Leonardo da Vinci

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION Leonardo da Vinci was born on 15 April 1452 near Vinci in Tuscany, in what is now Italy. He trained in Florence in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, where painting was taught alongside sculpture, metalwork and other practical arts. By 1472, Leonardo had joined the painters’ Confraternity of Saint Luke. His early experience connected artistic invention with skilled craftsmanship, laying foundations for a career that crossed the boundaries between painting, design and engineering. FLORENCE AND MILAN In the early 1480s, Leonardo moved to Milan, where he eventually worked for the ruler Ludovico Sforza. Court service involved varied assignments, from portraits and religious paintings to designs for entertainments and an ambitious equestrian monument. The Virgin of the Rocks belongs to this period. Leonardo also painted The Last Supper for the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. Its arrangement of figures, expressions and gestures made the apostles’ different responses central to the drama of the scene. The French conquest of Milan in 1499 disrupted his employment. He returned to Florence and later worked again in Milan, before spending time in Rome and finally moving to France. PAINTING AND EXPRESSION Leonardo’s paintings helped reshape European art through their attention to composition, human expression and the relationship between figures and their surroundings. Drawing was an essential part of the process, allowing him to explore alternatives before committing to a painted composition. His best-known works include the Mona Lisa and The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, both in the Louvre. During his return to Florence, he also worked on the Battle of Anghiari, a major mural project that did not survive in its original form. NOTEBOOKS AND SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION Leonardo’s surviving drawings and notes reveal interests far beyond his completed paintings. He studied anatomy, light, movement, plants and water, using observation and diagrams to examine how things worked. His notebooks brought artistic problems into contact with questions of geometry and mechanics. Designs for flying machines show the reach of his imagination, although a drawing of a device should not be confused with evidence that it was successfully built or used. Many investigations remained unpublished during his lifetime. Their later study has been crucial to understanding the breadth of his work, while also showing how much remained provisional or unfinished. FINAL YEARS AND LEGACY Leonardo spent his final years in France under the patronage of King Francis I, serving as a painter, engineer and designer. He died at Amboise on 2 May 1519, aged sixty-seven. He left drawings and notebooks to his pupil Francesco Melzi. Their preservation helped later generations understand a career whose surviving paintings represent only part of his activity. Leonardo’s enduring significance lies both in those artworks and in the sustained curiosity recorded across thousands of studies and notes.