Leonardo da Vinci - biography, interesting facts. Life path of Leonardo da Vinci (biography and creativity)

He seemed to know the evolutionary keys to the secrets of the human psyche. Thus, one of Leonardo da Vinci’s secrets was a special sleep formula: he slept for 15 minutes every 4 hours, thus reducing his daily sleep from 8 to 1.5 hours. Thanks to this, the genius immediately saved 75 percent of his sleep time, which actually extended his lifespan from 70 to 100 years!

“The painter’s painting will not be perfect if he takes the paintings of others as an inspiration; but if he learns from natural objects, he will produce good fruit...”

Painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, scientist - all this is Leonardo da Vinci. Wherever such a person turns, his every action is so divine that, leaving behind himself all other people, he reveals himself to be something given to us by God, and not acquired by human art. Leonardo da Vinci. Great, mysterious, attractive. So distant and so modern. Like a rainbow, the master’s fate is bright, mosaic, and colorful. His life is full of wanderings, meetings with amazing people and events. How much has been written about him, how much has been published, but it will never be enough. The mystery of Leonardo begins with his birth, in 1452 on April 15 in a town west of Florence. He was the illegitimate son of a woman about whom almost nothing is known. We don’t know her last name, age, appearance, we don’t know whether she was smart or stupid, whether she studied anything or not. Biographers call her a young peasant woman. Let it be so. Much more is known about Leonardo's father, Piero da Vinci, but not enough. He was a notary and came from a family that had settled in Vinci at least in the 13th century. Leonardo was brought up in his father's house. His education was obviously the same as that of any boy from a good family living in a small town: reading, writing, beginnings of mathematics, Latin. His handwriting is amazing, He writes from right to left, the letters are reversed so that the text is easier to read with the help of a mirror. In later years, he was interested in botany, geology, observing the flight of birds, the play of sunlight and shadow, and the movement of water. All this testifies to his curiosity and also to the fact that in his youth he spent a lot of time in the fresh air, walking around the outskirts of the town. These surroundings, which have changed little over the past five hundred years, are now almost the most picturesque in Italy. The father noticed and, taking into account the high flight of his son’s talent in art, one fine day selected several of his drawings, took them to Andrea Verrocchio, who was his great friend, and urgently asked him to say whether Leonardo, having taken up drawing, would achieve any success . Struck by the enormous potential that he saw in the drawings of the novice Leonardo, Andrea supported Ser Piero in his decision to devote him to this work and immediately agreed with him that Leonardo would enter his workshop, which Leonardo did more than willingly and began to practice not in just one area, but in all those areas where the drawing is included.

Painting Madonna in the Grotto. 1483-86

In nature, everything is wisely thought out and arranged, everyone should mind their own business, and in this wisdom lies the highest justice of life. Leonardo da Vinci

Painting Mona Lisa (La Gioconda). 1503-04

By 1514 - 1515 refers to the creation of a masterpiece by the great master - the painting La Gioconda. Until recently, they thought that this portrait was painted much earlier, in Florence, around 1503. They believed the story of Vasari, who wrote: “Leonardo undertook to make for Francesco del Gioconda a portrait of Monna Lisa, his wife, and, having worked on it for four years, left it unfinished. This work is now in the possession of the French king in Fontainebleau. By the way, Leonardo resorted to the following technique: since Madonna Lisa was very beautiful, while painting the portrait he held people who were playing the lyre or singing, and there constantly there were jesters who kept her cheerful and removed the melancholy that painting usually imparts to the portraits it makes.”

Where the spirit does not guide the artist's hand, there is no art.

Painting Madonna with a Flower (Benois Madonna). 1478

Thinking I was learning to live, I learned to die.

Painting of Madonna Litta. 1490

Painting "Madonna with Pomegranate". 1469

Painting Madonna. 1510

Painting Lady with an ermine. 1483-90

Painting Portrait of Ginevra de Benci. 1474-76

Painting of the Annunciation. 1472-75

Last Supper. 1498

Painting of John the Baptist. 1513-16

Head of a woman. 1500?

"Vitruvian Man". 1487

Virgin Mary with child and St. Anne

Portrait of a musician

The greatest scientist of his time, Leonardo da Vinci enriched almost all areas of knowledge with insightful observations and guesses. But how surprised the genius would have been if he had learned that many of his inventions are in use even 555 years after his birth. Oddly enough, only one invention of da Vinci received recognition during his lifetime - a wheel lock for a pistol that was wound with a key. At first, this mechanism was not widespread, but by the middle of the 16th century it had gained popularity among nobles, especially in the cavalry, which was even reflected in the design of the armor: Maximilian armor began to be made with gloves instead of mittens for the sake of firing pistols. The wheel lock for a pistol, invented by Leonardo da Vinci, was so perfect that it continued to be found in the 19th century. But, as often happens, recognition of geniuses comes centuries later: many of his inventions were expanded and modernized, and are now used in everyday life. For example, Leonardo da Vinci created a device that could compress air and force it through pipes. This invention has a very wide range of applications: from lighting stoves to ... ventilating rooms. He was educated at home, played the lyre masterfully, was the first to explain why the sky is blue and the moon is so bright, he was ambidextrous and suffered from dyslexia. He masters several drawing techniques: Italian pencil, silver pencil, sanguine, pen. In 1472 Leonardo was accepted into the guild of painters - the Guild of St. Luke, but remained to live in Verrocchio's house. He opened his own workshop in Florence between 1476 and 1478. On April 8, 1476, following a denunciation, Leonardo da Vinci was accused of being a gardener and arrested along with three friends. At that time in Florence, sadomea was a crime, and the capital punishment was burning at the stake. Judging by the records of that time, many doubted Leonardo’s guilt; neither an accuser nor witnesses were ever found. It was probably helped to avoid a harsh sentence by the fact that among those arrested was the son of one of the nobles of Florence: there was a trial, but the offenders were released after a short flogging. In 1482, having received an invitation to the court of the ruler of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, Leonardo da Vinci unexpectedly left Florence. Lodovico Sforza was considered the most hated tyrant in Italy, but Leonardo decided that Sforza would be a better patron for him than the Medici, who ruled in Florence and disliked Leonardo. Initially, the Duke took him on as the organizer of court holidays, for which Leonardo came up with not only masks and costumes, but also mechanical “miracles.” Magnificent holidays worked to increase the glory of Duke Lodovico. For a salary less than that of a court dwarf, in the Duke's castle Leonardo served as a military engineer, hydraulic engineer, court artist, and later as an architect and engineer. At the same time, Leonardo “worked for himself,” working in several areas of science and technology at the same time, but he was not paid for most of the work, since Sforza did not pay any attention to his inventions. In 1484-1485, about 50 thousand residents of Milan died from the plague. Leonardo da Vinci, who believed that the reason for this was the overpopulation of the city and the dirt that reigned in the narrow streets, suggested that the Duke build a new city. According to Leonardo's plan, the city was to consist of 10 districts of 30 thousand inhabitants each, each district was to have its own sewer system, the width of the narrowest streets was to be equal to the average height of a horse (a few centuries later, the Council of State of London recognized the proportions proposed by Leonardo as ideal and gave the order to follow them when laying out new streets). The design of the city, like many other technical ideas of Leonardo, was rejected by the Duke. Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned to found an art academy in Milan. For teaching, he compiled treatises on painting, light, shadows, movement, theory and practice, perspective, movements of the human body, proportions of the human body. The Lombard school, consisting of Leonardo's students, appeared in Milan. In 1495, at the request of Lodovico Sforza, Leonardo began painting his Last Supper on the wall of the refectory of the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. On July 22, 1490, Leonardo settled young Giacomo Caprotti in his house (later he began to call the boy Salai - “Demon”). No matter what the young man did, Leonardo forgave him everything. The relationship with Salai was the most constant in the life of Leonardo da Vinci, who had no family (he did not want a wife or children), and after his death Salai inherited many of Leonardo’s paintings.
After the fall of Lodovic Sforza, Leonardo da Vinci left Milan. Over the years he lived in Venice (1499, 1500), Florence (1500-1502, 1503-1506, 1507), Mantua (1500), Milan (1506, 1507-1513), Rome (1513-1516). In 1516 (1517) he accepted the invitation of Francis I and left for Paris. Leonardo da Vinci did not like to sleep for long periods of time and was a vegetarian. According to some evidence, Leonardo da Vinci was beautifully built, had enormous physical strength, and had good knowledge of chivalry, horse riding, dancing, and fencing. In mathematics he was attracted only by what can be seen, so for him it primarily consisted of geometry and the laws of proportion. Leonardo da Vinci tried to determine the coefficients of sliding friction, studied the resistance of materials, studied hydraulics, and modeling. The areas that were interesting to Leonardo da Vinci included acoustics, anatomy, astronomy, aeronautics, botany, geology, hydraulics, cartography, mathematics, mechanics, optics, weapons design, civil and military engineering, and city planning. Leonardo da Vinci died on May 2, 1519 at the Castle of Cloux near Amboise (Touraine, France).

