by Shana Priwer
Let's take a quick look at some of these pre-Renaissance masters. Fillipo Brunelleschi (1377–1446) was one of Florence's primary architects and sculptors in the 100 or so years before Leonardo da Vinci's rise to fame. As a young architect, Brunelleschi was known for combining elements of classical architecture with designs that reflected the Renaissance's rising sense of independence and freedom. His major projects included the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the cupola of the Duomo, and the Ospedale degli Innocenti, all in Florence. In 1401, Brunelleschi, along with Florentine sculptor, painter, and goldsmith Lorenzo Ghiberti, won a competition to create the doors of the Duomo Baptistery. (The baptistery is one of the buildings that makes up the Florence Duomo cathedral complex.) Leonardo's life paralleled Brunelleschi's in many ways. Like Leonardo, Brunelleschi was first trained in metalsmithing and sculpture. He was apprenticed early in his career, so he was able to learn new skills while honing existing ones. Also like Leonardo, Brunelleschi sketched throughout his life, including designs for different machines and platforms. He was perhaps the most prolific architect of the day, and his multifaceted approach to art and science was a great source of inspiration to Leonardo.
Leone Batista Alberti (1404–1472) was another Italian architect who helped set the stage for Leonardo. Alberti was one of the earliest Italian artists to include perspective and architectural design elements in his painting. He studied in Bologna and Padua and, like Brunelleschi, nurtured an interest in classicism. Alberti's main contribution to the pre-Renaissance era was his intense fascination with geometry. He was one of the first architects to incorporate mathematical structure into construction, interpreting three-dimensional forms as a system of proportions. His major design tasks included the Chapel Rucellai and the façade of Santa Maria Novella, both in Florence, and Sant' Andrea in Mantua.
As Italy climbed out of the medieval darkness during the Renaissance, other aspects of Italian culture began to flourish, too. Dante Alighieri (1245–1321), for example, was one of this period's most creative authors, contributing such masterpieces as The Divine Comedy, which helped to standardize the Italian language (similar to what Chaucer's Canterbury Tales did for English).
Giotto (Ambrogio Bondone, 1267—1337) was perhaps the best-known painter of the thirteenth century. Although he had a background in the Byzantine tradition, Giotto gave it up in exchange for more natural, flowing lines. Giotto is also credited with breathing life back into the art of painting: he modernized both its purpose and aesthetic, and created the illusion of 3-D space on a 2-D canvas. These changes made art more popular and revived a flagging interest in artwork. This artistic revival worked itself into the eventual frenzy of the Renaissance.
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The life you're born into
Leonardo's illegitimate status wasn't much of a secret: You could see it simply by examining his name. Officially, he should have been Leonardo di Ser Piero da Vinci, meaning, “Leonardo son of Ser Piero from Vinci.” However, Leonardo didn't use his father's name, as was the custom of the time; he referred to himself only as Leonardo da Vinci and signed many of his works just plain Leonardo. By shortening his name even more, he was probably rebelling against his lack of official status and trying to make his own place in the world.
As an illegitimate child, Leonardo's place in the Tuscany region's highly stratified society was, at best, precarious. Class status was important, especially in the new middle classes. In the upper classes, illegitimate children could inherit property and social status from their fathers. The middle classes were sticklers for proper birth and parentage, though; as the illegitimate son of a peasant woman (and possible slave), Leonardo's status was quite low. While the upper classes in the Renaissance were probably secure enough in their status to accept illegitimate children, those in the middle class likely felt that what they had gotten could just as easily be taken away. So middle class folks were much more obsessed with status and would have made it clear that an illegitimate child like Leonardo wasn't really welcome in their ranks.
Even though Leonardo's father raised Leonardo in his household, his illegitimacy disqualified him from the clubs and guilds to which his father belonged. In fact, Leonardo couldn't get a university education, and as mentioned in number 2, he certainly wouldn't have been able to follow in his father's footsteps and become a notary. While his father most likely provided a basic education in reading and writing, Leonardo did much of his learning independently. Eventually, he would teach himself Latin, mathematics, human anatomy, and physics!
