Da Vinci's disciples. The most famous paintings of Leonardo da Vinci

Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci, probably the work of his student Francesco Melzi. 1510-1512.Royal Library at Windsor Castle, England.

Leonardo da Vinci, full name Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (Leonardo, son of Mr. Piero da Vinci), during his lifetime the name was also often written Lionardo in Italian documents and Lyenard de Vince in French. Born on April 15, 1452 according to the Julian calendar in the town of Vinci or in the village of Anchiano, located 3 km from it, now the region of Tuscany, Italy; died on May 2, 1519 according to the Julian calendar at the Cloux estate, now Clos Lucé in the city of Amboise, Indre-et-Loire department, Center region, France. This is about one of the most famous artists peace; also one of the most talented people in history - a research scientist, engineer, inventor, musician, architect, writer, theatrical production designer and director - who achieved brilliant results in all areas of his activity, often far ahead of his time.

Leonardo - illegitimate son Sera Piero di Antonio da Vinci. His father was a notary who worked constantly in Florence. The profession has been passed down in the family by inheritance since 1339. Leonardo's mother, Caterina, was of “good blood”, i.e. a beauty, but from a lower class of society. Ser Pierrot could not marry her; he may also have been contractually bound to his future first wife. However, the illegitimate Leonardo was adopted into the family as a love child, and Caterina was married to a family friend, potter Antonio di Piero Buti del Vacca, nicknamed “The Bully” (Accatabriga) from the town of Campo Zeppi. Accatabriga was on good terms with the da Vinci family all his life and in 1472 acted as a witness at the conclusion of the contract between Piero da Vinci and his brother Francesco, Leonardo's favorite uncle.

According to the traditions of that time, illegitimate children of members of respectable families were born in one of the country estates. In the case of Leonardo, it was a house in the village of Anchiano, which is considered his home.

Anchiano, 3 km from Vinci. The house where Leonardo da Vinci was supposedly born. Region Tuscany, Italy.

City of Vinci. In the background is the bell tower of the Church of Santa Croce. Region of Tuscany, Italy.

Since childhood, Leonardo has retained a love for plants and animals. Out of love for them, he gave up meat and became a vegetarian (without forcing his neighbors to do so) so as not to “live by killing others” and not to be a “walking cemetery.” Leonardo wore linen, preferring it to silk and leather, which cost the lives of living creatures that feel pain.

Everyone who knew Leonardo noted his natural charm, generosity and subtlety of manner. He grew up witty and cautious. Over the years, caution turned into secrecy. This has led to the fact that despite the 10 thousand sheets of notes left by Leonardo, we know very little about him and his personal life.

As a boy, Leonardo learned to write and count. Probably, at the age of 10-11, he began to visit the primary school, scuola d'abaco. Education there was conducted in Italian, Leonardo mastered Latin on his own already in adulthood. With early childhood he drew and sculpted, played musical instruments, studied the basics of some crafts. Illegitimate children were not allowed to study at the university, and Leonardo did not receive a systematic education. He called himself “illiterate” (“omo sanza lettere”). He wrote not only with his left hand, but from right to left and in mirror reflection: Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts are read using a mirror. His manuscripts contain errors, abbreviations own system and words of the Tuscan dialect; there are no punctuation marks, except for rare periods.

The earliest example of his handwriting that has come down to us is the caption for a landscape depicting the Monsummano hill, 8 km northwest of Vinci. There are 2 lines in the upper left corner of the picture:

Santa Maria delle neve

addi 5 daggosto 1473

On the day of the Madonna of the Snows

Leonardo da Vinci. View of Monsummano. Fragment. Uffizi Gallery. Florence. Italy.

Not only the letters, but also the numbers are written in mirror images here. Rare inscriptions made “as expected” - explanations of the image for outsiders - are written with effort.

The most educated man of his time, Leonardo da Vinci, learned all sciences self-taught. For him, “illiteracy” meant innocence, freedom from other people’s ideas and misconceptions. He proudly signed himself "Leonardo Vinci dissepolo della sperientia" - "Leonardo Vinci, student of experience."

Originality was especially important to Leonardo in art. In his “Treatise on Painting” he wrote how after the Romans painting fell into decline because artists “all the time imitated one another... After them came Giotto, a Florentine. Born in the desert mountains, where only goats and similar animals lived, he , inclined by nature to such art, began to draw on the rocks the movements of goats, of which he was a spectator, and so he began to make all the animals that he encountered in the area: in this way he surpassed not only the masters of his century, but also all of them over many past centuries; ".

Around 1466, Leonardo's father took him to study and work in his office in Florence, opposite the Bargello Palace. The young man was taught mathematics, in which he showed extraordinary acumen. His questions puzzled the teacher. Around 1467, Leonardo became an apprentice to the Florentine painter, sculptor and jeweler Andrea del Verrocchio, Leonardo's first and only teacher.

The first Florentine period of life and creativity (1464 - 1482).

According to Vasari's biographer, Ser Piero selected several of his son's drawings and "took them to Andrea Verrocchio, who was his best friend, and urgently asked him to tell him whether Leonardo would achieve any success by taking up drawing. Struck by the enormous potential that he saw in the drawings of the novice Leonardo, Andrea supported Ser Piero... and immediately agreed for the boy to enter his workshop, which Leonardo did more than willingly and began... to practice in all areas where includes drawing." In 15th-century Florence, an artist was considered only one who could draw three-dimensional figures of people. According to the contract, boys were taught drawing, the basics of perspective, the principles of depicting the human body and working with paints; the teacher also supplied them with paper and models. Verrocchio was the best a draftsman of his generation and perhaps the best teacher: Perugino and Ghirlandaio studied with him.

Verrocchio's studio or bottega (the word bottega - “bench”, “shop” - was then called an art workshop of a wide profile) was located on Via Ghibellina. It was an industrial enterprise where they simultaneously prepared molds for casting bells, sewed harnesses and trimmed saddles, made and fired ceramics, made flags and banners, created sculptures from marble, wood, bronze and terracotta, forged armor and did welding. Familiarity with all these applied arts later came in handy for Leonardo. He mastered jewelry making, mold making techniques, as well as stone and wood carving. According to contemporaries, Leonardo was engaged in sculpture, making figures of putti cherubs on large sculptures by Verrocchio, and also sculpted the heads of old men and women. Having learned to make brushes with his own hands, grind paints, make glazes and apply gilding, the apprentice began to paint with paints.

Verrocchio did not do frescoes; in his workshop, paintings were painted on wooden boards, often made of white poplar. First, the outlines of the design were drawn on a large sheet of paper called “cardboard”, then these outlines were pricked with a thin needle. Pressing the cardboard to the board, they sprinkled it with crushed coal or pumice, and dust penetrated through the holes, leaving marks on the primed snow-white board.

In Bottega, Leonardo learned to paint with egg tempera - a mixture of paints with egg yolk. It dries quickly and becomes several shades lighter. As a decorative addition to tempera, they used oil paint, the recipe for which had recently been imported from Flemish. Oil added light and shine to the paintings. If on quickly drying tempera shadows were depicted with lines and shading, then oil paints dry more slowly and allow you to work with a brush, achieving perfection, which was extremely important for Leonardo. Experiments with new techniques caused the loss and damage of many of his works, but allowed painters of subsequent generations to avoid fatal mistakes.

All students of the studio participated in the execution of orders for paintings by Verrocchio. In 1470, Leonardo was entrusted with the details of the painting Tobias and the Angel. Apparently, it was he who painted the dog, fish and curls of the young man’s hair. Leonardo, who grew up in nature, loved to depict animals and plants. Vasari reports that he always kept cats and dogs. He painted fruits and leaves so carefully that other artists were amazed “how a person can have so much patience.”

In 1468 fabbriceria, i.e. The construction department of the main Florentine cathedral - Santa Maria del Fiore - ordered Verrocchio's workshop to fulfill the plans of the architect Brunneleschi, who half a century ago built the building of this cathedral with the famous dome. It was necessary to crown the lantern at the top of the dome with a gilded ball with a cross. Such a copper sphere would have a diameter of 8 feet (about 2 m) and weigh more than 2 tons. The craftsmen were faced with a difficult engineering task - to weld the sphere, lift it above the dome and solder it. The young Leonardo took part in solving this problem. On May 27, 1471, the sphere was lifted onto the dome using a crane and welded for 3 days with a flame, which was ignited by heating the metal in the sun using concave mirrors.

Gilded copper sphere crowning the lantern on the dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence.

In the process of work, Leonardo became acquainted with the drawings of Brunneleschi, whose ideas later inspired him to invent many mechanisms and machines. It was then that he first saw the organization of work during the implementation of a large-scale engineering project.

On July 1, 1472, Leonardo joined the Florentine brotherhood of artists, which was called Compagna di San Luca (Society of St. Luke, patron of painters), paying 32 soldi for the right of membership. From that moment on, he was officially considered a practicing artist ("dipintore"). From that time on, Leonardo continued to work with Verrocchio no longer as a student, but as a partner.

Verrocchio's elder brother, abbot of the community of San Salvi (chiesa di San Salvi) Simone di Chione helped receive the order - the image of the Baptism of Christ. Verrocchio painted Christ and John the Baptist, Leonardo painted a kneeling angel and a landscape in the background. This landscape strongly resembles the view of Monsummano.

Andrea del Verrocchio, Leonardo da Vinci. "The Baptism of Christ". The painting was painted around 1470-1475. Oil and tempera on panel. Florence, Uffizi Gallery.

Vasari says that this was the last painting by Verrocchio: “When Andrea painted an image on wood depicting St. John baptizing Christ, Leonardo made on it an angel holding clothes, and, although he was still a youth, he executed it in such a way that Leonardo’s angel turned out to be much better than Verrocchio’s figures, and this was the reason that Andrea never wanted to touch paint again, offended that some boy surpassed him in skill.”

Experts are not inclined to believe this anecdote. The figure of the emaciated John the Baptist, painted by Verrocchio from his own sculpture of Christ, also makes a deep impression. After this painting, Verrocchio created others that have not reached us. But Leonardo’s angel was painted in the style that 18 years later Marquise Isabella d’Este would call “painfully tender.” Having appreciated this style at the beginning of the 16th century, wealthy customers would besiege him until the end of Leonardo’s life with demands to repeat something similar for them.

