Where was Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci - biography, interesting facts

There are people who seemed to be ahead of their time, they came from the future. As a rule, they are poorly understood by contemporaries, they look like eccentrics among the people around them. But time passes, and humanity realizes - a harbinger of the future. In this article we will talk about where Leonardo da Vinci was born, what he is known for, what legacy he left us.

Who is Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci is known to the world, first of all, as an artist, whose brush belongs to the legendary "La Gioconda". People who are a little more in-depth in the topic will also name his other world-famous masterpieces: “ The Last Supper”, “Lady with an Ermine” ... In fact, being an unsurpassed artist, he left to posterity not so many of his paintings.

And this happened not because Leonardo was lazy. He was just a very versatile person. In addition to painting, he devoted a lot of time to the study of anatomy, worked on sculptures, and was deeply fond of architecture. For example, a bridge built according to the project of an Italian is still functioning in Norway. But he calculated and drew this project more than five centuries ago!

But Leonardo da Vinci himself considered himself a scientist, engineer and thinker. We have received a huge number of his notes and drawings, indicating that this man was ahead of his time for a long time.

In fairness, it must be said that not all of his inventions belong exclusively to Leonardo himself. It seems that he often used other people's guesses as well. His merit lies in the fact that he was able to notice in time interesting idea, hone it, translate it into drawings. Here is just a short list of those ideas and mechanisms that he was able to describe or make graphic sketches of their designs:

• an aircraft resembling a helicopter;
• self-propelled cart (prototype of a car);
• a war machine that protects the soldiers inside it (an analogue of a modern tank);
• parachute;
• crossbow (the drawing is provided with detailed calculations);
• "quick-firing machine" (the idea of ​​a modern automatic weapon);
• spotlight;
• telescope;
• scuba diving apparatus.

The most interesting thing is that the vast majority of the ideas of this man did not receive practical application during his lifetime. Moreover, his developments and calculations were considered ridiculous, stupid, they have been gathering dust for hundreds of years in libraries and book collections. But when their time came, it turned out that often only the lack of necessary materials and manufacturing technologies prevented them from finding their real life.

But we began our story by mentioning the birthplace of a genius. He was born near Florence, in the small village of Anchiano, actually a suburb of a town called Vinci. Actually, he then gave the genius the name now known, because "da Vinci" can be translated as "originally from Vinci." The real name of the boy sounded like "Leonardo di Sir Piero da Vinci" (his father's name was Piero). Date of birth - April 15, 1452.

Piero was a notary and tried to involve his son in office work, but he did not have any interest in him. As a teenager, Leonardo was a student famous artist Andrea del Verrocchio, from Florence. The boy turned out to be extraordinarily talented, so much so that after a few years the teacher realized that the student had surpassed him.

Already in those years, the young artist paid special attention to human anatomy. He was the first of the medieval painters who began to carefully draw the human body, returning to the forgotten ancient traditions. Looking ahead, it should be said that Leonardo left behind the most valuable records on the anatomy of the human body with the most accurate sketches, according to which physicians have been trained for several centuries.

In 1476, the young man ended up in Milan, where he opened his own painting workshop. After another 6 years, he ended up at the court of the ruler of Milan, where, in addition to painting, he held the position of organizer of holidays. He made masks and costumes, created scenery, which made it possible to combine painting with engineering and architectural activities. At court, he spent about 13 years, gaining, among other things, the glory of a skilled culinary specialist!

In the last years of his life, Leonardo da Vinci ended up in France, at the court of King Francis I. The monarch settled his guest in the Clos Luce castle, near Amboise, the royal residence. This happened in 1516. He was entrusted with the position of chief royal engineer and architect, and was given a huge salary for those times. At the end of his life, this man's dream came true - to completely surrender to his beloved business, without thinking about a piece of bread.

At this time, he completely stopped painting, took up architectural and engineering activities. But a year later his health was greatly shaken, his right hand refused to work. He died in April 1519, in the same Clos Luce, among his students and his manuscripts. The grave of the painter and is still located in the castle of Amboise.

Biography and episodes of life Leonardo da Vinci. When born and died Leonardo da Vinci, memorable places and dates of important events in his life. Quotes from an artist and a scientist, images and videos.

The life of Leonardo da Vinci:

born April 15, 1452, died May 2, 1519

Epitaph

"Prophet, il demon, il sorcerer,
Keeping an eternal mystery
Oh Leonardo, you are the harbinger
Still unknown day.
From Dmitry Merezhkovsky's poem "Leonardo da Vinci"

Biography

Leonardo da Vinci is one of the most mysterious figures in world history and definitely the most outstanding genius of the Renaissance. He is credited with the invention of the first prototypes of the helicopter, parachute, car, hang glider, scuba gear and dozens of other mechanisms, without which modern civilization is simply unthinkable. Da Vinci himself called himself more of a scientist and engineer than an artist, although his creative activity to this day does not cease to amaze the imagination of art historians and ordinary connoisseurs of painting and sculpture. In addition, da Vinci's works were reflected in other areas of science and art: in physics, astronomy, anatomy, philology, and others. There were legends about Leonardo during his lifetime, he took root in the milestones of history as a truly titanic figure, a true genius, centuries ahead of his time.

Leonardo was born in a small village near the town of Vinci, the name of which, according to the traditions of that time, formed the basis of his surname. His father was a wealthy hereditary notary, his mother was a simple peasant woman. From childhood, da Vinci studied with one of the most influential artists of the time, Andrea del Verrocchio, whom he managed to surpass at the age of 20. So, when the young man completed the writing of The Baptism of Christ, Verrocchio announced that from now on all faces would be painted exclusively by Leonardo.

Subsequently, da Vinci served at the courts of famous politicians, aristocrats and kings, moving between Florence, Milan, Rome. He held the posts of an architect, military engineer, designer, was aware of the principles of urban planning, wrote fundamental works on medicine and other sciences. During the mature life of Leonardo da Vinci, dozens of masterpieces came out from under his brush: “Lady with an Ermine”, Vitruvian Man, “Madonna Litta”, as well as countless brilliant sketches. Unfortunately, only a tiny part of his works has been preserved in memory of Leonardo, but even they are enough to appreciate the remarkable contribution of the artist to the development of world art.

Last years da Vinci lived in the royal castle of Clos Luce at the invitation of Francis I. Leonardo's health progressively faded, and soon he even lost the ability to move independently. However, about mysterious disease the artist is unknown, and the causes of da Vinci's death are still being debated. Shortly before his death, Leonardo da Vinci left a will, and later died in the presence of the king and his students. The body of the artist was buried in the castle of Amboise, and da Vinci's grave was marked with a laconic inscription: "The ashes of Leonardo da Vinci, the greatest artist, engineer and architect of the French kingdom, lie in the walls of this monastery."

life line

April 15, 1452 Birth date of Leonardo da Vinci.
1467 Admission to study with the artist Andrea del Verrocchio.
1472 Admission to the guild of painters of St. Luke.
1476 Opening your own workshop.
1502 Entering the service of Cesare Borgia as an architect.
1506 Serving the French King Louis XII.
1512 Moving to Rome under the auspices of Pope Leo X.
1516 Service with King Francis I.
2 May 1519 Date of death of Leonardo da Vinci.

