THE RENAISSANCE

Leonardo (1452 – 1519) lived during the Renaissance, a historical and cultural period characterised by the work of several great and famous artists such as Michelangelo, Brunelleschi and Donatello.

Italy was undoubtedly the centre of the Renaissance, particularly Florence, from where the movement started at the beginning of the 15th century and developed until the first decades of the 16th century, spreading all over Europe.

Around 1450 Florence became an important workshop of ideas and new literary and artistic inputs connected with the philosophical speculations of the humanist circle of the intellectuals at Lorenzo de' Medici's court.

There was a new interest for nature and in particular for the human being, which was mirrored in visual arts according to four basic principles:

- the use of perspective to represent a three-dimensional subject on a bidimensional plane

- direct and inquiring observation of nature

- the study of history of which man is the protagonist with his free will

- the rediscovery of classical style.

The inspiration and the model of the new forms came from the masterpieces of Greek classical art, such as the Apollo of the Belvedere, Farnese Hercules and Laocoön. They suggested studying the human body, anatomy and proportions, which were supposed to become the measure of all things. The man, made of flesh and spirit, was put in the centre of the earthly world: hence came the need to observe, define and represent visible reality according to the empiric-scientific objectives, both when it had mimetic value and when it acquired symbolic value.

In this cultural context Leonardo grew up and developed his talent, providing his original contribution to arts and science.

LEONARDO DA VINCI

Leonardo da Vinci was born in a small town in the province of Florence in 1452. His father was a notary, his mother a simple peasant, but his parents were not married. Leonardo was immediately entrusted to his father, who married a young woman soon after.

He always lived in relative solitude but free and in contact with nature. He did not attend any schools or academies , that's why he did not know Latin, but Leonardo was endowed with powerful curiosity which pushed him to want to know everything and engage in every form of art.

In 1466, at the age of 14, he moved to Florence to reach his father and in 1469 he entered Verrocchio's arts workshop which was attended by talented young artists and where he learnt how to work in sculpture, drawing and painting and showed a great gift for arts immediately.

In 1478 Leonardo received his first commisions and his first earnings for the altar piece of the chapel in the Palazzo della Signoria and of the altar of Palazzo Vecchio.

After three years he left Florence to move to the court of Ludovico Sforza (il Moro), ruler of Milan, for whom Leonardo worked as civil and military engineer, architect, sculptor, painter and even musician.

In 1498 Leonardo wrote a book on painting and one on the study of forces and weights, and thanks to this he received a vineyard from Duke Ludovico il Moro.

In 1499 Leonardo left Milan together with Luca Pacioli some months after the French troops had occupied the town.

In 1500, after stopping in Mantua and Venice, he came back to Florence to Cesare Borgia's court. In 1503 he was commissioned the fresco of the Battle of Anghiari. At that same time, he started working on the Mona Lisa.

He came back to Milan until 1511, then he moved to Rome, hosted by cardinal Giuliano de’ Medici. He was allowed to continue his scientific and mathematical studies on condition that he kept on drawing and painting. In those years Rome had become the destination of all great names of painting and sculpture of the time like Michelangelo and Raffaello. When Giuliano de’ Medici died, Leonardo had to leave once more.

So he accepted the invitation of the King of France Francis I to stay at the castle of Cloux, where he could devote himself to innovative projects of engineering and architecture.

He died on May, 2nd 1519 in the arms of his loyal disciple Francesco Melzi.