In any case, this is the last joint work of Leonardo and his teacher that has come down to us. Two paintings have survived that were painted by Leonardo in Verrocchio’s studio, but were commissioned personally from him: “The Annunciation” and “Madonna with a Carnation.”

Leonardo da Vinci. "Annunciation". 1473-1475. Oil and tempera on panel. Uffizi Gallery. Florence. Italy.

The painting was painted for the sacristy of the monastery of San Bartolomeo, which was located outside the gate of San Frediano southwest of the center of Florence, in the town of Monte Oliveto, Monte Oliveto. In the poses of Gabriel and Mary one can see the influence of Verrocchio and Botticelli, who was close to him. Leonardo's hand is felt in the masterful depiction of the landscape and especially in the conveyance of the experiences specified by the canon only on the faces of the characters, without spectacular gestures or excessive pathos. An angel suddenly appeared and interrupted Mary's reading. On her face there is confusion and humility, on the face of an angel - awareness of the significance of the moment. In his left hand he holds a lily, the symbol of Florence. Leonardo's characteristic desire for the natural course of things is obvious. The Annunciation is celebrated on March 25, and to create a spring mood, the lawn in front of Mary's house is strewn with flowers. In the future, Leonardo will show flora only in natural conditions and in strict accordance with the season specified by the plot.
In a departure from the canon, the archangel's wings are not his full height, but shorter, like those of a real bird. Later unknown artist I lengthened them with chestnut-colored paint, so that the original landscape shines through the ends of the wings.
"The Annunciation," a painting by the 20-year-old artist, combines innovative features and lyricism with quotations and errors. On the right side of the picture there are student miscalculations in perspective. Thus, the wall leading to the cypress tree is a bit short, and the lectern standing in front of the Virgin is too large. It seems that he is closer to the viewer than Maria, which is why the artist had to lengthen her right hand lying on the book. And yet, contemporaries saw in this picture the work of a genius. Just one magnificent image of fabrics and draperies - distinguishing feature Leonardo - aroused the admiration of most of his colleagues.

Leonardo da Vinci. "Madonna and Child" ("Madonna with a Carnation"). Around 1473 Munich, Alte Pinakothek. Germany.

The image written on the board came to us in poor condition, and now it is impossible to see the details that contemporaries admired. The glass vase with flowers was sweaty, so that the dew on it seemed like natural condensation appearing in the picture. The Madonna is wearing a topaz brooch, which will be inherited by the Benois Madonna and Madonna of the Rocks.
In Verrocchio's workshop, Leonardo created several more paintings, which are still considered lost. This is a cardboard "Adam and Eve, who sinned in the earthly paradise" for a curtain, the image on which was woven by order of the Medici as a gift to the Portuguese king Fernando I, and "Head of Medusa", an oil painting on wood.

At the beginning of April 1476, an anonymous guardian of morality wrote a denunciation to the night guards of Florence against the 17-year-old assistant or student of the jeweler Jacopo Saltarelli. The young man allegedly provided intimate services to “dozens of men,” and the names of 4 of them were named: the jeweler Pasquino, Leonardo, the camisole maker Baccino and the aristocrat Tornabuoni.
In Florence, approximately 130 people were accused of homosexuality. per year, every fifth person was found guilty. Sodomy, as a terrible crime, was punishable by a fine, pillory, branding, exile, even burning at the stake (extremely rare). The night watch was obliged to arrest the accused. They were released "pending trial", and acquitted on June 7, 1476.
Nowadays, most researchers do not doubt Leonardo’s “non-traditional sexual orientation,” although he also had relationships with women. He managed to escape punishment, but the accusation and pre-trial detention greatly influenced the life and future career of the young man. Perhaps because the scandal was too loud, only Leonardo among all the prominent Florentine artists did not enjoy the patronage of the ruler Lorenzo de' Medici (Lorenzo the Magnificent). The artist’s character increased in secrecy and suspicion, as did his hatred of any lack of freedom or any restrictions. The secrecy left many of his ideas unrecorded and those recorded unreleased. It is significant that one of the first inventions of Leonardo the mechanic was a machine for breaking out bars from dungeons, which was a screw with a stop and a collar. So in 1480, the current method of breaking open steel doors using jacks was proposed.

During the trial, Verrocchio immediately received 2 orders to work in Pistoia, a city 35 km from Florence, subject to the Florentine Republic since the beginning of the 15th century. The workshop had to paint an altar with the image of the Madonna and St. Donatus, and sculpt a marble cenotaph in honor of Cardinal Niccolo Fortaguerri for the main city cathedral (Duomo, or Cathedral of San Zeno, San Zeno). So that Leonardo could earn money and recover from the trial, he was sent to Pistoia. There he supervised the work of the young Lorenzo di Credi, who painted the altar, and made a terracotta model of the cenotaph. In Pistoia, local poets became Leonardo's friends, with whom he did not lose contact for a long time.
The only surviving statue by Leonardo da Vinci was created in Pistoia around 1477. This is a small terracotta statue of an angel on a pedestal near the western gate of the church of the village of San Gennaro, San Gennaro (between Lucca and Pistoia, 11 km east of Lucca).

Ginevra de Benci was born in 1457. The Benci family of bankers in all of Florence was second only to the Medici family in wealth. Ginevra's father, Amerigo de Benci, a philanthropist and collector, was the director of one of the Medici banks. It is believed that he ordered portrait on the occasion of the daughter’s wedding with the fabric merchant Luigi di Bernardo Nicollini (1474). But the likely customer could also be the Venetian ambassador Bernardo Bembo, who was in love with Ginevra. Their romance, according to contemporaries, was platonic, a tribute to the then fashion for Platonic philosophy. the ideal of a young Florentine woman: beauty and poetic gift, combined with taste and education.

Leonardo da Vinci. Portrait of Ginevra di Benci. Around 1476-1478. Tempera and oil on panel. Washington, National Gallery of Art.

Leonardo da Vinci. "Madonna Benois". Around 1478-1482. Oil transferred from board to canvas. Saint Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum, Russia.

Leonardo da Vinci. "Madonna Litta". 1478-1482. Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Leonardo da Vinci. Sketch of horsemen for the painting "Adoration of the Magi". Around 1481. England, Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum.

Leonardo da Vinci. "Adoration of the Magi" 1481-1482. Uffizi Gallery. Florence. Italy.

The painting was commissioned by Leonardo da Vinci in 1481 and was intended to decorate the altar of the church of San Donato Scopento, located near Florence from Porta a San Piero Gattolino (currently Porta Romana). The artist, however, did not finish this work, leaving it in Florence when he left for Milan in 1482. The Madonna and Child are surrounded in a semicircle by a crowd that approaches the Holy Family to venerate it. There are many physiognomic types of people of all ages represented here; among them are young riders. Even animals, as will often be seen later in Leonardo, seem to share human feelings. In the background of the picture, from the ruins of the palazzo, whose empty staircase gives the impression of being surreal, a procession of travelers and horsemen bursts out. The right side of the composition depicts a horse battle, the meaning of which remains unclear. Two trees in the center - a palm tree and a holm oak - serve as axes around which the spiral of the entire composition twists, as if inserted on the left - between the figure of an old man, deep in thought, and on the right - the figure of a young man (he points to the Madonna and Child). In the picture we also see horses wandering without riders, which perhaps symbolizes nature, not yet subordinate to man. And in the depths of the picture, high mountain peaks, usual for Leonardo da Vinci’s compositions, appear, outlined only in sketches, they make a majestic impression.

This was the First Florentine period of Leonardo’s life and work: 1464 - 1482. Such paintings by the artist as “Saint Jerome” and “Saint Sebastian” belong to the same period.

Leonardo da Vinci. "Saint Jerome". 1480-1482. Vatican, Pinacoteca Vatican.

First Milanese period (1482-1499).

Leonardo da Vinci was invited to the court of Ludovico Sforza and enrolled in the college of ducal engineers. He performs in Milan as a military engineer, architect, hydraulic engineer, sculptor, and painter. But it is characteristic that in documents of this period Leonardo is called first an “engineer” and then an “artist.”

Leonardo da Vinci. "Madonna in the Grotto" 1483-1486. Oil on panel (transferred to canvas). Louvre, Paris, France.

"Madonna in the Grotto" - the first fully mature work of Leonardo - affirms the triumph of new art and gives a complete picture of the exceptional skill of da Vinci. The icon was commissioned by the monks of the church named after St. Francis in 1483. Perfect coordination of all parts, creating a tightly welded whole. This whole, that is, the totality of the four depicted figures, the outlines of which are wonderfully softened by chiaroscuro, forms a slender pyramid, growing smoothly and softly, in complete freedom, before us. By their looks and position, all the figures are inextricably united, and this unification is full of enchanting harmony, for even the gaze of an angel, addressed not to other figures, but to the viewer, seems to strengthen the single musical chord of the composition of the picture. This look and the smile that slightly illuminates the angel’s face are filled with a deep and mysterious meaning. Light and shadows create a unique mood in the picture. Our gaze is carried away into its depths, into the alluring openings among the dark rocks, under the shadow of which the figures created by Leonardo found shelter. And Leonard’s secret shines through in their faces, and in the bluish crevices, and in the twilight of the overhanging rocks. All the different elements of the picture, seemingly contradictory, merge together, creating a holistic and strong impression. "Madonna in the Grotto" shows the artist's mastery of that realistic skill that so amazed his contemporaries. The painting was intended to decorate the altar (the frame for the painting was a carved wooden altar) in the Immacolata Chapel of the Church of San Francesco Grande in Milan.

Leonardo da Vinci. "Lady with an Ermine" Written around 1488-1490. Oil on the panel. Czartor Museum, Krakow, Poland.

Leonardo da Vinci. "Portrait of a Musician". 1485-1490. Oil on the panel. Ambrosiano Library, Milan, Italy.

Leonardo da Vinci. Last Supper. 1494 -1498. Oil and tempera on plaster. Santa Maria del Grazia, Milan, Italy.

Second Florentine period of life and work (1500-1506).

