Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo's full name is Lionardo di Ser Piero da Vinci.

• Lionardo is the Italian form of Leonardo. He signed his first datable drawing of 1473 ("Drawing of a Landscape") with Leonardo
• in Italy it was customary to give the first name of the father after the first name. Leonardo's father's name was Piero, hence Lionardo di Ser Piero da Vinci (Ital. 'of Piero')
• the Leonardo family owned land in the village of Vinci near Florence for several generations, which they leased. The family therefore took the name da Vinci (Ital. 'from Vinci'). They were not noble
• "Messer" (Ital. 'My Lord') or "Ser" for short was an honorary title in Italy given to practicing lawyers. Leonardo's father Piero was a notary in Florence. "Lionardo di Ser Piero da Vinci" therefore means "Lionardo, son of the lawyer Piero from Vinci"

Probably when he finished his education, he called himself only Leonardo da Vinci. Like other Renaissance artists, such as Michelangelo or Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci is usually referred to only by his first name, Leonardo.

Leonardo has introduced an error in the numbering of the plates. In the table of contents of the plates the following numbering is shown with Roman numerals:

41 (The Sphere), 1, 2, 3,..., 39, 40(Septuaginta Duarum), 43, 44,..., 60, 61.

The numbering goes up to 61, but only 60 plates are shown. Plate 42 is missing.

The reason for this is that the sphere, the only figure of the plates that is not a polyhedron, is listed first in the table of contents, but is labeled as plate 41. In the table of contents, the 40 is followed by the 43, but actually the 42 should follow, because the 41 with the sphere is already listed in the first place. The wrong numbering then continues to 61, so that 61 is counted, although there are only 60 plates in total.

An accidental mistake?

It can be assumed that neither the mathematician Pacioli nor the very thorough Leonardo would have failed to notice the error. It is therefore probably one of Leonardo's typical jokes.

First hint: The penultimate polyhedron, which is still numbered correctly, is the Septuaginta Duarum with 72 faces (right figure). Pacioli's book puts the golden section in the foreground. The symbolic 72° angle is the center angle of the regular pentagon, which can only be constructed with knowledge of the golden section.

Second hint: The penultimate plate 40 with the 72-faced figure is followed by the last correctly numbered plate 41 with the sphere. The similarity of the two figures is not accidental. Geometry is the ancient Greek word for 'measurement of the earth' (geo 'earth', metron 'measure'). The earth is measured by covering it with a grid. For an interpretation of the plate 41, thus the sphere as earth, speaks likewise the point at which the sphere was hung up. The angle can be calculated over the (co)sine and corresponds to approx. 23°, thus the inclination of the earth axis. The suspension point is different for the figures.

In 1452 Leonardo was born Lionardo di ser Piero (father's name) da Vinci (birthplace). He was the illegitimate child of an affair of the notary Ser Piero with Caterina, a peasant girl. There are various theories about the identity of Leonardo's mother. They separated shortly after Leonardo's birth, probably because of the difference in status.

Leonardo remained with his father, which was common for illegitimate children at the time. His mother soon married a wealthy local farmer and had four more children. Leonardo probably grew up with his grandparents in Vinci. His mother lived only a few miles away, so it seems possible that Leonardo could have visited her. Illegitimate children were not legally equal to legitimate offspring, which put Leonardo at a disadvantage compared to his 12 legitimate paternal siblings, presumably not only in matters of inheritance.

It is unknown where or if he went to school. Certainly he learned to read, write and calculate. In 1464, when he was 12 years old, his grandfather died. Presumably he then moved in with his father in Florence. He must have had a talent for drawing, since he completed an apprenticeship as an artist in the workshop of the Florentine Andrea del Verrocchio. The latter was a well-known artist throughout Europe in his day, excelling especially in painting, sculpture and architecture. Leonardo was there a fellow student of the later also very famous painter Sandro Botticelli. Leonardo's father, who came from an old-established Florentine notary family and also worked as a notary, could have taught him. He worked, among other things, for the city government of Florence and the famous Medici banking family, so he must have had a high social status and financial means.

In 1472, at the age of 20, Leonardo was admitted to the painters' guild "Compagnia di S. Luca". Although this meant that he could have worked as an independent painter, he probably worked with or for Verrocchio for another ten years (until 1482 at the latest). No independent works from this period are known. He is believed to have worked on two paintings from Verrochio's workshop, "The Baptism of Christ" and "Annunciation to Mary." The attributions are highly controversial among art historians, however, as it is unclear exactly what Leonardo's contribution was supposed to have been.

In 1478, at the age of 26, Leonardo began to seek his own commissions. There was no shortage of great artists in Florence at that time. Competition was fierce, and commissions were difficult. The few commissions Leonardo received were probably through his father. Probably the first commission is the unfinished painting "St. Jerome". Apart from the fact that the painting is attributed to Leonardo, however, nothing is known about it. It shows the consistent effort of an anatomically correct representation of a male nude torso.