If you happen to fly, then from now on you will walk on the ground, turning your eyes to the sky, for there you have been and there you will always strive.

Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo da Vinci is a genius whose inventions belong entirely to both the past, present and future of humanity. He lived ahead of his time, and if at least small part If what he invented was brought to life, then the history of Europe, and perhaps the world, would have been different: already in the 15th century we would have been driving cars and crossing the seas in submarines. Leonardo da Vinci enriched almost all areas of knowledge with insightful observations and guesses. But how surprised a genius would be if he found out that many of his inventions are used even centuries after his birth.

I present to your attention a couple of inventions of Leonard da Vinci: Military equipment, Aircraft, Hydraulics, Various mechanisms.

The most daring dream of Leonardo the inventor, without a doubt, was human flight. One of the very first (and most famous) sketches on this topic is a diagram of a device that in our time is considered to be a prototype of a helicopter. Leonardo proposed making a propeller with a diameter of 5 meters from thin flax soaked in starch. It had to be driven by four people turning levers in a circle. Modern experts argue that the muscular strength of four people would not be enough to lift this device into the air (especially since even if lifted, this structure would begin to rotate around its axis), however, if, for example, a powerful spring were used as an “engine” , such a “helicopter” would be capable of flight - albeit short-term.

After a long and careful study of bird flight, which he began while still in Milan, Leonardo designed, and possibly built, the first model of a flying machine in 1490. This model had wings like bat, and with its help, using the muscular efforts of the arms and legs, the person had to fly. Now we know that in this formulation the problem is unsolvable, because human muscular energy is not enough for flight.

The drawing of the device, which Leonardo himself described as follows, turned out to be prophetic: “If you have enough linen fabric sewn into a pyramid with a base of 12 yards (about 7 m 20 cm), then you can jump from any height without any harm to your body.” .

The figure shows an underwater breathing apparatus with parts of valves for air intake and release.

Swimming webbed gloves. To speed up swimming, the scientist developed a design of webbed gloves, which over time turned into the well-known flippers.

Diving suit. The project of Leonardo's diving suit was related to the problem of finding a person underwater. The suit was made of waterproof leather. It was supposed to have a large chest pocket, which was filled with air to increase volume, making it easier for the diver to rise to the surface. Leonardo's diver was equipped with a flexible breathing tube.

Lifebuoy. One of the most necessary things for teaching a person to swim is a lifebuoy. This invention of Leonardo remained virtually unchanged.

System for walking on water Leonardo's system for walking on water included swimming boots and poles.

Optics was popular in Leonardo's time and even had a philosophical connotation. Here are several machines for making mirrors and lenses. The second one from the top is intended for creating concave mirrors, the third one is for grinding them, the fourth one is for producing flat mirrors. The first and last machines make it possible to grind mirrors and lenses, making their surface smooth, while simultaneously converting rotational motion into alternating motion. There is also a known project (carried out by Leonardo between 1513 and 1516 during his stay in Rome) of a large parabolic mirror with many sides. It was conceived to heat laundry boilers by concentrating solar energy.

It is better to be deprived of movement than to be tired of being useful.

Leonardo da Vinci.

Milan's Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology is the largest in Europe. Leonardo da Vinci is famous for creating the ideal image of a person and expressing the ideal of female beauty in his painting "Mona Lisa", painted in 1503. Leonardo da Vinci, more often known only as an artist, was a genius who made numerous discoveries, developed innovative projects, and conducted research in the field of exact and natural sciences, including mathematics and mechanics. Leonardo wrote more than 7 thousand sheets of paper by hand in the process of developing his projects. Leonardo da Vinci made discoveries and guesses in almost all areas of knowledge, and his notes and sketches are considered as sheets from a natural philosophical encyclopedia. He became the founder of a new natural science that drew conclusions from experiments. Leonardo's favorite subject was mechanics, which he called “the paradise of mathematical sciences.” Leonardo believed that by unraveling the laws of mechanics, one could learn the secrets of the universe. Having devoted a lot of time to studying the flight of birds, he became the designer and creator of some flying machines and a parachute. Once you enter the Leonardo da Vinci Museum, you will be immersed in a world of interesting discoveries that will make you think about the infinity and ingenuity of the human mind.

Leonardo was not interested in anything! Incredibly, his interests even included cooking and the art of serving. In Milan, for 13 years he was the manager of court feasts. Leonardo invented several culinary devices to make the life of cooks easier. This is a device for chopping nuts, a bread slicer, a corkscrew for left-handed people, as well as a mechanical garlic press “Leonardo”, which is still used by Italian chefs to this day. In addition, he came up with an automatic spit for frying meat; a kind of propeller was attached to the spit, which was supposed to rotate under the influence of heated air flows coming up from the fire. A rotor was attached to a series of drives with a long rope; the forces were transmitted to the spit using belts or metal spokes. The hotter the oven heated up, the faster the spit rotated, which protected the meat from burning. Leonardo's original dish - thinly sliced ​​meat stewed with vegetables placed on top - was very popular at court feasts.
Leonardo da Vinci is a brilliant artist, a wonderful experimenter and an outstanding scientist, who embodied in his work all the most progressive trends of the Renaissance. Everything about him is amazing: his absolutely extraordinary versatility, his strength of thought, his scientific inquisitiveness, his practical mindset, his technical ingenuity, his wealth of artistic imagination, and his outstanding skill as a painter, draftsman and sculptor. Reflecting in his work the most progressive aspects of the Renaissance, he became that great, truly folk artist, whose historical significance far outgrew the framework of his era. He looked not to the past, but to the future.

During the Renaissance there were many brilliant sculptors, artists, musicians, and inventors. Leonardo da Vinci stands out against their background. He created musical instruments, he owned many engineering inventions, painted paintings, sculptures and much more.

His external characteristics are also striking: tall, angelic appearance and extraordinary strength. Let's meet the genius Leonardo da Vinci, short biography will tell you his main achievements.

Biography facts

He was born near Florence in the small town of Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci was the illegitimate son of a famous and wealthy notary. His mother is an ordinary peasant woman. Since the father had no other children, at the age of 4 he took little Leonardo to live with him. The boy demonstrated his extraordinary intelligence and friendly character from the very beginning. early age, and he quickly became a favorite in the family.

To understand how the genius of Leonardo da Vinci developed, a brief biography can be presented as follows:

1. At the age of 14 he entered Verrocchio's workshop, where he studied drawing and sculpture.
2. In 1480 he moved to Milan, where he founded the Academy of Arts.
3. In 1499, he left Milan and began moving from city to city, where he built defensive structures. During this same period, his famous rivalry with Michelangelo began.
4. Since 1513 he has been working in Rome. Under Francis I, he becomes a court sage.

Leonardo died in 1519. As he believed, nothing he started was ever completed.

Creative path

The work of Leonardo da Vinci, whose brief biography was outlined above, can be divided into three stages.

1. Early period. Many works of the great painter were unfinished, such as the “Adoration of the Magi” for the monastery of San Donato. During this period, the paintings “Benois Madonna” and “Annunciation” were painted. Despite his young age, the painter already demonstrated high skill in his paintings.
2. Leonardo's mature period of creativity took place in Milan, where he planned to make a career as an engineer. The most popular work written at this time was The Last Supper, and at the same time he began work on the Mona Lisa.
3. In the late period of creativity, the painting “John the Baptist” and a series of drawings “The Flood” were created.

Painting always complemented science for Leonardo da Vinci, as he sought to capture reality.

Inventions

A short biography cannot fully convey Leonardo da Vinci's contribution to science. However, we can note the most famous and valuable discoveries of the scientist.

1. He made his greatest contribution to mechanics, as can be seen from his many drawings. Leonardo da Vinci studied the fall of a body, the centers of gravity of pyramids and much more.
2. He invented a car made of wood, which was driven by two springs. The car mechanism was equipped with a brake.
3. He came up with a spacesuit, fins and a submarine, as well as a way to dive to depth without using a spacesuit with a special gas mixture.
4. The study of dragonfly flight has led to the creation of several variants of wings for humans. The experiments were unsuccessful. However, then the scientist came up with a parachute.
5. He was involved in developments in the military industry. One of his proposals was chariots with cannons. He came up with a prototype of an armadillo and a tank.
6. Leonardo da Vinci made many developments in construction. Arch bridges, drainage machines and cranes are all his inventions.

There is no man like Leonardo da Vinci in history. That is why many consider him an alien from other worlds.

Five secrets of da Vinci

Today, many scientists are still puzzling over the legacy left by the great man of the past era. Although it’s not worth calling Leonardo da Vinci that way, he predicted a lot, and foresaw even more, creating his unique masterpieces and amazing with his breadth of knowledge and thought. We offer you five secrets of the great Master that help lift the veil of secrecy over his works.

Encryption

The master encrypted a lot in order not to present ideas openly, but to wait a little until humanity “ripened and grew up” to them. Equally good with both hands, da Vinci wrote with his left hand, in the smallest font, and even from right to left, and often in mirror image. Riddles, metaphors, puzzles - this is what is found on every line, in every work. Never signing his works, the Master left his marks, visible only to an attentive researcher. For example, after many centuries, scientists discovered that by looking closely at his paintings, you can find a symbol of a bird taking off. Or the famous “Benois Madonna,” found among traveling actors who carried the canvas as a home icon.

