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Leonardo da Vinci was left-handed when left-handedness was considered the work of the devil. He also had 17 half siblings.

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Gain insight into the mind of a genius and the fundamental scientific and artistic principles he discovered.

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He was born in Vinci, Italy, just outside of Florence. He also worked in Milan.

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Leonardo da Vinci, (Italian: "Leonardo from Vinci") (born April 15, 1452, Anchiano, near Vinci, Republic of Florence [Italy]-died May 2, 1519, Cloux [now Clos-Lucé], France), Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose skill and intelligence, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. His Last Supper (1495-98) and (c. 1503-19) are among the most widely popular and influential paintings of the Renaissance. His notebooks reveal a spirit of scientific inquiry and a mechanical inventiveness that were centuries ahead of their time.

What is Leonardo da Vinci best known for?

How many Leonardo da Vinci paintings are there?

What was Leonardo da Vinci's personality like?

What was Leonardo da Vinci's family like?

Who was Leonardo apprenticed to?

The unique fame that Leonardo enjoyed in his lifetime and that, filtered by historical criticism, has remained undimmed to the present day rests largely on his unlimited desire for knowledge, which guided all his thinking and behaviour. An artist by disposition and endowment, he considered his eyes to be his main avenue to knowledge; to Leonardo, sight was man's highest sense because it alone conveyed the facts of experience immediately, correctly, and with certainty. Hence, every phenomenon perceived became an object of knowledge, and saper vedere ("knowing how to see") became the great theme of his studies. He applied his creativity to every realm in which graphic representation is used: he was a painter, sculptor, architect, and engineer. But he went even beyond that. He used his superb intellect, unusual powers of observation, and mastery of the art of drawing to study nature itself, a line of inquiry that allowed his dual pursuits of art and science to flourish.

Life and works

Early period: Florence

Leonardo's parents were unmarried at the time of his birth. His father, Ser Piero, was a Florentine notary and landlord, and his mother, Caterina, was a young peasant woman who shortly thereafter married an artisan. Leonardo grew up on his father's family's estate, where he was treated as a "legitimate" son and received the usual elementary education of that day: reading, writing, and arithmetic. Leonardo did not seriously study Latin, the key language of traditional learning, until much later, when he acquired a working knowledge of it on his own. He also did not apply himself to higher mathematics-advanced geometry and arithmetic-until he was 30 years old, when he began to study it with diligent tenacity.

Leonardo's artistic inclinations must have appeared early. When he was about 15, his father, who enjoyed a high reputation in the Florence community, apprenticed him to artist Andrea del Verrocchio. In Verrocchio's renowned workshop Leonardo received a multifaceted training that included painting and sculpture as well as the technical-mechanical arts. He also worked in the next-door workshop of artist Antonio Pollaiuolo. In 1472 Leonardo was accepted into the painters' guild of Florence, but he remained in his teacher's workshop for five more years, after which time he worked independently in Florence until 1481. There are a great many superb extant pen and pencil drawings from this period, including many technical sketches-for example, pumps, military weapons, mechanical apparatus-that offer evidence of Leonardo's interest in and knowledge of technical matters even at the outset of his career.

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First Milanese period (1482-99)

In 1482 Leonardo moved to Milan to work in the service of the city's duke-a surprising step when one realizes that the 30-year-old artist had just received his first substantial commissions from his native city of Florence: the unfinished panel painting Adoration of the Magi for the monastery of San Donato a Scopeto and an altar painting for the St. Bernard Chapel in the Palazzo della Signoria, which was never begun. That he gave up both projects seems to indicate that he had deeper reasons for leaving Florence. It may have been that the rather sophisticated spirit of Neoplatonism prevailing in the Florence of the Medici went against the grain of Leonardo's experience-oriented mind and that the more strict, academic atmosphere of Milan attracted him. Moreover, he was no doubt enticed by Duke Ludovico Sforza 's brilliant court and the meaningful projects awaiting him there.

Leonardo spent 17 years in Milan, until Ludovico's fall from power in 1499. He was listed in the register of the royal household as pictor et ingeniarius ducalis ("painter and engineer of the duke"). Leonardo's gracious but reserved personality and elegant bearing were well-received in court circles. Highly esteemed, he was constantly kept busy as a painter and sculptor and as a designer of court festivals. He was also frequently consulted as a technical adviser in the fields of architecture, fortifications, and military matters, and he served as a hydraulic and mechanical engineer. As he would throughout his life, Leonardo set boundless goals for himself; if one traces the outlines of his work for this period, or for his life as a whole, one is tempted to call it a grandiose "unfinished symphony."