Memorable places

1. Leonardo Museum in Vinci - the city near which the genius was born.
2. Da Vinci Museum in Florence.
3. Da Vinci Museum in Milan.
4. The Louvre, where the works of Leonardo da Vinci are kept, including the famous Mona Lisa.
5. National Gallery of Art in Washington, where the works of da Vinci are presented.
6. State Hermitage in St. Petersburg, where you can see the work of da Vinci.
7. London National Gallery, where da Vinci's works are kept.
8. National Gallery of Scotland, where the works of da Vinci are kept.
9. Clos Luce Castle, where da Vinci is buried.

Episodes of life

Once, when Leonardo was still young, a neighboring peasant came to his father with a request to find an artist to decorate his homemade shield. The father agreed and allowed his son to take over. The young da Vinci approached the matter with unprecedented originality: he depicted the mask of the Gorgon Medusa on the shield, and used real snakes, grasshoppers and other insects as improvised material. Leonardo thought that a shield decorated in this way could not only protect its owner well, but also frighten enemies. It ended with the fact that the father did not appreciate his son's creativity and bought another shield for the peasant. The original was subsequently sold to the wealthy Medici family in Florence.

Interestingly, there is practically no information about Leonardo's personal life in history. Judging by the available facts, he was not married and did not even have affairs with women. Da Vinci's only life partner was one of his students named Salai (from Italian "devil"). Nothing is reliably known about the relationship between Leonardo and Salai, except that their relationship lasted more than 25 years. It is surprising that da Vinci did not maintain such a long relationship with anyone from his entourage.

Covenant

"Only solitude gives the necessary freedom."

“Just as a well-lived day brings peaceful sleep, so a well-lived life brings peaceful death.”

The life and work of Leonardo da Vinci

condolences

"He was not only a great painter, but also a great mathematician, mechanic and engineer, to whom the most diverse branches of physics owe important discoveries."
Friedrich Engels, philosopher

“Everyone knows the names of Raphael, Titian, Bellini, Michelangelo - these are just some of the ones worthy of mention. However, no one has achieved such mastery in so many different areas as Leonardo da Vinci."
Svyatoslav Roerich, artist

“The loss of Leonardo beyond measure saddened everyone who knew him, because there was never a person who would bring so much honor to the art of painting. This is a master who truly lived his whole life with great benefit for mankind.
Irina Nikiforova, bibliographer

Leonardo da Vinci. 04/15/1452, Vinci - 05/02/1519, Clu

The unprecedented attention now paid by historians and novelists to the personality of Leonardo da Vinci is evidence of a turning point in relation to the culture of the Renaissance, a reassessment of the spiritual content of the “greatest progressive upheaval” that underlies modern European civilization. In Leonardo they see a kind of quintessence of the emerging era, emphasizing and highlighting in his work either the connection with the worldview of the previous time, or the cardinal demarcation with it. Mysticism and rationalism coexist in the assessment of his personality in an incomprehensible balance, and even the huge written heritage of the master, which has come down to our time, is not able to shake him. Leonardo da Vinci is among the greatest scientists, although very few of his projects were carried out. He is also one of the greatest figures of art, despite the fact that he created very few paintings (besides, not all of them have survived) and even fewer sculptures (not survived at all). What makes Leonardo great is not the number of embodied ideas, but the change in the method of both scientific and artistic activity. Figuratively speaking, he sought to "understand the organism of each object separately and the organism of the entire universe" (A. Benois).

Leonardo da Vinci. Self-portrait, ca. 1510-1515

Childhood and adolescence Leonardo documented very little. His father, Piero da Vinci, was a hereditary notary; already in the year of his son's birth, he practiced in Florence and soon rose to prominence there. All that is known about her mother is that her name was Caterina, she came from a peasant family, and soon after the birth of Leonardo she was married to a wealthy farmer, a certain Accatabrigio di Piero del Vaccia. Leonardo was taken into his father's house and raised by his childless stepmother, Albiera Amadori. What and how he was taught, what were his first experiments in drawing - is unknown. It is only indisputable that his uncle Francesco, with whom Leonardo da Vinci maintained the warmest relations all his life, had a great, if not decisive influence on the formation of the boy's personality. Since Leonardo was an illegitimate son, he could not inherit his father's profession. Vasari reports that Piero was friends with Andrea Verrocchio and once showed him the drawings of his son, after which Andrea took Leonardo to his workshop. Piero moved to Florence with his family in 1466, therefore, Leonardo da Vinci found himself in the workshop (bottegue) of Verrocchio at the age of fourteen.

The largest works performed by Verrocchio during the period of Leonardo's studies with him were the statue of David (Florence, Bargello), commissioned by the family Medici(it is believed that the young Leonardo da Vinci posed for her), and the completion of the dome of the Florence Cathedral with a golden ball with a cross (the order of the city was received on September 10, 1468 and completed in May 1472). In the workshop of Andrea, the best in Florence, Leonardo da Vinci had the opportunity to study all kinds of fine arts, architecture, perspective theory and to get acquainted partly with the natural and human sciences. Apparently, his formation as a painter was influenced not so much by Verrocchio himself, but by Botticelli and Perugino.

In 1469, Piero da Vinci received the post of notary of the Florentine Republic, and then a number of major monasteries and families. By this time he was widowed. Having finally moved to Florence, Piero remarried and took Leonardo to his house. Leonardo continued his studies with Verrocchio, and also independently studied science. Already in these years he met Paolo Toscanelli (mathematician, doctor, astronomer and geographer) and Leon Battista Alberti. In 1472, he joined the painters' guild and, as an entry in the guild book testifies, he paid a fee to organize the feast of St. Luke. In the same year he returned to Andrea's workshop, as his father had been widowed a second time and married a third time. In 1480 Leonardo da Vinci had his own workshop. The first pictorial work of Leonardo, now known, is the image of an angel in the painting "The Baptism of Christ" (Florence, Uffizi). Until recently, the painting was considered (based on the report Vasari) by the work of Verrocchio, who allegedly, having seen how much the student surpassed him in skill, abandoned painting.

Baptism of Christ. A painting by Verrocchio, painted by him with his students. The right of the two angels is the work of Leonardo da Vinci. 1472-1475

However, an analysis carried out by the Uffizi staff showed that the work was done collectively by three or even four artists in accordance with the traditions of medieval workshops. Obviously, the main role among them was played by Botticelli. The belonging of the figure of the left angel by Leonardo is beyond doubt. He also painted part of the landscape - behind the back of the angel at the edge of the composition.

The absence of documentary evidence, signatures and dates on the paintings makes it very difficult to attribute them. By the beginning of the 1470s, two "Annunciations" are attributed, which, judging by the horizontally elongated format, are altar predella. The one that is stored in the Uffizi collection is included in a number of the few early works of Leonardo da Vinci. His rather dry execution and the types of faces of Mary and the angel are reminiscent of the works of Lorenzo di Credi, Leonardo's comrade in Verrocchio's workshop.

Painting by Leonardo da Vinci "The Annunciation", 1472-1475. Uffizi Gallery

The "Annunciation" from the Louvre, solved in a more generalized manner, is currently attributed to the works of Lorenzo.

Leonardo da Vinci. Annunciation, 1478-1482. Louvre Museum

The first dated work of Leonardo da Vinci is a pen drawing representing a landscape with a river valley and rocks, possibly the view along the road from Vinci to Pistoia (Florence, Uffizi). In the upper left corner of the sheet there is an inscription: "On the day of St. Mary of the Snow August 5, 1473." This inscription - the first known example of Leonardo da Vinci's handwriting - was made with the left hand, from right to left, as if in a mirror image.

