features distorted, are remarkably similar in expression.
The highly imaginative trappings of the painting take the event out of the sphere of the historical
and put it into a timeless realm. The cartoon and the copies showing the main scene of the battle
were for a long time influential to other artists; to quote the sculptor Benvenuto Cellini, the works
became the school of the world. Its composition has influenced many painters: from Rubens in
the 17th century, who made the most impressive copy of the scene from Leonardos now-lost
cartoon, to Delacroix in the 19th century.

Later painting and drawing

After 1507in Milan, Rome, and FranceLeonardo did very little painting. During his years in
Milan he returned to the Leda themewhich had been occupying him for a decadeand probably
finished a standing version of Leda about 1513 (the work survives only through copies). This
painting became a model of the figura serpentinata (sinuous figure)that is, a figure built up
from several intertwining views. It influenced classical artists such as Raphael, who drew it, but it
had an equally strong effect on Mannerists such as Jacopo da Pontormo. The drawings he prepared
revealing examples of his late stylehave a curious, enigmatic sensuality. Perhaps in Rome he
began the painting St. John the Baptist, which he completed in France. Leonardo radically used
light and shade to achieve sculptural volume and atmosphere; John emerges from darkness into
light and seems to emanate light and goodness. Moreover, in painting the saints enigmatic smile, he
presented Christs forerunner as the herald of a mystic oracle. Leonardos was an art of expression
that seemed to strive consciously to bring out the hidden ambiguity of the theme. Consummate
drawings from this period, such as the Pointing Lady (c. 1516), also are testaments to his
undiminished genius.
The last manifestation of Leonardos art of expression was in his series of pictorial sketches Visions
of the End of the World (c. 151415). There Leonardos power of imaginationborn of reason and
fantasyattained its highest level. Leonardo suggested that the immaterial forces in the cosmos,
invisible in themselves, appear in the material things they set in motion. What he had observed in
the swirling of water and eddying of air, in the shape of a mountain boulder and in the growth of
plants, now assumed gigantic shape in cloud formations and rainstorms. He depicted the framework

of the world as splitting asunder, but even in its destruction there occursas the monstrously
beautiful forms of the unleashed elements showthe self-same laws of order, harmony, and
proportion that presided at the worlds creation. These rules govern the life and death of every
created thing in nature. Without any precedent, these visions are the last and most original
expressions of Leonardos artan art in which his perception based on saper vedere seems to have
come to fruition.

Sculpture
Leonardo worked as a sculptor from his youth on, as shown in his own statements and those of
other sources. A small group of generals heads in marble and plaster, works of Verrocchios
followers, are sometimes linked with Leonardo, because a lovely drawing attributed to him that is
on the same theme suggests such a connection. But the inferior quality of this group of sculpture
rules out an attribution to the master. No trace has remained of the heads of women and children
that, according to Vasari, Leonardo modeled in clay in his youth.
The two great sculptural projects to which Leonardo devoted himself wholeheartedly were not
realized; neither the huge, bronze equestrian statue for Francesco Sforza, on which he worked from
about 1489 to 1494, nor the monument for Marshal Trivulzio, on which he was busy in the years
150611, were brought to completion. Many sketches of the work exist, but the most impressive
were found in 1965 when two of Leonardos notebooksthe so-called Madrid Codiceswere
discovered in the National Library of Madrid. These notebooks reveal the sublimity but also the
almost unreal boldness of his conception. Text and drawings both show Leonardos wide experience
in the technique of bronze casting, but at the same time they reveal the almost utopian nature of the
project. He wanted to cast the horse in a single piece, but the gigantic dimensions of the steed
presented insurmountable technical problems. Indeed, Leonardo remained uncertain of the
problems solution to the very end.
The drawings for these two monuments reveal the greatness of Leonardos vision of sculpture.
Exact studies of the anatomy, movement, and proportions of a live horse preceded the sketches for
the monuments; Leonardo even seems to have thought of writing a treatise on the horse. He
pondered the merits of two positions for the horsegalloping or trottingand in both commissions
decided in favour of the latter. These sketches, superior in the suppressed tension of horse and rider
to the achievements of Donatellos statue of Gattamelata and Verrocchios statue of Colleoni, are
among the most beautiful and significant examples of Leonardos art. Unquestionablyas ideas
they exerted a very strong influence on the development of equestrian statues in the 16th century.
A small bronze statue of a galloping horseman in Budapest is so close to Leonardos style that, if
not from his own hand, it must have been done under his immediate influence (perhaps by Giovanni
Francesco Rustici). Rustici, according to Vasari, was Leonardos zealous student and enjoyed his
masters help in sculpting his large group in bronze, St. John the Baptist Teaching, over the north
door of the Baptistery in Florence. There are, indeed, discernible traces of Leonardos influence in
Johns stance, with the unusual gesture of his upward pointing hand, and in the figure of the baldheaded Levite. While there are few extant examples to study of Leonardos sculptural work, the
elements of motion and volume he explored in the medium no doubt influenced his drawing and
painting, and vice versa.

