Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Born near the town of Vinci in 1452, Leonardo trained in the
Florentine workshop of Andrea Verrocchio (1435-88). His first
masterpiece was the unfinished Adoration of the Magi
(1481, Uffizi, Florence). In 1481-2 he travelled to Milan to work
for the Duke, where he painted the Virgin of the Rocks
(Musée du Louvre, Paris-a later version exists in the National
Gallery, London) and the Last Supper (1495-7; Convent of
Santa Maria delle Grazie (Refectory), Milan). In 1499 he travelled
to Mantua and Venice, arriving back in Florence in 1500.
In 1503 he began the cartoon of the Battle of Anghiari
with its scenes of ferocious fighting for the wall in the Great
Council Chamber of the Palazzo Vecchio, but this work was never
completed. He returned to Milan in 1506 for seven years and in 1513
he moved to Rome. The French king, Francis I, invited him to his
court and about 1516, Leonardo settled in the manor of Cloux, near
Amboise in the Loire valley. Leonardo died there in 1519.
Leonardo is arguably the greatest draughtsman in Western art. He
was technically superb in whichever medium he used: silverpoint,
pen and ink, black and particularly red chalks. Driven by his
scientific curiosity, he studied the world around him in minutest
detail, making botanical and anatomical studies. In his drawings
and paintings he created figures which lived, breathed, moved and
gave expression to their emotions.