Sketch of the bridge over the Golden Horn made by Leonardo da Vinci. "Notebook" (Paris).

A 100-meter pedestrian bridge designed by Leonardo da Vinci has been opened in the Norwegian town of As. This is the first time in 500 years that any architectural project of a master far ahead of his time was actually implemented. “The architectural forms of the 70s look more old-fashioned than Leonardo’s drawing,” says the initiator of the work, architect Veburn Sand.

Battle of Anghiari (Battle of Andjara). 1503-1505. Wall painting in the Great Council Hall of the Palace of the Signoria, Florence
Copy of Rubens from a fresco by Leonardo da Vinci. Black chalk, ink and water paints on paper. Louvre, Paris, France.

The composition of the painting resembles a pyramid, which combines rounded volumes, soft curves of lines and sfumato smiling faces, giving the canvas an atmosphere of tenderness and at the same time an unsolved mystery. Christ embraces the lamb, symbolizing his future suffering, and Mary tries to restrain him.
The lamb variant was first mentioned in correspondence dated 1501 between the head of the Carmelite Order, Fra Pietro da Novellara, and Isabella d’Este. Novellara saw in Anna's calmness, contrasted with Mary's anxiety for the child, a symbol of the fact that the church would not want to prevent the Passion of Christ. An earlier version from St. John instead of a lamb is described in detail by G. Vasari:
In the face of the Madonna everything that was simple and beautiful was revealed, which with its simplicity and its beauty can give that charm that the image of the Mother of God should have, for Leonardo wanted to show the modesty and humility of the Virgin, filled with the greatest joyful satisfaction from contemplating the beauty of her son, whom she with tenderness she holds him on her knees, and also how she, with her most pure gaze, notices the still very little saint. John, frolicking at her feet with a lamb, not forgetting the light smile of St. Anna, who can barely contain her jubilation at the sight of her earthly offspring becoming heavenly, are discoveries truly worthy of the mind and genius of Leonardo.

Leonardo da Vinci. John the Baptist. 1512. Oil on panel. Louvre, Paris, France.

Roman period of life and creativity (1513-1516).

Leonardo da Vinci. Mona Lisa (La Gioconda). 1514 - 1515. Oil on poplar panel. Louvre. Paris, France.

Only the great fame of the Last Supper can be compared with the undeniable fame that Mona Lisa has enjoyed for centuries. Leonardo here goes beyond the portrait scheme he had previously used, developed by Antonello da Messina. It gives a half-length image of the model in a slight, three-quarter turn, with her gaze turned towards the viewer. The background is no longer shaded, sharply highlighting the figure, but represents a landscape, “surreal, as if seen in a dream, and at the same time panoramicly accurate, saturated with damp vapors and foggy haze. This is not a landscape seen somewhere and not a play of imagination, but natura naturans (creative nature (lat.), the emergence and decay of existence, the cyclic transition of matter from a solid state to a liquid, vaporous one. This is a real synthesis of landscape studies and those topographical sketches that Leonardo did it for a practical purpose (the project of regulating the flow of the Arno River with the help of a canal and flooding the Chiana Valley with water, in preparation for which he had to make numerous maps of the area located between the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Apennines. It can also be argued that the impression inspired by this picture is created). thanks to the perfect connection between the figure and the natural environment, which the artist achieved by using the sfumato technique, it helped to unite the image of the person being portrayed, on whose face irony is captured, and the landscape, synthesizing the grandeur of the world, which man strives to reveal and explain, but which, together with. therefore it contains a lot of mysterious and inexpressible things.

In this painting, Leonardo achieved such harmony not only through a more careful composition, but also through pictorial means, thanks to which everything is visible as if through a light haze, covering small details, softening the outlines, creating imperceptible transitions between shapes and colors. Thus, he left a lot to our imagination and this is the reason why the Mona Lisa amazes us, looking at the viewer as if alive. The same is true of the landscape, where Leonardo shows us how the earth “grows” out of rocks and water, and of the face of the Mona Lisa with its mysterious smile. What is Mona Lisa thinking? In practice, it depends on what we ourselves think when looking at her image.
Maybe Leonardo himself was a little like her: people always saw him as balanced and friendly, but no one knew exactly what was on his mind.

From S. N. Roerich's article Mona Lisa: The painting cannot be described in words: the longer you look at it, the more its impact on you increases, and you begin to feel that amazing charm that has captivated so many people over the centuries.

Last period of life: France, Amboise (1516-1519).

Francis I said about Leonardo da Vinci: “I will never believe that there is another person in the world who knew as much as Leonardo, not only in sculpture, painting and architecture, but also because he was the greatest philosopher.” .

In 1516, Leonardo accepted the invitation of the French king and settled in his castle of Clos-Lucé, where Francis I spent his childhood, not far from the royal castle of Amboise. In the official rank of the first royal artist, engineer and architect, Leonardo received an annual annuity of one thousand ecus. In France, Leonardo almost did not draw, but was masterfully involved in organizing court festivities, planning a new palace in Romorantan with a planned change in the river bed, designing a canal between the Loire and Saône, the main double spiral staircase at the Chateau de Chambord. Two years before his death, the master’s right hand became numb, and he had difficulty moving without assistance. 67-year-old Leonardo spent the third year of his life in Amboise in bed. On April 23, 1519, he left a will, and on May 2, he died surrounded by his students and his masterpieces in Clos-Luce. According to Vasari, da Vinci died in the arms of King Francis I, his close friend. This unreliable, but widespread legend in France is reflected in the paintings of Ingres, Angelika Kaufman and many other painters. Leonardo da Vinci was buried at Amboise Castle. The inscription was engraved on the tombstone: “Within the walls of this monastery lie the ashes of Leonardo da Vinci, the greatest artist, engineer and architect of the French kingdom.”
The main heir was Leonardo's student and friend Francesco Melzi, who for the next 50 years remained the main manager of the master's inheritance, which included, in addition to paintings, tools, a library and at least 50 thousand original documents on various topics, of which only a third has survived to this day. Another student of Salai and a servant each received half of Leonardo's vineyards.

There is a theory according to which geniuses are born only at that historical moment when development, cultural and social, has already prepared the ground for them. This hypothesis well explains the emergence of great personalities whose deeds were appreciated during their lifetime. The situation is more difficult with those brilliant minds whose calculations and developments have far surpassed their era. Their creative thought, as a rule, received recognition only centuries later, often being lost over the centuries and revived again when all the conditions for the implementation of brilliant plans appeared.

The biography of Leonardo da Vinci is just an example of such a story. However, among his achievements there were those recognized and understood by his contemporaries, and those that were only recently able to be appreciated.

Son of a notary

Leonardo da Vinci's date of birth is April 15, 1452. He was born in sunny Florence, in the town of Anchiano, not far from the town of Vinci. Most of all, his origin is evidenced by his name, which actually means “Leonardo comes from Vinci.” The childhood of the future genius largely predetermined his entire future life. Leonardo's father, the young notary Piero, was in love with a simple peasant woman, Katerina. Da Vinci became the fruit of their passion. However, soon after the birth of the boy, Piero married a rich heiress and left his son in the care of his mother. Fate would have it so that their marriage turned out to be childless, so at the age of three little Leo was separated from his mother and began to live with his father. These events left an indelible imprint on the future genius: the entire work of Leonardo da Vinci was permeated with the search for the image of his mother, Katerina, abandoned in childhood. According to one version, it was the artist who captured it in the famous painting “Mona Lisa”.

First successes

From childhood, the great Florentine showed a penchant for many sciences. Quickly grasping the basics, he was able to baffle even the most experienced teacher. Leonardo was not afraid of complex mathematical problems; he was able to construct his own judgments based on learned axioms, which often surprised his teachers. He also held music in high esteem. Among the many instruments, Leonardo gave his preference to the lyre. He learned to extract beautiful melodies from it and sang with pleasure to its accompaniment. But most of all he liked painting and sculpture. He was passionate about them, which soon became noticeable to his father.

Andrea del Verrocchio

Piero, paying tribute to his son’s sketches and drawings, decided to show them to his friend, the then famous painter Andrea Verrocchio. The work of Leonardo da Vinci made a great impression on the master, and he offered to become his teacher, to which his father, without thinking twice, agreed. So the young artist began to become familiar with great art. The biography of Leonardo da Vinci covered here would be incomplete without mentioning how this training ended for the painter.

One day Verrocchio was commissioned to paint the baptism of Christ. At that time, masters quite often assigned their best students to paint minor figures or backgrounds. Having depicted Saint John and Christ, Andrea del Verrocchio decided to paint two angels side by side and commissioned the young Leonardo to paint one of them. He did the job with all diligence, and it was difficult not to notice how the student’s skill surpassed the teacher’s skill. The biography of Leonardo da Vinci, presented by Giorgio Vasari, a painter and the first art critic, contains a mention that Verrocchio not only noticed the talent of his apprentice, but refused to take up a brush forever after that - this superiority hurt him so much.

Not only a painter

One way or another, the union of the two masters brought many results. Andrea del Verrocchio was also involved in sculpture. To create the statue of David, he used Leonardo as a model. Characteristic feature immortalized hero - a slight half-smile, which a little later will become almost business card da Vinci. There is also reason to believe that Verrocchio created his most famous work, the statue of Bartolomeo Colleone, together with the brilliant Leonardo. In addition, the master was famous for being an excellent decorator and director of various festivals at court. Leonardo also adopted this art.

Signs of a genius

Six years after starting his studies with Andrea del Verrocchio, Leonardo opened his own workshop. Vasari notes that his restless mind, always eager to achieve perfection in many ways, had some flaw: Leonardo often left his undertakings unfinished and immediately took on new ones. The biographer regrets that much was never created by the genius because of this, how many great discoveries he did not make, although he stood on their threshold.

Indeed, Leonardo was a mathematician, a sculptor, a painter, an architect, and an anatomist, but many of his works lacked completeness. Take, for example, the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci. For example, he was commissioned to depict Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The painting was intended as a gift to the Portuguese king. The artist skillfully painted the trees, which seemed likely to rustle at the slightest breath of wind, and carefully depicted the meadow and animals. However, that’s where he completed his work, without ever finishing it.