As a painter, Leonardo completed six works in the 17 years in Milan. (According to contemporary sources, Leonardo was commissioned to create three more pictures, but these works have since disappeared or were never done.) From about 1483 to 1486, he worked on the altar painting The Virgin of the Rocks, a project that led to 10 years of litigation between the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, which commissioned it, and Leonardo; for uncertain purposes, this legal dispute led Leonardo to create another version of the work in about 1508. During this first Milanese period he also made one of his most famous works, the monumental wall painting Last Supper (1495-98) in the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie (for more analysis of this work, see below Last Supper). Also of note is the decorative ceiling painting (1498) he made for the Sala delle Asse in the Milan Castello Sforzesco.

During this period Leonardo worked on a grandiose sculptural project that seems to have been the real reason he was invited to Milan: a monumental equestrian statue in bronze to be erected in honour of Francesco Sforza, the founder of the Sforza dynasty. Leonardo devoted 12 years-with interruptions-to this task. In 1493 the clay model of the horse was put on public display on the occasion of the marriage of Emperor Maximilian to Bianca Maria Sforza, and preparations were made to cast the colossal figure, which was to be 16 feet (5 metres) high. But, because of the imminent danger of war, the metal, ready to be poured, was used to make cannons instead, causing the project to come to a halt. Ludovico's fall in 1499 sealed the fate of this abortive undertaking, which was perhaps the grandest concept of a monument in the 15th century. The ensuing war left the clay model a heap of ruins.

As a master artist, Leonardo maintained an extensive workshop in Milan, employing apprentices and students. Among Leonardo's pupils at this time were Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, Ambrogio de Predis, Bernardino de' Conti, Francesco Napoletano, Andrea Solari, Marco d'Oggiono, and Salai. The role of most of these associates is unclear, leading to the question of Leonardo's so-called apocryphal works, on which the master collaborated with his assistants. Scholars have been unable to agree in their attributions of these works.

born

April 15, 1452
Vinci, Italy

died

May 2, 1519 (aged 67)
Clos-Lucé, France

notable works

movement / style

subjects of study

did you know?

Leonardo da Vinci wrote from right to left in "mirrored writing", so his work was only legible when held up to a mirror.

Bill Gates purchased one of Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts for $30.8 million.

Leonardo da Vinci designed a flying machine over 400 years before the Wright brothers achieved the first sustained flight.

In 2017 "Salvator Mundi", a painting attributed to Leonardo, sold at auction for $450.3 million.

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Leonardo da Vinci | Biography, Art, Paintings, Mona Lisa, Drawings, Inventions, Achievements, & Facts

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Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose skill and intelligence epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. His Last Supper (1495-98) and Mona Lisa (c. 1503-19) are among the most influential paintings of the Renaissance. Read more about Leonardo's life and career.

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Leonardo Da Vinci was born in Florence in 1452. Da Vinci is considered one of the masters of the Renaissance for his expertise in realism and perspective. He is known for a variety of talents including, but not limited to, engineering, painting, inventing and sculpting. Although respected for his advancements in anatomy and other sciences, he is highly praised for his artwork. Da Vinci was personally instructed by the Duke of Milan to paint The Last Supper in 1495. He was asked to recreate the scene of Jesus' final supper with detailed reactions from his twelve disciples. Leonardo finished this task in three years before it joined a convent. To this day, The Last Supper resides in the Santa Maria delle Grazia in Milan.

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Leonardo da Vinci is one of Italy's most famous artists and Renaissance figures but people often aren't aware that his name comes from his place of birth, Vinci, a small town in Tuscany. Thus his name is Leonardo of Vinci where he was born in 1452. The town of Vinci has been awarded the Bandiera Arancione by Touring Club Italiano for its touristic qualities and ambiance.

Leonardo's work includes paintings, frescoes, drawings, blueprints, machines, and early technological inventions. There are several places where you can see works by Leonardo da Vinci in Italy but a good place to start might be with a visit to Vinci.

Where Is Vinci?

Vinci is about 35 kilometers west of Florence. If you're coming by car, take the FI-PI-LI (the road that runs between Florence and Pisa) and exit at Empoli east if coming from Florence or Empoli west if coming from Pisa direction. It's about 10 kilometers north of Empoli.

If you're traveling by train you can take a train to Empoli (from Florence or Pisa) and then take a bus, currently line 49, to Vinci from Empoli Stazione FS to Vinci, see schedule on the Copit bus website (in Italian).

Museo Leonardiano - Museum of Leonardo da Vinci

Museo Leonardiano, the museum of Leonardo da Vinci, is easy to find in Vinci's small historic center. Exhibits are displayed in a new entrance hall where you'll see textile manufacturing machines and on three floors of the Castello dei Conti Guidi, a 12th-century castle. In the museum, you'll see many drawings and over 60 models, both small and large, for his inventions that include military machines and machines for travel.

Check the Museo Leonardiano website for updated times and prices ( orari e tariffe).

