Leonardo da Vinci. Painting

An artist who paints as the eye sees, without the participation of the mind, resembles a mirror that reflects any object placed in front of it, without knowing it.

Leonardo da Vinci

First dated work (1473, Uffizi) - small sketch of a river valley small sketch of the river valley , visible from the gorge; on one side is a castle, on the other - a wooded hillside.

Leonardo da Vinci. Landscape of the Arno river valley. August 5, 1473. The inscription on the picture: "The Day of the Holy Virgin of the Snow." Drawing made for Santa Maria Della Nev

When Leonardo returned to Florence in 1503, the Florentines were at war with the recalcitrant Pisa; downstream of the Arno, Pisa controlled the outlets of this river to the sea. In the autumn of 1503, Leonardo advised the work on the removal of the Arno from Pisa. They were started by the Florentines, trying to deprive the besieged city of water. The work was carried out for two months and was abandoned - many foresaw their failure in advance. A few years later, Leonardo, in one of his notes, condemned the method of action "throughout" that was adopted during these works: "The river that must turn from one place to another must be enticed, and not violently hardened ...". The thoughts of Leonardo himself were directed to something completely different: not to divert water from the recalcitrant Pisa, but to regulate the course of the Arno throughout its entire length. If in Milan, on the Lombard lowland in the Po river basin, the canal builders were primarily faced with the task of expanding the network of trade routes, then in Tuscany, in the Arno river basin, the main task was to regulate its flow - to combat floods or, conversely, to shoal the river , at different times of the year. The words on the pages of the Atlantic Code are very expressive: “Settle Arno above and below. Anyone who wishes will receive a treasure from every quarter of the earth. Zubov V.P., Leonardo da Vinci, Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, M.-L., 1962

This sketch, made with quick strokes of the pen, testifies to the artist's constant interest in atmospheric phenomena, about which da Vinci later wrote extensively in his notes. The landscape depicted from a high vantage point overlooking the floodplain was a common device for Florentine art of the 1460s (although it always served only as a backdrop for paintings). A silver pencil drawing of an ancient warrior in profile (mid-1470s, British Museum) shows Leonardo's full maturity as a draftsman; it skillfully combines weak, flaccid and tense, elastic lines and attention to surfaces gradually modeled by light and shadow, creating a lively, quivering image.

Combining the development of new means of artistic language with theoretical generalizations, Leonardo da Vinci created an image of a person that meets the humanistic ideals of the High Renaissance.

Recording the results of countless observations in sketches, sketches and natural studios (Italian pencil, silver pencil, sanguine, pen and other techniques), Leonardo achieves rare sharpness in the transfer of facial expressions (sometimes resorting to grotesque and caricature), and the structure and movements of the human body leads in perfect harmony with the dramaturgy of the composition.

By 1514 - 1515 refers to the creation of the masterpiece of the great master - paintings Mona Lisa . Until recently, it was thought that this portrait was written much earlier, in Florence, around 1503. They believed the story of Vasari, who wrote: “Leonardo undertook to complete for Francesco del Gioconde a portrait of Monna Lisa, his wife, and after working on it for four years, left it incomplete. This work is now with the French king in Fontainebleau. By the way, Leonardo resorted to the following trick: since Madonna Lisa was very beautiful, while writing a portrait, he kept people who played the lyre or sang, and here constantly there were jesters who kept her cheerful and removed the melancholy that painting usually imparts to portraits.

This whole story is wrong from start to finish. According to Venturi, "Monna Lisa, later Gioconda, was the creation of the imagination of the novelist, Aretin biographer, George Vasari." Venturi in 1925 suggested that "La Gioconda" is a portrait of the Duchess of Costanza d "Avalos, the widow of Federigo del Balzo, sung in a short poem by Eneo Irpino, which also mentions her portrait painted by Leonardo da Vinci. Costanza was the mistress of Giuliano Medici, who after marriage to Philibert of Savoy gave the portrait back to Leonardo.

Most recently, Pedretti put forward a new hypothesis: the Louvre portrait depicts the widow of Giovanni Antonio Brandano named Pacifica, who was also the mistress of Giuliano de' Medici and gave birth to his son Ippolito in 1511.

Be that as it may, the Vasarius version is doubtful because it does not explain in any way why the portrait of Francesco del Giocondo's wife remained in Leonardo's hands and was taken by him to France.

Leonardo da Vinci. Mona Lisa (La Gioconda). 1514 - 1515

In this picture, Leonardo achieved such harmony not only through a more thorough composition, but also through pictorial means, thanks to which everything is visible as if through a light haze that covers small details, softens the outlines, and creates imperceptible transitions between forms and colors. Thus, he left a lot to our imagination and this is the reason why the Mona Lisa strikes us, looking at the viewer as if alive. The same is true for the landscape, where Leonardo shows us how the earth "grows" out of rocks and water, and for the Mona Lisa's face with its mysterious smile. What is Mona Lisa thinking? In practice, it depends on what we ourselves think, looking at her image. Maybe Leonardo himself was a little like her: people always saw him as balanced and friendly, but no one knew exactly what was on his mind.

