Born in 1452, Leonardo grew up in the Tuscan hill town of Vinci (from which he took his name). The illegitimate son of a notary and a peasant girl, he moved to Florence in his early teens, where he joined the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio.
Leonardo went on to become one of the great empiricists of art history. He said his aim was to be ‘the universal master of representing every form produced by nature.’
In thousands of drawings, he meticulously depicted what he saw in the world around him, from drooping flowers to sleeping cats. Thanks to innovative techniques such as sfumato, he brought great realism to his paintings too. The most famous example is the Mona Lisa, Leonardo’s portrait of a Florentine merchant’s wife (today found in the Louvre Museum).
In 1481, Leonardo quit Florence for the court of Ludovico Sforza in Milan, where he stayed for almost two decades. It was in that city that he produced his fresco, The Last Supper, on a refectory wall at the Santa Maria delle Grazie monastery. This masterpiece of psychological characterisation and geometric control captures the meal that Jesus had with his apostles the night before his Crucifixion.
It was during his spell in Milan that Leonardo also came up with a host of inventions, producing designs for flying machines, parachutes and tanks.
In November 2017, the picture sold at Christie’s for $450,312,500, obliterating the previous world record for the most expensive work of art at auction.
Leonardo spent the final few years of his life in the service of Francis I, the King of France. He was given the royal residence of Château du Clos Lucé in the Loire Valley to live in. Leonardo died there in 1519, aged 67.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Salvator Mundi
ÉCOLE ITALIENNE DU DÉBUT DU XVIIe SIÈCLE, SUIVEUR DE LÉONARD DE VINCI
The Hekking Mona Lisa
Follower of Leonardo da Vinci, 16th Century
'La Columbine': Portrait of a woman as Flora , half-length, in a white, embroidered dress with a ruby brooch and a blue wrap, holding an aquilegia in her left hand, with jasmine and anemones on her lap, fern and kenilworth ivy climbing a wall beyond
ÉCOLE ITALIENNE VERS 1600, D'APRÈS LÉONARD DE VINCI
Salvator Mundi
Follower of Leonardo da Vinci, mid-16th Century
The Battle of Anghiari
CIRCLE OF LEONARDO DA VINCI (ANCHIANO, NEAR VINCI 1452-1519 AMBOISE, NEAR TOURS)
Portrait of a lady, half-length, in profile
CIRCLE OF LEONARDO DA VINCI (VINCI 1452-1519 AMBOISE)
Portrait of Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Milan (1470-1524), half-length, in profile to the right
ENTOURAGE DE LÉONARD DE VINCI (ANCHIANO 1452-1519 CLOS-LUCÉ)
Portrait d'homme de profil vers la gauche, portant un bonnet
AFTER LEONARDO DA VINCI
Salvator Mundi
FOLLOWER OF LEONARDO DA VINCI
Mona Lisa
FOLLOWER OF LEONARDO DA VINCI
Mona Lisa
A BRONZE REARING HORSE
CAST FROM A MODEL ATTRIBUTED TO LEONARDO DA VINCI (1452-1519), 16TH CENTURY
DANS LE GOÛT DE LÉONARD DE VINCI
Mona Lisa
Follower of Leonardo da Vinci
Caricatures of an old woman, wearing a carnation as a corsage, an old man wearing a cap, an old man with his mouth open, and an old woman shouting
After Leonardo da Vinci
The Madonna of the Carnation
After Raphael Sanzio D'Urbino, called Raphael and Studio
The Holy Family Meeting the Infant St John the Baptist ('The Madonna del Passeggio')
ÉCOLE ITALIENNE DU XVIIe SIÈCLE, SUIVEUR DE LÉONARD DE VINCI
Saint Jean Baptiste
Manner of Leonardo da Vinci
The Madonna of the Yarnwinder
ECOLE ITALIENNE, XVIEME SIECLE
Six têtes de grotesques, d'après Léonard de Vinci
FOLLOWER OF LEONARDO DA VINCI, 17TH CENTURY
Vertumnus and Pamona