Leonardo da Vinci
1452 - 1519
by Todd Richmond
365Gay.com Features Editor

Leonardo da Vinci was the embodiment of the Renaissance ideal of the universal man, the first artist to attain complete mastery of all branches of art. He was a painter, sculptor, architect and engineer besides being a scholar in the natural sciences, medicine and philosophy.

He was born on the 15th of April, 1452, the  illegitimate son of a lawyer and a peasant woman in the small town of Vinci, near Empoli, Tuscany. 

The first four years of his life he spent in a small village near Vinci with his mother, but in 1457 he moved in his father's family, which soon moved to Florence. At the age of 15 he became an apprentice of the Florentine painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio and although in 1472 he entered the San Luca guild of painters in Florence, which would indicate that he had attained a degree of professional independence, he remained with Andrea del Verrocchio until 1480.

It was during this period, at the age of 23 he met Jacopo Saltarelli a 17 year old who is described  as a "boy of Ill repute" or in other words, a hustler.  It is believed that Saltarelli attempted to blackmail the young artist to prevent him from telling the world they had sex.  It did not matter.  The affair was discovered and da Vinci was accused of having committed homosexual acts.  

Da Vinci managed to beat the rap.

is first known work, which he painted as an assistant, is the angel, kneeling on the left of the Verrocchio's picture The Baptism of Christ (c.1472-1475). 

Verrocchio, it is said, was so impressed by the implications of his pupil's genius that he gave up painting. Another work of this period The Annunciation (c.1472-1475) was attributed to Leonardo, but probably not all the picture was painted by him. However, it is generally accepted that the overall composition, the figure of the angel and the landscape are his. 

Leonardo received a commission to paint an altar piece St. Hieronymus (c.1480-1482), which was never finished, and for the church in San Donato a Scopeto  a large panel Adoration of the Magi (1481-1482), which was not finished either. Unfortunately, it was to be repeated with many of his works, many of them were never finished.

In 1482 Leonardo moved to Milan in hope to obtain the patronage of the ruler of the city Ludovico Sforza, also known as Ludovico Moro for his dark coloring. Leonardo offered his services as a military engineer, sculptor and painter.

Throughout his life, da Vinci kept notebooks.  Jottings about this and that.  One of his notes is about his attachment to one of his own students, a boy named Andrea Salaino whom he nicknamed Sali (little devil). Calling Salai a liar and thief he was nonetheless sufficiently obsessed with the handsome youth to have left him a good portion of his estate. 

Leonardo painted The Last Supper (c.1495-1498) for the refectory of the Dominican Monastery Santa Maria delle Grazie, which is considered the first work of High Renaissance. His representation of the theme has become the epitome of all Last Supper compositions. Unfortunately, he experimented with the paint and this led to the damage of the fresco, the paint  began to crumble almost after the fresco was finished.

After his affair with Sali, which lasted a number of years, da Vinci took on Francesco Melzi as has assistant.  Melzi remained with the artist until his death and received the bulk of his estate. 

In the mid to late 1480s, when Leonardo was attempting to establish himself as a court artist, he seemed to have started on his huge range of scientific researches, which included botany, anatomy, medicine, architecture, military engineering, and geography.

In 1503 in response to a commission from Francesco del Giocondo, started on a portrait of his wife Lisa del Giocondo Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) (1503-1506), which was to become the most famous picture in the world, although the portrait was not finished in time and never delivered to the client.

There have been various attempts to claim the Mona Lisa is actually a man and in the 70's the magazine Sexology tried to prove it by  reproducing the picture with the Mona in a short haircut and male clothes.  No one seemed to accept the idea. 

 Leonardo died on the 2nd of May, 1519 in Cloux and was buried in the Church of St. Florentine in Amboise.