La Casa Natale di Leonardo - House Where Leonardo Was Born

La Casa Natale di Leonardo is the small farmhouse where Leonardo was born on 15 April 1452. It's 3 kilometers from Vinci in the locality of Anchiano (follow signs). It can also be reached by a footpath through olive groves.

Vinci Historic Center

Be sure to take the time to walk around Vinci's small historic center where visit Piazza Giusti where you'll see works by Mimmo Paladino. Leonardo is thought to have been baptized in the church of Santa Croce. Around the center, there are restaurants and bars, shops, tourist information, public restrooms, parking lots, and a park with picnic area. You can also visit the small Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci in the old castle cellars that have a private collection of documents and reconstructions.

Where to Stay in Vinci

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Visit the Town Where Leonardo da Vinci Was Born

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Leonardo da Vinci is one of Italy's most famous artists and Renaissance figures but people often aren't aware that his name comes from his place of birth, Vinci, a small town in Tuscany. Thus his name is Leonardo of Vinci where he was born in 1452.

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Da Vinci was a writer, mathematician, inventor, scientist, engineer, architect, and an artist.

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Who Was Leonardo da Vinci?

Leonardo da Vinci was a Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, military engineer and draftsman - the epitome of a true Renaissance man. Gifted with a curious mind and a brilliant intellect, da Vinci studied the laws of science and nature, which greatly informed his work. His drawings, paintings and other works have influenced countless artists and engineers over the centuries.

Early Life

Da Vinci was born in a farmhouse outside the village of Anchiano in Tuscany, Italy (about 18 miles west of Florence) on April 15, 1452.

Born out of wedlock to respected Florentine notary Ser Piero and a young peasant woman named Caterina, da Vinci was raised by his father and his stepmother.

At the age of five, he moved to his father's estate in nearby Vinci (the town from which his surname derives), where he lived with his uncle and grandparents.

Education

Young da Vinci received little formal education beyond basic reading, writing and mathematics instruction, but his artistic talents were evident from an early age.

Around the age of 14, da Vinci began a lengthy apprenticeship with the noted artist Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence. He learned a wide breadth of technical skills including metalworking, leather arts, carpentry, drawing, painting and sculpting.

His earliest known dated work - a pen-and-ink drawing of a landscape in the Arno valley - was sketched in 1473.

Early Works

At the age of 20, da Vinci qualified for membership as a master artist in Florence's Guild of Saint Luke and established his own workshop. However, he continued to collaborate with del Verrocchio for an additional five years.

It is thought that del Verrocchio completed his "Baptism of Christ" around 1475 with the help of his student, who painted part of the background and the young angel holding the robe of Jesus.

According to Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, written around 1550 by artist Giorgio Vasari, del Verrocchio was so humbled by the superior talent of his pupil that he never picked up a paintbrush again. (Most scholars, however, dismiss Vasari's account as apocryphal.)

In 1478, after leaving del Verrocchio's studio, da Vinci received his first independent commission for an altarpiece to reside in a chapel inside Florence's Palazzo Vecchio.

Three years later the Augustinian monks of Florence's San Donato a Scopeto tasked him to paint "Adoration of the Magi." The young artist, however, would leave the city and abandon both commissions without ever completing them.

Was Leonardo da Vinci Gay?

Many historians believe that da Vinci was a homosexual: Florentine court records from 1476 show that da Vinci and four other young men were charged with sodomy, a crime punishable by exile or death.

After no witnesses showed up to testify against 24-year-old da Vinci, the charges were dropped, but his whereabouts went entirely undocumented for the following two years.

Several other famous Florentine artists were also known to have been homosexual, including Michelangelo, Donatello and Sandro Botticelli. Indeed, homosexuality was such a fact of artistic life in Renaissance Florence that the word "florenzer" became German slang for "gay."

Leonardo da Vinci: Paintings

Although da Vinci is known for his artistic abilities, fewer than two dozen paintings attributed to him exist. One reason is that his interests were so varied that he wasn't a prolific painter. Da Vinci's most famous works include the "Vitruvian Man," "The Last Supper" and the " Mona Lisa."

Vitruvian Man

Art and science intersected perfectly in da Vinci's sketch of "Vitruvian Man," drawn in 1490, which depicted a nude male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart inside both a square and a circle.

The now-famous sketch represents da Vinci's study of proportion and symmetry, as well as his desire to relate man to the natural world.

The Last Supper

Around 1495, Ludovico Sforza, then the Duke of Milan, commissioned da Vinci to paint "The Last Supper" on the back wall of the dining hall inside the monastery of Milan's Santa Maria delle Grazie.

The masterpiece, which took approximately three years to complete, captures the drama of the moment when Jesus informs the Twelve Apostles gathered for Passover dinner that one of them would soon betray him. The range of facial expressions and the body language of the figures around the table bring the masterful composition to life.

