A small message about Leonardo da Vinci. Short biography of Leonardo da Vinci (most important)

This person is not only a symbol of the era, but also its greatest treasure and mystery. short biography Leonardo da Vinci is filled with enthusiastic work on a wide variety of projects. One of the most unique people on our planet, he was greatest artist, sculptor, researcher, scientist, anatomist, engineer, chemist, philosopher, botanist, musician, poet ... But what was the great Florentine doing! And at the same time, in every field he achieved tremendous success.

The biography of Leonardo da Vinci began in Italy on April 15, 1452 in a small town near Florence. All that is known about the mother is that she was a peasant, was not married and raised her son on her own until he was 4 years old. After that, Piero Vinci's father, a rather wealthy citizen, took him to his place. Leonardo got home. Even then, the teachers noted extraordinary abilities boy. For example, he wrote not only traditionally, but also from left to right in Leonardo, he worked equally with his right hand and left.

A short biography of Leonardo da Vinci says that in 1469 his father took him with him to Florence, where he moved to where he studied to be an artist, despite Piero's desire to make his son a notary. Already in 1472 he was admitted to the local guild of painters. This greatly influenced the development of the career of the genius of the Renaissance. In the years 1481-1482, Leonardo worked for Lodovico Moro, the ruler of Milan, as an organizer of court celebrations, and also as a hydraulic engineer, architect and military engineer. Even then, he developed several projects of an ideal city, a central domed church.

A short biography of da Vinci is an amazing and fascinating story about the search for truth, about the inquisitive mind of a scientist who saw the world with different eyes. It’s a pity that his Scientific research were not in demand in their native Italy. Therefore, he gladly responds to the invitation and leaves for France to take up the position of court painter there. He took with him many of his works, both finished and sketches. Many of them are now kept in the most prestigious museums in the world and private collections, causing delight.

A short biography of Leonardo da Vinci says that he died on May 2, 1519, not far from Amboise, in the castle of Clos-Luce. He bequeathed all the acquired property to his students and friends, but he did not forget his relatives. In Italy, in one of the temples, he kept several hundred ducats, which were transferred to his brothers.

A short biography of Leonardo da Vinci cannot convey the full depth of this man's genius mind. Contemporaries described him as very attractive man, very thoughtful, eloquent and active. However, for all mankind, it remains a mystery: can so many talents be combined in one person? Some consider him an alien from an extraterrestrial civilization, others - an inhabitant parallel world and still others - a wanderer in time. However, whoever he was, he gave us his amazing masterpieces that people will always admire.

Leonardo, nicknamed da Vinci at the place of his birth, the mountain village of Vinci, near Empoli, in the province of Florence - the brilliant painter of the Italian Renaissance, architect, engineer and scientist. He was born in 1452, the son of Piero, a notary of the Florentine lord. Initial art education the gifted boy received from the Florentine artist Andrea del Verrochio (1435-1488), in whose painting depicting baptism and located in the Florentine academy, the first work of Leonardo da Vinci has been preserved - the figure of an angel he performed.

Baptism of Christ. Painting by Verrocchio, painted by him with his students. The right of the two angels is the work of Leonardo da Vinci. 1472-1475

Between 1472 and 1478 Leonardo has already been mentioned several times in the news of his contemporaries, but from his youthful works only the following have survived, undoubtedly belonging to his brush: underpainting "Adoration of the Magi" in the gallery of the Uffizi Palace in Florence, "Saint Jerome" in the Vatican gallery in Rome. "Annunciation", which is also in Uffizi Gallery and formerly also attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, nowadays most likely attributed to Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (1483-1561). Many of Leonardo's youthful sketches and drawings, made in pen and chalk, are kept in the Windsor Library, the Louvre, the Venetian Academy, the Uffizi Gallery, the Ambrosian Library in Milan, the British Museum and the Albertine Gallery in Vienna. Between them a separate group make up cartoons representing the result of physiognomic studies and observations of Leonardo and echoing somewhat affected originality. They were published several times in engravings, among other things, in a beautiful performance of the famous Czech engraver of the 17th century Wenceslas Gollar.