With no expectations, Leonardo was free to grow into his full intellect. Because he was not obligated to follow a specific, predefined role, he was able to explore and develop his talents, without anyone pushing him to be something he didn't want to be. His early days on his Uncle Francesco's farm left him with a deep love and respect for nature, as well as a sense of wonder. Through these experiences, he also discovered his talent for drawing and art.
A career as a court artist was one of the most respected occupations that an illegitimate child could hope to achieve. Perhaps Leonardo's father had this in the back of his mind when he apprenticed his son to one of the most respected artists in Florence, Andrea Verrocchio. In any case, it's lucky for us that Leonardo's father had the presence of mind to start him off on such an appropriate path.
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Siblings of a genius
Although Leonardo was the first child for both of his parents, as previously mentioned in number 2, he ended up with seventeen half siblings. Leonardo's father was never married to his mother, but he married four other women over the course of his life. This propensity for multiple weddings was one characteristic that Leonardo did not inherit from his father. Ser Piero's first two wives, Albiera and Francesca, both died young and bore no children. His third wife, Margherita, gave birth to two sons, Antonio (Ser Piero's first legitimate heir) in 1476 and Giuliomo in 1479. A girl, Maddalena, was born in 1477, but she died in 1480. Soon after her death, Ser Piero married his fourth wife, Lucrezia, who gave birth to two daughters and seven more sons: Lorenzo in 1484, Violante in 1485, Domenico in 1486, Margherita in 1491, Benedetto in 1492, Pandolfo in 1494, Guglielmo in 1496, Bartolomeo in 1497, and Giovanni in 1498. Leonardo wound up with nine half brothers and two half sisters on his father's side alone. Quite an extended family! In spite of his many options, Leonardo wasn't particularly close to any of his half siblings. By the time Leonardo's first half-brother, Antonio, was born, Leonardo was already twenty-four and a working artist.
Not much is known about the five children that Leonardo's mother, Caterina, had after she was married. These children included three half sisters and one half brother (nothing is known about the fifth), who were closer in age to Leonardo than his father's other children. Records show that two of Caterina's daughters were named Piera (born in 1455) and Maria (born in 1458), and Leonardo notes in his writings that his half brother on his mother's side died from a mortar shot at Pisa. These other kids probably contributed to the distance between Leonardo and his mother. Once Leonardo moved into his father's house, Caterina most likely devoted all her time to her legitimate children, with little to spare for poor Leonardo.
After Ser Piero's death in 1504, Leonardo's half brothers got greedy over their father's property. There was much in-fighting, and Leonardo had to return to Florence a number of times to settle disputes. Apparently, Ser Piero died without a will—not very good planning for a lawyer—which basically led to a feeding frenzy among his offspring. One of Leonardo's half brothers had become a notary like his father, and he took charge of the legal proceedings. He first challenged Leonardo's right to inherit from his father's estate, and then when Ser Piero's brother Francesco died a few years later, he objected to their uncle's will as well. He had a good reason to protest—Leonardo was supposed to get a good chunk of land.
While all this was going on, Leonardo wasn't exactly resting on his laurels; he was the court painter to King Louis XII of France (who happened to live in Milan
). Leonardo had many paintings to complete, and the king probably wasn't too happy with all these interruptions to Leonardo's work. In fact, both the French king and Charles d'Amboise, among others, wrote letters to the Florentine authorities, asking them to speed up Leonardo's legal battle. These letters didn't have much effect, however, and the lawsuits continued until 1511. Ultimately, Leonardo didn't receive any inheritance from his father's estate, but he emerged from the years of conflict with rights to his Uncle Francesco's farm, land, and money.
