With the fall (1499) of Milan
to the French, Leonardo left
that city to seek employment
elsewhere: he went first to
Mantua and Venice, but by
April 1500 he was back in
Florence. His stay there was
interrupted by time spent
working in central Italy as a
mapmaker and military
engineer for Cesare Borgia.
Again in Florence in 1503,
Leonardo undertook several
highly significant artistic
projects, including the Battle
of Anghiari mural for the
council chamber of the Town
Hall, the portrait of Mona
Lisa, and the lost Leda and the
Swan. At the same time his
scientific interests deepened:
his concern with anatomy led
him to perform dissections,
and he undertook a systematic
study of the flight of birds.
Leonardo returned to Milan in
June 1506, called there to
work for the new French
government. Except for a brief
stay in Florence (1507-08), he
remained in Milan for 7 years.
The artistic project on which
he focused at this time was the
equestrian monument to Gian
Giacomo Trivulzio, which, like
the Sforza monument earlier,
was never completed.
Meanwhile, Leonardo's
scientific research began to
dominate his other activities,
so much so that his artistic
gifts were directed toward
scientific illustration; through
drawing, he sought to convey
his understanding of the
structure of things. In 1513 he
accompanied Pope Leo X's
brother, Giuliano de'Medici, to
Rome, where he stayed for 3
years, increasingly absorbed
in theoretical research. In
1516-17, Leonardo left Italy
forever to become
architectural advisor to King
Francis I of France, who
greatly admired him. Leonardo
died at the age of 67 on May
2, 1519, at Cloux, near
Amboise, France.
The famous angel contributed
by Leonardo to Verrocchio's
Baptism of Christ (c. 1475;
Uffizi, Florence) was the young
artist's first documented
painting. Other examples of
Leonardo's activity in
Verrocchio's workshop are the
Annunciation (c. 1473; Uffizi);
the beautiful portrait Ginevra
Benci (c. 1474; National
Gallery, Washington, D.C.);
and the Madonna with a
Carnation (c. 1475; Alte
Pinakothek, Munich).
Although these paintings are
rather traditional, they include
details, such as the curling hair
of Ginevra, that could have
been conceived and painted
only by Leonardo.
Other, slightly later works,
such as the so-called Benois
Madonna (c. 1478-80; The
Hermitage, St. Petersburg)
and the unfinished Saint
Jerome (c. 1480; Vatican
Gallery), already show two
hallmarks of Leonardo's
mature style: contrapposto, or
twisting movement; and
chiaroscuro, or emphatic
modeling in light and shade.
The unfinished Adoration of
the Magi (1481-82; Uffizi) is
the most important of all the
early paintings. In it, Leonardo
displays for the first time his
method of organizing figures
into a pyramid shape, so that
interest is focused on the
principal subject--in this case,
the child held by his mother
and adored by the three kings
and their retinue.
In 1483, soon after he arrived
in Milan, Leonardo was asked
to paint the Madonna of the
Rocks. This altarpiece exists
in two nearly identical
versions, one (1483-85),
entirely by Leonardo, in the
Louvre, Paris, and the other
(begun 1490s; finished
1506-08) in the National
Gallery, London. Both
versions depict a supposed
meeting of the Christ Child
and the infant Saint John. The
figures, again grouped in a
pyramid, are glimpsed in a
dimly lit grotto setting of rocks
and water that gives the work
its name. Not long afterward,
Leonardo painted a portrait of
Duke Lodovico's favorite,
Cecilia Gallerani, probably the
charming Lady with the
Ermine (c. 1485-90;
Czartoryski Gallery, Krakow,
Poland). Another portrait
dating from this time is the
unidentified Musician (c. 1490;
Pinacoteca Ambrosiana,
Milan). In the great The Last
Supper (42 x 910 cm/13 ft 10 in
x 29 ft 7 1/2 in), completed in
1495-98 for the refectory of
the ducal church of Santa
Maria delle Grazie in Milan,
Leonardo portrayed the
apostles' reactions to Christ's
startling announcement that
one of them would betray him.
Unfortunately, Leonardo
experimented with a new
fresco technique that was to
show signs of decay as early
as 1517. After repeated
attempts at restoration, the
mural survives only as an
impressive ruin.
When he returned to Florence
in 1500, Leonardo took up the
theme of the Madonna and
Child with Saint Anne. He
had already produced a
splendid full-scale preparatory
drawing (c. 1498; National
Gallery, London); he now
treated the subject in a
painting (begun c. 1501;
Louvre). We know from
Leonardo's recently
discovered Madrid notebooks
that he began to execute the
ferocious Battle of Anghiari
for the Great Hall of the
Palazzo Vecchio in Florence on
June 6, 1505. As a result of
faulty technique the mural
deteriorated almost at once,
and Leonardo abandoned it;
knowledge of this work comes
from Leonardo's preparatory
sketches and from several
copies. The mysterious,
evocative portrait Mona Lisa
(begun 1503; Louvre),
probably the most famous
painting in the world, dates
from this period, as does Saint
John the Baptist (begun c.
1503-05; Louvre).
Leonardo's observations and
experiments into the workings
of nature include the
stratification of rocks, the flow
of water, the growth of plants,
and the action of light. The
mechanical devices that he
sketched and described were
also concerned with the
transmission of energy.
Leonardo's solitary
investigations took him from
surface to structure, from
catching the exact appearance
of things in nature to visually
analyzing how they function.
Leonardo's art and science are
not separate, then, as was
once believed, but belong to
the same lifelong pursuit of
knowledge. His paintings,
drawings, and manuscripts
show that he was the foremost
creative mind of his time.
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