Sfumato

The idea of ​​dispersion also belongs to the great mystifier. Take a closer look at the canvases, all the objects do not reveal clear edges, just like in life: the smooth flow of one image into another, blurriness, dispersion - everything breathes, lives, awakening fantasies and thoughts. By the way, the Master often advised practicing such vision, peering into water stains, mud deposits or piles of ash. Often he deliberately fumigated his work areas with smoke in order to see in the clubs what was hidden beyond the reasonable eye.

Look at famous painting– the smile of “Mona Lisa” from different angles is sometimes tender, sometimes slightly arrogant and even predatory. The knowledge gained through the study of many sciences gave the Master the opportunity to invent perfect mechanisms that are becoming available only now. For example, this is the effect of wave propagation, the penetrating power of light, oscillatory motion... and many things still need to be analyzed not even by us, but by our descendants.

Analogies

Analogies are the main thing in all the works of the Master. The advantage over accuracy, when a third follows from two conclusions of the mind, is the inevitability of any analogy. And Da Vinci still has no equal in his whimsicality and drawing absolutely mind-blowing parallels. One way or another, all of his works have some ideas that are not consistent with each other: the famous “golden ratio” illustration is one of them. With limbs spread and apart, a person fits into a circle, with his arms closed into a square, and with his arms slightly raised into a cross. It was this kind of “mill” that gave the Florentine magician the idea of ​​​​creating churches, where the altar was placed exactly in the middle, and the worshipers stood in a circle. By the way, engineers liked this same idea - this is how the ball bearing was born.

Contrapposto

The definition denotes the opposition of opposites and the creation of a certain type of movement. An example is the sculpture of a huge horse in Corte Vecchio. There, the animal’s legs are positioned precisely in the contrapposto style, forming a visual understanding of the movement.

Incompleteness

This is perhaps one of the Master’s favorite “tricks”. None of his works are finite. To complete is to kill, and da Vinci loved every one of his creations. Slow and meticulous, the hoaxer of all times could take a couple of brush strokes and go to the valleys of Lombardy to improve the landscapes there, switch to creating the next masterpiece device, or something else. Many works turned out to be spoiled by time, fire or water, but each of the creations, at least meaning something, was and is “unfinished”. By the way, it is interesting that even after the damage, Leonardo da Vinci never corrected his paintings. Having created his own paint, the artist even deliberately left a “window of incompleteness,” believing that life itself would make the necessary adjustments.

What was art before Leonardo da Vinci? Born among the rich, it fully reflected their interests, their worldview, their views on man and the world. The works of art were based on religious ideas and themes: affirmation of those views on the world that the church taught, depiction of scenes from sacred history, instilling in people a sense of reverence, admiration for the “divine” and consciousness of their own insignificance. The dominant theme also determined the form. Naturally, the image of the “saints” was very far from the images of real living people, therefore, schemes, artificiality, and staticity dominated in art. The people in these paintings were a kind of caricature of living people, the landscape is fantastic, the colors are pale and inexpressive. True, even before Leonardo, his predecessors, including his teacher Andrea Verrocchio, were no longer satisfied with the template and tried to create new images. They had already begun the search for new methods of depiction, began to study the laws of perspective, and thought a lot about the problems of achieving expressiveness in the image.

However, these searches for something new did not yield great results, primarily because these artists did not have a sufficiently clear idea of ​​the essence and tasks of art and knowledge of the laws of painting. That is why they fell again into schematism, then into naturalism, which is equally dangerous for genuine art, copying individual phenomena of reality. The significance of the revolution made by Leonardo da Vinci in art and in particular in painting is determined primarily by the fact that he was the first to clearly, clearly and definitely establish the essence and tasks of art. Art should be deeply life-like and realistic. It must come from a deep, careful study of reality and nature. It must be deeply truthful, must depict reality as it is, without any artificiality or falsehood. Reality, nature is beautiful in itself and does not need any embellishment. The artist must carefully study nature, but not to blindly imitate it, not to simply copy it, but in order to create works, having understood the laws of nature, the laws of reality; strictly comply with these laws. To create new values, values ​​of the real world - this is the purpose of art. This explains Leonardo's desire to connect art and science. Instead of simple, casual observation, he considered it necessary to systematically, persistently study the subject. It is known that Leonardo never parted with the album and wrote drawings and sketches in it.

They say that he loved to walk through the streets, squares, markets, noting everything interesting - people’s poses, faces, their expressions. Leonardo's second requirement for painting is the requirement for the truthfulness of the image, its vitality. The artist must strive for the most accurate representation of reality in all its richness. At the center of the world stands a living, thinking, feeling person. It is he who must be depicted in all the richness of his feelings, experiences and actions. For this purpose, it was Leonardo who studied human anatomy and physiology; for this purpose, as they say, he gathered peasants he knew in his workshop and, treating them, told them funny stories in order to see how people laugh, how the same event causes people have different impressions. If before Leonardo there was no real man in painting, now he has become dominant in the art of the Renaissance. Hundreds of Leonardo's drawings provide a gigantic gallery of types of people, their faces, and parts of their bodies. Man in all the diversity of his feelings and actions is the task of artistic depiction. And this is the power and charm of Leonardo’s painting. Forced by the conditions of the time to paint pictures mainly on religious subjects, because his customers were the church, feudal lords and rich merchants, Leonardo powerfully subordinates these traditional subjects to his genius and creates works of universal significance. The Madonnas painted by Leonardo are, first of all, an image of one of the deeply human feelings - the feeling of motherhood, the boundless love of a mother for her baby, admiration and admiration for him. All his Madonnas are young, blooming, full of life women, all the babies in his paintings are healthy, full-cheeked, playful boys, in whom there is not an ounce of “holiness”.

His apostles in The Last Supper are living people of different ages, social status, and different characters; in appearance they are Milanese artisans, peasants, and intellectuals. Striving for truth, the artist must be able to generalize what he finds individual and must create the typical. Therefore, even when drawing portraits of certain people, historically we famous people, like, for example, Mona Lisa Gioconda - the wife of a bankrupt aristocrat, Florentine merchant Francesco del Gioconda, Leonardo gives in them, along with individual portrait features, a typical feature common to many people. That is why the portraits he painted survived the people depicted in them for many centuries. Leonardo was the first who not only carefully and carefully studied the laws of painting, but also formulated them. He deeply, like no one before him, studied the laws of perspective, the placement of light and shadow. He needed all this to achieve the highest expressiveness of the picture, in order to, as he said, “become equal to nature.” For the first time, it was in the works of Leonardo that the painting as such lost its static character and became a window into the world. When you look at his painting, the feeling of what was painted, enclosed in a frame, is lost and it seems that you are looking through an open window, revealing to the viewer something new, something they have never seen. Demanding the expressiveness of the painting, Leonardo resolutely opposed the formal play of colors, against the enthusiasm for form at the expense of content, against what so clearly characterizes decadent art.

For Leonardo, form is only the shell of the idea that the artist must convey to the viewer. Leonardo pays a lot of attention to the problems of the composition of the picture, the problems of placement of figures, and individual details. Hence his favorite composition of placing figures in a triangle - the simplest geometric harmonic figure - a composition that allows the viewer to embrace the whole picture as a whole. Expressiveness, truthfulness, accessibility - these are the laws of real, truly folk art, formulated by Leonardo da Vinci, laws that he himself embodied in his brilliant works. Already in his first major painting, “Madonna with a Flower,” Leonardo showed in practice what the principles of art he professed meant. What is striking about this picture is, first of all, its composition, the surprisingly harmonious distribution of all the elements of the picture that make up a single whole. The image of a young mother with a cheerful child in her arms is deeply realistic. The directly felt deep blue of the Italian sky through the window slot is incredibly skillfully conveyed. Already in this picture, Leonardo demonstrated the principle of his art - realism, the depiction of a person in the deepest accordance with his true nature, the depiction of not an abstract scheme, which was what medieval ascetic art taught and did, namely a living, feeling person.

These principles are even more clearly expressed in Leonardo’s second major painting, “The Adoration of the Magi” from 1481, in which what is significant is not the religious plot, but the masterful depiction of people, each of whom has his own, individual face, his own pose, expresses his own feeling and mood. Life truth- this is Leonardo’s law of painting. The fullest possible disclosure of a person’s inner life is its goal. In “The Last Supper” the composition is brought to perfection: despite a large number of There are 13 figures, their placement is strictly calculated so that all of them as a whole represent a kind of unity, full of great internal content. The picture is very dynamic: some terrible news communicated by Jesus struck his disciples, each of them reacts to it in their own way, hence the huge variety of expressions of inner feelings on the faces of the apostles. Compositional perfection is complemented by an unusually masterful use of colors, harmony of light and shadows. The expressiveness of the painting reaches its perfection thanks to the extraordinary variety of not only facial expressions, but the position of each of the twenty-six hands drawn in the picture.

