Toget to know Leonardo’s places in Tuscany you can visit LA TOSCANA DI LEONARDO’s portal, made in collaboration with Galileo’s Museum of Florence. The website,created in occasion of the fivehundredth anniversary of the Genius’ death, wants to promote the knowledge ofthe bond between Leonardo and the places he was born , with a special focus onour territory.
LEONARDO’S LIFE
1452
Leonardo was born in Vinci on April 15th, it is thought in a house in Anchiano, the illegitimate son of the notary Piero (son of Antonio) and of Caterina
1469
Leonardo moved to Florence and entered an apprenticeship in Verrocchio’s workshop. From 1472 he was a member of the Compagnia di San Luca, the painters’ guild.
1473
“Di’ di Santa Maria della Neve /addì 5 d’aghossto 1473”: (on the day of Our Lady of the Snow /August 5 1473) is the date on Leonardo’s drawing which used to be known as Paesaggio della Valle dell’Arno, (the Arno Valley), nowadays more accurately described as a View of Montevettolini and Monsummano seen from the Montalbano hillside.
1478
He was charged with painting the altar piece for the chapel of St. Bernard in the Palazzo della Signoria in Florence. In this same period Leonardo noted down“two paintings of the Madonna”, one of which has been identified as the Benois Madonna or Madonna with a Flower and,in 1481,he was commissioned by the Monks of San Donato in Scopeto to paint the Adoration of the Magi.
1482
Leonardo moved to Milan,in the service of Ludovico Il Moro,leaving the Adoration of the Magi(now kept in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence) unfinished. It was actually in Milan that, on 25 April 1483, he signed a contract with the friars of the Immaculate Conception for the Virgin of the Rocks together with Evangelista and Ambrogio De Predis.
1490
He was director and costume designer for several shows at court, the most famous of which was one called “Paradise”, on January 13. In June he was in Pavia with Francesco Di Giorgio. He became friends with Luca Pacioli.
1493/1499
These are the years during which most of his folios containing studies for the automation of textile manufacturing were compiled.
1495-1497
He painted the Last Supper and the decorations of some rooms in the Castello Sforzesco. The artistis mentioned as the Duke’s engineer.
1499
Milan was occupied by King Louis XII of France. Leonardo left the city with Luca Pacioli. He stopped first at Vaprio d’Adda with the Melzi family, then travelled on towards Venice, passing through Mantua, where he painted two portraits of Isabella d’Este.
1500
In March he arrived in Venice where he designed a project for defence against a Turkish invasion. He returned to Florence and designed a grand bridge over the Bosphorus for Sultan Bayezid III.
1502
He entered the service of Cesare Borgia as architect and general engineer, and followed him during his military campaigns in Romagna.
1503
He returned to Florence and developed plans for diverting the course of the Arno during the siege of Pisa.The Signoria commissioned him to paint the Battle of Anghiari in Palazzo Vecchio.
1504
Between 1504and 1508, while Leonardo continued working on the Battle of Anghiari, there are also the earliest mentions of his working on Leda and the Mona Lisa. Leonardo’s father, Piero, died on 9 August.
1506 -1508
Leonardo lived between Florence, where he helped Rustici to design the group for the future Sermon of St. John the Baptist for Florence Baptistery,and Milan, where in July he drew up plans for a grand home for Charles d’Amboise and for Marshall Trivulzio an equestrian statue that was never made.
1513
He left Milan for Rome,on September 24th accompanied by his assistants Francesco Melzi,Salaì, Lorenzo and Fanfoia. He lived inside the Vatican, in the Belvedere, under the protection of Giuliano de’ Medici. He was to stay in the city for three years, working on mathematical and scientific studies.
1514
He designed projects to drain the Pontine Marshes and for the port of Civitavecchia. Luigi XII died and the new king of France, François I, won back Milan and its territory in October.
1517
Leonardo moved to Amboise,to the court of François I and lodged at Clos Lucé Castle with the title of “premier peintre, architecte et mécanicien du roi” (first painter, architect and engineer to the king). He received a visit from Cardinal Luis of Aragon, who was struck by the large number of manuscripts shown him. Leonardo also drew plans for the Castle in Romorantin. He produced his drawings of the Flood, now kept in Windsor.
1519
On 23April he wrote his Will. The executor of his will was the painter and personal friend Francesco Melzi, to whom he left all his books and drawings. Leonardo died on 2 May.