The decision by da Vinci to paint with tempera and oil on dried plaster instead of painting a fresco on fresh plaster led to the quick deterioration and flaking of "The Last Supper." Although an improper restoration caused further damage to the mural, it has now been stabilized using modern conservation techniques.

Mona Lisa

In 1503, da Vinci started working on what would become his most well-known painting - and arguably the most famous painting in the world -the "Mona Lisa." The privately commissioned work is characterized by the enigmatic smile of the woman in the half-portrait, which derives from da Vinci's sfumato technique.

Adding to the allure of the "Mona Lisa" is the mystery surrounding the identity of the subject. Princess Isabella of Naples, an unnamed courtesan and da Vinci's own mother have all been put forth as potential sitters for the masterpiece. It has even been speculated that the subject wasn't a female at all but da Vinci's longtime apprentice Salai dressed in women's clothing.

Based on accounts from an early biographer, however, the "Mona Lisa" is a picture of Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of a wealthy Florentine silk merchant. The painting's original Italian name - "La Gioconda" - supports the theory, but it's far from certain. Some art historians believe the merchant commissioned the portrait to celebrate the pending birth of the couple's next child, which means the subject could have been pregnant at the time of the painting.

If the Giocondo family did indeed commission the painting, they never received it. For da Vinci, the "Mona Lisa" was forever a work in progress, as it was his attempt at perfection, and he never parted with the painting. Today, the "Mona Lisa" hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, secured behind bulletproof glass and regarded as a priceless national treasure seen by millions of visitors each year.

Battle of Anghiari

In 1503, da Vinci also started work on the "Battle of Anghiari," a mural commissioned for the council hall in the Palazzo Vecchio that was to be twice as large as "The Last Supper."

He abandoned the "Battle of Anghiari" project after two years when the mural began to deteriorate before he had a chance to finish it.

Inventions

In 1482, Florentine ruler Lorenzo de' Medici commissioned da Vinci to create a silver lyre and bring it as a peace gesture to Ludovico Sforza. After doing so, da Vinci lobbied Ludovico for a job and sent the future Duke of Milan a letter that barely mentioned his considerable talents as an artist and instead touted his more marketable skills as a military engineer.

Using his inventive mind, da Vinci sketched war machines such as a war chariot with scythe blades mounted on the sides, an armored tank propelled by two men cranking a shaft and even an enormous crossbow that required a small army of men to operate.

The letter worked, and Ludovico brought da Vinci to Milan for a tenure that would last 17 years. During his time in Milan, da Vinci was commissioned to work on numerous artistic projects as well, including "The Last Supper."

Da Vinci's ability to be employed by the Sforza clan as an architecture and military engineering advisor as well as a painter and sculptor spoke to da Vinci's keen intellect and curiosity about a wide variety of subjects.

Flying Machine

Always a man ahead of his time, da Vinci appeared to prophesy the future with his sketches of devices that resemble a modern-day bicycle and a type of helicopter.

Perhaps his most well-known invention is a flying machine, which is based on the physiology of a bat. These and other explorations into the mechanics of flight are found in da Vinci's Codex on the Flight of Birds, a study of avian aeronautics, which he began in 1505.

Like many leaders of Renaissance humanism, da Vinci did not see a divide between science and art. He viewed the two as intertwined disciplines rather than separate ones. He believed studying science made him a better artist.

In 1502 and 1503, da Vinci also briefly worked in Florence as a military engineer for Cesare Borgia, the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI and commander of the papal army. He traveled outside of Florence to survey military construction projects and sketch city plans and topographical maps.

He designed plans, possibly with noted diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli, to divert the Arno River away from rival Pisa in order to deny its wartime enemy access to the sea.

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Da Vinci's Study of Anatomy and Science

Da Vinci thought sight was humankind's most important sense and eyes the most important organ, and he stressed the importance of saper vedere, or "knowing how to see." He believed in the accumulation of direct knowledge and facts through observation.

"A good painter has two chief objects to paint - man and the intention of his soul," da Vinci wrote. "The former is easy, the latter hard, for it must be expressed by gestures and the movement of the limbs."

To more accurately depict those gestures and movements, da Vinci began to study anatomy seriously and dissect human and animal bodies during the 1480s. His drawings of a fetus in utero, the heart and vascular system, sex organs and other bone and muscular structures are some of the first on human record.

In addition to his anatomical investigations, da Vinci studied botany, geology, zoology, hydraulics, aeronautics and physics. He sketched his observations on loose sheets of papers and pads that he tucked inside his belt.

Da Vinci placed the papers in notebooks and arranged them around four broad themes-painting, architecture, mechanics and human anatomy. He filled dozens of notebooks with finely drawn illustrations and scientific observations.

