| Da Vinci’s Professional life, 1476–1513:
At the age of 24 Leonardo and three other young men were charged with sodomy, and acquitted. From that date there is little record of his life, although it is assumed that Leonardo had his own workshop in Florence between 1476 and 1481. In 1482 Leonardo being a very talented musician (according to Vasari), created a silver lyre in the shape of a horse's head. Lorenzo de' Medici sent him to Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan to secure peace, the lyre was sent to Milan as a present.
Personal life:
Leonardo had many friends and students. However, there is no reference to his romantic relationships as Leonardo thoroughly covered this part of his life. He was never married and there is no information on any kind of romantic relationships with women. Some sources say that Leonardo had an affair with Cecilia Gallerani, the most celebrated of the many mistresses of Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan, who was the subject of his famous painting “Lady with an Ermine”. Some authors, including Vasari, suggest that Leonardo had intimate relationships with young men, including his students, others think, that despite the homosexuality of the artist, there was no intimacy in his relationships with his students.
End of da Vinci’s life:
On the 19th of December, Leonardo was present at the meeting of Francois I and Pope Leo X, which took place in Bologna. It was for Francois that Leonardo was commissioned to make a mechanical lion which could walk forward, then open its chest to reveal a cluster of lilies. It is possible that this lion, greeted the king in Lion and was used during meetings with the Pope.
In 1516 Leonardo accepted the proposal of the French king and settled in Clos-Luce Castle – where Francis I spent his childhood –near the king's residence at the royal Chateau Amboise. Being employed as “first painter and engineer' at the royal court” Leonardo received an annual salary of 1000 ecus. It was the first time in Leonardo’s life when he was officially employed as an engineer. Leonardo was not the first Italian master, who by the grace of the French king was granted with “the freedom to dream, think and create”, - before Leonardo the same honor was granted to Andrea Solario and Fra Giovanni Giocondo.
Da Vinci did not paint much when he was in France, but he was skilfully involved in organizing court celebrations, designing a new palace in Romorantane with the planned change of the riverbed, engineering a canal between Loire and Sona, the double spiral staircase in Chambord. Two years before his death, Leonardo’s right hand became numb, and he could hardly move without assistance. The third year of his life in Amboise Leonardo the 67-year-old spent it in bed.
On April 23, 1519 he made his will and died on May 2 surrounded by pupils and his masterpieces in Clos-Luce. According to Vasari, da Vinci died in the arms of the French king Francis I, his close friend. This widespread although apocryphal legend reflected in the paintings of Ingres, Angelica Kauffmanand and many other artists. Leonardo da Vinci was buried in the castle of Amboise. His gravestone said: “Hic jacet Leonardo da Vinci, engineer, artist and renaissance man in Chateau d'Amboise”
Leonardo da Vinci’s main heir was his student and friend Francesco Melzi, who in the next fifty years remained in charge of the master’s inheritance, which included not only paintings, but also painting instruments, books and more than 50 thousand original documents on different subjects, from which only one third survived till today. His other student Salai and his servant inherited half of Leonardo’s vineyards each. |
On April 15th, artists around the world celebrated the 559th birthday of Lenoardo Da Vinci.
Leonardo was not only an artist but also a great scientist, inventor and mathematician of his times. Some scientists say that Da Vinci was "Einstein of Renaissance".
