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Leonardo da Vinci — Timeline
A chronological journey through the master’s life, 1452–1519
April 15 — Leonardo born near Vinci, Tuscany. Illegitimate son of notary Ser Piero da Vinci and Caterina, a peasant woman. Raised by his father in Vinci.
Enters the Florence workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio. Trains alongside Botticelli. Learns painting, sculpture, engineering, and mechanical arts.
Joins the Compagnia di San Luca. Paints his angel in Baptism of Christ — Vasari claims Verrocchio put down his brush when he saw it.
Draws the earliest known dated work — a panoramic Arno valley view inscribed “5 August 1473.” His observational method documented for the first time.
Paints the Annunciation, Ginevra de’ Benci, begins the Adoration of the Magi (left unfinished). Prepares to leave for Milan.
Enters the service of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan. Famous letter presents himself first as engineer — painter listed last. Begins 17 years as court polymath.
Paints the Louvre version. A payment dispute leads to the later London version. Notebook habit begins in earnest.
Draws the Uomo Vitruviano — figure inscribed in circle and square. Begins systematic anatomical investigation.
Paints Cecilia Gallerani. One of the first European portraits to capture a subject mid-turn — alive, momentary, psychologically present.
Paints the Last Supper on the refectory wall of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Uses experimental tempera on plaster — it begins to deteriorate almost immediately. His greatest compositional achievement.
Louis XII takes Milan. Ludovico Sforza flees. Leonardo loses 17 years of security. The clay Sforza horse model is used for target practice by French archers.
Visits Venice, then returns to Florence after 18 years. The Burlington House Cartoon (Virgin and Child with St Anne) draws crowds to the Annunziata.
Works as military engineer and cartographer across central Italy. Produces some of the most accurate maps of the era, including the famous plan of Imola.
Begins the portrait of Lisa Gherardini, confirmed by Vespucci’s 1503 marginal note. Works on it across multiple periods spanning 16 years. Never delivers it. Carries it to France. Now in the Louvre. The Prado copy is the subject of the stereoscopic discovery.
Commissioned to paint the Battle of Anghiari facing Michelangelo’s Cascina in Florence. Both left unfinished. Composition survives only in copies.
Intensive bird flight studies fill the Codex on Flight. Plans the great bird machine to launch from Monte Ceceri above Florence.
Works with physician Marcantonio della Torre at Pavia. Dissects over 30 corpses. The Anatomy Manuscripts at Windsor are the most accurate anatomical drawings before the 19th century.
Completes the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne — the culmination of his sfumato mastery. Now in the Louvre.
Fills the Paris Manuscripts and Codex Atlanticus with hydraulics, geology, optics, and machine design.
Joins Giuliano de’ Medici, brother of Pope Leo X. Works in the Belvedere Palace. Studies optics and mirror geometry. The grand patronage he hoped for never materializes.
Completes Saint John the Baptist — his last known painting in Italy. The smile turned inward and deeply ambiguous. Giuliano de’ Medici dies 1516.
King Francis I invites Leonardo as “Premier Painter, Engineer, and Architect of the King.” Given the Château du Clos Lucé at Amboise, connected by tunnel to the royal château. He carries the Mona Lisa with him.
Designs court entertainments and theatrical sets. Plans a new palace at Romorantin. A stroke has partially paralyzed his right hand — he continues left-handed. Cardinal Luigi d’Aragona visits and records the encounter.
Leonardo dies at Clos Lucé, aged 67. His notebooks pass to Francesco Melzi. Three paintings go to Salai. Francis I purchases the Mona Lisa for 4,000 écus. The notebooks begin their 500-year journey of dispersal, loss, and rediscovery.