Leonardo da Vinci

BIRTH

Apr 15, 1452

He was born near the village of Vinci about 25 miles west of Florence. He was the illegitimate son of Ser Piero da Vinci and a local woman, Caterina.

CHILHOOD

1467

Not much is known about Leonardos's chilhood except that when he was fifteen (1467), his father apprenticed him to Andrea del Verrochio, the leading artist of Florence.

ANNUNCIATION

1472

His earliest known painting is in Verrochio's Baptism of Christ and it was called The Annunciation. Leonardo executed one of the two angels as well as the distant landscape , and he added the final touches to the figure of Christ

BENOIS MADONNA

1478

His work showed mother and child in precious private moments and focused on the emotions between them. The complexity and detail of these paintings set new standards, yet they are lesser known than his other works.

ADORATION OF THE MAGI

1481

This is an early painting by Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo was given the commission by the Augustian monks of San Donato a Scopeto in Florence, but departed for Milan the following year, leaving the painting unfinished.

COMMISSIONED WORKS

1482

Lorenzo de Medici commissioned Leonardo da Vinci in 1482, to create a piece for the Duke of Monaco. In addition to creating the piece, he wrote a letter explaining how he would be the perfect painter and how he could work for the court.

THE LAST SUPPER

1490

This painting covers and end wall of the dining hall at the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. It’s a very famous painting. The theme was a traditional one for refectories, although the room was not a refectory at the time that Leonardo painted it.

LA BELLA PRINCIPESSA

1495

Is a portraitin colored chalks and ink, on vellum, of a young lady in fashionable costume and hairstyle of a Milanese of the 1490s. It was sold for just under $22,000 at auction on January 30, 1998.

MONA LISA

1503

The painting is thought to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo. It had been believed to have been painted between 1503 and 1506; however, Leonardo may have continued working on it as late as 1517.

TAVOLIA DORIA

1505

Since for many years no one knew what had happened to it, it has not been easy to reconstruct a history of sales and theft. The search for La Tavola Doria officially began 30 years ago. The painting was finally discovered in 2008 in the vault of a bank in Geneva on behalf of the Fuji Museum in Japan.

HORSE AND RIDER

1508

Is a beeswas sculpture depicting a rider on a horse, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. It was intended to be used as a model for a life-size sculpture, commissioned by Charles II d’ Amboise.

PORTRAIT OF A MAN IN RED CHALK

1510

It depicts the head of an elderly man in three-quarter view, his face turned towards the viewer. The subject is distinguished by his long hair and long waving beard which flow over the shoulders and chest.

STUDIES OF THE FETUS IN THE WOMB

1511

They are two colored annotated sketches. The studies correctly depict the human fetus inside a dissected uterus. Da Vinci depicted the uterus with only one chamber.

ST. JHON THE BAPTIST

1513

This is the last painting of this great artist and it is now exhibited at the Musée du Louvre in Paris, France. Many people are critical of this work find it a portrayed as gaunt and fiery, living in a desert and surviving on a diet of locusts and honey. In Leonardos’s painting St. Jhon seems almost to be a hermaphrodite.

DEATH OF LEONARDO DA VINCI

1519

Leonardo died at Clos Lucé, France, on May 2, 1519. We can remember him as the artist that knew more about painting, sculpture and architecture in the world.