This recording by Leonardo himself tells us about the careful preliminary work that he carried out before painting the picture. Everything in it is thought out to the smallest detail: poses, facial expressions; even details such as an overturned bowl or knife; all this in its sum forms a single whole. The richness of colors in this painting is combined with a subtle use of chiaroscuro, which emphasizes the significance of the event depicted in the painting. The subtlety of perspective, the transmission of air and color make this painting a masterpiece of world art. Leonardo successfully solved many problems facing artists at that time and opened the way for the further development of art. By the power of his genius, Leonardo overcame the medieval traditions that weighed heavily on art, broke them and discarded them; he was able to push the narrow boundaries that limited the creative power of the artist by the then ruling clique of churchmen, and show, instead of the hackneyed gospel stencil scene, a huge, purely human drama, show living people with their passions, feelings, experiences. And in this picture the great, life-affirming optimism of the artist and thinker Leonardo again manifested itself.

Over the years of his wanderings, Leonardo painted many more paintings that received well-deserved world fame and recognition. In "La Gioconda" a deeply vital and typical image is given. It is this deep vitality, the unusually relief rendering of facial features, individual details, and costume, combined with a masterfully painted landscape, that gives this picture special expressiveness. Everything about her—from the mysterious half-smile playing on her face to her calmly folded hands—speaks of great inner content, of the great spiritual life of this woman. Leonardo's desire to convey the inner world in the external manifestations of mental movements is especially fully expressed here. An interesting painting by Leonardo is “The Battle of Anghiari”, depicting the battle of cavalry and infantry. As in his other paintings, Leonardo sought here to show a variety of faces, figures and poses. Dozens of people depicted by the artist create a complete impression of the picture precisely because they are all subordinated to a single idea underlying it. It was a desire to show the rise of all man’s strength in battle, the tension of all his feelings, brought together to achieve victory.

Leonardo da Vinci is one of the great geniuses of all time, significantly ahead of his era. This Italian scientist of the Renaissance (Renaissance) was not only an outstanding artist and sculptor, but also a scientist, researcher of the secrets of many sciences. He was born in the small village of Vinci in 1452. Already in his youth, da Vinci wrote beautiful paintings"Annunciation" and "Adoration of the Magi". Later, his brush produced such magnificent works as the wall painting “The Last Supper” in the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, the portrait of Mona Lisa, “St. John the Baptist", "Bacchus". Throughout his life, da Vinci made notes on the theory of art (after the master’s death, these notes were collected and published under the title “Treatise on the Picturesque”).

Leonardo da Vinci is a brilliant artist.

Leonardo da Vinci is the author of many superb works that will always delight art lovers. One of the outstanding images he created, a portrait of Mona Lisa del Giocondo, painted between 1503 and 1506, can be seen in the Louvre. In the St. Petersburg Hermitage there is another of his most beautiful creations - “Madonna Litta”. Many of the works of the brilliant creator remained unfinished, since he to a greater extent I was interested in the depth of the creation process rather than the effect of completion. The uniqueness of Leonardo da Vinci was also manifested in the fact that he was mainly interested in facial features, positioning of the figure, movement, correct, natural depiction of objects, chiaroscuro and perspective. Before starting a painting or sculpting a sculpture, the master made many sketches, which he then used during the work. Today they are valued no less than the finished canvases of a great artist.

Leonardo da Vinci is an inventor.

Even in his youth, Leonardo da Vinci began to conduct Scientific research. His range of interests is extremely wide: anatomy, botany, mathematics, physics, astronomy, optics, hydraulics, engineering, architecture, music and poetry. Da Vinci developed designs for many inventions, in particular, inventing prototypes of a helicopter, a parachute, an armored train, a submarine, a textile machine, a hydraulic press, a rolling mill (a machine that gives the required shape and size to metal products), lathe, grinding machine, valve, pump. Unfortunately, the scientist’s brilliant achievements did not change the course of technology development, since he refused to publish his unusual projects.

Chronology.

1452 - born in the village of Vinci;
1467 - becomes a student of A. del Verrocchio in Florence;
1482/83-1499 - work in Milan, at the court of L. Sforza;
1500-1506 - life and work in Florence;
1503-1506 - work on the portrait of Mona Lisa;
1513-1516 - life and work in Rome, under the patronage of D. Medici, brother of Pope Leo X;
1517 - move to France, construction of purification systems on the Loire;
1519 - death in Ambual.

Do you know that:

• Leonardo da Vinci became famous not only for his brilliant paintings, but also for scientific discoveries that were ahead of his era.
• While working at the Milanese court, Leonardo da Vinci painted a portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, known as “The Lady with an Ermine.”
• The portrait of the Florentine Mona Lisa del Giocondo is remarkable primarily for the woman’s mysterious half-smile.
• Many of the great master’s drawings testify to his passion, for example, for anatomy and mechanics.

Leonardo da Vinci. 04/15/1452, Vinci – 05/02/1519, Clue

The unprecedented attention now paid by historians and fiction writers to the personality of Leonardo da Vinci is evidence of a turning point in relation to the culture of the Renaissance, a revaluation spiritual content"the greatest progressive revolution" that lies at the basis of 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 radical demarcation from 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 realized. He is also one of the greatest artists, despite the fact that he created very few paintings (and not all of them have survived) and even fewer sculptures (not at all preserved). What makes Leonardo great is not the number of ideas he implemented, 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. Benoit).

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

Leonardo's childhood and adolescence are very little documented. His father, Piero da Vinci, was a hereditary notary; Already in the year of his son’s birth, he practiced in Florence and soon took a prominent position there. All that is known about the 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 Accatabridge 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 his first experiences in drawing were, is unknown. What is indisputable is that the formation of the boy’s personality was greatly, if not decisively, influenced by his uncle Francesco, with whom Leonardo da Vinci maintained the warmest relationship throughout his life. Since Leonardo was an illegitimate son, he could not inherit his father's profession. Vasari reports that Pierrot was friends with Andrea Verrocchio and one day showed him his son’s drawings, after which Andrea took Leonardo to his workshop. Piero and his family moved to Florence in 1466, therefore, Leonardo da Vinci ended up in the workshop (bottega) of Verrocchio at the age of fourteen.

The largest works carried out by Verrocchio during the period of Leonardo’s studies with him were the statue “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 city’s order was received on September 10, 1468 and completed in May 1472). In Andrea's workshop, the best in Florence, Leonardo da Vinci had the opportunity to study all types of fine arts, architecture, the theory of perspective, and partly familiarize himself with the natural and human sciences. His development as a painter was apparently influenced not so much by Verrocchio himself as by Botticelli and Botticelli, who studied with him in the same years. Perugino.

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

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

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

The lack of documentary evidence, signatures and dates on the paintings makes their attribution very difficult. Two “Annunciations” date back to the early 1470s, which, judging by their horizontal format, are altar predella. Those of them that are kept in the Uffizi collection are included in a number of the few early works of Leonardo da Vinci. His 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, rendered 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 by Leonardo da Vinci is a pen drawing representing a landscape with a river valley and rocks, possibly a 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 Snows, 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, executed on the day of St. Mary of the Snows, August 5, 1473

Numerous drawings of a technical nature also date back to the 1470s - images of military vehicles, hydraulic structures, spinning machines and for finishing cloth. Perhaps it was Leonardo da Vinci’s technical projects that he carried out for Lorenzo de’ Medici, to whom, as stated in 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 large order for a painting thanks to his father’s petition. December 24, 1477 Piero Pollaiolo was commissioned to paint a new altarpiece (instead of the work by Bernardo Daddi) for the Chapel of St. Bernard in the Palazzo Vecchio. But a week later, a decree of the Signoria appeared (dated January 1, 1478), according to which the work was transferred “in cancellation of any other order made up to now in any way, in any way and to anyone, Leonardo , son of Ser [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, moved so slowly that it was not completed by the time Leonardo da Vinci left for Milan (1482) and was transferred to another master the following year. The plot of this work is unknown. The second order that Leonardo Ser Piero provided was the execution of an altar image for the church of the monastery of San Donato a Scopeto. On March 18, 1481, he entered into an agreement with his son, precisely specifying the deadline for completing 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 would be 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 as collateral for the future work. The large composition “Adoration of the Magi” (Florence, Uffizi) remained unfinished, but even in this form it is one of “those works on which everything is based further development European painting" (M. A. Gukovsky). Numerous drawings for it are kept in the collections of the Uffizi, Louvre and the British Museum. In 1496, the order for the altar was transferred to Filippino Lippi, and he painted a painting on the same subject (Florence, Uffizi).

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

“St. Jerome" (Rome, Pinacoteca Vatican), which is an underpainting in which the figure of the penitent saint is worked out with exceptional anatomical precision, and some minor details, for example the lion in the foreground, are only outlined.

A special place among the master’s early works is occupied by two completed works - “Portrait of Ginevra d’Amerigo Benci” (Washington, National Gallery) and “Madonna with a Flower” (St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum). The seriousness and peculiar hermeticism of Ginevra’s image, which speaks of her complex spiritual life, mark the first manifestations of a psychological portrait in European art. The picture has not been completely preserved: it has been cropped Bottom part with the image of hands. Apparently, the position of the figure was reminiscent of the Mona Lisa.