Architecture
Applying for service in a letter to Ludovico Sforza, Leonardo described himself as an experienced
architect, military engineer, and hydraulic engineer; indeed, he was concerned with architectural
matters all his life. But his effectiveness was essentially limited to the role of an adviser. Only once
in the competition for the cupola of the Milan cathedral (148790)did he actually consider
personal participation, but he gave up this idea when the model he had submitted was returned to
him. In other instances, his claim to being a practicing architect was based on sketches for
representative secular buildings: for the palace of a Milanese nobleman (about 1490), for the villa of
the French governor in Milan (150708), and for the Medici residence in Florence (1515). Finally,
there was his big project for the palace and garden of Romorantin in France (151719). Especially
in this last project, Leonardos pencil sketches clearly reveal his mastery of technical as well as
artistic architectural problems; the view in perspective gives an idea of the magnificence of the site.
But what really characterizes and immortalized Leonardos architectural studies is their
comprehensiveness; they range far afield and embrace every type of building problem of his time
and even involve urban planning. Furthermore, there frequently appears evidence of Leonardos
impulse to teach: he wanted to collect his writings on this theme in a theory of architecture. This
treatise on architecturethe initial lines of which are in Codex B in the Institut de France in Paris, a
model book of the types of sacred and profane buildingswas to deal with the entire field of
architecture as well as with the theories of forms and construction and was to include such items as
urbanism, sacred and profane buildings, and a compendium of important individual elements (for
example, domes, steps, portals, and windows).
In the fullness and richness of their ideas, Leonardos architectural studies offer an unusually wideranging insight into the architectural achievements of his epoch. Like a seismograph, his
observations sensitively register all themes and problems. For almost 20 years he was associated
with Bramante at the court of Milan and again met him in Rome in 151314; he was closely
associated with other distinguished architects, such as Francesco di Giorgio, Giuliano da Sangallo,
Giovanni Antonio Amadeo, and Luca Fancelli. Thus, he was brought in closest touch with all of the
most-significant building undertakings of the time. Since Leonardos architectural drawings extend
over his whole life, they span precisely that developmentally crucial periodfrom the 1480s to the
second decade of the 16th centuryin which the principles of the High Renaissance style were
formulated and came to maturity. That this genetic process can be followed in the ideas of one of
the greatest men of the period lends Leonardos studies their distinctive artistic value and their
outstanding historical significance.

Science
Science of painting
Leonardos advocacy of a science of painting is best displayed in his notebook writings under the
general heading On Painting. The notebooks provide evidence that, among many projects he
planned, he intended to write a treatise discussing painting. After inheriting Leonardos vast
manuscript legacy in 1519, it is believed that, sometime before 1542, Melzi extracted passages from

