\paperw5595 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 Italian painter.\par
The illegitimate son of the notary Ser Piero da Vinci, he was raised in the home of his paternal grandfather until 14
69, when he followed his father to Florence and entered the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio. He was still employed in this workshop in 1472, when he enrolled in the guild of Florentine painters known as the Compagnia di San Luca. During this period he
rapidly acquired a thorough understanding of a wide variety of artistic techniques, collaborating directly with his master on works like the \i Baptism of Christ\i0 (Florence, Uffizi). Painting pictures like the \i Annunciation\i0 in the Uffizi and the
\i Portrait of Ginevra deÆ Benci\i0 (Washington, National Gallery), Leonardo was already part of the current of Florentine art that embraced Pollaiolo and the young Sandro Botticelli among others. The \i Adoration of the Magi\i0 (Florence, Uffizi) was
commissioned from him in 1481 by the monks of San Donato a Scopeto, but was left unfinished on his departure for Milan. This is a work in which the young artistÆs vision emerges in all its complexity and originality, as he detaches himself from the trad
ition of Tuscan painting. Leonardo arrived in Milan in 1482, summoned by Ludovico il Moro. He was to remain in service at his court for almost twenty years. His first commission in Milan, however, was for the \i Virgin of the Rocks\i0 , the central panel
of a polyptych ordered by the Confraternity of the Conception. One of his principal assignments on behalf of Ludovico il Moro was the realization of an equestrian monument to Francesco Sforza, a project that was to drag out for a long time without ever
reaching a definitive conclusion. But the artist also worked for the court as a military engineer, and on projects of hydraulic engineering and city planning, as well as the preparation of decorations for festivals, tournaments, and entertainments. The 1
490s were also the times in which the \i Last Supper\i0 went through its long period of gestation. Painted in the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, the work was destined to have an extraordinary impact on Renaissance art t
hrough the solemn monumental stance of the composition and its reworking of the traditional subject. The cultural environment in Lombardy favored LeonardoÆs incessant and restless experimentation in the most diverse fields of art and science. Fleeing Mil
an at the time of the fall of Ludovico il Moro, the artist entered the service of Cesare Borgia as a military engineer. In 1503 he returned to Florence where he began, that same year, the portrait of a woman known as the \i Mona Lisa\i0 and was commissi
oned to paint the lost \i Battle of Anghiari\i0 in the Salone del Cinquecento of the Palazzo della Signoria in Florence. Although the painting showed signs of deterioration even before it was finished, it appears to have served as a model for a whole ge
neration of Florentine artists. Leonardo returned to Milan in 1506, only to move to Rome in 1513. There, however, he found himself isolated from the sumptuous environment of the papal court, dominated by Raphael and Michelangelo. Later the artist chose t
o accept the splendid hospitality offered him by King Francis I of France, who set him up in the castle of Cloux at Amboise, covering him with honors. Leonardo died there in 1519.