Perhaps it was this kind of inconstancy that made Leonardo a jack of all trades. Throwing away the picture, he took to the clay, talking about the development of plants, and at the same time observed the life of the stars. Perhaps, if a genius strived to complete each of his works, today we would know only the mathematician or the artist Leonardo da Vinci, but not both in one person.

"Last Supper"

In addition to the desire to embrace a lot, the great genius was characterized by a desire to achieve perfection and the ability to understand where the limit of his capabilities in this sense was. Leonardo da Vinci's paintings became famous during the master's lifetime. One of my most famous works he performed for the Dominican Order in Milan. The refectory of the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie is still decorated with his Last Supper.

There is a legend associated with the painting. The artist spent a long time searching for suitable models for the faces of Christ and Judas. According to his plan, the Son of God was supposed to embody all the good that is in the world, and the traitor was evil. Sooner or later, the search was crowned with success: among the choir members, he spotted a model suitable for the face of Christ. However, the search for a second model took three years, until Leonardo finally spotted a beggar in a ditch whose face was more than suitable for Judas. The drunk and dirty man was taken to the church because he was unable to move. There, seeing the picture, he exclaimed in surprise: it was familiar to him. A little later, he explained to the artist that three years ago, when fate was more favorable to him, Christ was drawn from him for the same picture.

Vasari's information

However, most likely, this is only a legend. At least, Vasari's biography of Leonardo da Vinci does not contain any mention of this. The author provides other information. While working on the painting, the genius really could not complete the face of Christ for a long time. It remained unfinished. The artist believed that he would not be able to depict the extraordinary kindness and great forgiveness with which the face of Christ should shine. He didn't even intend to look for a suitable model for him. However, even in such an unfinished form, the picture is still amazing. On the faces of the apostles their love for the teacher and suffering due to their inability to comprehend everything that he tells them are clearly visible. Even the tablecloth on the table is painted so carefully that it cannot be distinguished from the real thing.

The most famous painting

The main masterpiece of the great Leonardo is, without a doubt, the Mona Lisa. Vasari quite definitely calls the painting a portrait of the third wife of the Florentine Francesco del Giocondo. However, it was common for the author of many biographies, in addition to verified facts, to use legends, rumors and speculation as sources. For a long time, researchers could not find a comprehensive answer to the question of who Da Vinci’s model was. Researchers who agreed with Vasari's version dated Giaconda to 1500-1505. During these years, Leonardo da Vinci worked in Florence. Opponents of the hypothesis noted that the artist had not yet achieved such perfect skill by that time, and therefore the painting was probably painted later. In addition, in Florence, Leonardo worked on another work, “The Battle of Anghiari,” and it took a lot of time.

Among the alternative hypotheses were suggestions that the “Mona Lisa” is a self-portrait or an image of da Vinci’s lover and student, Salai, whom he captured in the painting “John the Baptist.” It was also suggested that the model was Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Milan. All the mysteries of Leonardo da Vinci paled before this one. However, in 2005, scientists managed to find solid evidence in favor of Vasari's version. The notes of Agostino Vespucci, an official and friend of Leonardo, were discovered and studied. They, in particular, indicated that da Vinci was working on a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo.

Ahead of its time

If da Vinci’s paintings gained fame during the author’s lifetime, many of his achievements in other areas were appreciated only centuries later. The date of death of Leonardo da Vinci is May 2, 1519. However, only at the end of the nineteenth century did the recordings of the genius become public. Leonardo da Vinci's drawings describing the devices were far ahead of their time.

If the master inspired many contemporaries with his painting and laid the foundation for art High Renaissance, then his technical developments were impossible to implement at the level of technological development that existed in the sixteenth century.

Leonardo da Vinci's flying cars

The brilliant inventor wanted to soar not only in thoughts, but also in reality. He worked on creating a flying car. Leonardo da Vinci's drawings contain a diagram of the structure of the world's first model of a hang glider. This was already the third or fourth version of a flying car. The pilot was supposed to be placed inside the first ones. The mechanism was set in motion by the rotating pedals that he turned. The hang glider prototype was designed for gliding flight. This model was tested in the UK in 2002. Then the world champion in hang gliding managed to stay above the ground for seventeen seconds, while she rose to a height of ten meters.

Even earlier, the genius developed a design for a device that was supposed to rise into the air with the help of a single main rotor. The machine vaguely resembles a modern helicopter. However, this mechanism, which came into motion as a result of the concerted work of four people, had a lot of flaws, and it was not destined to become a reality even after centuries.

War vehicles

Biographers often, when describing Leonardo da Vinci as a person, note his peace-loving nature and condemnation of military actions. However, apparently, this did not stop him from developing mechanisms whose only function was to defeat the enemy. For example, he created a drawing of a tank. It had little in common with the operating mechanisms of the Second World War.

The car was set in motion thanks to the efforts of eight people turning the wheel levers. Moreover, she could only move forward. The tank had a round shape and was equipped with a large number of guns aimed in different directions. Today, almost any Leonardo da Vinci museum can demonstrate such a combat vehicle, made according to the drawings of the brilliant master.

Among the weapons invented by da Vinci was a terrifying-looking scythe chariot and a prototype of a machine gun. All these products demonstrate the breadth of thought of a genius, his ability to predict for many centuries the path of development along which society will move.

Automobile

Among the genius's developments was a car model. Outwardly, it was not much like the cars we are used to, but rather resembled a cart. For a long time it remained unclear how Leonardo intended to move it. This mystery was resolved in 2004, when in Italy a da Vinci car was created according to the drawings and equipped with a spring mechanism. Perhaps this is exactly what the author of the model assumed.

Ideal city

Leonardo da Vinci lived in turbulent times: wars were frequent, and the plague raged in many places. The searching mind of a genius, faced with serious illnesses and the misfortunes they bring, sought to find a way to improve the quality of life. Da Vinci developed a diagram of an ideal city, divided into several levels: the upper one for the upper classes of society, the lower one for trade. According to the author’s idea, all houses were supposed to have constant access to water using a system of pipes and canals. The ideal city consisted not of narrow streets, but of wide squares and roads. The purpose of such innovations was to reduce disease and improve hygiene. The project remained on paper: the kings to whom Leonardo proposed it considered the idea too bold.

Achievements in other areas

Science owes a lot to genius. Leonardo da Vinci had a great understanding of human anatomy. He worked hard, sketching the features of the internal arrangement of organs and the structure of muscles, and created the principles of anatomical drawing. He also made a description of the thyroid gland and its main functions. Spending time on astronomical research, he explained the mechanism by which the Sun illuminates the Moon. Da Vinci did not deprive physics of his attention, introducing the concept of friction coefficient and identifying the factors influencing it.

There are also ideas in the works of the genius that are characteristic of modern archeology. Thus, he was not a supporter of the official version at that time, according to which shells, found in abundance on the mountain slopes, got there due to the Great Flood. According to the scientist, once upon a time these mountains could have been the shores of the seas or even their bottom. And after unimaginable periods of time, they “grew up” and became what they see.

Secret writings

Among the mysteries of Leonardo, after the mystery of the Mona Lisa, his mirror handwriting is most often discussed. The genius was left-handed. He made most of his notes in reverse: the words went from right to left and could only be read with the help of a mirror. There is a version according to which da Vinci wrote this way so as not to smear the ink. Another hypothesis says that the scientist did not want his works to become the property of fools and ignoramuses. Most likely, we will never know the correct answer to this question.

No less secret is the personal life of the great Leonardo. Little is known about her, since the genius did not seek to flaunt her. Therefore, today there are a lot of the most incredible hypotheses in this regard. However, this is a topic for a separate article.

Leonardo da Vinci's contribution to world art, his extraordinary mind, which could almost simultaneously comprehend problems from completely different areas of human knowledge. Few people in history can compare with Leonardo in this sense. At the same time, he was a worthy representative of his era, incorporating all the ideals of the Renaissance. He gave the world the art of the High Renaissance, laid the foundations for a more accurate representation of reality, and created the canonical proportions of the body, embodied in the drawing “Vitruvian Man”. With all his activities, he actually defeated the idea of ​​​​the limitations of our minds.

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (Italian: Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci). Born on April 15, 1452 in the village of Anchiano, near the town of Vinci, near Florence - died on May 2, 1519, Clos Luce castle, near Amboise, Touraine, France. Italian artist (painter, sculptor, architect) and scientist (anatomist, naturalist), inventor, writer, one of the largest representatives of the art of the High Renaissance.

Leonardo da Vinci is a vivid example of a “universal man” (lat. homo universalis).

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in the village of Anchiano near the small town of Vinci, not far from Florence at “three o’clock in the morning,” that is, at 22:30 according to modern time. A noteworthy entry in the diary of Leonardo’s grandfather, Antonio da Vinci (1372-1468) (literal translation): “On Saturday, at three o’clock in the morning on April 15, my grandson, the son of my son Piero, was born. The boy was named Leonardo. He was baptized by Father Piero di Bartolomeo."

His parents were the 25-year-old notary Pierrot (1427-1504) and his lover, the peasant woman Katerina. Leonardo spent the first years of his life with his mother. His father soon married a rich and noble girl, but this marriage turned out to be childless, and Piero took his three-year-old son to be raised. Separated from his mother, Leonardo spent his whole life trying to recreate her image in his masterpieces. At that time he lived with his grandfather. In Italy at that time, illegitimate children were treated almost as legal heirs. Many influential people of the city of Vinci took part in future fate Leonardo. When Leonardo was 13 years old, his stepmother died in childbirth. The father remarried - and again soon became a widower. He lived to be 77 years old, was married four times and had 12 children. The father tried to introduce Leonardo to the family profession, but to no avail: the son was not interested in the laws of society.

Leonardo had no last name modern sense; "da Vinci" simply means "(originally) from the town of Vinci." His full name is Italian. Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, that is, “Leonardo, son of Mr. Piero from Vinci.”