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

The dating of the “Madonna of the Flower, or Madonna of Benois” (1478-1480) is accepted 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 the drawing with pen and bistrome, stored in the British Museum (No. 1860. 6. 16. 100v.). Made in a new technique for Italy 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. Extraordinary important role in creating a holistic impression, connecting the characters with their environment, the transmission of the air environment begins to play here. Melting chiaroscuro, sfumato, makes the boundaries of objects subtly unsteady, expressing the material unity of the visible world.

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

Another early work of Leonardo da Vinci is considered to be “Madonna of the 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 casts were still made 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 the basis of creativity is the observation of nature, but not with the goal of copying it, but in order to create something new based on it. Leonardo did the same thing later, when painting “The 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 recordings different areas knowledge, on page 204 there is a draft letter from the artist to the ruler of Milan, Lodovico Sforza ( Lodovico Moro). Leonardo offers his services as a military engineer, hydraulic engineer, and sculptor. In the latter case we're talking about 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 about working 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 Finished 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. An excellent preparatory drawing for it - an image of a woman's head - is kept in the collection of the Louvre (No. 2376). 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 exhibition of the painting in Rome and Venice (2003-2004), it has become generally accepted.

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

There are several more portraits, executed with the elegance characteristic of Leonardo, but compositionally they are solved more simply and do not have the spiritual mobility that makes the image of Cecilia fascinating. This " Female portrait"in profile (Milan, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana), "Portrait of a Musician" (1485, ibid.) - possibly Franchino 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 painting “The Nativity,” about which an anonymous biographer writes that it 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

Leonardo's largest painting 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 thinking. The collections of Windsor and the Venetian Academy contain numerous drawings, sketches, sketches related to this work, among which the heads of the apostles especially stand out for their expressiveness. It is not known exactly when the master completed the work. It is generally believed that this happened in the winter of 1497, but a note sent by Moro to his secretary Marchesino Stange and referring to this year says: “Demand that Leonardo 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 painting saw the light, a pilgrimage of painters began, 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'Odzhono?) and the Hermitage (No. 2036).

Leonardo da Vinci. Last Supper, 1498

The composition of “The Last Supper” in its “airy volume” seems to be a continuation of the refectory hall. The master was able to achieve such an effect due to his 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 the great work, however, could not protect “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 during Leonardo da Vinci’s lifetime, and in 1560 Lomazzo reported in his “Treatise on Painting,” albeit somewhat exaggerating, that the painting was “completely destroyed.” 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. Artists also contributed their share of destruction. So, in 1726, a certain Belotti, “who claimed to have the secret of bringing colors to life” (G. Sayle), rewrote the entire picture. In 1796, when Napoleon's troops entered Milan, a stable was built in the refectory, and the soldiers amused themselves by throwing fragments of bricks at the heads of the apostles. In the 19th century The Last Supper was revised several more times, and in 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 partially clearing the paintings, was completed in 1954. More than twenty years later (1978), restorers began a grandiose effort to remove later layers, which was completed only in 1999. Several centuries later, you can again see the bright and clean paints of a genuine master's painting.

Obviously, immediately after arriving in Milan, Leonardo da Vinci turned to the design of the monument to Francesco Sforza. Numerous sketches indicate changes in the master’s plan, who initially wanted to present the horse rearing (in all equestrian monuments that existed at that time, the horse was shown calmly walking). Such a composition, given the huge size of the sculpture (about 6 m high; according to other sources - about 8 m), created almost insurmountable difficulties during casting. The solution to the problem was delayed, and Moro instructed the Florentine ambassador in Milan to order another sculptor from Florence, which he reported Lorenzo Medici in a letter dated July 22, 1489. Leonardo had to work closely on “The Horse.” However, in the summer of 1490, work on the monument was interrupted by the trip of Leonardo and Francesco di Giorgio Martini to Pavia to advise on the construction of the cathedral. In early September, preparations began for Lodovico’s wedding, 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 was marrying Moreau'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 was collected only by 1497. All of it was used for cannons: Milan was expecting an invasion by the troops of the French king Louis XII. In 1498, when the political position of the duchy temporarily improved, Lodovico commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint the hall in the Castello Sforzesco - the Sala delle Acce, and on April 26, 1499 he signed a deed of gift for a vineyard in the vicinity of Milan. This was the last favor shown 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 from the city, and on September 3, Milan surrendered. The Gascon marksmen of Louis XII destroyed a clay statue while competing in crossbow shooting. Apparently, even after this the monument produced strong impression, since two years later the Duke of Ferrara Ercole I d'Este was negotiating its acquisition. The further fate of the monument is unknown.

Leonardo da Vinci remained in the occupied city for some time, 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 margravess did not want to provide patronage to the artist. However, she wanted Leonardo da Vinci to paint her portrait. Without stopping in Mantua, Leonardo and Pacioli went to Venice. In March 1500, the musical instrument maker Lorenzo Gusnasco da Pavia wrote to Isabella in a letter: “Here in Venice is Leonardo Vinci, who showed me an outline portrait of Your Lordship, which is as well executed according to nature as possible.” Obviously, we were talking about a drawing currently kept in the Louvre. Picturesque portrait the master never fulfilled it. In April 1500 Leonardo and Pacioli were already in Florence. During this short – just over two years – quiet period of Leonardo da Vinci’s life, he was mainly engaged in technical research (in particular, the design of an aircraft) and, at the request of the Florentine government, took part in an examination to identify the reasons for the subsidence of the Church of San Salvatore on the hill of San Miniato. According to Vasari, at that time Filippino Lippi received an order for an altarpiece for the Church of Santissima Annunziata. Leonardo “declared that he would be willing to do such work,” and Filippino kindly gave him the order. The idea for the painting “St. Anne” apparently came to Leonardo da Vinci while still in Milan. There are numerous drawings of this composition, as well as a magnificent cardboard (London, National Gallery), but it did not form the basis of the final decision. Exhibited by the master after Easter in 1501 for public viewing, the cardboard did not survive, but, judging by the documents that have survived to this day, it was its composition that was repeated by the master in the well-known painting from the Louvre. Thus, 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 embodies the Church, which does not want “His sufferings to be turned away from Christ.” It is unclear when exactly the altar painting was completed. Perhaps the master finished it in Italy, where it was acquired by Francis I, as Paolo Giovio reports, without specifying when or 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 wishes.

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

By the beginning of the first decade of the 16th century. refers to the creation of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous work - the portrait of Mona Lisa - “La Gioconda” (Paris, Louvre), a painting that has no equal in the number of interpretations and controversies it provoked. The portrait of the wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo combines the amazing concreteness of reality with such spiritual ambiguity and generality of the universal that it outgrows the boundaries of the genre and 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). The very 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), c. 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 painted 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 Buccleuch in Scotland).

During the same period, Leonardo returned to his anatomy studies, which he began in Milan in the building of the Grand Hospital. In Florence, doctors and university students, with special permission from the government, worked on the premises of Santa Croce. The treatise on anatomy that the master was going to compile was not carried out.

In the fall of 1503, through the permanent gonfalonier Pietro Soderini, Leonardo da Vinci received an order for a large painting - painting one of the walls of the new hall - the Council Hall, added in 1496 to the Palazzo della Signoria. On October 24, the artist was given the keys to the so-called Papal Hall of the Monastery of Santa Maria Novella, where he began work on the cardboard. By decree of the Signoria he received 53 gold florins in advance and permission to receive small sums “from time to time.” The completion date for the work was February 1505. The theme of the future work was the Battle of Anghiari (June 29, 1440) between the Florentines and Milanese. In August 1504, Michelangelo received an order for the second painting for the Council Hall - “The Battle of Cascina”. Both craftsmen 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 survived. The central part of Leonardo da Vinci's composition was the scene of the battle for the banner. Only about it can one currently get some idea thanks to a drawing by Raphael (Oxford, Christ Church Library), executed by him in 1505-1506, as well as from a copy of Rubens (Paris, Louvre). However, it is unknown where exactly Rubens, who lived in Italy in 1600-1608, made his copy from. An anonymous biographer of Leonardo da Vinci reports that after the death of the master, most of the cardboard “Battle of Anghiari” could be seen in the hospital of Santa Maria Novella, 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 “while 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 Chamber quickly. As the anonymous author reports, he worked on a new soil of his own invention and used the heat of a brazier to dry it as quickly as possible. However, the wall dried unevenly, its upper part did not hold the paint, and the painting turned out to be hopelessly damaged. Soderini demanded completion of the work or return of the money. The situation was temporarily resolved by leaving for Milan, at the invitation of his viceroy, Charles d'Amboise, Marquis de Chaumont. The artist entered into an agreement with the Signoria, according to 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 keep the artist at his disposal for some time. In the response letter (dated August 28), consent was given, but with the condition of repaying the debt. Since the money was not sent, Soderini again appealed to the governor on October 9, demanding compliance with the agreement. Finally, on January 12, 1507, the Florentine ambassador to the French court informed the members of the Signoria that Louis XII wanted to leave Leonardo in Milan until his arrival. Two days later, the king personally signed a letter with the same content. In April 1507, Leonardo received his vineyard back and at the beginning of May he 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 for this occasion. Thanks to the intervention of Louis, on August 24, the long-term process over the “Madonna of the Rocks” ended. The painting remained at the master’s disposal, but he, together with Ambrogio de Predis (Evangelista had died by this time), had to paint 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 conduct litigation over an inheritance. The elderly 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 Child Christ. Painting by Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1510