This suggests that Leonardo was already conducting anatomical studies in Florence. This was a risky undertaking, since dissecting cadavers was forbidden in the ecclesiastical context of the time and was considered heresy. Only medical universities were allowed to conduct such studies on a very limited scale. Although the majority of the Renaissance is now considered enlightened and liberal, the fragility of the concept of a liberal society in northern Italy and the deep-rootedness of ecclesiastical dogmas are shown by the political influence of the priest Savonarola, who transformed Florence into a divine state of religious zealots from 1494 to 1498.

In this tension between ecclesiastical dogma and liberal sentiment, Leonardo was anonymously accused in 1476 of homosexual intercourse with a prostitute known to the city. This was a fatal charge and could have meant Leonardo's execution. A public trial began, during which well-known Florentines testified on his behalf as character witnesses, including his teacher Verrocchio. Together they were able to help Leonardo to an acquittal. The charges, the public trial, and the threat of an early death must have had a shocking effect on the 26-year-old Leonardo.

For the church of San Donato a Scopeto just outside Florence, he received another commission around 1478. He was to create an altarpiece with the motif "Adoration of the Magi". This painting also remained unfinished, presumably because he saw for himself a chance for employment at the court of the powerful Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza. Milan at that time was the fifth largest city in Europe with 100,000 inhabitants and already at that time a famous metropolis.

The Duke of Milan was looking for a capable artist to design and execute his long-planned prestigious project of a monumental equestrian statue. Leonardo da Vinci made great efforts for this commission. His letter to the duke in 1482 became famous, in which he recommends himself to the warlike ruler as a technician and engineer of war equipment. Almost in passing, he also mentions his sculptural and painterly talent at the end.

Leonardo's efforts to obtain employment at the court of Duke Ludovico Sforza were initially unsuccessful. Nevertheless, he left his native Florence and settled in Milan. There, in 1482, he was commissioned, along with two other painters, to create a large altarpiece for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception in the Franciscan Church of San Francesco in Milan. Leonardo's contribution was the central image of the altar, the Virgin of the Rocks.

The painting was of groundbreaking elegance for the time and was considered so extraordinarily beautiful that other interested parties quickly found it. Therefore, shortly after completion, instead of delivering it to the monks as intended, it was sold to a private individual for a much higher bid. A decades-long legal dispute with the monks followed, which finally led to a second version of the "Rock Grotto Madonna" being made around 1508, 26 years later, which the monks received as compensation.

In 1487, possibly before, Leonardo's efforts to obtain a position at the court of the Duke of Milan were finally successful. The duke sought in Leonardo not only an artist, but also a court engineer and inventor who would assist him in times of peace as well as war.

Leonardo da Vinci spent almost 20 years in Milan, at least 12 of them in the Duke's service.

In 1499, when Leonardo was 47 years old, the Duchy of Milan was occupied by the French, and the Duke of Milan fled. Leonardo thus lost his patron. He continued to receive payments from French patrons, but left Milan.

Little is known about the period that followed. It is believed that he moved through the duchies and republics of northern Italy in search of new patrons. He is said to have spent over 1-2 years in Rome, Naples, Mantua and Venice before finally returning to Florence.

Here, in 1502, he entered the service of Cesare Borgia, the pope's son and commander of the papal army. He accompanied the latter, probably for a year, in his campaigns and travels, assisting him in the planning of fortresses, town planning and the drawing of maps.

In 1503 Leonardo was commissioned by the Florentine municipal government to paint "The Battle of Anghiari". The mural was planned for the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of the Florentine Parliament, and was intended to commemorate a great military victory for the Republic of Florence. This commission was probably designed as an artist's competition, because Michelangelo, also a very famous artist, was also commissioned to paint in the same hall, on the opposite wall, a painting of another important battle, the "Battle of Cascina". Both works were accompanied by considerable technical problems due to wall wetness and were not completed. Today, only preparatory studies of them have survived. Legendary is the dislike that the two artists are said to have felt for each other.

Leonardo also began work on the "MONA LISA" at this time. It is still unclear today on whose behalf he made the painting.

He then experienced the death of his father in 1504, who died in Florence not far from the Palazzo Vecchio, as Leonardo notes in his notes. As a result, a dispute arose over the inheritance and Leonardo, as an illegitimate son, came away empty-handed. This probably affected him, because when Francesco, his father's brother, died in 1507, Leonardo used his international political influence on the Florentine city government to assert his claim to the inheritance over his siblings.

In 1506 Leonardo returned to Milan at the request of the French governor Charles II d'Amboise, and subsequently commuted between Florence and Milan. He intensified his anatomical studies and worked closely with the medical faculty of the University of Pavia.

The professor there, Marcantonio della Torre, dissected and Leonardo made drawings of them. Both planned to publish a book on anatomy. However, this project was thwarted by the early death of the professor. The resulting drawings and the anatomical knowledge gained from them represent another significant achievement in the life of Leonardo da Vinci.