Leonardo da Vinci. Self-portrait, approx. 1510-1515

In addition to painting, Leonardo da Vinci also studied plastic, architecture, mathematics, physics and mechanics in Florence, and early surprised those around him with the rare versatility of his genius nature. Outstanding musical talent and the gift of poetic improvisation complemented his broad development and was in harmony with beauty, strength, dexterity and brilliant wit.

Milan period of creativity Leonardo da Vinci

Shortly after 1480, Leonardo da Vinci left Florence, took a trip east and for some time was in the service of the Cairo sultan. Around 1484, Duke Ludovico il Moro summoned Leonardo to Milan, where he lived until 1499, indulging in a wide and fruitful artistic activities... One of his main works is this Milanese period was colossal equestrian statue Duke Francesco Sforza, which was recognized by contemporaries as a miracle of art and which until its end was destroyed by French arrows during the invasion of 1499. The designs and drawings of this monument have been preserved in the Windsor library. At the same time, Leonardo supervised the construction of the Milan cathedral and the engineering work for the Martesan canal.

Leonardo da Vinci. Beautiful Ferroniera, approx. 1490

From the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci to the Milanese period include: a male half-length portrait in life size and a small female portrait in profile (in the ambrosian library); a beautiful portrait of a woman, known as the "Fair Ferroniera" and located in the Louvre; Madonna with a bas-relief (original of which belonged to Lord Warwick), Madonna of the Rocks (two copies, in the Louvre and in the gallery of Lord Suffolk); the risen Christ between Saints Leonard and Lucia (apparently unfinished in a Berlin gallery).

Leonardo da Vinci. Madonna of the Rocks, 1480-1490s

Leonardo da Vinci - The Last Supper

For all their rare merits, these paintings by Leonardo da Vinci are eclipsed by the main artwork Milanese period - written before 1499 "The Last Supper". Occupying the main wall of the Santa Maria delle grazie section of the Dominican monastery, this great work of brush is 28 feet long and contains figures one and a half times magnified. It is fulfilled oil paints, over time, severely damaged by negligence and rough restoration, so that the original version of the painting is better known from copies of Leonardo da Vinci's student, Marco d "Odgonno (of which one is kept in London gallery) and from the photographs of the heads of the apostles, painted in pastels and belonging to the Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar. The Last Supper has an extraordinarily rich and distinct reproduction of the main motives human soul and the austere beauty of lines that permeates all forms. Everything typical, reminiscent of a portrait, is discarded, and an ideal group is created, which is as vital and truthful as it is sublime and deeply conceived. In addition, the Milanese period owns a significant number of various kinds of drawings and cartoons, sketched by Leonardo for his students and in their performance, sometimes taken for his original works.

Leonardo da Vinci. The last supper, 1498

Leonardo da Vinci's artistic theories

The keeper of Leonardo da Vinci's artistic theories and a hotbed of his widespread influence on contemporary painting was the academy founded by him in Milan, the leader and head of which he was. Leonardo expressed his theoretical views on painting in the essay "Trattato della pittura", written for his students. Leonardo encourages them to stick to nature rather than antique designs, and gives essential the study of perspective and anatomy. Around 1494 he published drawings different parts bodies that served as anatomical atlas in his teaching practice; a volume of 235 large anatomical tables by Leonardo is kept in the London Library. Further development theoretical views of Leonardo da Vinci contains a reworked essay of the mathematician Luca Pacioli on perspective and proportional structure human body, equipped with 60 drawings by Leonardo and published by him in 1509 under the title "De divina proportione". The closest students and followers of Leonardo da Vinci were: Cesare da Sesto, Francesco Melzi, Marco d "Odgonno, Andrea Salaino, Bernardino Falsolo, Gaudenzio Ferrari and others.