In Milan, Leonardo da Vinci completed “Saint Anne” and painted 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 favorite Louis XIV. An idea of ​​its composition is given by several drawings by the master and several repetitions that differ 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

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

In 1511 troops Pope JuliaII in alliance with the Venetian Republic and Spain, they 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 de' Medici was elected to the papal throne, with whose brother, Giuliano, who was interested in alchemy, Leonardo da Vinci was friendly. On September 14, 1513 Leonardo left for Rome. Giuliano assigned him a salary and allocated premises for work. In Rome, the master drew up projects for the refurbishment of the papal mint and the drainage of the Pontic swamps. Vasari noted that for the papal datarius (chief of the chancellery) Baldassare Turini of Pescia, Leonardo da Vinci completed two paintings - “Madonna” and an image of “a child of amazing beauty and grace” (not traced).

On December 31, 1514, Louis XII died, and Francis I, who succeeded him, recaptured 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 saw him earlier - in Pavia, at the celebrations in honor of his entry into the city, and then he made the famous mechanical lion, from whose opening chest lilies poured 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 king’s service, the master left for France in the fall of 1516 with Francesco Melzi. 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 ecus. In the spring of 1517, in Amboise, where the king loved to be, they celebrated the baptism of the Dauphin, and then the wedding of the Duke of Urbino Lorenzo de' Medici and the daughter of the Duke of Bourbon. The celebrations were designed by Leonardo. In addition, he was involved in the design of canals and locks to improve the area, and created architectural projects, in particular a 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). On October 18, 1516, Leonardo was visited by the secretary of Cardinal Louis of Aragon. According to him, due to the 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 drew up 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 arms of the King of France. Melzi transported Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts to Italy and kept them on his estate in Vaprio until the end of his days. The now widely known “Treatise on Painting,” which had a huge influence on European art, was compiled by Melzi based on the teacher’s notes. About seven thousand sheets of Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts have survived. 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 commentaries published by Richter in 1883 (Richter J.P. The literary works of Leonardo da Vinci. London, 1883. Vol. 1-2). Supplemented and commented by K. Pedretti, they were published a second time in Los Angeles in 1977.

Literature:Leonardo da Vinci. A book about painting. M., 1934; Leonardo da Vinci. Selected works. L., 1935; Leonardo da Vinci. Anatomy. Ideas and drawings. M., 1965; Vasari 2001. T. 3; Seail G. Leonardo da Vinci as an artist and scientist. St. Petersburg, 1898; Volynsky A. Life of Leonardo da Vinci. St. Petersburg, 1900 (republished: St. Petersburg, 1997); Benoit A. N. History of painting of all times and peoples. St. Petersburg, 1912; Wrangel N."Benois Madonna" by Leonardo da Vinci. St. Petersburg, 1914; Lipgart E.K. Leonardo and his school. L., 1928; Dzhivelegov A.K. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1935 (republished: M., 1969); Lazarev V.N. Leonardo da Vinci. L., 1936; Ainalov D. V. Sketches about Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1939; Gukovsky M. A. 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 - anatomist. L., 1955; Gukovsky M. A. Leonardo da Vinci: 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. T. 2; Nardini B. Life of Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1978; Kustodieva T.K."Benois Madonna" by Leonardo da Vinci. L., 1979; Rzepinska 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; Codex Leonardo from the private collection of Armand Hammer: Ext. L., 1984; Pedretti K. Leonardo. M., 1986; Smirnova I. A. Monumental painting of the Italian Renaissance. M., 1987; Batkin L. M. Leonardo da Vinci and the features of the Renaissance creative thinking. M., 1990; Santi B. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1995; Wallace R. World of Leonardo, 1452-1519. M., 1997; Kustodieva 1998; Chunky M. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1998; Sonina T.V.“Madonna Benois” by Leonardo da Vinci // Italian collection. St. Petersburg, 1999. Issue. 3; Sonina T.V.“Madonna of the Rocks” by Leonardo da Vinci: Semantics of the image // Decree. op. St. Petersburg, 2003. Issue. 7; Leonardo da Vinci and the culture of the Renaissance: Sat. Art. M., 2004; Herzfeld M. About one sheet of Leonardo's sketches. Contribution to the characterization of the master’s image // Italian collection. St. Petersburg, 2006. Issue. 9; Clark K. Leonardo da Vinci: Creative biography. St. Petersburg, 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. Rome, 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. Venezia, 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 this History of this 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; Calvi 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 their 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.

The scope of his activity covers not only space (Italy-France), but also time. Isn’t it surprising that the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci now cause the same heated debate and admiration as during the years of his life? Such a “formula of immortality” can rightfully be considered the greatest discovery in history. What are its components? Almost every person on the planet would like to have an answer to this question. Some even decided that it was best to ask Leonardo himself about this, “resurrecting” the master with the help of modern scientific developments. However, the main components of the “formula” are visible to the naked eye: potential genius, coupled with incredible curiosity and a large share of humanism. And yet, any genius is a dreamer-practitioner. Judge for yourself, all the work of Leonardo da Vinci (here we include not only sketches, paintings, frescoes, but also all the scientific research of the Master) can be imagined as steps towards the realization of mankind’s long dreams of perfection. Did you want a person to fly like a bird? So we need to make him something like wings! Christ walked on water, so why shouldn’t mere mortals have the same opportunity? Let's build water skis!

The entire life and work of Leonardo da Vinci were filled with attempts to answer numerous questions about the laws of the universe, reveal the secrets of existence and direct them to the service of humanity. After all, do not forget that a Renaissance man is, first of all, a great humanist.

The biography of Leonardo da Vinci is, figuratively speaking, the story of several souls trapped in the body of one person. Indeed, in each of the areas studied, he exhibits very special qualities, which, in the understanding of ordinary people, can hardly belong to one single person. Perhaps this is why some have tried to prove that Leonardo da Vinci is just a pseudonym taken by a group of people. However, the theory was doomed to failure almost before its birth.

Today da Vinci is known to us to a greater extent as an unsurpassed artist. Unfortunately, no more than 15 of his works have reached us, while the rest either simply did not stand the test of time due to the master’s constant experiments with techniques and materials, or are considered not yet found. However, those works that have come down to us remain the most famous and most copied masterpieces of art in the world.

Biography of Leonardo da Vinci

The baby, subsequently baptized under the name Leonardo, was born, as recorded in the church book, “on Saturday, April 15, 1452 from the Nativity of Christ” from the extramarital affair of the peasant woman Catherine and the notary, ambassador of the Florentine Republic, Messire Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci, a descendant rich, respected Italian family. The father, who had no other heirs at that time, wished to take his son into his home and give him a proper education. All that is known for sure about the mother is that she officially married a man from a peasant family and gave him 7 more children. By the way, Leonardo’s father was also subsequently married four times and presented his first-born (whom, by the way, he never made his official heir) with ten more brothers and two sisters.

Da Vinci’s entire subsequent biography is closely tied to his work; the events of the master’s life and the people he met naturally left their traces on the development of his worldview. Thus, a meeting with Andrea Verrocchio determined the beginning of his path in art. At the age of 16, Leonardo became a student in the studio of the famous master Verrocchio. It is in Verrocchio's workshop that Leonardo gets the opportunity to express himself as an artist: the teacher allows him to paint the face of an angel for the famous “Baptism of Christ”.

At the age of 20, da Vinci became a member of the Society of St. Luke, guild of artists, still working in the workshop of Verokkil until 1476. One of his first works dates back to the same period. independent work"Madonna of the Carnation" Ten years later, Leonardo was invited to Milan, where he remained to work until 1501. Here they find wide application Leonardo's talents not only as an artist, but also as a sculptor, decorator, organizer of all kinds of masquerades and tournaments, a man who created amazing mechanical devices. Two years later, the master returns to his native Florence, where he paints his legendary fresco “The Battle of Angiani”.

Like most Renaissance masters, da Vinci traveled a lot, leaving a memory of himself in every city he visited. By the end of his life he becomes "first royal artist, engineer and architect" under François I, works on the architectural structure of the castle of Cloux. However, this work remained unfinished: da Vinci died in 1519, at the age of 67. Nowadays, in the castle of Cloux, from the plan originally conceived by the great Leonardo, only a double spiral staircase remains, while the rest of the architecture of the castle was repeatedly redone by subsequent dynasties of French kings.