Sculptures

Ludovico Sforza also tasked da Vinci with sculpting a 16-foot-tall bronze equestrian statue of his father and founder of the family dynasty, Francesco Sforza. With the help of apprentices and students in his workshop, da Vinci worked on the project on and off for more than a dozen years.

Da Vinci sculpted a life-size clay model of the statue, but the project was put on hold when war with France required bronze to be used for casting cannons, not sculptures. After French forces overran Milan in 1499 - and shot the clay model to pieces - da Vinci fled the city along with the duke and the Sforza family.

Ironically, Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, who led the French forces that conquered Ludovico in 1499, followed in his foe's footsteps and commissioned da Vinci to sculpt a grand equestrian statue, one that could be mounted on his tomb. After years of work and numerous sketches by da Vinci, Trivulzio decided to scale back the size of the statue, which was ultimately never finished.

Final Years

Da Vinci returned to Milan in 1506 to work for the very French rulers who had overtaken the city seven years earlier and forced him to flee.

Among the students who joined his studio was young Milanese aristocrat Francesco Melzi, who would become da Vinci's closest companion for the rest of his life. He did little painting during his second stint in Milan, however, and most of his time was instead dedicated to scientific studies.

Amid political strife and the temporary expulsion of the French from Milan, da Vinci left the city and moved to Rome in 1513 along with Salai, Melzi and two studio assistants. Giuliano de' Medici, brother of newly installed Pope Leo X and son of his former patron, gave da Vinci a monthly stipend along with a suite of rooms at his residence inside the Vatican.

His new patron, however, also gave da Vinci little work. Lacking large commissions, he devoted most of his time in Rome to mathematical studies and scientific exploration.

After being present at a 1515 meeting between France's King Francis I and Pope Leo X in Bologna, the new French monarch offered da Vinci the title "Premier Painter and Engineer and Architect to the King."

Along with Melzi, da Vinci departed for France, never to return. He lived in the Chateau de Cloux (now Clos Luce) near the king's summer palace along the Loire River in Amboise. As in Rome, da Vinci did little painting during his time in France. One of his last commissioned works was a mechanical lion that could walk and open its chest to reveal a bouquet of lilies.

How Did Leonardo da Vinci Die?

Da Vinci died of a probable stroke on May 2, 1519, at the age of 67. He continued work on his scientific studies until his death; his assistant, Melzi, became the principal heir and executor of his estate. The "Mona Lisa" was bequeathed to Salai.

For centuries after his death, thousands of pages from his private journals with notes, drawings, observations and scientific theories have surfaced and provided a fuller measure of the true "Renaissance man."

Book and Movie

Although much has been written about da Vinci over the years, Walter Isaacson explored new territory with an acclaimed 2017 biography, Leonardo da Vinci, which offers up details on what drove the artist's creations and inventions.

The buzz surrounding the book carried into 2018, with the announcement that it had been optioned for a big-screen adaptation starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Salvator Mundi

In 2017, the art world was sent buzzing with the news that the da Vinci painting "Salvator Mundi" had been sold at a Christie's auction to an undisclosed buyer for a whopping $450.3 million. That amount dwarfed the previous record for an art work sold at an auction, the $179.4 million paid for "Women of Algiers" by Pablo Picasso in 2015.

The sales figure was stunning in part because of the damaged condition of the oil-on-panel, which features Jesus Christ with his right hand raised in blessing and his left holding a crystal orb, and because not all experts believe it was rendered by da Vinci.

However, Christie's had launched what one dealer called a "brilliant marketing campaign," which promoted the work as "the holy grail of our business" and "the last da Vinci." Prior to the sale, it was the only known painting by the old master still in a private collection.

The Saudi Embassy stated that Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud of Saudi Arabia had acted as an agent for the ministry of culture of Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. Around that time, the newly-opened Louvre Abu Dhabi announced that the record-breaking artwork would be exhibited in its collection.

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Leonardo da Vinci was a Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, military engineer and draftsman - the epitome of a true Renaissance man. Gifted with a curious mind and a brilliant intellect, da Vinci studied the laws of science and nature, which greatly informed his work.

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Artist Andrea del Verrocchio trained him in sculpting and painting when he was 15. He experienced the same education as other children, but he became very intrigued by various subjects as an adult. He studied many things, including anatomy, machinery, and the flight of birds.

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The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

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Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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"Leonardo's curiosity and insatiable hunger for knowledge never left him. He was constantly observing, experimenting, and inventing, and drawing was, for him, a tool for recording his investigation of nature."