Leonardo da Vinci. Landscape with a river valley and rocks, made on the day of St. Mary of the Snow 5 August 1473

Numerous drawings of a technical nature also belong to the 1470s - images of military vehicles, hydraulic structures, spinning machines and for finishing cloth. Perhaps exactly technical projects Leonardo da Vinci performed for Lorenzo de' Medici, to whom, according to the master's biography (written by an unknown author, apparently shortly after Leonardo's death), he was close for some time.

Leonardo da Vinci received his first major order for a painting thanks to his father's petition. December 24, 1477 Piero Pollaiolo was commissioned to write a new altar (instead of the work of Bernardo Daddi) for the chapel of St. Bernard in the Palazzo Vecchio. But already a week later, a decree of the Signoria appeared (dated January 1, 1478), according to which the work was transferred "to cancel any other order made so far in any way, whatever it was, and to anyone, Leonardo , son of Sir [notary] Piero da Vinci, painter. Apparently, Leonardo needed money, and already on March 16, 1478, he turned to the Florentine government with a request for an advance. He was paid 25 gold florins. The work, however, progressed so slowly that it was not completed by the time Leonardo da Vinci left for Milan (1482) and was handed over to another master the following year. The plot of this work is unknown. The second order, which was provided by Leonardo Ser Piero, was the execution of an altarpiece for the church of the monastery of San Donato a Scopeto. On March 18, 1481, he concluded an agreement with his son, specifying the exact time for completion of the work (in twenty-four, at most thirty months) and indicating that Leonardo would not receive an advance, and if he did not meet the deadline, then everything that would be done by him, will become the property of the monastery. However, history repeated itself, and in July 1481 the artist turned to the monks with a request for an advance, received it, and then twice more (in August and September) took money on the security of a future work. The large composition "Adoration of the Magi" (Florence, Uffizi) remained unfinished, but even in this form it is one of "one of those works on which all further development is based European painting"(M. A. Gukovsky). Numerous drawings for it are kept in the collections of the Uffizi, the Louvre and the British Museum. In 1496, the order for the altar was given to Filippino Lippi, and he painted a picture on the same subject (Florence, Uffizi).

Leonardo da Vinci. Adoration of the Magi, 1481-1482

Not completed and "St. Jerome ”(Rome, Vatican Pinakothek), which is an underpainting in which the figure of the penitent saint is worked out with exceptional anatomical accuracy, and some minor details, such as the lion in the foreground, are only outlined.

A special place among the early works of the master is occupied by two completed works - "Portrait of Ginevra d" Amerigo Benchi "(Washington, National Gallery) and" Madonna with a Flower "(St. complex spiritual life, mark the first manifestations psychological portrait in European art. The painting has not been completely preserved: its lower part with the image of hands has been cut off. Apparently, the position of the figure resembled the Mona Lisa.

Leonardo da Vinci. Portrait of Ginevra de Benci, 1474-1478

The dating of the "Madonna with a Flower, or the Benois Madonna" (1478-1480) was adopted on the basis of a note on one of the sheets from the Cabinet of Drawings in the Uffizi: "...bre 1478 inchomincial le due Vergini Marie". The composition of this painting is recognizable in a pen and bistre drawing kept in the British Museum (No. 1860. 6. 16. 100v.). Executed in a new for Italy technique of oil painting, the picture is distinguished by the transparent lightness of the shadows and the richness of color shades, with an overall restrained color scheme. An unusually important role in creating a holistic impression, connecting the characters with their environment, here begins to play the transfer of the air environment. Melting chiaroscuro, sfumato, makes the boundaries of objects imperceptibly unsteady, expressing the material unity of the visible world.

Leonardo da Vinci. Madonna with a flower (Madonna Benois). OK. 1478

Another early work by Leonardo da Vinci is the Madonna with a Carnation (Munich, Alte Pinakothek). Perhaps this work preceded the appearance of the Benois Madonna.

Vasari reports that in his youth, Leonardo da Vinci made from clay "several heads of laughing women", from which plaster castings were made even in his time, as well as several children's heads. He also mentions how Leonardo depicted a monster on a wooden shield, “very disgusting and terrible, which poisoned with its breath and ignited the air.” The description of the process of its creation reveals the system of work of Leonardo da Vinci - a method in which creativity is based on observation of nature, but not with the aim of copying it, but in order to create something new on its basis. Leonardo acted in a similar way later, when painting the painting “Head of Medusa” (not preserved). Executed in oil on canvas, it remained unfinished in the middle of the 16th century. was in the collection of Duke Cosimo de' Medici.

In the so-called Codex Atlanticus (Milan, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana), the largest collection of Leonardo da Vinci's notes on various fields of knowledge, on page 204 there is a draft letter from the artist to the ruler of Milan, Lodovico Sforza ( Lodovico Moreau). Leonardo offers his services as a military engineer, hydraulic engineer, sculptor. In the latter case we are talking about the creation of a grandiose equestrian monument to Francesco Sforza, father of Lodovico. Since Moro visited Florence in April 1478, there is an assumption that even then he met Leonardo da Vinci and negotiated to work on The Horse. In 1482, with the permission of Lorenzo Medici, the master left for Milan. A list of things that he took with him has been preserved - among them many drawings and two paintings are mentioned: “The completed Madonna. The other is almost in profile. Obviously, they meant Madonna Litta (St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum). It is believed that the master finished it already in Milan around 1490. Beautiful preparatory drawing to it - the image of a woman's head - is kept in the collection of the Louvre (No. 2376). An active interest in this work on the part of researchers arose after its acquisition by the Imperial Hermitage (1865) from the collection of Duke Antonio Litta in Milan. The authorship of Leonardo da Vinci has been repeatedly denied, but now, after research and exhibitions of the painting in Rome and Venice (2003-2004), it has become generally recognized.

Leonardo da Vinci. Madonna Litta. OK. 1491-91

There are several more portraits executed with the inherent elegance of Leonardo, but compositionally they are solved more simply and do not have that spiritual mobility that makes the image of Cecilia fascinating. These are the "Portrait of a Woman" in profile (Milan, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana), the "Portrait of a Musician" (1485, ibid.) - possibly by Francino Gaffurio, regent of the Milan Cathedral and composer - and the so-called "Bella Feroniera" (portrait of Lucrezia Crivelli?) from the Louvre collection.

Leonardo da Vinci. Portrait of a musician, 1485-1490

On behalf of Lodovico Moro, Leonardo da Vinci performed for Emperor Maximilian the picture "Nativity", about which an anonymous biographer writes that she was "revered by connoisseurs as a masterpiece of one of a kind and amazing art." Her fate is unknown.

Leonardo da Vinci. Bella Ferroniera (Beautiful Ferroniera). OK. 1490

The largest painting by Leonardo, created in Milan, was the famous Last Supper, painted on the end wall of the refectory of the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Leonardo da Vinci began the direct execution of the composition in 1496. This was preceded by a long period of reflection. The collections of Windsor and the Venice Academy contain numerous drawings, sketches, sketches related to this work, among which the heads of the apostles are especially distinguished by their expressiveness. It is not known exactly when the master completed the work. It is usually believed that this happened in the winter of 1497, but a note sent by Moro to his secretary Marchesino Stange and related to this year says: "Ask Leonardo to finish his work in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie." Luca Pacioli reports that Leonardo completed the painting in 1498. As soon as the picture saw the light, painters began to pilgrimage to it, who more or less successfully copied it. “There are paintings, frescoes, graphic, mosaic versions, as well as carpets that repeat the composition of Leonardo da Vinci” (T.K. Kustodieva). The earliest of them are kept in the collections of the Louvre (Marco d'Oggiono?) and the Hermitage (No. 2036).