The works of Leonardo da Vinci

Despite Leonardo's numerous scientific studies, his fame as a scientist and inventor somewhat pales in comparison to the glory of Leonardo the artist, whose few surviving works have fascinated and excited the mind and imagination of mankind for almost 400 years. It was in the field of painting that many of da Vinci’s works devoted to the nature of light, chemistry, biology, physiology and anatomy found their application.

His paintings remain the most mysterious works of art. They are copied in search of the secret of such mastery, they are discussed and argued about by entire generations of art connoisseurs, critics and even writers. Leonardo considered painting a branch of applied science. Among the many factors that make da Vinci’s works unique, one of the main ones is the innovative techniques and experiments used by the master in his works, as well as deep knowledge of anatomy, botany, geology, optics and even the human soul... Looking at the portraits he created, we We really see not just an artist, but an attentive observer, a psychologist who was able to understand the physical expression of the emotional component of the human personality. Da Vinci not only managed to understand this himself, but also found techniques that allowed him to transfer this knowledge to canvas with photographic accuracy. An unsurpassed master of sfumato and chiaroscuro, Leonardo da Vinci put all the power of his knowledge into his most famous works - the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper.

Leonardo believed that the best character to depict on canvas is the person whose body movements most closely match the movements of his soul. This belief can be considered da Vinci's creative credo. In his works, it was embodied in the fact that in his entire life he painted only one portrait of a man, preferring women as models, as individuals who were more emotional.

Early period of creativity

The periodization of the creative biography of Leonardo da Vinci is rather arbitrary: some of his works are not dated, and the chronology of the master’s life is also not always accurate. The very beginning creative path da Vinci can be traced to the day when his father, Ser Piero, showed some sketches of his 14-year-old son to his friend Andrea del Verrocchio.

After a year, during which Leonardo was trusted only to clean the canvases, rub the paints and do other preparatory work, Verrocchio began to introduce his student to the traditional techniques of painting, engraving, architecture and sculpture. Here Leonardo gained knowledge of the basics of chemistry, metallurgy, mastered woodworking and even the beginnings of mechanics. Only to him, his best student, does Verrocchio trust the completion of his work. During this period, Leonardo did not create his own works, but greedily absorbed everything related to his chosen profession. Together with his teacher he works on The Baptism of Christ (1472-1475). The play of light and shadow, the facial features of the little angel, which da Vinci was entrusted to paint, amazed Verrocchio so much that he considered himself surpassed by his own student and decided never to take up a brush again. It is also believed that Leonardo became the model for the bronze sculpture of David and the image of the Archangel Michael.

In 1472, Leonardo was included in the “Red Book” of the Guild of St. Luca is the famous union of artists and doctors of Florence. At the same time, da Vinci’s first notable works appeared, which brought him fame: the ink sketch “Landscape of Santa Maria della Neve” and “The Annunciation”. He improves the sfumato technique, bringing it to unprecedented perfection. Now a light haze - sfumato - is not just a thin layer of blurred paint, but a really light veil of living fog. Despite the fact that by 1476. da Vinci opens his own workshop and receives his own orders, he still works closely with Verrocchio, treating his teacher with deep respect and respect. The Madonna of the Carnation, one of da Vinci’s most significant works, is dated to the same year.

Mature period of creativity

At the age of 26, da Vinci began a completely independent career, and also began a more detailed study of various aspects of natural science and became a teacher himself. During this period, even before his departure to Milan, Leonardo began work on “The Adoration of the Magi,” which he never completed. It is quite possible that this was a kind of revenge by da Vinci for the fact that Pope Sixtus IV rejected his candidacy when choosing an artist to paint the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican in Rome. Perhaps the fashion for Neoplatonism that reigned in Florence at that time also played a role in da Vinci’s decision to leave for the rather academic and pragmatic Milan, which was more in line with his spirit. In Milan, Leonardo takes on the creation of the “Madonna in the Grotto” for the altar of the chapel. This work clearly shows that da Vinci already has some knowledge in the field of biology and geodesy, since the plants and the grotto itself are depicted with maximum realism. All proportions and laws of composition are observed. However, despite such stunning performance, this painting became a point of contention between the author and customers for many years. Da Vinci devoted the years of this period to recording his thoughts, drawings, and deeper research. It is quite possible that a certain musician, Migliorotti, was involved in his departure to Milan. Just one letter from this man, which described amazing works the engineering thought of the “senior, who also draws,” was enough for da Vinci to receive an invitation to work under the auspices of Louis Sforza, far from rivals and ill-wishers. Here he gets some freedom for creativity and research. She also organizes performances and celebrations, and provides technical equipment for the stage of the court theater. In addition, Leonardo painted many portraits for the Milanese court.

Late period of creativity

It was during this period that da Vinci thought more about military-technical projects, studied urban planning and proposed his own model of an ideal city.
Also, while staying in one of the monasteries, he receives an order for a sketch for the image of the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus, St. Anna and John the Baptist. The work turned out to be so impressive that the viewer felt himself present at the described event, part of the picture.

In 1504, many students who considered themselves followers of da Vinci left Florence, where he stayed to put his numerous notes and drawings in order, and moved with their teacher to Milan. From 1503 to 1506 Leonardo begins work on La Gioconda. The model chosen is Mona Lisa del Giocondo, née Lisa Maria Gherardini. Numerous variations of the plot of the famous painting still do not leave artists and critics indifferent.

In 1513 Leonardo da Vinci moved to Rome for a while at the invitation of Pope Leon X, or rather to the Vatican, where Raphael and Michelangelo were already working. A year later, Leonardo begins the “Later” series, which is a kind of response to the version proposed by Michelangelo in Sistine Chapel. The master does not forget his passion engineering, working on the problem of draining the swamps on the territory of the possessions of Duke Julien de' Medici.

One of the most grandiose architectural projects During this period, the castle of Cloux in Amboise became for da Vinci, where the master was invited to work by the King of France, Francois I. Over time, their relationship became much closer than just a business one. Francois often listens to the opinion of the great scientist, treats him like a father, and has a hard time experiencing the death of da Vinci in 1519. Leonardo dies in the spring from a serious illness at the age of 67, bequeathing his manuscripts and brushes to his student, Francesco Melzi.

Inventions of Leonardo da Vinci

It may seem incredible, but some inventions made in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. in fact, they were already described in the works of da Vinci, like some of the things familiar to us. It seems that what the master would not mention in his manuscripts does not exist at all. There's even an alarm clock described there! Of course, its design is significantly different from what we see today, however, the invention deserves attention if only because of its design: scales whose bowls are filled with liquid. Pouring from one bowl to another, the water activates a mechanism that pushes or lifts the legs of a dozing person. It's hard not to wake up in such conditions!

However, the true genius of Leonardo the engineer is evident in his mechanical and architectural innovations. He managed to bring the latter to life almost completely (with the exception of the project for an ideal city). But regarding mechanics, application for it was not immediately found. It is known that da Vinci was preparing to test his flying machine himself, but it was never constructed, despite the detailed plan drawn up on paper. And the bicycle, created by a master from wood, also came into use several centuries later, as did a mechanical self-propelled carriage driven by two levers. However, the very principle of the cart's operation was used to improve the loom during Da Vinci's lifetime.
Being recognized as a genius of painting during his lifetime, Leonardo da Vinci dreamed all his life of a career as a military engineer, and therefore a special place in his activities was given to the study of fortifications, military vehicles, and defensive structures. So, it was he who developed excellent methods of repelling Turkish attacks in Venice, and even created a kind of protective spacesuit. But since the Turks never attacked, the invention was not tested in action. In the same way, only a combat vehicle resembling a tank remained in the drawings.

In general, unlike works of painting, Leonardo’s manuscripts and drawings have survived to this day in greater safety and continue to be studied today. Some drawings were even used to recreate machines that were not destined to appear during Da Vinci’s lifetime.

Painting by Leonardo da Vinci

Most of the works by da Vinci have not survived to this day due to the master’s constant experiments not only with painting techniques, but also with tools: paints, canvases, primers. As a result of such experiments, the composition of paints on some frescoes and canvases did not stand the test of time, light, and moisture.

In the manuscript dedicated to fine art, da Vinci mainly focuses not so much on writing technique, but on a detailed presentation of the innovations he invented, which, by the way, had a huge impact on the further development of art. First of all, these are some practical advice regarding the preparation of instruments. So, Leonardo advises covering the canvas with a thin layer of glue, instead of the white primer mixture that was used before. An image applied to a canvas prepared in this way is fixed much better than on the ground, especially if painted in tempera, which was widespread at that time. Oil came into use a little later, and da Vinci preferred to use it specifically for writing on primed canvas.

Also, one of the features of da Vinci’s painting style is a preliminary sketch of the intended painting in transparent dark (brown) tones; these same tones were also used as the top, final layer of the entire work. In both cases, the completed work was given a gloomy tint. It is quite possible that over time the colors darkened even more precisely because of this feature.

