Leonardo da Vinci (b. 1452, Vinci, d. 1519)

Leonardo in Florence

Florence was where Leonardo first went after leaving Vinci. He arrived in the city in 1466, when Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-1492), called Il Magnifico, was lord of the city.

A brilliant and versatile man with a broad humanistic education, Lorenzo - himself and artist and poet - was a generous patron of art and literature. Under Lorenzo's rule, Florence reached the height of artistic grandeur.

Leonardo thus had the possibility of spending the years of his apprenticeship, not only in the bottega of Verrocchio, one of the most renowned in the city and also frequented by Botticelli and Perugino, but of living in a one of the greatest cosmopolitan cities of his time. When Leonardo finished his apprenticeship, he was already an excellent painter and had also acquired the basis of the ars mechanicae that were to enable him to design embankments, bridges and churches.

In this sense Leonardo is a man of his age, the personification of the "Renaissance Man". One should not be surprised by the broad spectrum of his interests, perfectly in keeping with the spirit of the times, but by his genius and the intuitions that made him an such an extraordinary artist. These were the years in which Florence had no rivals in art and Lorenzo the Magnificent, lord of the city, was writing emblematic songs and poems such as the famous:

Quant'è bella giovinezza
che si fugge tuttavia!
chi vuol esser lieto sia:
di doman non c'è certezza.

Leonardo worked, studied, and enjoyed himself. When he set out for Milan, he had been invited there as a musician and master of ceremonies; when he returned he was already famous for excelling in every field of human knowledge.

[ His Years in Milan ]
[ His Roman Sojourn ]
[ Leonardo in France ]
[ Flight and Freedom ]
[ Leonardo the Engineer ]
...[ Leonardo and Warcraft ]
...[ The Art of War ]
...[ Leonardo and Water ]
...[ Entertainments ]
...[ Mechanics ]
[ The Portrait of Mona Lisa ]