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One of the World's Most Famous Paintings

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One of the World's Most Famous Paintings

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Located in Milan, Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper painting remains one of the most insightful, symbolic pieces of artwork since its release around 1495. The portrait depicts the precise moment in which Christ predicted a betrayal against him during his last meal. Da Vinci painted on stone, and made changes as he painted. When finished, he added tempera and oils over his work. Since its creation during the Italian Renaissance, the painting continues to grab attention through Da Vinci's unique use of perspective, symmetry, and emotion. For example, the agitated movements and reactions from the apostles intricately display their shock. Da Vinci's tedious details in this painting help illustrate the original Christian gospel story. Despite poor preservation, the Last Supper painting is seen by millions every year.

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The Last Supper (Leonardo da Vinci) - Wikipedia

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The Last Supper ( Italian: Il Cenacolo [il tʃeˈnaːkolo] or L'Ultima Cena [ˈlultima ˈtʃeːna]) is a late 15th-century mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci housed by the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. It is one of the world's most recognizable paintings.

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Head of a Woman (Leonardo, Turin) - Wikipedia

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The Lady with an Ermine ( Italian: Dama con l'ermellino [ˈdaːma kon lermelˈliːno]; Polish: Dama z gronostajem) is a portrait painting widely attributed to the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. Dated to c. 1489-1491, the work is painted in oils on a panel of walnut wood. Its subject is Cecilia Gallerani, a mistress of Ludovico Sforza ("Il Moro"), Duke of Milan; Leonardo was painter to the Sforza court at the time of its execution. It is one of only four surviving portraits of women painted by Leonardo, the others being Ginevra de' Benci, La Belle Ferronnière and the .

The Princes Czartoryski Collection, including the Lady with an Ermine, was sold for €100 million on 29 December 2016 to the Polish government by Princes Czartoryski Foundation, represented by Adam Karol Czartoryski, the last direct descendant of Izabela Czartoryska Flemming and Adam George Czartoryski, who brought the painting to Poland from Italy in 1798. It is now housed at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków, and is one of Poland's national treasures.

The Lady with an Ermine was executed in oils on a small, 54 × 39 cm (21 × 15 in) walnut wood panel. Oil paint was relatively new to Italy at the time, having been introduced in the 1470s, and walnut was a wood favored by Leonardo, but not commonly used by other artists in Lombardy at the time. The wood is thin and about 4-5 millimetres (0.16-0.20 in) thick and is presumably from the same tree as the wood for his later portrait, La Belle Ferronnière. The work is prepared with a layer of white gesso and a layer of brownish underpaint. The painting shows a half-height woman turned toward her right at a three-quarter angle, but with her face turned toward her left.

The subject has been identified with reasonable certainty as Cecilia Gallerani, the mistress of Leonardo's employer, Ludovico Sforza. Her gaze is directed neither straight ahead nor toward the viewer, but toward a "third party" beyond the picture's frame. Gallerani holds a small white-coated stoat, known as an ermine. Her dress is comparatively simple, revealing that she is not of noble birth or noble descent. Her coiffure, known as a coazone, confines her hair smoothly to her head with two bands of it bound on either side of her face and a long plait at the back. Her hair is held in place by a fine gauze veil with a woven border of gold-wound threads, a black band, and a sheath over the plait.

As in many of Leonardo's paintings, the composition comprises a pyramidic spiral and the sitter is caught in the motion of turning to her left, reflecting Leonardo's lifelong preoccupation with the dynamics of movement. The three-quarter profile portrait was one of his many innovations. Il Moro's court poet, Bernardo Bellincioni, was the first to propose that Cecilia was poised as if listening to an unseen speaker. This work in particular shows Leonardo's expertise in painting the human form. Cecilia's outstretched hand was painted in great detail, with every contour of each fingernail, each wrinkle around her knuckles, and even the flexing of the tendon in her bent finger.

The animal resting in Cecilia's arms is usually known as an ermine. Commentators have noted that it is too large to be an actual ermine, but its size is explained by its being of a largely symbolic nature. The art historian Luke Syson notes that "Naturalism is not the point here; Leonardo has created a mythical beast, the composite of several animals he drew at this time". There are several interpretations of the ermine's significance and they are often used in combination with each other. In its winter coat, the ermine was a traditional symbol of purity and moderation, as it was believed it would face death rather than soil its white coat.

In his old age, Leonardo compiled a bestiary in which he recorded: "The ermine out of moderation never eats but once a day, and it would rather let itself be captured by hunters than take refuge in a dirty lair, in order not to stain its purity." He repeats this idea in another note, "Moderation curbs all the vices. The ermine prefers to die rather than soil itself." A drawing by Leonardo in pen and ink of c. 1490, housed at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, depicts an ermine representing these ideals by surrendering to a hunter. The ermine has also been noted to have a personal significance to Ludovico Sforza, as he would use it as a personal emblem, having been appointed by Ferdinand I as a member of the Order of the Ermine in 1488. Alternatively, the ermine could be a pun on Cecilia's surname: The Ancient Greek term for ermine, or other weasel-like species of animals, is galê (γαλῆ) or galéē (γαλέη). Such allusions were particularly popular in Renaissance culture; Leonardo himself had done something similar in his earlier work, Ginevra de' Benci, when he surrounded Ginevra with a juniper tree, or ginepro in Italian. Krystyna Moczulska suggests that the ermine follows the meaning of an ermine or weasel in classical literature, where it relates to pregnancy, sometimes as an animal that protected pregnant women. Around the time of the painting's creation, Cecilia was known to be pregnant with Ludovico's illegitimate son.

