Sublime

Peut-être aiguillonné par l’affaire Saltarelli, Léonard finit par prendre son envol et ouvre son propre atelier en 1477. C’est un échec commercial. Avant de partir pour Milan, cinq ans plus tard, il ne recevra que trois commandes connues : une qu’il ne commencera jamais et deux qu’il abandonnera.

There are two key differences that distinguish Leonardo’s version of Vitruvian Man from those done around the same time by his two friends, Francesco di Giorgio and Giacomo Andrea. In both scientific precision and artistic distinction, Leonardo’s is in an entirely different realm (fig. 44). Rarely on display, because prolonged exposure to light

Léonard fait de Florence son lieu de résidence principal entre les années 1500 et 1506, s’installant confortablement avec son entourage en la basilique de la Santissima Annunziata. De bien des façons, il s’agira de la période la plus productive de sa vie.

As the fall of 1502 approached, Borgia moved his court to the highly fortified town of Imola, thirty miles inland from Cesena on the road to Bologna. Leonardo made drawings of the fortress compound, noting that its moat was forty feet deep and its walls fifteen feet thick. In front of the only entrance through the walls surrounding the town was a

With the help of the writings of Alberti and the development of mathematical perspective, the social and intellectual standing of painters was rising, and a few were becoming sought-after names.

according to Vasari, young Leonardo had “a beauty of body beyond description, a splendor that rejoiced the most sorrowful souls.”

The legacy of two such polymaths had a formative influence on Leonardo. The first was Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446), the designer of the cathedral dome.

Francis gave Leonardo something he had continually sought: a comfortable stipend that was not dependent on producing any paintings. In addition, he was given the use of a small red-brick manor house, with sandstone trimming and playful spires, next to Francis’s castle in the Loire Valley village of Amboise. Known as the Château de Cloux, and now