In 1508 at the latest, Leonardo stopped commuting between Florence and Milan and settled back in Milan. Here he began work on his painting "Anna Selbdritt". For the French governor of Milan, Charles II d'Amboise, he was now active as an architect, engineer and court artist, as he had been for his predecessor, the Duke of Milan. Once again, he was to construct a massive equestrian monument for the Frenchman.

The statue was planned on the occasion of the victory of the French over the Duchy of Milan and was to show the victorious army commander Gian Giacomo Trivulzio. Before the planning was completed, the Sforzas were able to retake the Duchy of Milan in 1512. Ludovico Sforza, the former Duke of Milan, was in prison in France, but his son now succeeded him. The latter did not want to continue supporting Leonardo as a patron.

Leonardo remained for some time in the house of his noble and wealthy Milanese student Francesco Melzi. He then left Milan for good, however, when he followed the Medici family's call to Rome.

The influential Florentine banker family Medici provided at this time with Leo X. the pope. His brother Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici was an outstanding patron of the arts and had already been able to bring Michelangelo and Raphael to Rome. Michelangelo then painted, among other things, the Sistine Chapel and rebuilt St. Peter's Basilica, while Raphael painted the Pope's private rooms (Raphael's Stanzas).

What Leonardo accomplished in Rome during this period is not known in detail. He probably began work there on his last painting, "John the Baptist". It is further assumed that he was involved in draining the Pontine marshes. He also conducted numerous experiments in physics, including the inclined plane, to study the effect of forces in free fall. Several letters to Giuliano are also known, in which he complains about the laziness of traveled German mirror makers who were to assist him in the manufacture of a concave mirror for astronomical observation. It is not known whether the telescope could be built despite the difficulties. Leonardo also investigated methods of applying and preserving oil paints more intensively than ever before.

After three years at the papal court, Leonardo receives an invitation from the French King Francis I in 1516.

He leaves Rome and lives the last three years of his life at the castle of Clos Lucé near Amboise in northern France. The castle of Amboise was the headquarters of the French king at that time. It was located only 500m away from Leonardo's castle. The two were connected by a tunnel. The king is said to have used it for inconspicuous conversations with Leonardo. Leonardo reworked the "Mona Lisa", the "Anna Selbdritt" as well as "John the Baptist" here.

In addition, he acted as a technical advisor, once again designed an equestrian statue that was not realized, and acted as a creative mind for fantastic ideas on public occasions. Furthermore, he took care of a sewerage project in Sologne and the work on a royal palace in Romorantin.

Leonardo died on 02.05.1519 in his castle Clos Lucé. Nothing is known about the cause of death.

The travel report of a visitor of Leonardo in his last year of life is interpreted to the effect that Leonardo should have had a series of strokes.

According to this report, Leonardo was paralyzed on the right side and therefore could only use his left hand. His overall condition is said to have already appeared very frail. The paralysis is often used as an argument for a suspected stroke, but Leonardo was left-handed and could therefore have preferred to use his left hand.

The biographer Vasari reports of the day of Leonardo's death that he asked forgiveness for his sins against God on his deathbed and then died in the arms of the French King Francis I. It is unclear whether Leonardo was a left-handed artist. It is unclear whether the narrative is true. What is true is that Vasari wrote down two versions in different editions. Only in the second version, written after the Counter-Reformation, does he have Leonardo ask forgiveness for his sins against God. The Counter-Reformation led to an eager return to the Catholic faith after the Reformation by Martin Luther. It is possible that Vasari made his adaptation under this impression.

Leonardo's funeral ceremony

Leonardo's death was not unexpected, as he had made his will a few weeks earlier. There Leonardo da Vinci determined the order of his funeral.

• Leonardo wanted to be buried in the church of Saint-Florentin in Amboise. The church is named after Saint Florentin. The name Florentin is derived from the Latin verb florens ('blooming'), as is the name of Leonardo's hometown of Florence, 'the blooming one'. The coat of arms of Florence is a blooming lily
• three solemn and thirty silent masses are to be held in the four churches of the royal seat of Amboise before the funeral
• Leonardo's coffin will then be carried from the castle of Cloux to the church of Saint-Florentin by the chaplains of this church
• the coffin shall be accompanied by sixty paupers, each carrying a large candle, and by the rector or prior of the church of Saint-Florentin or its delegates and dignitaries of the three other churches
• the sixty candles are then to be distributed equally among the four churches of the village, that is, 15 candles per church

Leonardo was buried in the cemetery of the church of Saint-Florentin in the park of the castle of Amboise. The tomb was destroyed between 1562 and 1598 and during the Napoleonic period around 1807, Leonardo's remains have since been considered lost.

His works of art and paintings subsequently became the property of the French king. His manuscripts and equipment were in the possession of his long-time student and executor, the noble painter Francesco Melzi. Leonardo's possessions went to his servants, pupils and siblings.