Leonardo da Vinci. The Last Supper, 1498

The composition of The Last Supper in its "airy volume" seems to be a continuation of the refectory hall. To achieve this effect, the master allowed an excellent knowledge of perspective. The gospel scene appears here “close to the viewer, humanly understandable and at the same time not losing either its high solemnity or its deep drama” (M. A. Gukovsky). The glory of a great work, however, could not save The Last Supper either from the destruction of time or from the barbaric attitude of people. Due to the dampness of the walls, the paints began to fade already during the life of Leonardo da Vinci, and in 1560 Lomazzo in his Treatise on Painting reported, although somewhat exaggerating, that the painting had "completely collapsed." In 1652, the monks enlarged the door of the refectory and destroyed the image of the feet of Christ and the apostles next to Him. The artists also contributed their share of destruction. So, in 1726, a certain Belotti, “who claimed to have the secret to revive colors” (G. Seil), rewrote the entire picture. In 1796, when Napoleon's troops entered Milan, a stable was set up in the refectory, and the soldiers had fun throwing fragments of bricks at the heads of the apostles. In the 19th century The Last Supper was renovated several times, and during the Second World War, during the bombing of Milan by British aircraft, the side wall of the refectory collapsed. Restoration work, which began after the war and consisted of strengthening and partial cleaning of the painting, was completed in 1954. After more than twenty years (1978), the restorers began a grandiose activity to remove late layers, which was completed only in 1999. Several centuries later, you can again see bright and clean colors of genuine master painting.

Obviously, immediately after his arrival in Milan, Leonardo da Vinci turned to the project of the monument to Francesco Sforza. Numerous sketches testify to changes in the idea of ​​the master, who at first wanted to present the horse rearing up (in all the equestrian monuments that existed then, the horse was shown calmly walking). Such a composition, despite the huge size of the sculpture (about 6 m high; according to other sources - about 8 m), created almost insurmountable difficulties in casting. The solution to the problem dragged on, and Moreau instructed the Florentine ambassador in Milan to write another sculptor from Florence, which he reported Lorenzo Medici in a letter dated July 22, 1489. Leonardo had to come to grips with The Horse. However, in the summer of 1490, work on the monument was interrupted by the trip of Leonardo and Francesco di George Martini to Pavia to give advice on the construction of the cathedral. In early September, preparations began for the wedding of Lodovico, and then the master carried out numerous assignments for the new ruler, Beatrice. At the beginning of 1493, Lodovico ordered Leonardo to speed up the work in order to show the statue during the next wedding celebrations: Emperor Maximilian married Moro's niece, Bianca Maria. The clay model of the statue - "The Great Colossus" - was completed on time, by November 1493. The master abandoned the original idea and showed the horse walking calmly. Only a few sketches give an idea of ​​this final version of the monument. It was technically impossible to cast the entire sculpture at once, so the master began experimental work. In addition, about eighty tons of bronze were required, which they managed to collect only by 1497. All of it went to cannons: Milan was expecting an invasion by the troops of the French king Louis XII. In 1498, when the political situation of the duchy had temporarily improved, Lodovico commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint the hall in the Castello Sforzesco - Hall delle Acce, and on April 26, 1499 signed a donation for a vineyard in the vicinity of Milan. This was the last favor rendered by the duke to the artist. On August 10, 1499, French troops entered the territory of the Duchy of Milan; on August 31, Lodovico fled the city; on September 3, Milan surrendered. The Gascon archers of Louis XII destroyed the clay statue while competing in crossbow shooting. Apparently, even after that, the monument made a strong impression, since two years later the Duke of Ferrara Ercole I d "Este negotiated its acquisition. Further fate monument is unknown.

For some time, Leonardo da Vinci remained in the occupied city, and then, together with Luca Pacioli, went to Mantua to the court of Isabella Gonzaga. For political reasons (Isabella was the sister of Beatrice, Moreau's wife, who had died by that time - in 1497), the margravine did not want to patronize the artist. However, she wanted Leonardo da Vinci to paint her portrait. Without stopping in Mantua, Leonardo and Pacioli went to Venice. March 1500 master musical instruments Lorenzo Gusnasco da Pavia informed Isabella in a letter: "Here in Venice is Leonardo Vinci, who showed me a contour portrait of Your Grace, which is as well executed according to nature as possible." Obviously, it was a drawing currently stored in the Louvre. The master never executed a picturesque portrait. In April 1500, Leonardo and Pacioli were already in Florence. In this brief - just over two years - quiet period of Leonardo da Vinci's life, he was mainly engaged in technical research (in particular, the project of an aircraft) and, at the request of the Florentine government, took part in an examination to identify the reasons for the settlement of the Church of San Salvatore on the hill of San Miniato. According to Vasari, while Filippino Lippi received an order for an altarpiece for the church of Santissima Annunziata. Leonardo "declared that he would gladly do such a job", and Filippino graciously gave him the order. The idea of ​​the painting "Saint Anna", apparently, came to Leonardo da Vinci back in Milan. There are numerous drawings of this composition, as well as magnificent cardboard (London, National Gallery), but it did not form the basis of the final solution. Exhibited by the master after Easter in 1501 for public viewing, the cardboard has not been preserved, but, judging by the documents that have survived to this day, it was his composition that was repeated by the master in a wide famous painting from the Louvre. So, on April 3, 1501, the vicar general of the Carmelites, Pietro da Nuvolario, who was in correspondence with Isabella Gonzaga, informed her, describing in detail the composition of the cardboard, that, in his opinion, the image of St. Anna is embodied by the Church, which does not desire "that His sufferings be turned away from Christ." When exactly the altar painting was completed is unclear. Perhaps the master finished it in Italy, where it was acquired by Francis I, according to Paolo Giovio, without specifying, however, when and from whom. In any case, the customers did not receive it and in 1503 they again turned to Filippino, but he did not satisfy their desires either.

At the end of July 1502, Leonardo da Vinci entered the service of Cesare Borgia, son Pope AlexanderVI, which by this time, seeking to create its own possessions, captured almost all of Central Italy. As chief military engineer, Leonardo traveled around Umbria, Tuscany, Romagna, drawing up plans for fortresses and advising local engineers on improving the defense system, creating maps for military needs. However, already in March 1503 he was again in Florence.

By the beginning of the first decade of the XVI century. includes the creation of famous work Leonardo da Vinci - a portrait of Mona Lisa - "La Gioconda" (Paris, Louvre), a painting that has no equal in the number of interpretations and disputes it caused. The portrait of the wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo combines the amazing concreteness of reality with such spiritual ambiguity and generalization of the universal that it outgrows the boundaries of the genre, ceases to be a portrait in the proper sense of the word. “This is not a mysterious woman, this is a mysterious being” (Leonardo. M. Batkin). Already the first description of the painting given by Vasari is contradictory, who assures that Leonardo da Vinci worked on it for four years and did not finish it, but immediately writes admiringly that the portrait “reproduces all the smallest details that the subtlety of painting can convey.”

