Leonardo timeline.

It's his uncle, in the house of whom Leonardo spent his childhood, to give us a reference for his birthday; he was born on the 15th of April 1452, it was a Saturday night at 10:30 p.m.
He is an illegitimate son of ser Piero, notary of a wealthy family from Empoli & Caterina, about whom we have very little information.

In 1472 we have the assurance that Leonardo's father payed a certain amount of money to the San Luca company, the florentine painters' association. It was the norm for all the artists to be part of this society at that age. The association had a hierarchical structure, and all the artists had to respect a precise and religious statute. By that timeLeonardo had already completed most of his formation at the Verrocchio's workshop.

From 1474 to 1478 we have a real lack of information about the life of this by then well-known artist.
We don't have any painting or sculpture or any similar production by him from this period. Many historians think that he could have been dedicating hiself to anatomy studies and physics and mechanics experiments. We also know that he was accused of sodomy towards the 17 year-old Jacopo Saltarelli.

The Codex Atlanticus is a twelve-volume, bound set of drawings and writings, the largest such set; its name indicates the large paper used to preserve original da Vinci notebook pages, which was that used for atlases. the contents covering a great variety of subjects, from flight to weaponry to musical instruments and from mathematics to botany. It is currently preserved at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan.

This date its important to us because it signals when the artist went back to paint. It symbolizes also the first public work that he was commissioned by the authorities. In fact he was commissioned a shovel for S. Bernard chapel in Piazza della Signoria, but since what we can read, he took the money but he never actually realized the work, that was done by Domenico Ghirlandaio e Filippo Lippi

It's in this period that he became closer and closer to the Medici court, in particular to Lorenzo the Magnificent
We do have an clear evidence of his interest for the Medici family. He did a portrait of the hanging body of one of the leaders of the Pazzi conspiracy.

1482 Leonardo left Florence for Milan.
He probably left beacause pushed by Lorenzo the Magnificent who wanted to send ambassadors of the city to the most important courts in Europe to witness the Florentine artistic greatness. It is well-known the employment letter that he wrote to Ludovico Sforza listing all his skills and explaing his bronze-horse sculpure project to honor Francesco Sforza. He'll leave Milan just in the year 1492

Lady with an ermine, made between 1488 and 1490. A portrait that probably represents Cecilia Gallerani, one of the lovers of Ludovico il Moro.There is however a certain solemnity and harmony, while the face of Cecilia is emblematic, marked by an enigmatic smile that we will find again in the works of Leonardo.

In 1492 Leonardo headed to PAVIA because he had been requested as a consulent for the Cathedral building. Then between 1499 and 1508 he traveled a lot, going to a lot of different cities such as Mantova and Venice (realising a lot of different works) and he finally went back to Florence in 1508

The Last Supper is a late 15th-century mural painting housed by the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy.
The work is presumed to have been started around 1495–96 and was commissioned as part of a plan of renovations to the church and its convent buildings by Leonardo's patron Ludovico Sforza. The painting represents the scene of the Last Supper of Jesus with his apostles

Mona Lisa, also called Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo,oil painting on a poplar wood panel by Leonardo da Vinci, probably the world’s most famous painting. It was painted sometime between 1503 and 1504, when Leonardo was living in Florence, and it now hangs in the Louvre Museum, in Paris, where it remains an object of pilgrimage in the 21st century.

Leonardo arrived in France in May 1517, with Francesco Melzi and Battista de Vilanis. Francesco I was a lover of Italian art and a great admirer of Leonardo. He honored the presence of the Italian genius by giving him lodging in the castle of Clos-Lucé, near Amboise, and giving him the title of "premier peintre, architecte, et mecanicien du roi", with an annuity of 5000 scudi

23 April 1519 Leonardo wrote his will at the presence of the notary Guglielmo Boreau and other five witnesses
He wanted to be buried in the S. Fiorentino church, also specifying the way the cerimony had to be done.
Nowadays Leonardo's spoils seem to be preserved in the little chapel of Saint-Hubert at the Amboise castle

Leonardo

Leonardo is born

1472

1474-1478

Atlantic code

1478

1479

1482-1492

1488-1490

1492-1508

1495-1498

1503-1504

1517-1519

1519