Leonardo da Vinci is famous for two paintings. His notebooks are just as revealing. In them he sketched wings, dissected bodies and left half-finished panels behind. This guide covers his life, his best-known works and the pages that show how he thought.
Who was Leonardo da Vinci?
Leonardo da Vinci lived from 1452 to 1519. He was an Italian Renaissance artist. He worked in painting, engineering, architecture and the study of nature.
He was born on 15 April 1452 in the Vinci area of Tuscany. His father was a notary named Ser Piero. His mother was Caterina. The two were not married. That is why people later called him by his place and his father: Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci. It means Leonardo, son of Ser Piero, from Vinci.
If you want a short biography (biografija), the pattern is simple. He trained in Florence, spent long years in Milan, moved to Rome and ended his life in France.
Where was Leonardo da Vinci from?
He was from Vinci, a place in Tuscany. Even his birth building is debated. The Museo Leonardiano says local tradition places his birth in a country house at Anchiano. A competing view says he may have been born in the family home in the centre of Vinci. Nobody can prove which building it was.
So “da Vinci” is not a surname in the modern sense. Think of it as an address.
Where did Leonardo da Vinci live?
He moved often. These are the main stops.
- Florence. He trained in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, learning painting and sculpture.
- Milan. His first long stay there ran from about 1482 to 1499.
- Rome. He moved there in 1513.
- Amboise, France. At the end of 1516 he accepted the service of King Francis I and settled there.
He died in Amboise on 2 May 1519, aged 67.
Timeline
- 15 April 1452: Born in the Vinci area of Tuscany.
- About 1482: Went to Milan. The Adoration of the Magi was left unfinished.
- 1489: Studied a human skull through a series of sections.
- About 1490: Drew the Vitruvian Man.
- 1495–1498: The museum’s dating for the Last Supper.
- 1503: A note by Agostino Vespucci shows him working on the Mona Lisa portrait.
- 1505–1506: Prepared the Codex on the Flight of Birds.
- Winter 1507–1508: Performed an autopsy on an old man in Florence.
- Winter 1510–1511: Intensified his bone and muscle research at Pavia.
- 1513: Moved to Rome.
- End of 1516: Settled in France in the service of Francis I.
- 2 May 1519: Died in Amboise.
Leonardo da Vinci paintings and artwork
People searching for his paintings (slike) and artwork (dela) usually want two names. Here they are, plus two works that were never finished.
The Mona Lisa
The Louvre shows a portrait of Lisa Gherardini. Vasari wrote in 1550 that Leonardo began it at the request of her husband, Francesco del Giocondo. A margin note by Agostino Vespucci from October 1503 proves Leonardo was working on a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo at that time.
The soft shadows around the mouth and eyes are a standard example of sfumato. This is the smoky blending of tones that people link to Leonardo.
The Last Supper in Milan
The Last Supper is a wall painting in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. The Museo del Cenacolo Vinciano gives its date as 1495–1498. It measures 460 × 880 centimetres.
Leonardo chose a method that suited a slow worker. He did not paint on wet plaster, as in true fresco. He painted on dry plaster instead. That let him work slowly and make corrections.
This is the answer for anyone looking for a Leonardo da Vinci museum in Milan. The Museo del Cenacolo Vinciano is the museum that presents this painting.
The Adoration of the Magi
In 1481 Leonardo received a commission for the church of San Donato a Scopeto, near Florence. He went to Milan and the panel stayed unfinished. It is now kept in the Uffizi.
Saint Jerome
The Vatican Museums date this painting to about 1481–1482. Different parts of it were left at different stages of completion. You can read the work like a workshop frozen in time.
Flying machines in the notebooks
Leonardo studied flight for years. Around 1505–1506 he prepared a notebook devoted to it, known as the Codex on the Flight of Birds.
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum counts more than 35,000 words and 500 drawings by Leonardo on flying machines, the properties of air and bird flight.
Most of his aviation designs were ornithopters. These are machines meant to flap their wings like birds. The wings were supposed to provide both lift and forward motion.
There was a basic problem with the human-powered versions. Human muscles are weaker than a bird’s, and they tire sooner.
The museum also says it is not likely that Leonardo ever built any of his own flying machine designs. Its full-size ornithopter model was made in 2006. So the flying machines are studies on paper, not proof of a test flight.
Anatomy: from skulls to arteries
Leonardo’s anatomy work came from direct looking.
- In 1489 he obtained a human skull. He drew it in several sections to understand its structure.