them and organized them into the Trattato della pittura (Treatise on Painting) that is attributed to
Leonardo. Only about a quarter of the sources for Melzis manuscriptknown as the Codex
Urbinas, in the Vatican Libraryhave been identified and located in the extant notebooks, and it is
impossible to assess how closely Melzis presentation of the material reflected Leonardos specific
intentions.
Abridged copies of Melzis manuscript appeared in Italy during the late 16th century, and in 1651
the first printed editions were published in French and Italian in Paris by Raffaelo du Fresne, with
illustrations after drawings by Nicolas Poussin. The first complete edition of Melzis text did not
appear until 1817, published in Rome. The two standard modern editions are those of Emil Ludwig
(1882; in 3 vol. with German translation) and A. Philip McMahon (1956; in 2 vol., a facsimile of
the Codex Urbinas with English translation).
Despite the uncertainties surrounding Melzis presentation of Leonardos ideas, the passages in
Leonardos extant notebooks identified with the heading On Painting offer an indication of the
treatise Leonardo had in mind. As was customary in treatises of the time, Leonardo planned to
combine theoretical exposition with practical information, in this case offering practical career
advice to other artists. But his primary concern in the treatise was to argue that painting is a science,
raising its status as a discipline from the mechanical arts to the liberal arts. By defining painting as
the sole imitator of all the manifest works of nature, Leonardo gave essential significance to the
authority of the eye, believing firmly in the importance of saper vedere. This was the informing idea
behind his defense of painting as a science.
In his notebooks Leonardo pursues this defense through the form of the paragone (comparison), a
disputation that advances the supremacy of painting over the other arts. He roots his case in the
function of the senses, asserting that the eye deludes itself less than any of the other senses, and
thereby suggests that the direct observation inherent in creating a painting has a truthful, scientific
quality. After asserting that the useful results of science are communicable, he states that painting
is similarly clear: unlike poetry, he argues, painting presents its results as a matter for the visual
faculty, giving immediate satisfaction to human beings in no other way than the things produced
by nature herself. Leonardo also distinguishes between painting and sculpture, claiming that the
manual labour involved in sculpting detracts from its intellectual aspects, and that the illusionistic
challenge of painting (working in two rather than three dimensions) requires that the painter possess
a better grasp of mathematical and optical principles than the sculptor.
In defining painting as a science, Leonardo also emphasizes its mathematical basis. In the
notebooks he explains that the 10 optical functions of the eye (darkness, light, body and colour,
shape and location, distance and closeness, motion and rest) are all essential components of
painting. He addresses these functions through detailed discourses on perspective that include
explanations of perspectival systems based on geometry, proportion, and the modulation of light
and shade. He differentiates between types of perspective, including the conventional form based on
a single vanishing point, the use of multiple vanishing points, and aerial perspective. In addition to
these orthodox systems, he exploresvia words and geometric and analytic drawingsthe
concepts of wide-angle vision, lateral recession, and atmospheric perspective, through which the
blurring of clarity and progressive lightening of tone is used to create the illusion of deep spatial
recession. He further offers practical adviceagain through words and sketchesabout how to

paint optical effects such as light, shadow, distance, atmosphere, smoke, and water, as well as how
to portray aspects of human anatomy, such as human proportion and facial expressions.

Anatomical studies and drawings

Human fetus, pen-and-ink studies by Leonardo

da Vinci, c. 1510.SuperStockLeonardos fascination with anatomical studies reveals a prevailing
artistic interest of the time. In his own treatise Della pittura (1435; On Painting), theorist Leon
Battista Alberti urged painters to construct the human figure as it exists in nature, supported by the
skeleton and musculature, and only then clothed in skin. Although the date of Leonardos initial
involvement with anatomical study is not known, it is sound to speculate that his anatomical interest
was sparked during his apprenticeship in Verrocchios workshop, either in response to his masters
interest or to that of Verrocchios neighbor Pollaiuolo, who was renowned for his fascination with
the workings of the human body. It cannot be determined exactly when Leonardo began to perform
dissections, but it might have been several years after he first moved to Milan, at the time a centre
of medical investigation. His study of anatomy, originally pursued for his training as an artist, had
grown by the 1490s into an independent area of research. As his sharp eye uncovered the structure
of the human body, Leonardo became fascinated by the figura istrumentale dell omo (mans
instrumental figure), and he sought to comprehend its physical working as a creation of nature.
Over the following two decades, he did practical work in anatomy on the dissection table in Milan,
then at hospitals in Florence and Rome, and in Pavia, where he collaborated with the physiciananatomist Marcantonio della Torre. By his own count Leonardo dissected 30 corpses in his lifetime.