Although none of Leonardo's siblings were particularly artistic, he did have a nephew, Pierfrancesco da Vinci (1531–1554), called Pierino, who was a decent sculptor. The son of Leonardo's half brother Bartolomeo, Pierino was apparently a child prodigy and became known as a talented sculptor before his death in Pisa at the age of twenty-three. In spite of his short career, the sixteenth-century art historian Giorgio Vasari dedicated a biography to Pierino, and one of Pierino's sculptures is in the Louvre! Maybe if he'd lived a little longer, Pierino would have shown more of Leonardo's legacy, but unfortunately we'll never know.
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It's all relative
As previously discussed, Leonardo da Vinci came from a long line of notaries—the first one in his family was Ser Guido di Ser Michele da Vinci, who lived in Vinci in the fourteenth century. His two sons, Giovanni and Piero, were also notaries, and Piero's son Antonio was Leonardo's grandfather. In a burst of independence, Leonardo's grandfather, Antonio, broke with family tradition and instead became a farmer. He married Leonardo's grandmother, Lucia (born in 1393), who was the daughter of yet another notary. They had three children: Piero, Leonardo's father, born in 1427; Francesco, born in 1435; and Violante, born some time afterwards. Leonardo and his father lived in the same house as Antonio and Lucia for many years, until the family moved to Florence.
Fortunately, Antonio kept detailed records about his family's life. From these notes, we know that Leonardo was baptized into his father's family almost immediately after his birth. Tax records show Leonardo was part of his grandfather's household by the time he was five years old. Leonardo was still living with his father's family when he was seventeen, already a part of Andrea Verrocchio's studio by that time.
As discussed in number 2, Leonardo's Uncle Francesco had a strong influence on his young nephew. Grandpa Antonio's tax information shows that Francesco lived with the family for a time, though the grandfather wasn't generous with his job description; he put that Francesco “stayed home and did nothing.” Eventually, Francesco started a career as a farmer and landowner, following in his father Antonio's footsteps, while Piero became a notary like his grandfather.
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Youthful adventures
Most of us start showing signs of our adult personalities as children. Leonardo was, of course, no different. With his childhood games he would flit from one project to the next, yet when projects interested him, Leonardo could spend hours, even days, working on fine details. As you'll read later, these qualities stuck with him throughout his life.
Giorgio Vasari's biography of Leonardo records one example from childhood of the work habits Leonardo became known for as an adult. According to this report, Leonardo's father received a request from a local peasant to decorate a wooden shield, and he decided to give the project to his young son. Leonardo decorated the shield with the face of Medusa, the mythological serpent-headed creature. Rather than painting a pleasant, romanticized version of Medusa, Leonardo gathered various snakes, lizards, and other creatures from outdoors, positioning them in a studio to use as models. After a few days of work, Leonardo's father came to check on his son's progress. He was in for quite a shock! When he walked into the studio, Ser Piero was not only confronted with the shield's grotesque realism, he got hit with the stench of decomposing reptiles. As the story goes, Leonardo had been oblivious to his models' offensive smell, and didn't seem to mind working amidst dead creatures.
Whether or not this story is actually true, it shows Leonardo's penchant for drawing nature accurately began when he was a child. During his youth, Leonardo probably spent hours on end observing nature first-hand and his earliest sketches were studies of landscapes, plants, and animals. In his future artwork, he used these skills to create realistic-looking natural scenes, in both his scenes with human figures and landscape paintings.
Although his illegitimate birth barred Leonardo from most formal education, including university study, his relatives and family friends probably tutored him. Though he seems to have tried studying Latin on his own, Leonardo never learned it very well. Not knowing Latin came with a heavy price, because it effectively prevented Leonardo from studying ancient Roman writings. Although the revival of classical knowledge was a key element of the Renaissance, Leonardo was forced to innovate largely on his own. It's possible that his poor Latin skills inadvertently helped him; he was forced to use his own innovations and thought processes, and he was almost entirely free of precedent. Sometimes, it's not so bad to go your own way!