Leonardo da Vinci. Mona Lisa (La Gioconda), ca. 1503-1505

Another painting created by Leonardo da Vinci during these years, Madonna with a Spindle, is described in detail by Pietro da Nuvolario in a letter to Isabella Gonzaga dated April 4, 1503. The vicar reports that the artist completed it for the secretary of Louis XII. The fate of the painting is unknown. A good copy of the 16th century gives an idea of ​​it. (collection of the Duke of Bucclew in Scotland).

In the same period, Leonardo returns to anatomy, which he began in Milan in the building of the Grand Hospital. In Florence, physicians and university students, with special permission from the government, worked on the premises of Santa Croce. The treatise on anatomy, which the master was going to compile, was not implemented.

In the autumn of 1503, through the permanent gonfalonier Pietro Soderini, Leonardo da Vinci received an order for a large painting work - painting one of the walls of the new hall - the Council Hall, attached in 1496 to the Palazzo della Signoria. On October 24, the artist was given the keys to the so-called Pontifical Hall of the Santa Maria Novella Monastery, where he began work on cardboard. By order of the Signoria, he received an advance of 53 gold florins and permission to receive "from time to time" small amounts. The completion date was February 1505. The theme of the future work was the Battle of Anghiari (June 29, 1440) between the Florentines and the Milanese. In August 1504, Michelangelo received an order for a second painting for the Council Hall - The Battle of Kashin. Both masters completed the work on time, and the cardboards were displayed to the public in the Council Chamber. They made a tremendous impression; artists immediately began to copy them, but it was impossible to determine the winner in this unique competition. Both cardboards have not been preserved. The central part of the composition of Leonardo da Vinci was the scene of the battle for the banner. It is only about her that one can now get some idea thanks to a drawing by Raphael (Oxford, Christ Church Library), executed by him in 1505-1506, as well as a copy by Rubens (Paris, Louvre). However, it is not known from what exactly Rubens, who lived in Italy in 1600-1608, made his copy. An anonymous biographer of Leonardo da Vinci reports that after the death of the master in the hospital of Santa Maria Novella, one could see most of the cardboard "Battle of Anghiari", and "the group of horsemen remaining in the palazzo" also belonged to it. In 1558 Benvenuto Cellini in his "Biography" he writes that the cardboards hung in the Papal Hall and, "as long as they were intact, they were a school for the whole world." From this we can conclude that in the 1550s Leonardo's cardboard, at least as a whole, no longer existed.

Leonardo da Vinci. Battle of Anghiari, 1503-1505 (detail)

Contrary to custom, Leonardo completed the painting on the wall of the Council Hall quickly. According to an anonymous source, he worked on a new soil of his own invention and used the heat of braziers to dry it as soon as possible. However, the wall dried unevenly, its upper part did not hold paint, and the painting turned out to be hopelessly damaged. Soderini demanded completion of the work or a refund. The situation was temporarily resolved by leaving for Milan, at the invitation of his viceroy Charles d'Amboise, the Marquis de Chaumont. The artist entered into an agreement with the Signoria, under which he undertook to return in three months, and in case of violation of the obligation to pay a penalty of 150 gold florins. June 1 1506 Leonardo da Vinci went to Milan. In a letter dated August 18, Charles d'Amboise asks the Florentine government to leave the artist for some more time at his disposal. In a response letter (dated August 28), consent was given, but with the condition of repayment of the debt. Since the money was not sent, Soderini on October 9 again appeals to the viceroy demanding compliance with the agreement. Finally, on January 12, 1507, the Florentine ambassador to the French court informs the members of the Signoria that Louis XII wishes to leave Leonardo in Milan before his arrival. Two days later, the king himself signed a letter of the same content. In April 1507, Leonardo got his vineyard back and in early May was able to pay 150 florins. The king arrived in Milan on May 24: Leonardo da Vinci took an active part in organizing processions and performances on this occasion. Thanks to the intervention of Louis, on August 24, the long-term process due to the "Madonna in the Rocks" ended. The picture remained at the disposal of the master, but he, together with Ambrogio de Predis (Evangelista had died by this time), had to perform another one on the same subject within two years (London, National Gallery).

From September 1507 to September 1508, Leonardo da Vinci was in Florence: it was necessary to litigate because of the inheritance. The aged Ser Piero, Leonardo's father, died back in 1504 at the age of ninety, leaving ten sons and two daughters.

Saint Anne with the Madonna and the Christ Child. Painting by Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1510

In Milan, Leonardo da Vinci finished Saint Anna and performed several more paintings, the most famous of which is John the Baptist (Paris, Louvre). Currently, the Bacchus stored there is also recognized as the work of Leonardo.

Leonardo da Vinci. John the Baptist, 1513-1516

Leda was also in the French royal collection. Last time this painting is mentioned in the inventory of Fontainebleau in 1694. According to legend, it was destroyed at the request of Madame de Maintenon, the last mistress of Louis XIV. An idea of ​​​​its composition is given by several drawings of the master and several repetitions differing in detail (the best is attributed to Cesare da Sesto and is kept in the Uffizi).

Leda. Work tentatively attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, 1508-1515

In addition to paintings, Leonardo da Vinci was in Milan designing a monument to Marshal Trivulzio, who was in the French service. A small bronze model in the collection of the Budapest Museum is believed to be associated with this project. If so, then Leonardo da Vinci returned to the idea of ​​a dynamic composition with a galloping horse.

In 1511 troops Pope JuliusII in alliance with the Venetian Republic and Spain expelled the French. During 1511-1512, Leonardo lived for a long time with his friend, the nobleman Girolamo Melzi, on his estate in Vaprio. Girolamo's son, Francesco, became a student and passionate admirer of the aging master. In 1513, Leo X of the Medici was elected to the papacy, with his brother, Giuliano, who was interested in alchemy, Leonardo da Vinci was friendly. September 14, 1513 Leonardo left for Rome. Giuliano appointed him a salary and assigned premises for work. In Rome, the master drew up projects for the refurbishment of the papal mint and the drainage of the Pontic marshes. Vasari noted that Leonardo da Vinci executed two paintings for the papal datarius (chief of the office) Baldassare Turini from Pescia - “Madonna” and the image of “a baby of amazing beauty and grace” (not traced).