It was not until the 20th century that the Lady with an Ermine was widely accepted by scholars to be a work of Leonardo. The attribution is due to the style of chiaroscuro, intricate detail and "contemplative tone" typical of Leonardo.

Scholars date the painting to 1489-1491.

The sitter has been identified with reasonable certainty as Cecilia Gallerani, the mistress of Leonardo's employer, Ludovico Sforza.

Gallerani was a member of a large family that was neither wealthy nor noble. Her father served for a time at the Duke's court. At the time of the portrait, she was about sixteen years old and was renowned for her beauty, scholarship and poetry. She was married at approximately age six to a young nobleman of the house of Visconti, but sued to annul the marriage in 1487 for undisclosed reasons and the request was granted. She became the Duke's mistress and bore him a son, even after his marriage to Beatrice d'Este eleven years previously. Beatrice was promised to the Duke when she was only five, and married him when she was sixteen in 1491. After a few months, she discovered the Duke was still seeing Gallerani, and forced the Duke to end the relationship by having her married to Count Ludovico Carminati di Brambilla, also known as Il Bergamino. The newly-wed couple was moved to Palazzo Carmagnola in Milan.

It has always been known that Leonardo painted a portrait of Ludovico Sforza's mistress, Cecilia Gallerani, but the Lady with an Ermine remained largely unknown to scholars until nearly the 20th century. The painting was acquired in Italy in 1798 by Prince Adam George Czartoryski, the son of Izabela Czartoryska Flemming and Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, and incorporated into the Czartoryski family collections at Puławy in 1800. The inscription on the top-left corner of the painting, LA BELE FERONIERE. LEONARD DAWINCI., was probably added by a restorer shortly after its arrival in Poland, and before the background was overpainted. Czartoryski was clearly aware it was a Leonardo, although the painting had never been discussed in print; no record exists of any previous owner. The Belle Ferronière is the Leonardo portrait in the Louvre, whose sitter bears such a close resemblance; the Czartoryskis considered this sitter to be the same.

The painting travelled widely during the 19th century. During the November Uprising in 1830, the 84-year-old Princess Czartoryska rescued it in advance of the invading Russian army, hid it, and sent it 100 miles south to the Czartoryski palace at Sieniawa. Soon after, it was transferred to the Czartoryski place of exile in Paris, the Hôtel Lambert. The family returned to Poland in 1869, settling in Kraków. In the tumultuous aftermath of the German occupation of Paris in 1871 and the Commune, the family brought the painting to Kraków in 1876 and the museum opened in 1878. During World War I, the painting was moved to the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden for safe-keeping, returning to Kraków in 1920.

In 1939, anticipating the German occupation of Poland, it was again moved to Sieniawa, but it was discovered and seized by the Nazis and sent to the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin. In 1940, Hans Frank, the Governor General of Poland, saw the painting there and requested it be returned to Kraków, where it hung in his suite of offices in the Wawel Castle. In 1941, it was transferred to a warehouse of other plundered art in Breslau. In 1943 it was brought back to Kraków and exhibited at the Wawel Castle. At the end of the Second World War it was discovered by Allied troops in Frank's country home in Schliersee, Bavaria, and was returned to Poland in 1946. It was again placed on exhibit at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków. Throughout the mid-late 20th century the work traveled the world more extensively than any other Leonardo painting, being exhibited in Warsaw (1952), Moscow (1972), Washington, D.C. (1991/92), Malmö (1993/94), Rome/Milan (1998), Florence (1999).

The work remained displayed at the Czartoryski Museum until it closed for renovations in 2010. From May 2017 to 2019, it was exhibited in the National Museum, Kraków, just outside the Old Town. It returned to the Czartoryski Museum for the museum's reopening on December 19, 2019.

The Lady with an Ermine has been subjected to two detailed laboratory examinations. The first was in the Warsaw Laboratories, with the findings published by Kazimierz Kwiatkowski in 1955. It underwent examination and restoration again in 1992 at the Washington National Gallery Laboratories under the supervision of David Bull.

