Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was born on the 15th of April, 1452 in Anchiano (near Vinci) and died on the 2nd of May, 1519 at Cloux at the age of 67.
Childhood and youth
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was born the 15th of April, 1452 in Anchiano (near Vinci) as the illegitimate son of ser Piero da Vinci and Caterina. While his father had a well-off social position and was a landowner (later on he become a notary in the region), his mother was of humble condition, probably a peasant. Later ser Piero had ten more children in his two last marriages, having been married four times altogether.
Leonardo spent his whole childhood in the locality of Vinci, surrounded by the Tuscan countryside of the Apennines. It is sure that Leonardo da Vinci became an acute observer of the anatomy, fauna and flora of the Tuscan landscape, judging by the tireless scientific spirit that characterized him his whole life.
Leonardo showed a tendency toward solitude since he was a child, and this might have been the cause or the consequence of his passion for the arts. He displayed this passion, for example, drawing mythological monsters of his invention. Once, Leonardo drew a shield whose principal motif was the "Medusa with dragons" which terrified his father when he casually found it.
The Florentine period (His training years at the academy of Verrocchio and his first artistic works.)
In 1469, when Leonardo was 17 years old, he moved to live with his father to Florence. In this time his father, perceiving his unquestionable artistic talents, showed Verrocchio the drawings of his son. Upon seeing the quality of the sketches of Leonardo, Verrocchio accepted him as an apprentice in his workshop.
In 1472 he collaborated with Verrocchio in his most famous work, the Baptism of Christ. Another works of his Florentine period, although carried out in collaboration, are also: the chapel altarpiece of the Palazzo Vecchio and the Adoration of the Magi.
In 1476 he was anonymously denounced of maintaining homosexual interactions with a model that had posed for him and that was also a prostitute. As a result he spent two months in jail but was finally released because of the lack of witness.
At the age of 28, in 1480 he left the paternal home and went to live in a house property of Lorenzo de Medici, for whom he carried out some artistic works.
The Milanese Period (At the service of Ludovico "The Moor" of the Sforza.)
In 1483, trying to find a patronage that would assured his economic wellbeing, Leonardo offered his services to Ludovico "The Moor" of the Sforza family. Leonardo highlighted his capacity not only to create paintings or sculptures, but also his facet as a civil and military architect and engineer.
One of the reasons why Leonardo was hired was because Ludovico wanted to build an equestrian sculpture as a homage to his father. The execution of this monument took some years; the clay scale model was finished in 1493, but had not survived to these days.
During this period Leonardo developed his skills in engineering in several projects for Ludovico, at the same time that he went deeper into his studies on mathematics and natural sciences.
In 1483 he began the execution of The Virgin of the Rocks. This painting was part of the central panel of a large altarpiece for the church of San Francesco il Grande in Milan. There was a financial dispute over this work for several years with the Franciscan confraternity of Milan.
Also from the Milanese period is The Last Supper. This work catapulted him once and for all as one of the best masters of Italy and granted him the acknowledgment from the whole artistic community of the time. It is a mural painting placed on a wall of the refectory of the Dominican Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan.
Errant Period (His nomadic period, traveling to different Italian cities and moving finally to France.)
Leonardo left the city of Milan when it was taken by the French in 1498. From there he moved to Mantua, later on to Venice and afterwards to Florence, city in which he put his services at Cesar Borgia (son of Pope Alexander VI), practicing as a military architect and engineer.
In 1505 Leonardo competed with Michelangelo for a contract to paint a mural in Florence. Both showed their sketches but Michelangelo finally won the contest.
Leonardo returned to Milan and worked for the French that occupied the city, but they were expelled in 1512, and Leonardo went back to Rome. There he worked for Juliano de Medicis, brother of Pope Leo X. At this time Leonardo devoted himself to his studies on the quadrature of the circle and on anatomy.
In 1516 Leonardo presented himself in the court of the French king Francis I, who put him at his service and acquired paintings as emblematic as the Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda), and gave him the mansion and properties of Clos Lucé near the Castle of Amboise, where the monarch lived. So great was their friendship that the king himself held Leonardo in his arms when he died the 2nd of May, 1519. In his will Leonardo designed his lifetime love partner, the young Francesco Melzi, the principal heir to his belongings.
Private life
It is an accepted fact that Leonardo was homosexual. His longest relationship was with Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno, a little ten years old criminal that was hosted in Leonardo's house and whom he called Salai (little devil). In 1518 Salai left Leonardo, but even though he inherited half of his vineyards. It was Count Francesco Melzi, companion and disciple of Leonardo for many years, who inherited the rest of his goods.
Leonardo was a really peculiar and surprising character even for his contemporary fellows. On his private life it is said that Leonardo was hermetic, dreamer, loner, quick mood changer and detached from material things.