Most of da Vinci's theoretical works are devoted to depicting human emotions. He talks a lot about the way of expressing feelings, and cites his own research. There is even a known case when Leonardo decided to experimentally test his guesses about how the facial muscles move during laughter and crying. Having invited a group of friends to dinner, he began to tell funny stories, making his guests laugh, while da Vinci carefully watched the movement of muscles and facial expressions. Possessing a unique memory, he transferred what he saw to the sketches with such accuracy that, according to eyewitnesses, people wanted to laugh along with the portraits.

Mona Lisa.

“Mona Lisa” aka “La Gioconda”, the full name is the portrait of Madame Lisa del Giocondo, perhaps the most famous work of painting in the world. Leonardo painted the famous portrait from 1503 to 1506, but even during this period the portrait was not completely completed. Da Vinci did not want to part with his work, so the customer never got it, but it accompanied the master on all his travels until last day. After the artist's death, the portrait was transported to the castle of Fontainebleau.

Mona Lisa has become the most mystical painting of all eras. It became the subject of research into artistic technique for 15th century masters. During the Romantic era, artists and critics admired its mystery. By the way, it is to the figures of this era that we owe such a magnificent aura of mystery accompanying the Mona Lisa. The era of romanticism in art simply could not do without the mystical surroundings inherent in all brilliant masters and their works.

The plot of the picture is known to everyone today: a mysteriously smiling woman against the backdrop of a mountain landscape. However, numerous studies are revealing more and more details that were not previously noticed. So, upon closer examination, it is clear that the lady in the portrait is dressed in full accordance with the fashion of her time, with a dark transparent veil draped over her head. It would seem that there is nothing special about this.

Compliance with fashion can only mean that the woman does not belong to the poorest family. But carried out in 2006. Canadian scientists, a more detailed analysis using modern laser equipment, showed that this veil, in fact, envelops the entire body of the model. It is this very thin material that creates the effect of fog, which was previously attributed to the famous sfumato by da Vinci. It is known that similar veils, enveloping the entire body, and not just the head, were worn by pregnant women. It is quite possible that it is precisely this state that is reflected in the smile of Mona Lisa: the peace and tranquility of the expectant mother. Even her hands are arranged in such a way, as if they are ready to rock a baby. By the way, the very name “La Gioconda” also has a double meaning. On the one hand, this is a phonetic variation of the Giocondo surname, to which the model herself belonged. On the other hand, this word is similar to the Italian “giocondo”, i.e. happiness, peace. Doesn't this explain the depth of the gaze, the gentle half-smile, and the whole atmosphere of the picture, where twilight reigns? Quite possible. This is not just a portrait of a woman. This is a depiction of the very idea of ​​peace and serenity. Perhaps this is precisely why she was so dear to the author.

Now the Mona Lisa painting is in the Louvre, belongs to the Renaissance style. The dimensions of the painting are 77 cm x 53 cm.

“The Last Supper” is a fresco created by da Vinci in 1494-1498. for the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Gresi, Milan. The fresco depicts the biblical scene of the last evening spent by Jesus of Nazareth, surrounded by his twelve disciples.

In this fresco, da Vinci tried to embody all his knowledge about the laws of perspective. The hall in which Jesus and the apostles are sitting is painted with exceptional precision in terms of proportions and distance of objects. The background of the room, however, is visible so clearly that it is almost a second picture rather than just a background.

Naturally, the center of the entire work is Christ himself, and it is in relation to his figure that the rest of the composition of the fresco is planned. The arrangement of the students (4 groups of three people) is symmetrical relative to the center - the Teacher, but not among themselves, which creates a feeling of living movement, but at the same time a certain aura of loneliness around Christ is felt. An aura of knowledge that is not yet available to his followers. Being the center of the fresco, the figure around which the whole world seems to revolve, Jesus still remains alone: ​​all other figures seem to be separated from him. The entire work is enclosed in a strict rectilinear framework, limited by the walls and ceiling of the room, and the table at which the participants of the Last Supper sit. If, for clarity, we draw lines along those points that are directly related to the perspective of the fresco, we will get an almost ideal geometric grid, the “threads” of which are aligned at right angles to each other. Such limited precision is not found in any other work by Leonardo.

In the Abbey of Tongerlo, Belgium, there is an amazingly accurate copy of the Last Supper, made by masters of da Vinci's school on his own initiative, since the artist was afraid that the fresco in the Milan monastery would not stand the test of time. It was this copy that the restorers used to recreate the original.

The painting is located in Santa Maria delle Grazie and measures 4.6 m x 8.8 m.

Vitruvian Man

"Vitruvian Man" is the common name for a graphic drawing by da Vinci made in 1492. as an illustration for entries in one of the diaries. The drawing depicts a naked male figure. Strictly speaking, these are even two images of the same figure superimposed on each other, but in different poses. A circle and a square are described around the figure. The manuscript containing this drawing is sometimes also called the “Canon of Proportions” or simply “Proportions of Man.” Now this work is kept in one of the museums of Venice, but is exhibited extremely rarely, since this exhibit is truly unique and valuable both as a work of art and as a subject of research.

Leonardo created his “Vitruvian Man” as an illustration of the geometric studies he carried out based on the treatise of the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius (hence the name of da Vinci’s work). In the treatise of the philosopher and researcher, the proportions of the human body were taken as the basis for all architectural proportions. Da Vinci applied the research of the ancient Roman architect to painting, which once again clearly illustrates the principle of the unity of art and science put forward by Leonardo. In addition, this work also reflects the master’s attempt to relate man to nature. It is known that da Vinci considered the human body as a reflection of the universe, i.e. was convinced that it functions according to the same laws. The author himself considered the Vitruvian Man as a “cosmography of the microcosm.” In this drawing there is hidden an equally deep symbolic meaning. The square and circle in which the body is inscribed do not simply reflect physical, proportional characteristics. A square can be interpreted as the material existence of a person, and a circle represents its spiritual basis, and the points of contact of geometric figures with each other and with the body inserted into them can be considered as the connection of these two foundations of human existence. For many centuries, this drawing was considered as a symbol of the ideal symmetry of the human body and the universe as a whole.

The drawing was made in ink. Dimensions of the picture: 34 cm x 26 cm. Genre: Abstract art. Direction: High Renaissance.

The fate of the manuscripts.

After the death of da Vinci in 1519. all the manuscripts of the great scientist and painter were inherited by Leonardo’s favorite student, Francesco Melzi. Fortunately, the bulk of the drawings and notes left by da Vinci, made by his famous method of mirror writing, have survived to this day, i.e. from right to left. Without a doubt, Leonardo left behind the largest collection of works of the Renaissance, but after his death, the manuscript did not have an easy fate. It’s even surprising that after so many ups and downs, the manuscripts still survived to this day.
Today, da Vinci’s scientific works are far from the same form that the Master gave them, who with special care grouped them according to the principles he knew. After the death of Malzi, the heir and keeper of the manuscripts, his descendants began to mercilessly squander the legacy of the great scientist, apparently not even knowing about its true value. Initially, the manuscripts were simply stored in the attic; later the Malze family gave away some of the manuscripts and sold individual sheets to collectors for a ridiculous price. Thus, all of da Vinci's records found new owners. It’s fortunate that not a single sheet was lost!

However, the government evil rock It didn't end there. The manuscripts came to Pompeo Leoni, the court sculptor of the Spanish royal house. No, they were not lost, everything turned out to be much worse: Leoni undertook to “put in order” Da Vinci’s numerous notes, based, naturally, on his own principles of classification, and completely mixed up all the pages, separating, where possible, texts from sketches, but purely scientific, in his opinion, treatises from notes directly related to painting. Thus, two collections of manuscripts and drawings appeared. After Leoni's death, one part of the collection returned to Italy and until 1796. kept in the library of Milan. Some of the works came to Paris thanks to Napoleon, but the rest was “lost” by Spanish collectors and was discovered only in 1966 in the archives of the National Library in Madrid.

To date, all known da Vinci manuscripts have been collected, and almost all of them are in state museums in European countries, with the exception of one, miraculously still remaining in private collection. From the middle of the 19th century. Art researchers are working to restore the original classification of manuscripts.

Conclusion.

According to da Vinci's last will, sixty beggars accompanied his funeral cortege. The great Renaissance master was buried in the chapel of Saint-Hubert, in the vicinity of the castle of Amboise.
Da Vinci remained lonely all his life. Having neither a wife, nor children, nor even his own home, he devoted himself entirely to scientific research and art. The fate of geniuses is such that during their lifetime and after their death, their works, into each of which a particle of soul was invested, remain the only “family” of their creator. This happened in the case of Leonardo. However, everything that this man did, who managed to fully comprehend and embody the spirit of the Renaissance in his creations, has today become the property of all humanity. Fate itself arranged everything in such a way that without having his own family, da Vinci passed on a huge inheritance to all of humanity. Moreover, this includes not only unique recordings and amazing works, but also the mystery that surrounds them today. There was not a single century in which they did not try to unravel one or another plan of da Vinci, to look for what was considered lost. Even in our century, when many previously unknown things have become commonplace, the manuscripts, drawings and paintings of the great Leonardo do not leave museum visitors, art critics, or even writers indifferent. They still serve as an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Is this not the true secret of immortality?

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