- The Royal Collection Trust says he dissected about 30 human corpses and many animals. He worked in monastery hospitals and medical schools.
- In the winter of 1510–1511 he apparently worked with Marcantonio della Torre, a professor of anatomy at the University of Pavia. His research on bones and muscles grew more intense.
- The Vitruvian Man, from about 1490, shows his study of human proportions. A figure is set inside a square and a circle.
His anatomy notes were still unpublished when he died in 1519. The drawings were only published and understood in the late nineteenth century.
Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks (his “book”)
People looking for a Leonardo da Vinci book (knjiga) are usually after his notebooks. He did not write one tidy volume. He filled pages with notes and drawings.
The V&A believes he began recording his thoughts regularly in notebooks in the mid-1480s. At that time he was serving the Duke of Milan.
Think of them as an early notes app. A shopping list sits next to an idea that could change a field. Leonardo kept it all on paper.
One famous habit was mirror writing, which runs from right to left. Some say he used it to hide secrets. Others say he was left-handed and found that direction more comfortable. The V&A does not decide between the two.
Details you won’t find in guidebooks
- Fingerprints on a painting. On the Saint Jerome panel, Leonardo’s fingerprints can be seen in the paint, especially in the upper left area.
- A sharp note on perpetual motion. In Codex Forster II.2 (about 1495–1497), he mocks people who believe in machines that run forever without outside energy.
- Friction in a tiny notebook. Cambridge researcher Ian Hutchings found Leonardo’s first statement of the laws of friction in a notebook from 1493. It measures only 92 × 63 millimetres. You meet friction every time you push a heavy box across the floor.
- An old man’s autopsy. In the winter of 1507–1508 in Florence, Leonardo wrote notes on an autopsy of an old man. He clearly described atherosclerosis, blocked coronary vessels and cirrhosis of the liver.
- A collection in London. The Forster collection at the V&A has five Leonardo notebooks, bound into three volumes. John Forster left them to the museum in 1876.
- A disputed cause of death. Some link his death to a stroke. That is not a settled diagnosis. A 2019 study by Lazzeri and Rossi discusses loss of function in his right hand. It argues for trauma-related ulnar nerve damage as an alternative to a stroke.
FAQ
Where was Leonardo da Vinci from?
He was born on 15 April 1452 in the Vinci area of Tuscany. His name, Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, means Leonardo, son of Ser Piero, from Vinci.
Where is the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci?
It is a wall painting in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. The Museo del Cenacolo Vinciano lists it as dated 1495–1498 and measuring 460 × 880 centimetres.
Did Leonardo da Vinci build his flying machines?
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum does not consider it likely that he built any of his own flying machine designs. Its full-size ornithopter model was made in 2006.
Why did Leonardo write backwards?
Some say he used right-to-left mirror writing to hide his secrets. Others say he was left-handed and found that direction easier. The V&A does not settle the question.
Where did Leonardo da Vinci die?
He died in Amboise, France, on 2 May 1519, aged 67. He had settled there at the end of 1516 in the service of King Francis I.
Sources
- Wikipedia — Leonardo da Vinci en.wikipedia.org
- Museo Leonardiano — Leonardo’s birthplace in Anchiano museoleonardiano.it
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) metmuseum.org
- Royal Collection Trust — The Life of Leonardo da Vinci rct.uk
- Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine — The right hand palsy of Leonardo da Vinci pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Musée du Louvre — Portrait de Lisa Gherardini collections.louvre.fr
- Museo del Cenacolo Vinciano — The Last Supper cenacolovinciano.org
- Gallerie degli Uffizi — Adorazione dei Magi uffizi.it
- Vatican Museums — Leonardo da Vinci, Saint Jerome museivaticani.va
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Leonardo da Vinci’s Saint Jerome metmuseum.org
- Victoria and Albert Museum — Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks vam.ac.uk
- University of Cambridge — Leonardo da Vinci’s laws of friction cam.ac.uk
- Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum — Codex on the Flight of Birds airandspace.si.edu
- Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum — Leonardo da Vinci and Flight airandspace.si.edu
- Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum — Leonardo da Vinci Ornithopter Model airandspace.si.edu
- Royal Collection Trust — Leonardo’s Study of Anatomy rct.uk
- Royal Collection Trust — The veins of the arm; and notes on the death of a centenarian rct.uk
Image: Da Vinci Studies of Embryos Luc Viatour.jpg — Leonardo da Vinci, Public domain