On December 31, 1514, Louis XII died, and Francis I, who succeeded him, retook Milan in September 1515. It is believed that Leonardo met with the king in Bologna, where the pope negotiated with him. But, perhaps, the artist had seen him before - in Pavia, at the celebrations in honor of his entry into the city, and at the same time he made the famous mechanical lion, from the opening chest of which lilies spilled out. In this case, in Bologna, Leonardo da Vinci was in the retinue of Francis, and not Leo X. Having received an offer to go to the service of the king, the master in the fall of 1516, together with Francesco Melzi, left for France. The last years of Leonardo da Vinci's life were spent in the small castle of Cloux, not far from Amboise. He was given a pension of 700 ecu. In the spring of 1517, in Amboise, where the king liked to visit, they celebrated the baptism of the Dauphin, and then the wedding of the Duke of Urbino, Lorenzo Medici, and the daughter of the Duke of Bourbon. The celebrations were designed by Leonardo. In addition, he was engaged in the design of canals and locks to improve the area, created architectural projects, in particular the project for the reconstruction of the Romorantin castle. Perhaps the ideas of Leonardo da Vinci served as the basis for the construction of Chambord (begun in 1519). October 18, 1516 Leonardo visited the secretary of Cardinal Louis of Aragon. According to him, due to paralysis of his right hand, the artist "can no longer write with his usual tenderness ... but he can still make drawings and teach others." On April 23, 1519, the artist made a will, according to which manuscripts, drawings and paintings became the property of Melzi. The master died on May 2, 1519, according to legend - in the hands of the king of France. Melzi transported the manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci to Italy and kept them until the end of his days in his estate in Vaprio. The now widely known "Treatise on Painting", which had a huge impact on European art, compiled by Melzi based on the teacher's notes. About seven thousand sheets of manuscripts by Leonardo da Vinci have been preserved. Their largest collections are in the collection of the Institute of France in Paris; in Milan, in the Ambrosian Library (Codex Atlanticus) and in the Castello Sforzesco (Codex Trivulzio); in Turin (Bird Flight Code); Windsor and Madrid. Their publication began in the 19th century. and still one of the best critical editions of Leonardo's manuscripts are two volumes of texts with comments, published by Richter in 1883 (Richter J. P. The literary works of Leonardo da Vinci. London, 1883. Vol. 1-2). Supplemented and commented by C. Pedretti, they were reprinted in Los Angeles in 1977.

Literature:Leonardo da Vinci. Book about painting. M., 1934; Leonardo da Vinci. Selected works. L., 1935; Leonardo da Vinci. Anatomy. Ideas and drawings. M., 1965; Vasari 2001. Vol. 3; Sayle G. Leonardo da Vinci as an artist and scientist. SPb., 1898; Volynsky A. The life of Leonardo da Vinci. SPb., 1900 (reissued: SPb., 1997); Benois A.N. The history of painting of all times and peoples. SPb., 1912; Wrangell N. Benois Madonna by Leonardo da Vinci. SPb., 1914; Lipgart E.K. Leonardo and his school. L., 1928; Dzhivelegov A.K. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1935 (reprinted: M., 1969); Lazarev V. N. Leonardo da Vinci. L., 1936; Ainalov D.V. Sketches about Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1939; Gukovsky M. A. The mechanics of Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1947; Lazarev V. N. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1952; Alpatov M.V. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1952; Gabrichevsky A. G. Leonardo the architect // Soviet architecture. M., 1952. Issue. 3; Zhdanov D. A. Leonardo da Vinci is an anatomist. L., 1955; Gukovsky M. A. Leonardo da Vinci: A Creative Biography. M.; L., 1958; Gukovsky M. A. Madonna Litta: Painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Hermitage. L.; M., 1959; Guber A. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1960; Zubov V.P. Leonardo da Vinci. 1452-1519. M., 1961; Gukovsky M. A. Columbine. L., 1963; Rutenburg V.I. Titans of the Renaissance. L., 1976; Vipper 1977. Vol. 2; Nardini B. The life of Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1978; Kustodieva T. K. Benois Madonna by Leonardo da Vinci. L., 1979; Zhepinska M. What do we know about the "Lady with an Ermine" from the Czartoryski Museum. Krakow, 1980; Gastev A. A. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1982; Code of Leonardo from the private collection of Armand Hammer: Ex. L., 1984; Pedretti K. Leonardo. M., 1986; Smirnova I. A. monumental painting Italian Renaissance. M., 1987; Batkin L. M. Leonardo da Vinci and features of the Renaissance creative thinking. M., 1990; Santi B. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1995; Wallace R. The World of Leonardo, 1452-1519. M., 1997; Kustodieva 1998; Chunky M. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1998; Sonina T.V. Benois Madonna by Leonardo da Vinci // Italian collection. SPb., 1999. Issue. 3; Sonina T.V."Madonna in the Rocks" by Leonardo da Vinci: The Semantics of the Image // Decree. op. SPb., 2003. Issue. 7; Leonardo da Vinci and the culture of the Renaissance: Sat. Art. M., 2004; Hertzfeld M. About one sheet of sketches by Leonardo. Contribution to the characterization of the image of the master // Italian collection. SPb., 2006. Issue. 9; Clark K. Leonardo da Vinci: A Creative Biography. SPb., 2009.

Richter J. P. (ed.) The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci: In 2 vols. London, 1883 (rev.: 1970); Beltrami L.(ed.) Il codice di Leonardo da Vinci della Biblioteca del Principe Trivulzio in Milano. Milano, 1891; Sabachnikoff T., Piumati G., Ravaisson-Mollien C. (eds.) I manoscritti di Leonardo da Vinci: Codice sul volo degli uccelli e varie altre materie. Paris, 1893; Piumati G. (ed.) Il Codice Atlantico di Leonardo da Vinci nella Biblioteca Ambrosiana di Milano: 35 voi. Milano, 1894-1904; Fonahn D.C.L., Hopstock H. (eds.) Quaderni d "anatomia: 6 voi. Kristiania, 1911-1916; II Codice Forster I, etc. // Reale Commissione Vinciana: 5 voi. Roma, 1930-1936; I manoscritti e i disegni di Leonardo da Vinci: II Codice A. / / Reale Commissione Vinciana, Rome, 1938; MacCurdy E. (ed.) The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci: 2 vols. London, 1938; I manoscritti e i disegni di Leonardo da Vinci: II Codice B. // Reale Commissione Vinciana. Roma, 1941; Brizio A. M. (ed.) Scritti scelti di Leonardo da Vinci. Torino, 1952; Courbeau A., De Toni N.(ed.) The Manuscripts in the Bibliotheque de l "Institut de France, Paris. Firenze, 1972; Reti L. (ed.) The Madrid Codices: 5 vols. New York, 1974.

Pacioli L. De divina proportione. Venice, 1509; Alberimi E Memoriale di molte statue e picture che sono nella inclyta cipta di Florentia. Firenze, 1510; Giovio P. Elogia virorum illustrum (MS.; e. 1527) // Gli elogi degli uomini illustri / Ed. R. Meregazzi. Rome, 1972; II Codice Magliabechiano (MS.; e. 1540) / Ed. C. Frey. Berlin, 1892. Amoretti C. Memorie storiche su la vita, gli studi e le opere di Leonardo da Vinci. Milano, 1804; Pater W. Leonardo da Vinci (1869) // Studies in th and History of th and Renaissance. London, 1873; HerzfeldM. Leonardo da Vinci. Der Denker, Forscher und Poet. Jena, 1906; Solmi E. Le fonti dei manoscritti di Leonardo da Vinci. Torino, 1908; Malaguzzi Valeri E La corte di Ludovico il Moro. Milano, 1915. Voi. II: Bramante e Leonardo; Beltrami L. Documenti e memorie riguardanti la vita e le opere di Leonardo da Vinci. Milano, 1919; Calvin G. I manoscritti di Leonardo da Vinci del punto di visto cronologico, storico e biografico. Bologna, 1925; Heydenreich L. Leonardo da Vinci: 2 vols. Basel, 1954; Pomilio M., Della Chiesa A. O. L "Opera pittorica completa di Leonardo. Milano, 1967; Gould C. Leonardo: The Artist and Non-Artist. London, 1975; Wasserman J. Leonardo da Vinci. New York, 1975; Chastel A. The Genius of Leonardo da Vinci: Leonardo da Vinci and that Art of the Artist. New York, 1981; Kemp M. Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvelous Works of Nature and Man. London, 1981; MaraniP. Leonardo Cat. compi. Firenze, 1989; Turner A.R. Inventing Leonardo. New York, 1993; Lo sguardo degli angeli: Verrocchio, Leonardo e il Battesimo di Cristo / A cura di A. Natali. Firenze, 1998; Kustodieva T, PaolucciA., Pedretti C., Strinati C. Leonardo. La Madonna Litta dall "Ermitage di San Pietroburgo. Roma, 2003; Kemp M. Leonardo da Vinci. Experience, Experiment and Design. London, 2006.

