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Leonardo da Vinci
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Leonardo da Vinci was born in the year 1452 in the small hill town of Vinci. His father was a successful notary and his mother a peasant woman. The little town of Vinci has changed very little in 544 years since then. Stone houses are clustered together around the protective battlements of a castle. The tall church bell tower is still an important landmark which can be seen for miles. Vinci is surrounded by fertile farmland. The hillsides are planted with grape vines and fruit trees and patches of silvery green olive trees dot the landscape. The slopes above Vinci lead to Mount Albano, a high peak where Leonardo later hiked and made observations about the atmosphere. Small mountain streams run down from the mountain past Vinci to the valley of the Arno River below. For a curious boy who loved nature, the area around Vinci must have been a wonderful childhood home. Leonardo was free to explore the woods and streams and to study the insects, animals, and birds which he later sketched in great detail in his notebooks. Leonardo's early fascination with nature clearly inspired the paintings he would create as an adult. The detailed and lifelike plants and wildflowers that he painted at the feet of the angel in The Annunciation and the rocky caves and pools of water surrounding the figures in The Virgin of the Rocks were created from observations and sketches he began making as a child in Vinci. FLORENCE- CAPITAL OF THE RENEISSANCE When he was about 12 years old, Leonardo moved to the bustling city of Florence with his father. Because young Leonardo demonstrated a great talent for drawing, his father later made him an apprentice in the studio of Andrea del Verrocchio, a leading artist in Florence. In Verrocchio's studio Leonardo learned the painters craft of preparing canvases, making brushes, and grinding and mixing paints. Verrocchio also taught him to sculpt in wood, stone and clay, and how to cast metal objects in silver and gold. Artists in the fifteenth century Italy were more than just expert painters and sculptors however. Verrocchio was hired by wealthy patrons to create furniture, musical instruments, navigational compasses, and bronze bells for cathedrals among other things. Leonardo watched carefully and learned every craft that went on in the workshop. He drew constantly to record what he observed. When he wasn't needed in the studio, Leonardo explored the city of Florence. He observed and sketched everything that interested him. He visited the building site for the great cathedral being constructed in Florence and made careful drawings of the machinery he saw at work there. By the age of 21 Leonardo was a skilled painter, Verrocchio permitted him to help with an important painting of the Baptism of Christ. Leonardo painted the kneeling angel and some of the background for this work. The face of Leonardo's angel is delicately colored and shows Leonardo's talent at representing emotions. Legend has it that when Verrocchio first saw Leonardo's angel he was so impressed by Leonardo's abilities that "he (Verrocchio) never wanted to touch colors again." The hazy features of the background Leonardo painted for the Baptism of Christ show he had already begun to develop his sense of aerial perspective. After he finished his apprenticeship, Leonardo began work for the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo de Medici. He was supposed to paint an Adoration of the Magi for a church altar, but he never completed it, and in 1483 he moved to Milan. After 17 years in Milan he returned several times to Florence, where he worked on many different projects. By 1503 Florence was at war with the neighboring city of Pisa, and Leonardo worked on a plan to divert the Arno River from the enemy city. First it would cut off Pisa's supply route, and later the river would be turned into a canal for peacetime use. Neither project was ever finished, though Leonardo's reputation as a creative and talented engineer was firmly established. After the war with Pisa, Leonardo again took up painting. He completed his most famous portrait La Gioconda (Mona Lisa). He also wrote about and sketched the flight of birds and experimented with different designs for human powered flying machines. He was also commissioned to paint a huge mural commemorating a Florentine victory in the Battle of Anghiari. Leonardo completed a full-size cartoon of the battle illustrating the horrors of war as he had seen them while in Borgia's service. But he never finished the war painting, and in 1506 he was glad to leave Florence to go work in Milan. ROME THE CITY OF THE POPE From 1514 to 1516 Leonardo lived in Rome and worked under the patronage of Prince Giuliano the Magnificent, brother of Pope Leo X. Giuliano was fascinated by mechanical devices and Leonardo built many toys and machines to amuse him. Among them was a machine to turn copper metal into strips of uniform size. He also completed another great painting of John the Baptist as a young man. Leonardo had wished to keep studying human anatomy, but the Church would not allow him to examine and cut up dead bodies. Instead he studied animal parts obtained from a butcher's shop. From these he produced brilliant models of how the heart works. In Rome he also studied optics, and he attempted to make giant, rounded mirrors in his workshop. They were similar to the mirrors used in modern telescopes, and some scholars think he hoped to observe the moon and stars. Leonardo also studied botany, and he observed that the same patterns exist in many natural things. For example, the rings in a tree trunk resemble the ripples made by a stone dropped in water. He was always happy when repeating patterns appeared in nature, because they showed evidence of universal natural laws. Modern scientists continue to discover such patterns, often at a microscopic level, and Leonardo would certainly have been thrilled. MILAN- THE COURT OF THE SFORZAS The ruler of Florence sent Leonardo to Milan in 1482 bearing a silver lute as a gift to the powerful and warlike ruler of Milan, Duke Lodovico Sforza. Leonardo was by then known as a talented musician as well as a skilled painter and sculptor. Leonardo wrote an amazing letter to Duke Sforza. The letter described many of Leonardo's fascinating and original ideas for military engineering. He wrote how he could build strong light bridges, create fantastic new weapons, and build armored chariots and warships to protect the Duke's soldiers in battle.
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