Florentine period of creativity Leonardo da Vinci

After the overthrow of the dukes of Sforza in 1499, Leonardo da Vinci left Milan and from 1503 settled in Florence at the invitation of the Gonfalonier Pietro Soderini, who gave the renowned artist a warm welcome and appointed him an annual maintenance. The first piece of this second Florentine period was an unfinished cardboard for the patronal image of the Servite church, depicting the Madonna and child, the juvenile Forerunner and St.Anne, and is kept in a London gallery. The portrait of Mona Lisa, known for her beauty as the wife of Francesca del Gioconda (Louvre), and the lost portrait of Ginevra, the wife of Amerigo Benchi, also date from this time.

Leonardo da Vinci. Mona Lisa (La Gioconda), approx. 1503-1505

Commissioned by the city council, Leonardo da Vinci wrote for the competition with his famous contemporary Michelangelo big picture for the council chamber, depicting the battle between the Florentines and the Milanese at Anghiari in 1440. The work on this work, begun in 1503, was often interrupted due to circumstances and was not completed; For a long time, its cardboard, considered a masterpiece of battle painting, was preserved, but only the central group of the picture, representing the equestrian battle around the standard, survived from it. A copy of this painting attributed to Rubens has survived in the Louvre. Meanwhile, the artist's fame spread far beyond the borders of his homeland; In 1509, King Louis XII of France granted Leonardo the title of court artist with content. The outcome of the second period of Leonardo's activity belongs to "St. Anne with the Madonna and the Child Christ" and "John the Baptist" (in the Louvre).

Saint Anna with the Madonna and the Christ Child. Painting by Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1510

From 1515 Leonardo da Vinci was in the retinue of the French king Francis I, who in 1518 he followed to France, where he worked little, and died on May 2 of the new style in 1519 in the castle of Clu, near Amboise.

The value of Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci's artistic genius was at odds with his scholarly fame and profundity. History knows few examples of such a complete and rich development of the human personality. home artistic merit Leonardo da Vinci before European painting lies in the fact that he placed it on the solid foundations of anatomy and was the first to pay attention to the illumination of bodily forms. He strove for the possible perfection of modeling and for a semi-light tone, trying to achieve this with gentle transitions of contours and tones (sfumato). A kind of half-smile peculiar to him female faces, was one of the beauties of his brush and subsequently inspired Correggio. Leonardo skillfully depicted the most original combinations of human forms with animals and used these bizarre combinations for political satire.

Leonardo da Vinci. Battle of Anghiari, 1503-1505 (detail)

But Leonardo da Vinci achieved particular perfection in portrait painting: the faithful transfer of the smallest psychic movements on the faces he depicted was unparalleled, and in his works portrait painting first achieved independence and spiritualization. The power and depth of his creative spirit was especially vividly expressed in his "Last Supper" and in the scene of the Battle of Anghiari, while the charming grace and charm characteristic of his brush was imprinted on the faces of his saints. A strict attitude to his work and a constant thirst for complete perfection explain why Leonardo da Vinci left relatively few works, including many unfinished ones.

Leonardo as a scientist and inventor

Almost no less than the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci, his physical and mathematical works are remarkable and valuable. And in this respect, he was ahead of his time and led forward.In mechanics, he knew, among other things, the laws of forces acting on the lever arm in an indirect direction, the mutual opposition of the lever arms, the laws of friction, the effect of the center of gravity on bodies moving and being in a state rest, etc. In optics, before Porta, he gave a description of the so-called camera optica, explained the essence and properties of colored shadows, the movement of the iris, the effect of the duration of sensation on the visual apparatus.

Leonardo da Vinci. Portrait of Ginevra de Benci, 1474-1478

The rich scientific and artistic treasures of Leonardo da Vinci in the form of 16 large volumes of his manuscripts and drawings until 1796 were kept in the Ambrosian Library in Milan. In 1796, the French took all 18 books to Paris, where they were in the library of the French Institute, with the exception of the 1st volume, which was returned to Milan after the deposition of Napoleon I, and 3 volumes stored in British Museum and the Windsor Library.