Leonardo da Vinci was born in the town of Vinci (or near it), located west of Florence, on April 15, 1452. He was the illegitimate son of a Florentine notary and a peasant girl, was brought up in his father's house and, being the son of an educated person, received a thorough elementary education.

1467 - at the age of 15, Leonardo went as an apprentice to one of the leading masters of the Early Renaissance in Florence, Andrea del Verrocchio; 1472 - joined the guild of artists, studied the basics of drawing and other necessary disciplines; 1476 - so he worked in the workshop of Verrocchio, apparently in collaboration with the master himself.

By 1480, Leonardo already had large orders, but after 2 years he moved to Milan. In a letter to the ruler of Milan, Lodovico Sforza, he presented himself as an engineer, military expert and artist. The years he spent in Milan were filled with various activities. Leonardo da Vinci painted several paintings and the famous fresco "The Last Supper" and began to diligently and seriously keep his notes. The Leonardo whom we recognize from his notes is an architect-designer (the creator of innovative plans that were never carried out), an anatomist, a hydraulician, an inventor of mechanisms, a designer of scenery for court performances, a writer of riddles, rebuses and fables for the entertainment of the court, musician and art theorist.

1499 - after the expulsion of Lodovico Sforza from Milan by the French, Leonardo leaves for Venice, visits Mantua along the way, where he participates in the construction of defensive structures, then returns to Florence. In those days, he was so fascinated by mathematics that he did not want to think about picking up a brush. For 12 years, Leonardo constantly moved from city to city, working for the famous in Romagna, designing defensive structures (never built) for Piombino.

In Florence he enters into a rivalry with Michelangelo; this rivalry culminated in the huge battle compositions that the two artists painted for the Palazzo della Signoria (also Palazzo Vecchio). Then Leonardo conceived a second equestrian monument, which, like the first, was never created. Throughout all these years, he continues to fill out his notebooks. They reflect his ideas relating to a variety of subjects. This is the theory and practice of painting, anatomy, mathematics and even the flight of birds. 1513 - as in 1499, his patrons are expelled from Milan ...

Leonardo leaves for Rome, where he spends 3 years under the auspices of the Medici. Depressed and distressed by the lack of material for anatomical research, he engages in experiments that lead nowhere.

The kings of France, first Louis XII, then Francis I, admired the works of the Italian Renaissance, especially Leonardo's The Last Supper. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the fact that in 1516 Francis I, well aware of the versatile talents of Leonardo, invites him to the court, which was then located in the Amboise castle in the Loire Valley. As the sculptor Benvenuto Cellini wrote, despite the fact that the Florentine worked on hydraulic projects and plans for a new royal palace, his main occupation is the honorary position of court sage and adviser.

Fascinated by the idea of ​​creating an aircraft, the Florentine initially developed the simplest apparatus (Dedalus and Icarus) based on wings. His new idea is an airplane with full control. But it was not possible to bring the idea to life due to the lack of a motor. Also, the famous idea of ​​​​the scientist is a device with vertical takeoff and landing.

Studying the laws of fluids and hydraulics in general, Leonardo made a great contribution to the theory of locks, sewer ports, testing ideas in practice.

Famous paintings by Leonardo - "Gioconda", "Last Supper", "Madonna with an Ermine", and many others. Leonardo was demanding and precise in everything he did. Even before painting, he insisted on a complete study of the object before starting.

Leonardo's manuscripts are priceless. They were fully published only in the XIX-XX centuries. In his notes, Leonardo da Vinci noted not just reflections, but supplemented them with drawings, drawings, and descriptions.

Leonardo da Vinci was talented in many areas, he made a significant contribution to the history of architecture, art, and physics.

Leonardo da Vinci died in Amboise on May 2, 1519; his paintings by this time were usually distributed to private collections, and the notes lay in various collections, almost in complete oblivion, for several more centuries.

Secrets of Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci encrypted a lot so that his ideas would be revealed gradually, as humanity could “ripen” to them. He wrote with his left hand and in very small letters, from right to left, so that the text looked as if in a mirror image. He spoke in riddles, made metaphorical prophecies, and liked to compose puzzles. Leonardo da Vinci did not sign his works, but they have identification marks. For example, if you take a closer look at the paintings, you can find a symbolic bird taking off. Apparently, there are a lot of such signs, therefore one or another of his hidden "brainchildren" are unexpectedly found on famous canvases, through the centuries. So, for example, it was with the Benois Madonna, which for a long time, as a home icon, itinerant actors carried with them.

Leonard discovered the scattering principle (or sfumato). The objects on his canvases have no clear boundaries: everything, as in life, is blurry, penetrates one into another, which means it breathes, lives, awakens fantasy. To master this principle, he advised to practice: look at the stains on the walls that appear from dampness, ashes, clouds or dirt. He deliberately smoked the room where he worked in order to look for images in clubs.

Thanks to the sfumato effect, a flickering smile of the Gioconda appeared: depending on the focus of the gaze, it seems to the viewer that the Gioconda smiles either gently, or, as it were, ominously. The second miracle of the "Mona Lisa" is that she is "alive". Over the centuries, her smile changes, the corners of her lips rise higher. In the same way, the Master mixed the knowledge of various sciences, because his inventions find more and more applications over time. From the treatise on light and shadow come the beginnings of the sciences of penetrating power, oscillatory motion, and the propagation of waves. All of his 120 books have been distributed around the world and are gradually being revealed to mankind.

Leonardo da Vinci preferred the method of analogy to all others. Approximation of analogy is an advantage over the accuracy of a syllogism, when a third inevitably follows from two conclusions. But the more bizarre the analogy, the further the conclusions from it extend. Take, for example, the famous illustration of da Vinci, which proves the proportionality of the human body. A human figure with outstretched arms and spread legs fits into a circle, and with closed legs and raised arms - into a square. This "mill" gave impetus to various conclusions. Leonardo was the only one who created designs for churches in which the altar is placed in the middle (symbolizing the human navel), and the worshipers are evenly around. This church plan in the form of an octahedron served as another invention of genius - a ball bearing.

The Florentine liked to use contraposto, which creates the illusion of movement. Everyone who saw his sculpture of a giant horse in Corte Vecchio involuntarily changed their gait to a more relaxed one.

Leonardo was never in a hurry to finish a work, because unfinishedness is an essential quality of life. Finish means kill! The slowness of the Florentine was the talk of the town, he could make two or three strokes and retire for many days from the city, for example, to improve the valleys of Lombardy or was engaged in the creation of an apparatus for walking on water. Almost every one of his significant works is "work in progress". The master had a special composition, with the help of which he seemed to specially make “windows of incompleteness” on the finished painting. Apparently, in this way he left a place where life itself could intervene and correct something ...

He masterfully played the lyre. When the case of Leonardo was heard in the court of Milan, he appeared there precisely as a musician, and not as an artist or inventor.