Study of a nude man, sepia drawing by Leonardo da Vinci; in

the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan.Courtesy of Biblioteca Ambrosiana, MilanLeonardos early
anatomical studies dealt chiefly with the skeleton and muscles; yet even at the outset, Leonardo
combined anatomical with physiological research. From observing the static structure of the body,
Leonardo proceeded to study the role of individual parts of the body in mechanical activity. This led
him finally to the study of the internal organs; among them he probed most deeply into the brain,
heart, and lungs as the motors of the senses and of life. His findings from these studies were
recorded in the famous anatomical drawings, which are among the most significant achievements of
Renaissance science. The drawings are based on a connection between natural and abstract
representation; he represented parts of the body in transparent layers that afford an insight into the
organ by using sections in perspective, reproducing muscles as strings, indicating hidden parts by
dotted lines, and devising a hatching system. The genuine value of these dimostrazione lay in their
ability to synthesize a multiplicity of individual experiences at the dissecting table and make the
data immediately and accurately visible; as Leonardo proudly emphasized, these drawings were
superior to descriptive words. The wealth of Leonardos anatomical studies that have survived
forged the basic principles of modern scientific illustration. It is worth noting, however, that during
his lifetime, Leonardos medical investigations remained private. He did not consider himself a
professional in the field of anatomy, and he neither taught nor published his findings.

Vitruvian Man, a figure study by Leonardo

da Vinci (c. 1509).Creatas/ThinkstockAlthough he kept his anatomical studies to himself, Leonardo
did publish some of his observations on human proportion. Working with the mathematician Luca
Pacioli, Leonardo considered the proportional theories of Vitruvius, the 1st-century-bce Roman
architect, as presented in his treatise De architectura (On Architecture). Imposing the principles
of geometry on the configuration of the human body, Leonardo demonstrated that the ideal
proportion of the human figure corresponds with the forms of the circle and the square. In his
illustration of this theory, the so-called Vitruvian Man, Leonardo demonstrated that when a man
places his feet firmly on the ground and stretches out his arms, he can be contained within the four
lines of a square, but when in a spread-eagle position, he can be inscribed in a circle.
Leonardo envisaged the great picture chart of the human body he had produced through his
anatomical drawings and Vitruvian Man as a cosmografia del minor mondo (cosmography of the
microcosm). He believed the workings of the human body to be an analogy, in microcosm, for the
workings of the universe. Leonardo wrote: Man has been called by the ancients a lesser world, and
indeed the name is well applied; because, as man is composed of earth, water, air, and firethis
body of the earth is similar. He compared the human skeleton to rocks (supports of the earth) and
the expansion of the lungs in breathing to the ebb and flow of the oceans.

Mechanics and cosmology

According to Leonardos observations, the study of mechanics, with which he became quite familiar
as an architect and engineer, also reflected the workings of nature. Throughout his life Leonardo
was an inventive builder; he thoroughly understood the principles of mechanics of his time and
contributed in many ways to advancing them. The two Madrid notebooks deal extensively with his

theory of mechanics; the first was written in the 1490s, and the second was written between 1503
and 1505. Their importance lay less in their description of specific machines or work tools than in
their use of demonstration models to explain the basic mechanical principles and functions
employed in building machinery. As in his anatomical drawings, Leonardo developed definite
principles of graphic representationstylization, patterns, and diagramsthat offer a precise
demonstration of the object in question.
Leonardo was also quite active as a military engineer, beginning with his stay in Milan. But no
definitive examples of his work can be adduced. The Madrid notebooks revealed that, in 1504,
probably sent by the Florentine governing council, he stood at the side of the lord of Piombino
when the citys fortifications system was repaired and suggested a detailed plan for overhauling it.
His studies for large-scale canal projects in the Arno region and in Lombardy show that he was also
an expert in hydraulic engineering.

