Hi,I wonder if I could post my idol's biographies? Ok,here
goes:
Leonardo was born in the small town of Vinci, in Tuscany, near
Florence. He was the son of a wealthy Florentine notary and a
peasant woman. In the mid-1460s the family settled in Florence,
where Leonardo was given the best education that Florence, a major
intellectual and artistic center of Italy, could offer. He rapidly
advanced socially and intellectually. He was handsome, persuasive
in conversation, and a fine musician and improviser. About 1466 he
was apprenticed as a garzone (studio boy) to Andrea del Verrocchio,
the leading Florentine painter and sculptor of his day. In
Verrocchio's workshop Leonardo was introduced to many activities,
from the painting of altarpieces and panel pictures to the creation
of large sculptural projects in marble and bronze. In 1472 he was
entered in the painter's guild of Florence, and in 1476 he was
still considered Verrocchio's assistant. In Verrocchio's Baptism of
Christ (1470?, Uffizi, Florence), the kneeling angel at the left of
the painting is by Leonardo.
In 1478 Leonardo became an independent master. His first
commission, to paint an altarpiece for the chapel of the Palazzo
Vecchio, the Florentine town hall, was never executed. His first
large painting, The Adoration of the Magi (begun 1481, Uffizi),
left unfinished, was ordered in 1481 for the Monastery of San
Donato a Scopeto, Florence. Other works ascribed to his youth are
the so-called Benois Madonna (1478?, Hermitage, Saint Petersburg),
the portrait Ginevra de' Benci (1474?, National Gallery,
Washington, D.C.), and the unfinished Saint Jerome (1481?,
Pinacoteca, Vatican).
About 1482 Leonardo entered the service of the duke of Milan,
Ludovico Sforza, having written the duke an astonishing letter in
which he stated that he could build portable bridges; that he knew
the techniques of constructing bombardments and of making cannons;
that he could build ships as well as armored vehicles, catapults,
and other war machines; and that he could execute sculpture in
marble, bronze, and clay. He served as principal engineer in the
duke's numerous military enterprises and was active also as an
architect. In addition, he assisted the Italian mathematician Luca
Pacioli in the celebrated work Divina Proportione (1509).
Evidence indicates that Leonardo had apprentices and pupils in
Milan, for whom he probably wrote the various texts later compiled
as Treatise on Painting (1651; translated 1956). The most important
of his own paintings during the early Milan period was The Virgin
of the Rocks, two versions of which exist (1483-1485, Louvre,
Paris; 1490s to 1506-1508, National Gallery, London); he worked on
the compositions for a long time, as was his custom, seemingly
unwilling to finish what he had begun. From 1495 to 1497 Leonardo
labored on his masterpiece, The Last Supper, a mural in the
refectory of the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.
Unfortunately, his experimental use of oil on dry plaster (on what
was the thin outer wall of a space designed for serving food) was
technically unsound, and by 1500 its deterioration had begun. Since
1726 attempts have been made, unsuccessfully, to restore it; a
concerted restoration and conservation program, making use of the
latest technology, was begun in 1977 and is reversing some of the
damage. Although much of the original surface is gone, the majesty
of the composition and the penetrating characterization of the
figures give a fleeting vision of its vanished splendor.
During his long stay in Milan, Leonardo also produced other
paintings and drawings (most of which have been lost), theater
designs, architectural drawings, and models for the dome of Milan
Cathedral. His largest commission was for a colossal bronze
monument to Francesco Sforza, father of Ludovico, in the courtyard
of Castello Sforzesco. In December 1499, however, the Sforza family
was driven from Milan by French forces; Leonardo left the statue
unfinished (it was destroyed by French archers, who used the terra
cotta model as a target) and he returned to Florence in 1500.
In 1502 Leonardo entered the service of Cesare Borgia, duke of
Romagna and son and chief general of Pope Alexander VI. In his
capacity as the duke's chief architect and engineer, Leonardo
supervised work on the fortresses of the papal territories in
central Italy. In 1503 he was a member of a commission of artists
who were to decide on the proper location for the David (1501-1504,
Accademia, Florence), the famous colossal marble statue by the
Italian sculptor Michelangelo, and he also served as an engineer in
the war against Pisa. Toward the end of the year Leonardo began to
design a decoration for the great hall of the Palazzo Vecchio. The
subject was the Battle of Anghiari, a Florentine victory in its war
with Pisa. He made many drawings for the decoration and completed a
full-size cartoon, or sketch, in 1505, but he never finished the
wall painting. The cartoon itself was destroyed in the 17th
century, and the composition survives only in copies, of which the
most famous is the one by the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens
(1615?, Louvre).