In his Lives of the Most Famous Painters, Sculptors and Architects, Vasari says that once a peasant he knew asked Father Leonardo to find an artist to paint a round wooden shield. Ser Pierrot gave the shield to his son. Leonardo decided to depict the head of the gorgon Medusa, and in order for the image of the monster to make the right impression on the audience, he used lizards, snakes, grasshoppers, caterpillars, bats and “other creatures” as subjects, “from a variety of which, combining them in different ways, he created the monster very disgusting and terrible, which poisoned with its breath and ignited the air.” The result exceeded his expectations: when Leonardo showed the finished work to his father, he was scared. The son told him: “This work serves the purpose for which it was made. So take it and give it away, for this is the effect that is expected from works of art.” Ser Piero did not give Leonardo's work to the peasant: he received another shield, bought from a junk dealer. Father Leonardo sold the shield of Medusa in Florence, receiving one hundred ducats for it. According to legend, this shield passed to the Medici family, and when it was lost, the sovereign owners of Florence were expelled from the city by the rebellious people. Many years later, Cardinal del Monte commissioned a painting of Caravaggio's Gorgon Medusa. The new talisman was presented to Ferdinand I de' Medici in honor of his son's marriage.

In 1466 Leonardo da Vinci entered Verrocchio's workshop as an apprentice artist. Verrocchio's workshop was located in the intellectual center of what was then Italy, the city of Florence, which allowed Leonardo to study the humanities, as well as acquire some technical skills. He studied drawing, chemistry, metallurgy, working with metal, plaster and leather. In addition, the young apprentice was engaged in drawing, sculpture and modeling. In addition to Leonardo, Perugino, Lorenzo di Credi, Agnolo di Polo studied in the workshop, Botticelli worked, and such famous masters as Ghirlandaio and others often visited. Subsequently, even when Leonardo’s father hires him to work in his workshop, he continues to collaborate with Verrocchio .

In 1473, at the age of 20, Leonardo da Vinci qualified as a master at the Guild of St. Luke.

In the 15th century, ideas about the revival of ancient ideals were in the air. At the Florence Academy, the best minds in Italy created the theory of new art. Creative youth spent time in lively discussions. Leonardo remained aloof from the stormy public life and rarely left the workshop. He had no time for theoretical disputes: he improved his skills. One day Verrocchio received an order for the painting “The Baptism of Christ” and commissioned Leonardo to paint one of the two angels. This was a common practice in art workshops of that time: the teacher created a picture together with student assistants. The most talented and diligent were entrusted with the execution of an entire fragment. Two Angels, painted by Leonardo and Verrocchio, clearly demonstrated the superiority of the student over the teacher. As Vasari writes, the amazed Verrocchio abandoned his brush and never returned to painting.

In 1472-1477 Leonardo worked on: “The Baptism of Christ”, “The Annunciation”, “Madonna with a Vase”.

In the second half of the 70s, the “Madonna with a Flower” (“Benois Madonna”) was created.

At the age of 24, Leonardo and three other young men were put on trial on false, anonymous charges of sodomy. They were acquitted. Very little is known about his life after this event, but it is likely (there are documents) that he had his own workshop in Florence in 1476-1481.

In 1481, da Vinci completed the first large order in his life - the altar image “The Adoration of the Magi” (not completed) for the monastery of San Donato a Sisto, located near Florence. In the same year, work began on the painting “Saint Jerome”.

In 1482, Leonardo, being, according to Vasari, a very talented musician, created a silver lyre in the shape of a horse's head. Lorenzo de' Medici sent him to Milan as a peacemaker to Lodovico Moro, and sent the lyre with him as a gift. At the same time, work began on the equestrian monument to Francesco Sforza.

Leonardo had many friends and students. As for love relationship, there is no reliable information on this matter, since Leonardo carefully hid this side of his life. He was not married; there is no reliable information about his affairs with women. According to some versions, Leonardo had a relationship with Cecilia Gallerani, a favorite of Lodovico Moro, with whom he painted his famous painting “The Lady with an Ermine.” A number of authors, following the words of Vasari, suggest intimate relationships with young men, including students (Salai), others believe that, despite the painter’s homosexuality, relationships with students were not intimate.

Leonardo was present at the meeting of King Francis I with Pope Leo X in Bologna on December 19, 1515. In 1513-1516 Leonardo lived in the Belvedere and worked on the painting “John the Baptist”.

Francis commissioned a master to construct a mechanical lion capable of walking, from whose chest a bouquet of lilies would appear. Perhaps this lion greeted the king in Lyon or was used during negotiations with the pope.

In 1516, Leonardo accepted the invitation of the French king and settled in his castle of Clos-Lucé, where Francis I spent his childhood, not far from the royal castle of Amboise. In his official capacity as the first royal artist, engineer and architect, Leonardo received an annual annuity of one thousand ecus. Never before in Italy did Leonardo have the title of engineer. Leonardo was not the first Italian master who, by the grace of the French king, received “freedom to dream, think and create” - before him, Andrea Solario and Fra Giovanni Giocondo shared a similar honor.

In France, Leonardo almost did not draw, but was masterfully involved in organizing court festivities, planning a new palace in Romorantan with a planned change in the river bed, designing a canal between the Loire and the Saône, and the main two-way spiral staircase in the Chateau de Chambord. Two years before his death, the master’s right hand became numb, and he had difficulty moving without assistance. 67-year-old Leonardo spent the third year of his life in Amboise in bed. On April 23, 1519, he left a will, and on May 2, he died surrounded by his students and his masterpieces in Clos-Luce.

According to Vasari, da Vinci died in the arms of King Francis I, his close friend. This unreliable, but widespread legend in France is reflected in the paintings of Ingres, Angelika Kaufman and many other painters. Leonardo da Vinci was buried at Amboise Castle. The inscription was engraved on the tombstone: “Within the walls of this monastery lie the ashes of Leonardo da Vinci, the greatest artist, engineer and architect of the French kingdom.”

The main heir was Leonardo's student and friend Francesco Melzi, who for the next 50 years remained the main manager of the master's inheritance, which included, in addition to paintings, tools, a library and at least 50 thousand original documents on various topics, of which only a third has survived to this day. Another student of Salai and a servant each received half of Leonardo's vineyards.

Our contemporaries know Leonardo primarily as an artist. In addition, it is possible that da Vinci could also have been a sculptor: researchers from the University of Perugia - Giancarlo Gentilini and Carlo Sisi - claim that the terracotta head they found in 1990 is the only sculptural work of Leonardo da Vinci that has come down to us.

However, da Vinci himself, at different periods of his life, considered himself primarily an engineer or scientist. He gave fine arts not very much time and worked quite slowly. Therefore, Leonardo’s artistic heritage is not large in quantity, and a number of his works have been lost or severely damaged. However, his contribution to the world artistic culture is extremely important even against the background of the cohort of geniuses that the Italian Renaissance produced. Thanks to his works, the art of painting moved to high quality new stage of its development.

The Renaissance artists who preceded Leonardo decisively rejected many of the conventions of medieval art. This was a movement towards realism and much had already been achieved in the study of perspective, anatomy, greater freedom in compositional solutions. But in terms of painting and working with paint, the artists were still quite conventional and constrained. The line in the picture clearly outlined the object, and the image had the appearance of a painted drawing.

The most conventional was the landscape that played minor role. Leonardo realized and embodied a new painting technique. His line has the right to be blurry, because that’s how we see it. He realized the phenomenon of light scattering in the air and the appearance of sfumato - a haze between the viewer and the depicted object, which softens color contrasts and lines. As a result, realism in painting moved to a qualitatively new level.

His only invention that received recognition during his lifetime was a wheel lock for a pistol (started with a key). At the beginning, the wheeled pistol was not very widespread, but by the middle of the 16th century it had gained popularity among the nobles, especially among the cavalry, which was even reflected in the design of the armor, namely: Maximilian armor for the sake of firing pistols began to be made with gloves instead of mittens. The wheel lock for a pistol, invented by Leonardo da Vinci, was so perfect that it continued to be found in the 19th century.

Leonardo da Vinci was interested in the problems of flight. In Milan, he made many drawings and studied the flight mechanism of birds of various breeds and bats. In addition to observations, he also conducted experiments, but they were all unsuccessful. Leonardo really wanted to build a flying machine. He said: “He who knows everything can do everything. If only you could find out, you’ll have wings!”

At first, Leonardo developed the problem of flight using wings driven by human muscle power: the idea of ​​​​the simplest apparatus of Daedalus and Icarus. But then he came up with the idea of ​​​​building such an apparatus to which a person should not be attached, but should maintain complete freedom in order to control it; The apparatus must set itself in motion by its own force. This is essentially the idea of ​​an airplane. Leonardo da Vinci worked on a vertical take-off and landing apparatus. Leonardo planned to place a system of retractable staircases on the vertical “ornitottero”. Nature served as an example for him: “look at the stone swift, which sat on the ground and cannot take off because of its short legs; and when he is in flight, pull out the ladder, as shown in the second image from above... this is how you take off from the plane; these stairs serve as legs...” Regarding landing, he wrote: “These hooks (concave wedges) which are attached to the base of the ladders serve the same purpose as the tips of the toes of the person who jumps on them, without his whole body being shaken by it, as if he was jumping on his heels.” Leonardo da Vinci proposed the first design of a telescope with two lenses (now known as the Kepler telescope). In the manuscript of the Codex Atlanticus, page 190a, there is an entry: “Make spectacle glasses (ochiali) for the eyes so that you can see the large Moon.”

Leonardo da Vinci may have first formulated the simplest form of the law of conservation of mass for the movement of fluids when describing the flow of a river, but due to vagueness of the wording and doubts about its authenticity, this statement has been criticized.

During his life, Leonardo da Vinci made thousands of notes and drawings on anatomy, but did not publish his work. While dissecting the bodies of people and animals, he accurately conveyed the structure of the skeleton and internal organs, including small details. According to clinical anatomy professor Peter Abrams, scientific work da Vinci was 300 years ahead of her time and in many ways superior to the famous Gray's Anatomy.

Inventions of Leonardo da Vinci:

Parachute
Wheel lock
Bike
Tank
Lightweight portable bridges for the army
Spotlight
Catapult
Robot
Two-lens telescope.