Screw-cutting machine by Leonardo da Vinci, c.

1500; in the Bibliothque de lInstitut de Courtesy of the Bibliothque de lInstitut de France,
Paris; photograph, The Science Museum, LondonLeonardo was especially intrigued by problems of
friction and resistance, and with each of the mechanical elements he presentedsuch as screw
threads, gears, hydraulic jacks, swiveling devices, and transmission gearsdrawings took
precedence over the written word. Throughout his career he also was intrigued by the mechanical
potential of motion. This led him to design a machine with a differential transmission, a moving
fortress that resembles a modern tank, and a flying machine. His helical airscrew (c. 1487) almost
seems a prototype for the modern helicopter, but, like the other vehicles Leonardo designed, it
presented a singular problem: it lacked an adequate source of power to provide propulsion and lift.

Leonardo da
Vincis plans for an ornithopter, a flying machine kept aloft by the beating of its
SuperStockWherever Leonardo probed the phenomena of nature, he recognized the existence of
primal mechanical forces that govern the shape and function of the universe. This is seen in his
studies of the flight of birds, in which his youthful idea of the feasibility of a flying apparatus took
shape and which led to exhaustive research into the element of air; in his studies of water, the
vetturale della natura (conveyor of nature), in which he was as much concerned with the physical
properties of water as with its laws of motion and currents; in his research on the laws of growth of
plants and trees, as well as the geologic structure of earth and hill formations; and, finally, in his
observation of air currents, which evoked the image of the flame of a candle or the picture of a wisp
of cloud and smoke. In his drawings based on the numerous experiments he undertook, Leonardo
found a stylized form of representation that was uniquely his own, especially in his studies of
whirlpools. He managed to break down a phenomenon into its component partsthe traces of water
or eddies of the whirlpoolyet at the same time preserve the total picture, creating both an analytic
and a synthetic vision.

Leonardo as artist-scientist
As the 15th century expired, Scholastic doctrines were in decline, and humanistic scholarship was
on the rise. Leonardo, however, was part of an intellectual circle that developed a third, specifically
modern, form of cognition. In his view, the artistas transmitter of the true and accurate data of
experience acquired by visual observationplayed a significant part. In an era that often compared
the process of divine creation to the activity of an artist, Leonardo reversed the analogy, using art as
his own means to approximate the mysteries of creation, asserting that, through the science of
painting, the mind of the painter is transformed into a copy of the divine mind, since it operates
freely in creating many kinds of animals, plants, fruits, landscapes, countrysides, ruins, and awe-

inspiring places. With this sense of the artists high calling, Leonardo approached the vast realm of
nature to probe its secrets. His utopian idea of transmitting in encyclopaedic form the knowledge
thus won was still bound up with medieval Scholastic conceptions; however, the results of his
research were among the first great achievements of the forthcoming ages thinking, because they
were based to an unprecedented degree on the principle of experience.
Finally, although he made strenuous efforts to become erudite in languages, natural science,
mathematics, philosophy, and history, as a mere listing of the wide-ranging contents of his library
demonstrates, Leonardo remained an empiricist of visual observation. It is precisely through this
observationand his own geniusthat he developed a unique theory of knowledge in which art
and science form a synthesis. In the face of his overall achievements, therefore, the question of how
much he finished or did not finish becomes pointless. The crux of the matter is his intellectual force
self-contained and inherent in every one of his creationsa force that continues to spark
scholarly interest today. In fact, debate has spilled over into the personal realm of his lifeover his
sexuality, religious beliefs, and even possible vegetarianism, for examplewhich only confirms
and reflects what has long been obvious: whether the subject is his life, his ideas, or his artistic
legacy, Leonardos influence shows little sign of abating.
Ludwig Heinrich HeydenreichEd.
"Leonardo da Vinci". Encyclopdia Britannica. Encyclopdia Britannica Online.
Encyclopdia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 07 Sep. 2015
<http://www.britannica.com/biography/Leonardo-da-Vinci>.