The panel is in good condition apart from a break to the upper left side. The earliest known photograph of the painting taken in the early 20th century shows that the corner was already damaged by that time. The background was thinly overpainted with unmodulated black, probably between 1830 and 1870, when the damaged corner was restored. Eugène Delacroix was suggested to have painted the background. Its previous colour was a bluish grey. The signature LEONARD D'AWINCI (which is the Polish phonetical transcription of the name "da Vinci") in the upper left corner is not original. X-ray and microscopic analysis show the charcoal-pounced outline of the pricked preparatory drawing on the prepared undersurface, a technique Leonardo learned in the studio of Andrea del Verrocchio. Apart from the black of the background and some abrasion caused by cleaning, the painted surface reveals that the painting is almost entirely by the artist's hand. There has been some slight retouching of the figure's features in red, and the edge of the veil in ochre. Some scholars believe there also was some later retouching of the hands. Leonardo's fingerprints have been found in the surface of the paint, indicating that he used his fingers to blend his delicate brush strokes.

1. ^ Ragai, Jehane (22 July 2015). Scientist And The Forger, The: Insights Into The Scientific Detection Of Forgery In Paintings. World Scientific Publishing Company. p. 132. ISBN 9781783267422.

2. ^ Notes for a portrait: the Lady's dress and hairstyle Archived 2019-03-30 at the Wayback Machine, Grazietta Butazzi, Exhibition notes, 1998

3. ^ Beck 1993, p. 188. Beck adds, "the artist left a pictorial record to accompany his written testimony-the famous Portrait of a Lady with an ermine (Czartoryski Collection, Cracow)

4. ^ Kemp, Martin. "The Lady with an Ermine". Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration. Washington-New Haven-London. pp. 271f.

5. ^ Who was Cecilia Gallerani? Archived 2018-10-01 at the Wayback Machine, Barbara Fabjan and Pietro C. Marani, Exhibition notes, October 15, 1998

6. Francesca Bonazzoli and Michele Robecchi, ^ Portraits Unmasked: The Stories Nehind the Faces, Prestel, Munich, 2020. ISBN 9783791386201, pp. 10-13.

7. ^ Żygulski, Zdzisław (2009). Dzieje zbiorów Puławskich (in Polish). Poland: Fundacja Książąt Czartoryskich. p. 198. ISBN 9788391525050.

8. ^ Bik, Katarzyna (13 February 2012). ""Dama z gronostajem" Leonarda Da Vinci wróciła do Krakowa". Rynek i Sztuka.

9. Artibus Et Historiae. IRSA and University of Virginia. 1992. p. 79.

Clark, Kenneth (1961). Leonardo da Vinci. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books. OCLC 187223.

Isaacson, Walter (2017). Leonardo da Vinci. New York, New York, US: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-5011-3915-4.

Kemp, Martin (2019). Leonardo da Vinci: The 100 Milestones. New York, New York, US: Sterling. ISBN 978-1-4549-304-26.

Marani, Pietro C. (2003) [2000]. Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings. New York, New York, US: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-0-8109-3581-5.

Palmer, Allison Lee (2018). Leonardo da Vinci: A Reference Guide to His Life and Works (Significant Figures in World History). Lanham, Maryland, US: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-5381-1977-8.

Syson, Luke; Keith, Larry; Galansino, Arturo; Mazzotta, Antoni; Nethersole, Scott; Rumberg, Per (2011). Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan. London, UK: National Gallery. ISBN 978-1-85709-491-6.

Vezzosi, Alessandro (1997). Leonardo da Vinci: Renaissance Man. New Horizons. Translated by Bonfante-Warren, Alexandra (English translation ed.). London, UK: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-30081-7.

Wasserman, Jack (1975). Leonardo da Vinci. New York, New York, US: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-0-8109-0262-6.

Fabjan, Barbara; Marani, Pietro C. (1998). Da Leonardo: La Dama con l'ermellino [From Leonardo: The Lady with an Ermine] (in Italian). Milan, Italy: Silvana. ISBN 978-88-8215-100-3.

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The Lady with an Ermine ( Italian: Dama con l'ermellino [ˈdaːma kon lermelˈliːno]; Polish: Dama z gronostajem) is a portrait painting widely attributed to the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. Dated to c. 1489-1491, the work is painted in oils on a panel of walnut wood.

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Leonardo was fascinated by the phenomenon of flight for much of his life, producing many studies, including Codex on the Flight of Birds (c. 1505), as well as plans for several flying machines, such as a flapping ornithopter and a machine with a helical rotor.[36] A 2003 documentary by British television station Channel Four, titled Leonardo's Dream Machines, various designs by Leonardo, such as a parachute and a giant crossbow, were interpreted and constructed.[144][145] Some of those designs proved successful, whilst others fared less well when tested.

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da Vinci Inventions: Flying Machines, Weapons of War and Other Innovations - Leonardo Da Vinci Inventions

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This page contains an index of all the Leonardo da Vinci inventions profiled on this site. These include flying inventions, war inventions and other innovations.