The creator of “The Last Supper” and “La Gioconda” also showed himself as a thinker, early realizing the need for theoretical justification of artistic practice: “Those who devote themselves to practice without knowledge are like a sailor setting off on a journey without a rudder and compass... practice should always be based on good knowledge of theory."

Demanding from the artist an in-depth study of the objects depicted, Leonardo da Vinci recorded all his observations in a notebook, which he constantly carried with him. The result was a kind of intimate diary, the like of which is not found in all world literature. Drawings, drawings and sketches are accompanied here by brief notes on issues of perspective, architecture, music, natural science, military engineering and the like; all this is sprinkled with various sayings, philosophical reasoning, allegories, anecdotes, fables. Taken together, the entries in these 120 books provide materials for an extensive encyclopedia. However, he did not strive to publish his thoughts and even resorted to secret writing; a complete decipherment of his notes has not yet been completed.

Recognizing experience as the only criterion of truth and opposing the method of observation and induction to abstract speculation, Leonardo da Vinci not only in words, but in deeds deals a mortal blow to medieval scholasticism with its predilection for abstract logical formulas and deduction. For Leonardo da Vinci, speaking well means thinking correctly, that is, thinking independently, like the ancients, who did not recognize any authorities. So Leonardo da Vinci comes to deny not only scholasticism, this echo of feudal-medieval culture, but also humanism, a product of still fragile bourgeois thought, frozen in superstitious admiration for the authority of the ancients.

Denying book learning, declaring the task of science (as well as art) to be the knowledge of things, Leonardo da Vinci anticipates Montaigne's attacks on literary scholars and opens the era of a new science a hundred years before Galileo and Bacon.

Huge literary heritage Leonardo da Vinci has survived to this day in a chaotic form, in manuscripts written with his left hand. Although Leonardo da Vinci did not print a single line from them, in his notes he constantly addressed an imaginary reader and everything recent years throughout his life he never gave up the thought of publishing his works.

After the death of Leonardo da Vinci, his friend and student Francesco Melzi selected from them passages related to painting, from which the “Treatise on Painting” (Trattato della pittura, 1st ed., 1651) was subsequently compiled. The handwritten legacy of Leonardo da Vinci was published in its entirety only in the 19th-20th centuries. In addition to its enormous scientific and historical significance, it also has artistic value thanks to the concise, energetic style and unusually clear language.

Living in the heyday of humanism, when the Italian language was considered secondary compared to Latin, Leonardo da Vinci delighted his contemporaries with the beauty and expressiveness of his speech (according to legend, he was a good improviser), but did not consider himself a writer and wrote as he spoke; his prose is therefore an example spoken language intelligentsia of the 15th century, and this saved it in general from the artificiality and eloquence inherent in the prose of humanists, although in some passages of the didactic writings of Leonardo da Vinci we find echoes of the pathos of the humanistic style.

Even in the least “poetic” fragments by design, Leonardo da Vinci’s style is distinguished by its vivid imagery; Thus, his “Treatise on Painting” is equipped with magnificent descriptions (for example, the famous description of the flood), amazing with the skill of verbal transmission of pictorial and plastic images. Along with descriptions in which one can feel the manner of an artist-painter, Leonardo da Vinci gives in his manuscripts many examples of narrative prose: fables, facets (joking stories), aphorisms, allegories, prophecies. In fables and facets, Leonardo stands on the level of the prose writers of the 14th century with their simple-minded practical morality; and some of its facets are indistinguishable from Sacchetti’s short stories.

Allegories and prophecies are more fantastic in nature: in the first, Leonardo da Vinci uses the techniques of medieval encyclopedias and bestiaries; the latter are in the nature of humorous riddles, distinguished by brightness and precision of phraseology and imbued with caustic, almost Voltairean irony, directed at the famous preacher Girolamo Savonarola. Finally, in the aphorisms of Leonardo da Vinci his philosophy of nature, his thoughts about the inner essence of things are expressed in epigrammatic form. Fiction had a purely utilitarian, auxiliary meaning for him.

To date, about 7,000 pages of Leonardo’s diaries have survived, located in various collections. At first, the priceless notes belonged to the master's favorite student, Francesco Melzi, but when he died, the manuscripts disappeared. Individual fragments began to “emerge” at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. At first they did not meet with enough interest. Numerous owners did not even suspect what kind of treasure fell into their hands. But when scientists established the authorship, it turned out that the barn books, art history essays, anatomical sketches, strange drawings, and research on geology, architecture, hydraulics, geometry, military fortifications, philosophy, optics, and drawing techniques were the fruit of one person. All entries in Leonardo's diaries are made in a mirror image.

The following students came out of Leonardo's workshop: "Leonardeschi"): Ambrogio de Predis, Giovanni Boltraffio, Francesco Melzi, Andrea Solario, Giampetrino, Bernardino Luini, Cesare da Sesto.

In 1485, after a terrible plague epidemic in Milan, Leonardo proposed to the authorities a project for an ideal city with certain parameters, layout and sewer system. The Duke of Milan, Lodovico Sforza, rejected the project. Centuries passed, and the London authorities recognized Leonardo's plan as the perfect basis for the further development of the city. In modern Norway there is an active bridge designed by Leonardo da Vinci. Tests of parachutes and hang gliders made according to the master’s sketches confirmed that only the imperfection of materials did not allow him to take to the skies. At the Roman airport named after Leonardo da Vinci, there is a gigantic statue of a scientist with a model of a helicopter in his hands, stretching into the sky. “He who is directed towards a star does not turn around,” wrote Leonardo.

Leonardo, apparently, did not leave a single self-portrait that could be unambiguously attributed to him. Scientists have doubted that the famous self-portrait of Leonardo's sanguine (traditionally dated 1512-1515), depicting him in old age, is such. It is believed that perhaps this is just a study of the head of the apostle for the Last Supper. Doubts that this is a self-portrait of the artist have been expressed since the 19th century, the latest to be expressed recently by one of the leading experts on Leonardo, Professor Pietro Marani. But recently, Italian scientists announced a sensational discovery. They claim that an early self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci has been discovered. The discovery belongs to the journalist Piero Angela.

He played the lyre masterfully. When Leonardo's case was heard in the Milan court, he appeared there precisely as a musician, and not as an artist or inventor. Leonardo was the first to explain why the sky is blue. In the book “On Painting” he wrote: “The blueness of the sky is due to the thickness of illuminated air particles, which is located between the Earth and the blackness above.”

Leonardo was ambidextrous - he was equally good with his right and left hands. They even say that he could write different texts with different hands at the same time. However, he wrote most of his works with his left hand from right to left.

It is believed that da Vinci was a vegetarian (Andrea Corsali, in a letter to Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici, compares Leonardo to an Indian who did not eat meat).

The phrase often attributed to da Vinci: “If a person strives for freedom, why does he keep birds and animals in cages? .. man is truly the king of animals, because he cruelly exterminates them. We live by killing others. We are walking cemeteries! At an early age I gave up meat" taken from English translation novel by Dmitry Merezhkovsky “Resurrected Gods. Leonardo da Vinci."

Leonardo wrote in his famous diaries from right to left in mirror image. Many people think that in this way he wanted to make his research secret. Perhaps this is true. According to another version, mirror handwriting was his individual feature (there is even evidence that it was easier for him to write this way than in a normal way); There is even a concept of “Leonardo’s handwriting.”

Leonardo's hobbies even included cooking and the art of serving. In Milan, for 13 years he was the manager of court feasts. He invented several culinary devices to make the work of cooks easier. Leonardo's original dish - thinly sliced ​​stewed meat with vegetables placed on top - was very popular at court feasts.

Leonardo da Vinci's paintings are beautiful and full of mysteries. They have been brought to an unimaginable degree of perfection, because the master worked on each of his creations for several years.

Our rating lists everything greatest paintings Leonardo da Vinci, with photos, names and detailed information about each of them. The list did not include drawings of inventions, caricatures, or paintings about which art critics have doubts that they belonged to Leonardo. Also not included in the selection are copies of paintings that have not survived to this day.

Years written: 1490.
Where is: Academy Gallery, Venice.
Materials: paper, pen, ink, watercolor.
Dimensions: 34.3 x 24.5 cm.

If you say that this is not painting, but drawing, you will be absolutely right. Indeed, the Vitruvian Man is a drawing, an illustration made by Leonardo for a book by the great Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius and placed in one of his diaries.

However, this drawing is no less famous than the paintings listed on our list. It is considered not only a work of art, but also a scientific work. And demonstrates the ideal proportions of the human body.

After studying mathematics and geometry, in particular the work of Vitruvius, Leonardo's thirst for knowledge reached its peak. In The Vitruvian Man he applied the idea of ​​universal symmetry, the golden ratio or "divine proportion" not only to size and shape, but also to weight.

• 6 palms = 1 cubit;
• length from tip of longest to lowest base of 4 fingers = 1 palm;
• 4 palms = 1 foot;
• arm span = height;
• 4 palms = 1 step;
• 4 cubits or 24 palms = height of a person.

Others worldwide famous paintings Leonardo da Vinci's works that include the Golden Ratio principle are the Mona Lisa, the Annunciation and the Last Supper.

Years written: 1478 — 1480.
Where is: Alte Pinakothek, Munich.
Materials: oil painting on board.
Dimensions: 42 x 67 cm.

Many art historians attribute this work to the young Leonardo, when he was still serving as an apprentice in Verrocchio's painting workshop. There are a number of details that support this version, for example, the detailing of the Madonna's face, the pattern of her hair, the landscape outside the window, as well as the soft and diffused light characteristic of the Italian artist.

Unfortunately, the years have not been kind to the painting, and due to improper restoration, the surface of the paint layer has become uneven.

Years written: 1472 — 1476.
Where is: Uffizi, Florence.
Materials: oil painting on board.
Dimensions: 98 x 217 cm.

It was with “The Annunciation” that Leonardo da Vinci began as an artist. This painting was supposedly created in collaboration with Andrea del Verrocchio, to whose workshop he was sent at the age of 14. The authorship of the future famous Italian master is supported by the amazing anatomical accuracy characteristic of all Leonardo’s works, as well as a number of sketches in the diaries that have survived to this day. In favor of the authorship of another person is the nature of the strokes and the composition of the colors with which Mary was painted; they contain lead, which is uncharacteristic for da Vinci.

