LEONARDO DA VINCI

Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452 in Vinci near Florence, illegitimate son of a 25 years old notary, ser Piero, and Caterina, a peasant girl.

He was grown up by his grand- father, Leonardo had access to the huge library of his family but was essentially a self- taught youth without any formal instruction with a great inclination toward nature and the study of its phenomena.

Until he was fourteen years old Leonardo remained in Vinci, before moving to Florence where in 1469, he was introduced, probably thanks to his father’s social connections to Andrea del Verrocchio, the master of one of the most prolific, artistic workshop of the time. As in all the artistic workshops of the time, the “internship” of the young pupil was based on practice: first he had to follow the work of the master, after which he had to collaborate with him and finally he had to strike out on his own, to start the independent activity.

Artist’s workshops, especially by the mid-fifteenth century, were full-fledged schools , where one learned the rudiments of every technique known at the time. The mixture of art and technology was a characteristic of this type of Renaissance workshop: here he practised the combination of painting, sculpture, engineering and architecture. For this reason Leonardo accomplished a notable maturation under Verrocchio’s guidance, following his inclination toward nature he explored its principles and the principles of mechanics and engineering.

Leonardo had observed as a young apprentice the immense machines used in the building site for the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, being engaged with his master Verrocchio in the task of placing the enormous copper ball at the summit of Brunelleschi’s dome.

Leonardo was in contact with other special minds of the Renaissance for example with Francesco di Giorgio Martini who was his key to the knowledge of Taccola’s works ( De ingeniis and De machinis) and to the ancient studies of Archimedes and Vitruvius ( De Architectura) . The mixture of professional expertise and scientific investigations united purely conceptual training with practical applications, which would become fundamental for Leonardo.

By 1472, at the age of twenty, Leonardo qualified as a master in the Guild of St. Luke, the guild of artist and doctors in medicine. Leonardo’s earliest dated work is a drawing in pen and ink of the Arno valley, drown in 1473. Leonardo had his own workshop in Florence between 1476 and 1481. He was commissioned to paint an altarpiece in 1478 for the Chapel of St. Bernard and The Adoration of the Magi in 1481 for the Monks of San Donato di Scopeto.

In 1482 leonardo helped securing peace between Lorenzo de Medici and Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan. Leonardo wrote a letter to Ludovico describing his engineering and painting skill. He created a silver lyre in the shape of a horse head with which he was sent to Milan by Lorenzo de Medici.

Leonardo worked in Milan between 1482 and 1499. He was commissioned to paint the Vergin of the Rocks for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception and the Last Supper for the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie.

His work for Ludovico included floats and pageants for special occasions, and a model for a huge equestrian monument to Francesco Sforza . Leonardo modelled a huge horse in clay. Seventy tons of bronze were set aside for casting it but the model was never completed because in 1494 Ludovico gave the bronze to be used for cannons to defend the city from invasion by Charles VIII of France.

With Ludovico Sforza overthrown by the French, Leonardo with his assistant Salai and friend , the mathematician Luca Pacioli, fled Milan for Venice where he was employed as a military architect and engineer, devising methods to defend the city from naval attack.

On his return to Florence in 1500 Leonardo created the cartoon of The Vergin and Child with St. Anne , and St . John the Baptist a work that won great admiration. In 1502 Leonardo entered the service of Cesare Borgia , the son of pope Alexander VI, acting as a military architect and engineer. He returned to Florence in 1503  where he was commissioned to paint the Battle of Anghiari for the Signoria.

In 1506 he returned to Milan, however he didn’t stay for long because his father had died and he was back to Florence.  From September 1513 to 1516 Leonardo spent much of his time living in the Belvedere in the Vatican in Rome, while he was there he received a letter from king Francis I of France who requested his services at his court. Upon the death of his Medici protector  ( Giuliano)  Leonardo felt himself almost constrained  to accept the French king’s invitation to join his court. Leonardo, already of advanced age, tired of travelling from one court to another, chose the stability the king could offer him: a pension, a role of the king’s painter and architect and a fixed residence in the Castle of Clos- Lucè near Amboise where he stayed and continued working and studying  with the help of his two favourite pupils, Salai and Melzi. His presence in France is also noted for activities linked to automation: as the king’s scenic designer he designed a mechanical lion , capable of walking and making lilies come out of his chest. Death struck Leonardo on 2 May, 1519. A month earlier, he had drawn up his will, in which he left to Francesco Melzi his manuscripts: these became the Codices, studied and debated over today.

 

LEONARDO’S CODICES

Leonardo’s codices are among the most famous manuscripts in western culture. Their direct reading is a very difficult task for the general public for different reasons , but  the most well – known peculiarity is Leonardo’s mirror – script, he wrote backward from right to left. Some scholars have assumed that Leonardo used mirror- script to protect his ideas and discoveries from prying eyes.

                     

In Leonardo’s codices an important distinction is between real codices and collections of loose sheets, for example what we call the Codex Atlanticus is actually a huge collection of sheets that Leonardo cut loose; a later collector bound them to form a volume.

The true codices are made of pages that were already bound in Leonardo’s time or at least kept together as fascicles. The codices are of different sizes that tell us much about Leonardo’s work and style of research. Some have a very small format, their pocket size was compatible with work outside of the studio, so while Leonardo was observing nature, quickly noted an observation or a personal idea or made a quick sketch of a natural phenomenon. An example of these codices manuscripts is the Codex Forster made with black or red chalk because pen and ink where incompatible with staying outdoor.

Leonardo also compiled larger codices, they were made at the desk in his studio or wherever a desk could be used. These manuscripts  contain drawings, notes studies resulting from reflections and they are written using pen and ink and beside this drawings and notes are more monothematic.

After Leonardo’s death  his inheritance started to be dispersed. This dispersal has led to the collection of the famous codices of sketches and drawings all over the world.

The Codices are in Milan, Turin, Paris, London, Madrid and in the United States.

            

Most of them started from Pompeo Leoni  an Italian sculptor  at the court of Madrid between 1570 and 1608 who collected pages and manuscripts written by Leonardo da Vinci. In this years he compiled the Codex Atlanticus which takes its name from the large format of its pages, similar to that of a geographical atlas. Around 1630 Leoni’s heirs sold 283 sheets of the codex to lord Arundel in England  and it was called the Codex Arundel, it si the original nucleus of the collection of the Royal Family at Windsor Castle.

The rest of the Codex was lost because of a transcription error and only relocated in 1966.

During the French domination over Italy, Napoleon  arranged for the transfer of the manuscripts of the Biblioteca  Ambrosiana of Milan to the Institute of France in Paris, with the Congress of Vienna in 1815 at the end of the French imperial dreams the Codices  returned to the Library in Milan.

From some manuscripts remained in Paris the bibliophile Guglielmo Libri removed several leaves selling them to Lord Ashburnam , giving birth to the Codex Ashburnam that is the original nucleus of the Codex of the flight of Birds now kept at the Biblioteca Reale of Turin.

In 1980 the drawings of Leonardo landed in the United States when Armand Hammer, a rich American oilman, acquired a series of loose leaves for five million dollars. The Codex Hammer was bought by the magnate Bill Gates in 1994 for thirty million dollars.

Among the other codices of Leonardo there are the three Codices Forster at the Victoria and Albert Museoum in London and the Codex Trivulziano kept in Milan.