There is a version that Leonardo da Vinci was a homosexual. When the artist was studying in Verrocchio's workshop, he was accused of harassing a boy who posed for him. The court acquitted him.

According to one version, Gioconda smiles from the realization of her secret for all pregnancy.

According to another, Mona Lisa is entertained by musicians and clowns while she posed for the artist.

There is another assumption, according to which, "Mona Lisa" is a self-portrait of Leonardo.

Leonardo da Vinci, apparently, did not leave a single self-portrait that could be unambiguously attributed to him. Experts doubt that Leonardo's famous sanguine self-portrait (traditionally dated 1512-1515), showing him in his old age, is such. It is believed that this is probably only a study of the head of the apostle for the "Last Supper". Doubts that this is a self-portrait of the artist began to be expressed with 19th century, they were recently expressed by one of the largest experts on Leonardo da Vinci, Professor Pietro Marani.

Scientists at the University of Amsterdam and American researchers, having studied enigmatic smile Mona Lisa with new computer program, unraveled its composition: according to them, it contains 83 percent happiness, 9 percent neglect, 6 percent fear and 2 percent anger.

Leonardo loved water: he developed instructions for scuba diving, he invented and described a device for scuba diving, a breathing apparatus for scuba diving. All the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci formed the basis of modern underwater equipment.

Leonardo was the first painter to dissect corpses in order to understand the location and structure of muscles.

Observations of the Moon in the phase of the growing crescent led the researcher to one of the important scientific discoveries - Leonardo da Vinci established that sunlight is reflected from our planet and returns to the moon in the form of secondary illumination.

The Florentine was ambidexterous - he was equally good with his right and left hands. He suffered from dyslexia (impaired reading ability) - this ailment, called "word blindness", is associated with reduced brain activity in a certain area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe left hemisphere. Known fact, Leonardo wrote in a mirror way.

More recently, the Louvre spent $5.5 million to outweigh famous masterpiece artist "La Gioconda" from the general to a specially equipped room for her. Two-thirds of the State Hall, which occupies a total area of ​​840 sq. m. The huge room was rebuilt as a gallery, on the far wall of which now hangs the famous creation of the great Leonardo. The reconstruction, which was carried out according to the project of the Peruvian architect Lorenzo Piqueras, lasted about 4 years. The decision to move the Mona Lisa to a separate room was made by the administration of the Louvre due to the fact that in the same place, surrounded by other paintings by Italian masters, this masterpiece was lost, and the public was forced to queue to see the famous painting.

2003, August - the canvas of the great Leonardo worth $ 50 million "Madonna with a spindle" was stolen from Drumlanrig Castle in Scotland. The masterpiece was stolen from the home of one of Scotland's wealthiest landowners, the Duke of Buccleuch.

It is believed that Leonardo was a vegetarian (Andrea Corsali, in a letter to Giuliano di Lorenzo Medici, compares him with a Hindu who did not eat meat). The phrase often attributed to Leonardo “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 graveyards! Even at an early age I refused meat” is taken from the English translation of Dmitry Merezhkovsky’s novel “The Resurrected Gods. Leonardo da Vinci".

Leonardo da Vinci designed the submarine, the propeller, the tank, the loom, the ball bearing, and the flying machines.

While building canals, Leonardo made an observation that later entered geology under his name as theoretical principle recognition of the time of formation of the earth's layers. He came to the conclusion that our planet is much older than indicated in the Bible.

Among da Vinci's hobbies were even cooking and serving art. In Milan for thirteen years he was the manager of court feasts. He invented several culinary devices that facilitate the work of cooks. The original dish "from Leonardo" - thinly sliced ​​stew, with vegetables laid on top - was very popular at court feasts.

In the books of Terry Pratchett there is a character whose name is Leonard, the prototype of which was Leonardo da Vinci. Pratchett's Leonard writes from right to left, invents various machines, engages in alchemy, paints pictures (the most famous is the portrait of Mona Ogg)

A considerable number of Leonardo's manuscripts were first published by the curator of the Ambrosian Library, Carlo Amoretti.

Italian scientists have made a statement about the sensational discovery. According to them, discovered an early self-portrait of Leonardo. The discovery belongs to the journalist Piero Angela.

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 the small town of Vinci is located, near it in 1452 there was the village of Anchiano, where the genius Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15.

His father, Pierrot, a fairly successful notary, was 25 at the time. He was in 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 stayed with his mother.

After some time, it turned out that the married couple da Vicni could not have children of their own, and then Piero took their common son Leonardo from Katerina to raise, who by that time was already three years old. The kid 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 primary education from the age of 4, 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 attract his son.

In those days, children born out of wedlock were endowed with absolutely the same rights as heirs who appeared in an officially registered family. However, Leonardo was little interested in the laws of society, and then Father Piero decided to make an artist out of his son.

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

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

At the age of 20, in the Guild of St. Luke, Leonardo received the qualification of a master.

The first pictorial masterpieces

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

So Verrocchio, when he received another order, chose da Vinci as his assistant. Needed was a picture of the Baptism of Christ, the teacher instructed Leonardo to write one of the two angels. But when the master teacher compared the angel he painted 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 was born real genius.

Leonardo da Vinci mastered several painting techniques:

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

Over the next five years, Leonardo worked on the creation of 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 gardening and were arrested. Then it was considered a terrible crime, for which the highest penalty was due - burning at a stake. The artist's guilt has not been proven, accusers and witnesses have not been found. And also the son of a noble Florentine nobleman was among the suspects. These two circumstances helped da Vinci to 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 the 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 painter, hydraulic engineer and military engineer. At the same time, 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, to develop in science and technology.

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

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

Artistic creations of the genius da Vinci

Although contemporaries rank Leonardo da Vinci among the great artists, he considered himself a scientific engineer. He drew quite slowly and did not devote much time to fine arts, because he was too fond of science.

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

In order to portray human bodies so brilliantly in paintings, 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 areas.
In 1485, a plague broke out in Milan. About 50,000 residents of the city died from this disease. Da Vinci justified such a pestilence to the duke by the fact that mud reigned in the overpopulated city in the narrow streets, and proposed the construction of a new city. He proposed a plan according to which the city, designed for 30,000 inhabitants, was divided into 10 districts, each of them with its own sewage system. Leonardo also suggested calculating the width of the streets based on the average height of the horses. The duke rejected his plan, as, however, many brilliant creations of da Vinci rejected during his lifetime.

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

Da Vinci was also very talented in music. His hands belong to the creation of a silver lyre, which was shaped like a horse's head, he also masterfully played this lyre.

Leonardo was fascinated by the water element, he has many works, in one way or another connected with water. 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 diving equipment is based on the invention of da Vinci. He studied hydraulics, the laws of fluids, developed the theory of sewage ports and locks, testing his ideas in practice.

And how much he was passionate about the development of an aircraft, and 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 had no motor and failed to bring ideas to life.

In the structure of man, he was interested in absolutely everything, he worked a lot on studying the human eye.

Some interesting facts

Leonardo da Vinci had many students and friends. As for his relationship 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 aspires to with keeping animals and birds in cages. In his diaries he wrote:

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

Almost 5 centuries have passed since there is no great genius, and the world is still trying to unravel the smile of Mona Lisa. It was studied by specialists and scientists in Amsterdam and the USA, 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 Gioconda posed for the master, she was entertained by jesters and musicians. And some scientists have 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 man of genius 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.