Born in Vinci, Italy (near Florence) in 1452. He was the son of Ser Piero da Vinci, a legal specialist, and a peasant girl named Caterina. They were not married, so their son was illegitimate. His father married a woman from a wealthy family and he was sent to live with his grandparents. He later lived with his father's family, but as an illegitimate son he was deprived of the funds to obtain good education and assimilation profitable professions... However, such restrictions could not suppress da Vinci's ambition and love of knowledge.

At the age of 15, da Vinci became an apprentice to Andrea del Verochio in Florence, where his skills as an artist flourished and even intimidated his mentor. But he was always interested in invention, in 1482 he made a change of scenery, which revealed in him the real inventor

From 1478 to 1482, he set up his own studio.

In search of a broader scope of work, da Vinci moved from Florence to the cultural capital of Italy, Milan. There, da Vinci sold himself to Duke Ludovico Sforza as a military engineer.

Da Vinci spent 17 years in Milan working for the Duke, inventing, creating paintings, sculptures, studying science and bringing many innovative and daring ideas to life. Without a doubt, 17 years in Milan were the most productive for da Vinci.

In 1499, the French invaded Milan and the Duke of Sforza fled. Leonardo spent the remaining years of his th life traveling in cities like Venice and Rome. During this period, he created the painting "Mona Lisa" (in 1503) and performed more than 30 autopsies.

He died in 1519, in the middle of the Renaissance.

Biography by dates and Interesting Facts... The most important thing.

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Leonardo da Vinci, the largest figure in Italian High Renaissance- an excellent example of a universal person, the owner of many-sided talent: he was not only a great representative of art - a painter, sculptor, musician, writer, but also a scientist, architect, technician, engineer, inventor. He was born on April 15, 1452 near Florence, in the small town of Vinci (hence his name). Leonardo was the son of a wealthy notary and a peasant woman (many biographers believe that he was illegitimate) and was brought up from an early age by his father. He had hopes that the grown-up Leonardo would follow in his footsteps, however public life did not seem interesting to that. At the same time, it is possible that the craft of the artist was chosen for the reason that the profession of a lawyer and a doctor was not available to illegitimate children.

Be that as it may, after he and his father moved to Florence (1469), Leonardo got a job as an apprentice in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, one of the most famous Florentine painters of that period. The techniques of the artist's work in the Florentine workshop at that time implied technical experiments. The rapprochement with Paolo Toscanelli, the astronomer, was another factor in the awakening of Da Vinci's serious interest in various sciences. It is known that in 1472 he was a member of the Florentine Guild of Artists, and in 1473 his first dated independent art work... A few years later (in 1476 or 1478) da Vinci has his own workshop. Literally from the first canvases ("Annunciation", " Madonna Benoit"," Adoration of the Magi ") he declared himself as great painter, a further creativity only increased his fame.

Since the beginning of the 80s. biography of Leonardo da Vinci is associated with Milan, work with Duke Louis Sforza as a painter, sculptor, military engineer, organizer of festivities, inventor of various mechanical "miracles" that glorified his owner. Da Vinci is actively working on own projects in different areas (for example, over an underwater bell, aircraft and others), but Sforza does not show any interest in them. Da Vinci lived in Milan from 1482 to 1499 - until the troops of Louis XII captured the city and forced him to leave for Venice. In 1502 he was employed as a military engineer and architect Cesare Borgia.

In 1503 the artist returned to Florence. By this year (tentatively) it is customary to attribute the writing of perhaps his most famous painting - "Mona Lisa" ("La Gioconda"). During 1506-1513. da Vinci lives and works in Milan again, this time serving the French crown (the north of Italy was then under the control of Louis XII). In 1513 he moved to Rome, where the Medici patronized his work.

