#Notes
- Leonardo was active during the late 1400’s. He first lived in Florence and later moved to Milan.
- He came back to Florence later in his life but soon returned to Milan.
- He seemed to have carried his art with him undelivered for years. He was having a hard time letting go of his favorite works.
- When he arrived in Milan he actually wanted to be a weapons designer and engineer. He tried to convince Ludovico Sforza, who was the lord in Milan at the time, to give him job as military advisor.
- Leonardo carried notebooks with him everywhere he went and had a commonplace book to note down his observations of nature and things going on around him.
- Since the military ambitions didn’t work out he instead got involved in designing pageants and stage performances while he was in Milan. Both the mechanics and the visuals stimulated his imagination in art and engineering.
- He also tinkered with creating music instruments.
- Leonardo’s anatomic studies also helped to get an understanding of the human skull and how the teeth looked. He got this very close to correct without any tools at the time.
- The Last Supper was finished in 1498.
- When Leonardo was working for Cesare Borgia he also met with Machiavelli, who was an ambassador for Florence.
- In order to gain advantage on Pisa Leonardo wanted to take away the Arno river and basically change its course and cut it off from the sea.
- Leonardo was famous for his sfumato technique. By using shadows and blurred borders his drawings have a more natural feel to them. Other painters drew shapes with sharp outline which made them feel more stiff and unnatural. Look at the drawings of Michelangelo for example.
- Leonardo became 67 years old and died in 1519.