It is interesting that if you look at the painting while standing directly in front of it, you will notice some flaws in the anatomy. For example, Mary’s hand seems somewhat longer than is typical for ordinary inhabitants of planet Earth. However, if you move to the right side of the picture and look from there, then Mary’s hand magically shortens, she herself becomes larger and the center of gravity of the plot is transferred to her figure - as prescribed by the plot. Most likely, the supposed irregularity in the physique is the result of an elaborate optical illusion: the painting was supposed to hang at an angle towards the viewer.

Years written: 1476
Where is: Uffizi, Florence.
Materials: oil painting on board.
Dimensions: 177 x 151 cm.

And Leonardo wrote this work in collaboration with his teacher. According to Giorgio Vasari, who compiled the artist’s biography, Verrocchio instructed a young apprentice (at the time of painting Leonardo was 24 years old) to paint the figure of a white-haired angel in the left corner of the picture. The teacher was so impressed by the student’s skill that he, disgraced, no longer studied painting.

Years written: 1474 — 1478.
Where is: National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Materials: oil painting on board.
Dimensions: 38.8 x 36.7 cm.

The wreath of laurel and palm branches on the back of the picture hints that it depicts a difficult woman. The first wreath indicates her poetic pursuits, and the second - that she is not alien to mercy and compassion. This impression is supported by the strict and somewhat stern beauty of the model, her pale alabaster skin, and lowered eyelids, as if in thought. Her intellectual pursuits are also indicated by her almost complete absence of jewelry and conspicuously modest clothing. And that’s right – the painting depicts the poetess Ginevra de Benci.

The manner of the image (especially the shading with the fingers - Leonardo had only just begun to master this technique, so the paint layer is uneven in places) already speaks volumes about the skill of the creator. Particularly characteristic are the soft lighting and the landscape in the background, as if shrouded in a luminous haze.

Years written: 1479 — 1481.
Where is: Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
Materials: oil painting on canvas.
Dimensions: 48 x 31.5 cm.

“The ghost of an old woman” with a “wrinkled neck”, “a swollen body” and a “toothless grin” - these were the unflattering words used by the American art critic who was tasked by the owners - the Benois family - to establish the authorship. Despite all the colorful epithets, he still attributed it as belonging to the brush of Leonardo da Vinci - this is supported by both the brushwork style and the artist’s soft diffused light, which easily creates the volume of two figures.

One of the symbolic details is a cruciferous plant, hinting at what fate awaits the child. However, neither the mother nor the baby knows about this yet. He plays carefree, and she looks at him with a smile.

Years written: 1479 — 1482.
Where is: Uffizi, Florence.
Materials: oil painting on board.
Dimensions: 246 x 243.

One of the paintings of the great artist, sculptor, scientist and engineer of the Renaissance, unfortunately, remained unfinished. Leonardo moved to Milan and had no intention of returning. Fortunately, the customers kept the unfinished painting. It is distinguished by its non-standard composition and rich symbolic meaning.

For example, Mary sits under an oak tree, which is a symbol of eternity, a palm tree grows in the distance - a sign of Jerusalem, and the ruins of a pagan temple on the horizon - the destruction of the pagan religion, which was supplanted by Christianity.

Years written: 1480 — 1490.
Where is: Vatican Pinakothek.
Materials: oil painting on board.
Dimensions: 103 x 75 cm.

Despite the fact that the painting remained unfinished, it made a strong impression on his contemporaries. This is primarily due to the amazing anatomical accuracy of the depiction of the human body, for which Leonardo was famous.

The painting faced a difficult fate - the work was sawn up after some time, and the boards were used for the most base purposes. It is alleged that one of the art lovers found part of the painting in the form of a chest lid.

Years written: 1478 — 1482.
Where is: Hermitage.
Materials: tempera, board.
Dimensions: 42 x 33.

The skill of the great Italian artist was also evident in the details, which tell a kind of story. For example, a woman's red dress is equipped with special slits for feeding, one of which is sewn up. Apparently, she decided that it was time to stop breast-feeding. But one of them was cut open in a hurry - stitches and hanging ends of the thread are visible.

Years written: 1483 – 1490 and 1495 – 1508.
Where is: Louvre and London National Gallery.
Materials: oil painting on board.
Dimensions: 199 x 122 cm

There are two almost identical works by Leonardo with the same title in the world. One of them is in Paris, and the other is in London. Da Vinci's first version was commissioned for the altar door, with a clearly defined plot. However, the artist apparently considered that his talent and skill gave him the right to take some liberties. As a result, there were so many of them that the customers refused to pay for the work. A long-term lawsuit began, which, however, ended relatively successfully. The second version began to hang in the church, and the first disappeared from art historians’ radars for about a hundred and fifty years, until it turned up in the treasury of the French kings.

Like many other paintings by Leonardo, this one is full of encrypted messages. Cyclamen next to Jesus symbolizes love, primrose - virtue, acanthus - the coming resurrection, and St. John's wort - the blood shed by Christian martyrs. It was this picture that the author of the sensational “Da Vinci Code” tried to use as an illustration of his constructions, where he stated that in fact the meaning traditional plot completely different.

Years written: 1485 — 1487.
Where is: Ambrosian Library, Milan.
Materials: oil painting on board.
Dimensions: 43 x 31.

The only portrait of a man among the famous paintings by da Vinci. Initially, art historians believed that the painting depicted the Duke of Milan himself, patron and friend of Leonardo da Vinci (as far as a person holding such a position is concerned) social status, in general, can be someone’s friend). Until it was subsequently discovered that the young man was clutching a scroll in his hands, beginning with the words “angel song.” Therefore, the painting was renamed “Portrait of a Musician.” And a number of art historians make a bold assumption that it is Leonardo himself, because music was also part of his interests.

Years written: 1488 — 1490.
Where is: Czartoryski Museum, Krakow.
Materials: oil painting on board.
Dimensions: 54.8 x 40.3 cm.

Although the authorship of the brilliant Italian artist has sometimes been questioned, at the moment art critics agree: this is one of the best paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, if not the most perfect from a pictorial point of view. It is believed that the artist, who loved riddles and codes, encrypted her name in the image of a white animal in the hands of the model. In Latin, the mustelid family is called gale, and the girl's name is Caecilia Gallerani.

The snow-white skin of an ermine (and most likely it is he who is depicted in the portrait) is a daring challenge to the somewhat dubious status of the kept woman of the Duke of Milan. According to popular beliefs, this animal values ​​​​its immaculate white fur so much that it is ready to die rather than stain it with dirt.

Years written: 1495 — 1498.
Where is: Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.
Materials: fresco.
Dimensions: 460 x 880 cm.

One of the most famous paintings by Leonardo da Vinci is essentially not that. This is kind of the largest and most unsuccessful experiment of the great Italian scientist. At the end of the 15th century, the Duke of Milan ordered the famous artist to paint the wall of the monastery for an amount the equivalent of which would now be 700 thousand dollars.

It was assumed that the artist, like many before him, would paint on wet plaster - after final polishing, such painting would be strong and durable. However, the fresco imposes its own limitations - in addition to the specific manner of applying paints (you need to paint immediately and completely, further corrections are impossible), only certain pigments are suitable for it. And then their brightness decreases, “eaten up” by the well-absorbing surface.

For Leonardo, who was skeptical of authorities, achieved everything on his own and, apparently, was quite proud of this circumstance, such restrictions were unbearable. With true Renaissance spirit, he decided to reject the legacy of the past and rework the entire process anew - from the composition of the plaster to the paints used. The result was predictable. The paint layer of the fresco began to deteriorate two decades after the completion of the work. In addition to unsuccessful technical decisions, the picture also suffered from time.

First, the inhabitants of the monastery decided to saw off Christ’s feet, making a door in this place, and then mediocre painters, trying to update the painting, shamelessly distorted its plot (for example, the hand of one of the apostles turned into... a loaf). The building was flooded, then it was turned into a hayloft, and during World War II the temple was hit by a bomb. Fortunately, the fresco was not damaged. It is not surprising that barely 20% of the original painting has survived to our time.

It is interesting that it was this crumbling and occasionally touched up image that for many years was the most famous painting by da Vinci - and what’s more, the only one accessible to the common viewer. The rest were all in the custody of the rich of this world. The status quo changed only with the transfer of the Mona Lisa from Napoleon's bedchamber to the Louvre.

From the other two frescoes created by da Vinci, only fragments have survived to this day.

Years written: 1493 — 1497.
Where is: Louvre, Paris.
Materials: oil painting on board.
Dimensions: 62 x 44 cm.

An interesting legend is associated with one of the most famous paintings by Leonardo da Vinci. When the painting arrived in France, one of the owners wrote on it the inscription “ferroniere.” This mysterious word (like the undoubted beauty of a woman) has excited the imagination of people close to art for many years.

The gallant “historian of love,” Guy Breton, who already lived in our time, composed a whole story. Allegedly, the nameless beauty was the mistress of Francis the First, and she began to wear her jewelry to hide the bruise received during the night with the king.

Most likely, the painting by Leonardo da Vinci entitled “La Belle Ferroniere” depicts Lucrezia Crivelli. She was one of the mistresses of Leonardo's patron, the Duke of Milan. And the name comes from her decoration on her forehead - ferroniere.

Years written: 1500 — 1505.
Where is: National Gallery, Parma.
Materials: oil painting on board.
Dimensions: 24.6 x 21 cm.

An unfinished image of a young woman with a careless hairstyle (hence the other name of the painting - La Scapigliata, disheveled) was painted in a manner similar to other unfinished works - oil paints with a small addition of pigment. Art critics, however, believe that the contrast between the barely outlined hair and the superbly executed face was part of the artist’s plans.

Leonardo was probably inspired by a passage from the ancient writer Pliny the Elder, popular during the Renaissance. He said that great artist Apelles deliberately left his last image of the Venus of Cos unfinished, and that admirers admired it more than his other works.

Years written: 1501 — 1517.
Where is: Louvre, Paris.
Materials: oil painting on board.
Dimensions: 168 x 112 cm.