The last stage of the biography of Leonardo da Vinci is associated with France, where he moved in January 1516 at the invitation of King Francis I. Having settled in the castle of Clos-Luce, he received the official title of the first royal artist, architect and engineer, became the recipient of a large rent. Working on the plan for the royal apartments, he mainly acted in the guise of an adviser and a sage. Two years after arriving in France, he fell seriously ill, it was difficult for him to move around alone, right hand numb, and the next year he fell completely ill. May 2, 1519 the great " universal man", Surrounded by his disciples, died; he was buried in the nearby royal castle of Amboise.

In addition to works that are generally recognized as masterpieces ("The Adoration of the Magi", "The Last Supper", " Holy family"," Madonna Litti "," Mona Lisa "), da Vinci left behind about 7000 unrelated drawings, sheets with notes that were brought together by his students after the death of the master into several treatises that give an idea of ​​the worldview of Leonardo da Vinci ... He is credited with numerous discoveries in the field of art theory, mechanics, natural sciences, mathematics, which made a significant contribution to the development of sciences and engineering. Leonardo da Vinci became the embodiment of the ideal of the Italian Renaissance and was perceived by subsequent generations as a kind of symbol of the creative aspirations inherent in that time.

Leonardo da Vinci is one of the great geniuses of all time, well ahead of his era. This Italian scientist of the Renaissance (Renaissance) was not only outstanding artist and a sculptor, but also a scientist, a researcher of the secrets of many sciences. He was born in the small village of Vinci in 1452. Already in his youth, da Vinci wrote beautiful paintings"Annunciation" and "Adoration of the Magi". Later, such magnificent works as the mural "The Last Supper" in the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, the portrait of Mona Lisa, "St. John the Baptist "," Bacchus ". Throughout his life, da Vinci made notes on the theory of art (after the death of the master, these notes were collected and published under the title "Treatise on the Paintings").

Leonardo da Vinci is a brilliant artist.

Leonardo da Vinci is the author of many excellent pieces that will always delight art lovers. One of the outstanding images he created - the portrait of Mona Lisa del Giocondo, painted between 1503 and 1506 - can be seen in the Louvre. In the St. Petersburg Hermitage there is another of his most beautiful creation - "Madonna Litta". Many works of the brilliant creator remained unfinished, as he was more interested in the depth of the creation process than in the effect of completeness. The uniqueness of Leonardo da Vinci was also manifested in the fact that he was mainly interested in facial features, body positioning, movement, correct, natural depiction of objects, chiaroscuro and perspective. Before starting a painting or sculpting a sculpture, the master made many sketches, which he then used in the course of work. Today they are valued no less than the finished canvases of the great artist.

Leonardo da Vinci is an inventor.

Even in his younger years, Leonardo da Vinci began to conduct scientific research. His range of interests is extremely wide: anatomy, botany, mathematics, physics, astronomy, optics, hydraulics, engineering, architecture, music and poetry. Da Vinci developed projects for many inventions, having come up with, in particular, prototypes of a helicopter, a parachute, an armored train, a submarine, a textile machine, a hydraulic press, a rolling mill (a machine that gives the necessary shape and size to metal products), a lathe, a grinding machine, a valve, pumps. Unfortunately, the brilliant achievements of the scientist did not change the course of development of technology, since he refused to publish his unusual projects.

Chronology.

1452 - was born in the village of Vinci;
1467 - becomes a student of A. del Verrocco in Florence;
1482 / 83-1499 - work in Milan, at the court of L. Sforza;
1500-1506 - life and work in Florence;
1503-1506 - work on the portrait of Mona Lisa;
1513-1516 - life and work in Rome, under the patronage of D. Medici, brother of Pope Leo X;
1517 - moving to France, construction of purification systems on the Loire;
1519 - death at Ambual.

Do you know that:

• Leonardo da Vinci became famous not only brilliant pictures, but also scientific discoveries ahead of his era.
• While working at the Milanese court, Leonardo da Vinci painted a portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, known as "Lady with an Ermine."
• The portrait of the Florentine Mona Lisa del Giocondo is remarkable above all for the mysterious half-smile of a woman.
• Many drawings of the great master testify to his passion, for example, anatomy and mechanics.