Much of Leonardo's early work focused on the interplay of light and shadow, and for Leonardo, nature truly was the best teacher. He was particularly interested in margins, such as the line between the beautiful and the grotesque. Rather than drawing or painting only beautiful things, he searched for the unusual: strange hills and rocks, odd animals, and rare plants. He also continued to study and observe humans; the incredible details he added to his drawings of faces and expressions made him stand out from the crowd.
Throughout his career, Leonardo spent a lot of time sketching and painting images of mothers with children. Hundreds of years later, Sigmund Freud theorized these works, while religious in nature, were Leonardo's attempt to deal with being abandoned by his mother at a young age. Maybe this is a stretch, but then again, maybe you can see his lack of a true maternal bond in some of his works, like the painting The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne. Here, the child is thought to be a self-portrait, while the Virgin and St. Anne might represent Leonardo's mother, Caterina, and his first step-mother, Albiera. Though such interpretations are only theories, they support the possibility that Leonardo's popular religious themes may have had personal underpinnings.
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Get to work! Leonardo's early training
Even before he became famous, Leonardo was heavily involved in the arts. Though he was in many ways a typical kid, he was already beginning to break away from the pack. Unfortunately, not many specifics are known about Leonardo's early education, but it's possible to make a few generalizations based on what we do know.
If you grew up in New York, you might have spent hours drawing skyscrapers. In much the same way, Leonardo, who grew up in the beautiful Tuscan countryside, learned to draw by studying the mountainous landscape. He used everything he had available—sketching, painting, and modeling—to record the natural environment. His grandfather's notes mention that Leonardo spent time drawing animals and plants, indicating a keen awareness of the world around him.
Leonardo got a taste for a wide variety of arts at a young age. He studied music and singing during his formative years, learning to play the lyre and other Renaissance instruments. One of his favorite “academic” subjects was probably mathematics; the ability to apply mathematical principles to art would, of course, be one of his signature trademarks later on. Is it possible that Leonardo simply had too much exposure to too many different things as a child? Leonardo was known for starting more tasks than he finished; his notebooks reveal many ideas that never actually took shape. Maybe he tried so many things, he never learned to focus on one at a time.
Perhaps not insignificantly, Leonardo was left-handed. Generally speaking, the right hemisphere of the human brain (more dominant in left-handed people) controls art, music, creativity, and emotions. In contrast, right-handed people are more oriented toward the left hemisphere of the brain, which is associated with math, science, language, and speech. Leonardo's left-handedness likely has something to do with his unusual style of writing,
which flowed from right to left. He wrote letters backwards, so they formed a mirror image. You might already know someone who writes this way—this style isn't uncommon among left-handed people, and Leonardo could have devised the technique as a child. Some historians believe he developed it as a sort of secret code to protect his notes and sketchbooks from being copied; others think it was the result of being both left-handed and dyslexic. Whatever the reason, Leonardo's writing method added to his uniqueness and made his homework pretty hard to copy!
During the Renaissance, artists couldn't just run down to the corner art supply store for paints and brushes—they had to make things themselves. As a child, Leonardo probably used materials he found or borrowed from his grandfather to create his sketches. Though only seventeen years old when he was apprenticed to master artist Verrocchio, Leonardo had already shown promise. Few dated drawings survive from Leonardo's childhood and the first few years of his apprenticeship. Nevertheless, one of Leonardo's earliest known drawings, a pen-and-ink landscape of the Arno Valley, from 1473, is also one of the first drawings ever to detail landscape in a truly realistic, convincing style. Even at the beginning of his career, Leonardo was already innovating!
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What did they do before there were bookstores?
Leonardo da Vinci's early educational resources were few and far between. He certainly didn't walk to the nearest Borders to pick up new books! Rather, most of his knowledge came from experience. As previously discussed, he spent plenty of time with his Uncle Francesco as a youngster. Being a farmer, Francesco taught Leonardo much about nature. Leonardo's early interest in sketching probably began at this time.