Contemporaries deeply appreciated the liveliness and naturalness of the facial expressions of all three participants in the scene - especially Leonard's signature mysterious half-smile with which Anna looks at her daughter and grandson.

2. Mona Lisa (La Gioconda)

Years written: 1502 — 1516.
Where is: Louvre, Paris.
Materials: oil painting on board.
Dimensions: 76.8 x 53.

It is perhaps difficult to find a person on the globe who is not familiar with La Gioconda. This is certainly the most famous work of the talented Italian. Many mysteries and secrets of this painting by Leonardo da Vinci have not yet been solved:

“Mona Lisa” had a special meaning in the artist’s life - it is no secret that sometimes, carried away by something new, he was very reluctant to return to the interrupted work. However, he worked on La Gioconda with passion and enthusiasm. Why?

It is unclear exactly who is depicted in the portrait. Was this the wife of the merchant del Giocondo? Or the same woman who posed for Lady with an Ermine? There is even a version that the model for the Mona Lisa was Salai, one of the artist’s apprentices, who was depicted by him in at least two more paintings.

What color was Gioconda's dress originally? Apparently, Leonardo again experimented with paints, and again unsuccessfully, so that nothing remained of the original color of the sleeves. Contemporaries, by the way, admired the luxurious coloring of the painting.

And finally, a mysterious half-smile - is she smiling at all, or is it just an illusion skillfully created by the artist using shadows in the corners of the lips?

Years written: 1508 — 1516.
Where is: Louvre, Paris.
Materials: oil painting on board.
Dimensions: 69 x 57 cm.

The artist's last painting, which supposedly depicts Salai, one of the artist's apprentices, who for unknown reasons enjoyed Leonardo's special favor. The master forgave the student a lot. Even to the point of stealing money for a cloak purchased in advance, in which Salai was draped for “Bacchus” - a painting that has survived to this day only in the form of a copy. The pampered face, carefully curled curls and especially the immodest half-smile gave rise to certain doubts about the nature of the relationship between master and apprentice.

However, it is difficult to understand anything from the artist’s diaries - after being accused of sodomy at a young age, he carefully avoided mentioning his personal life anywhere. In his will, he left his estate and money, by the way, to Leonardo to the same Salai and another of his assistants.

Turin self-portrait by Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci – Turin self-portrait

Years written: after 1512.
Where is: Royal Library, Turin.
Materials: sanguine, paper.
Dimensions: 33.3 x 21.6 cm.

Considered to be a self-portrait of the artist, painted at the age of 60. The portrait was made with a drawing stick made of kaolin and iron oxides, which is why the painting has a yellowish tint. Currently not on display due to fragility.

There is still controversy surrounding the authorship of the popular work, despite the fact that the shading goes from left to right, as Leonardo was accustomed to, but some art historians consider it a fake. According to some reports, during an X-ray survey, a painting was found under the image of the elder, presumably dating back to the 17th century.

The most expensive painting by Leonardo da Vinci in a private collection: Salvator Mundi

Price:$400 000 000
Years written: 1499 — 1507.
Where is: private collection.
Materials: oil painting on board.
Dimensions: 66 x 47 cm.

At Christie's auction in November 2017, the painting was sold for an impressive $400 million. Now it is kept in the private collection of one of the Saudi princes and, possibly, will be exhibited in the Louvre branch in this country.

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (1452 - 1519) - Italian painter, sculptor and architect, natural scientist, writer and musician, inventor and mathematician, botanist and philosopher, a prominent representative of the Renaissance.

Childhood

Not far from Italian Florence is the small town of Vinci; near it in 1452 there was the village of Anchiano, where the genius Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15.

His father, a fairly successful notary Pierrot, was 25 years old at that time. He had a love affair with a beautiful peasant woman, Katerina, as a result of which a child was born. But later the father was legally married to a noble and rich girl, and Leonardo remained to live with his mother.

After some time, it became clear that the married couple and Vicni could not have their own children, and then Piero took their common son Leonardo, who by that time was already three years old, from Katerina to raise. The baby was separated from his mother, and then all his life he diligently tried to recreate her image in his masterpieces.

IN new family the boy began to receive at the age of 4 primary education, he was taught Latin and reading, mathematics and writing.

Youth in Florence

When Leonardo was 13 years old, his stepmother died, his father remarried and moved to Florence. Here he opened his own business, to which he tried to involve his son.

In those days, children born out of legal marriage were endowed with exactly the same rights as heirs born into an officially registered family. However, Leonardo had little interest in the laws of society, and then Piero's father decided to make his son an artist.

His teacher in painting was the representative of the Tuscan school, sculptor, bronze caster, and jeweler Andrea del Verrocchio. Leonardo was accepted into his workshop as an apprentice.

In those years, the entire intellect of Italy was concentrated in Florence, so that, in addition to painting, da Vinci here had the opportunity to study drawing, chemistry, and the humanities. Here he learned some technical skills, learned to work with materials such as metal, leather and plaster, and became interested in modeling and sculpture.

At the age of 20, Leonardo qualified as a master at the Guild of St. Luke.

The first painting masterpieces

In those days, painting workshops practiced joint painting, when the teacher completed orders with the help of one of his students.

So Verrocchio, when he received his next order, chose da Vinci as his assistant. The painting “The Baptism of Christ” was needed; the teacher instructed Leonardo to paint one of the two angels. But when the master teacher compared the angel he was painting with the work of da Vinci, he threw away his brush and never returned to painting. He realized that the student not only surpassed him, but a real genius was born.

Leonardo da Vinci mastered several painting techniques:

• Italian pencil;
• sanguine;
• silver pencil;
• feather.

Over the next five years, Leonardo worked on creating such masterpieces as “Madonna with a Vase”, “Annunciation”, “Madonna with a Flower”.

Period of life in Milan

In the spring of 1476, da Vinci and three of his friends were accused of sadism and were arrested. At that time, this was considered a terrible crime, for which the death penalty was punishable - burning at the stake. The artist’s guilt was not proven; no accusers or witnesses were found. The son of a noble Florentine nobleman was also among the suspects. These two circumstances helped da Vinci avoid punishment; the defendants were flogged and released.

After this incident, the young man did not return to Verrocchio, but opened his own painting workshop.

In 1482, the ruler of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, invited Leonardo da Vinci to the court as an organizer of the holidays. His job was to create costumes, masks and mechanical “miracles”; the holidays turned out great. Leonardo had to simultaneously combine several positions: engineer and architect, court artist, hydraulic engineer and military engineer. Moreover, his salary was less than that of a court dwarf. But Leonardo did not despair, because in this way he had the opportunity to work for himself and develop in science and technology.

During the years of his life and work in Milan, da Vinci paid especially much attention to anatomy and architecture. He sketched several options for the central-domed temple; got hold of a human skull and made a discovery - cranial sinuses.

During the same Milanese period, while working at court, he became very interested in cooking and the art of table setting. In order to make the work of cooks easier, Leonardo invented some culinary devices.

Artistic creations of the genius da Vinci

Although his contemporaries consider Leonardo da Vinci to be a great artist, he considered himself a learned engineer. He drew rather slowly and did not devote much time to fine art, as he was too keen on science.

Some works have been lost or severely damaged over the years and centuries; many unfinished paintings remain. For example, the large altar composition “Adoration of the Magi”. Therefore, Leonardo's artistic legacy is not so great. But what has survived to this day is truly priceless. These are paintings such as “Madonna in the Grotto”, “La Gioconda”, “The Last Supper”, “Lady with an Ermine”.

To depict so brilliantly in paintings human bodies, Leonardo was the first in the world of painting to study the structure and location of muscles, for which he dismembered corpses.

Other areas of activity of Leonardo

But he owns a huge number of discoveries in other areas and fields.
In 1485, a plague epidemic occurred in Milan. About 50,000 city residents died from this disease. Da Vinci justified such a pestilence to the Duke by the fact that in the overpopulated city dirt reigned on the narrow streets, and came up with a proposal to build a new city. He proposed a plan according to which the city, designed for 30,000 inhabitants, was divided into 10 districts, each with its own sewerage system. Leonardo also proposed calculating the width of streets based on the average height of horses. The Duke rejected his plan, as, indeed, many of da Vinci’s brilliant creations were rejected during his lifetime.

However, several centuries will pass, and the State Council of London will use the proportions proposed by Leonardo, call them ideal and will use them when laying out new streets.

Da Vinci was also very talented in music. His hands were responsible for the creation of a silver lyre, which was shaped like a horse's head; he could also play this lyre masterfully.

Leonardo was fascinated by the water element; he did many works related to water in one way or another. He owns the invention and description of a device for diving under water, as well as a breathing apparatus that can be used for scuba diving. All modern underwater equipment is based on da Vinci's inventions. He studied hydraulics, the laws of fluid, developed the theory of sewer ports and locks, testing his ideas in practice.

And how passionate he was about the development of an aircraft, and he created the simplest of them based on wings. These are his ideas - an airplane with full control and a device that will have vertical takeoff and landing. He didn’t have a motor and couldn’t bring his ideas to life.

He was interested in absolutely everything about the human structure; he worked very hard to study the human eye.

Some interesting facts

Leonardo da Vinci had many students and friends. As for his relationships with the female sex, there is no reliable information on this matter. It is known for certain that he was not married.

Leonardo da Vinci slept very little and was a vegetarian. He did not understand at all how a person could combine the freedom he strives for with keeping animals and birds in cages. In his diaries he wrote:

“We are all walking cemeteries because we live by killing other (animals).”

Almost 5 centuries have passed since there was no great genius, and the world is still trying to unravel the smile of Gioconda. It was studied by specialists and scientists in Amsterdam and the USA, and even with the help of computer technology they determined the emotions that a smile conceals:

• happiness (83%);
• fear (6%);
• anger (2%);
• neglect (9%).

There is a version that when Mona Lisa posed for the master, she was entertained by jesters and musicians. And some scientists suggested that she was pregnant and smiled blissfully from the realization of this secret.

Leonardo da Vinci died on May 2, 1519, surrounded by his students. The legacy of a brilliant man included not only paintings, but also a huge library, tools, and about 50,000 sketches. The manager of all this was his friend and student Francesco Melzi.