The female image is, as it were, woven from the light that envelops it, flows around it, penetrates it. Penetrating from the depths, the light gradually softens in the transparent veil, then thickens again in the folds of clothes, between strands of hair, and finally spreads over the face and hands, allowing you to feel the hot current of blood beating under the transparent skin. It is in vain to wonder what the mysterious smile of a woman means, what feelings lurk in her soul. This is not some specific feeling, but a feeling of joy of a full-fledged being in the perfect balance of the natural world spilled on the face. Thus, Leonardo overcomes the eternal dilemma between the idea and its implementation; reflecting on painting, which seems to him a means of both expression and visualization, he gradually finds an adequate pictorial language to embody his concept of the world. “The image created by the hand of the artist must first go through a long process of bearing it with the spirit” (Marinoni). It is fair to conclude that in Mona Lisa Leonardo finally embodied the priority of intellect and art. In the harmony achieved in this way lies the greatness and significance of the picture.

Detail of a painting. Leonardo da Vinci. Mona Lisa (La Gioconda)

The soulful hands of Mona Lisa are as beautiful as the slight smile on her face and the primeval rocky landscape in the misty distance. Gioconda is known as the image of a mysterious, even fatal woman, but this interpretation belongs to the 19th century. It is more likely that for Leonardo this painting was the most difficult and successful exercise in the use of sfumato, and the background of the painting is the result of his research in the field of geology. Regardless of whether the subject was secular or religious, the landscape, exposing the "bones of the earth", is constantly found in the work of Leonardo. Encyclopedia "The World Around Us"

When Andrea del Verrocchio wrote on a tree an image with an image St. John Baptizing Christ , Leonardo made an angel holding clothes on him, and, although he was still young, he executed it in such a way that da Vinci's angel turned out to be much better than Verrocchio's figures, and this was the reason that Andrea never again wanted to touch paints, offended by that some boy had surpassed him in skill.

Andrea del Verrocchio (Verrocchio), Leonardo da Vinci. Baptism of Christ. 1473-1475

Although Verrocchio may have trusted the young Leonardo to draw some minor details in his earlier works, it was most likely in The Baptism of Christ that he first allowed him to draw a complete figure. The little blue-clad angel essentially informed Florence that a new genius had arrived. Verrocchio, according to Vasari, was stunned, as he personally encountered a phenomenon that came from an unknown future. However, Leonardo not only announced himself as an angel - he also did this with the help of the image of the background of the Baptism, in which a foggy, mysterious depth anticipates the amazing that will be created by him in the Mona Lisa and in the Madonna and Child with St. Anne ". Robert Wallace. "The World of Leonardo"

Leonardo da Vinci developed as an artist and, probably, to a large extent as a scientist in the workshop of Verrocchio. The early drawings and paintings of Leonardo clearly show what a wonderful school of realistic art the Renaissance workshop was. Here, everything was done in order to teach from an early age to draw correctly and to help master the realistic method. Relations between Leonardo and Verrocchio were apparently cordial, although Leonardo never mentioned anything to his teacher in his notebooks. He lived in Verrocchio's house and continued to live there after he was admitted to the Guild of Saint Luke in 1472 at the age of twenty. As an apprentice to Leonardo da Vinci, following the usual routine, at first he was engaged in rubbing paints and other menial work. Gradually, as experience accumulated and skill increased, they began to trust him with the simplest part of the work for which Verrocchio received orders.

Adoration of the Magi 1472-1477. The painting was commissioned by Leonardo da Vinci in 1481 and was intended to decorate the altar of the church of San Donato Scopento, located near Florence from the side of Porta a San Piero Gattolino (now Porta Romana). The artist, however, did not finish this work, leaving it in Florence when he left for Milan in 1482. The Madonna and Child are surrounded in a semicircle by a crowd that has approached the Holy Family to bow to him. There are many physiognomic types of people of all ages represented here; among them are young riders. Even animals, as Leonardo would later often see, seem to share human feelings. In the background of the picture, from the ruins of the palazzo, whose empty staircase gives the impression of surreal, a motorcade of travelers and horsemen breaks out. The right side of the composition depicts an equestrian battle, the meaning of which remains unclear. Two trees in the center - a palm tree and a holm oak - serve as axes around which the spiral of the entire composition is twisted, as if inserted on the left - between the figure of an old man, immersed in thought, and on the right - the figure of a young man (he points to the Madonna and Child). In the picture, we also see horses wandering without riders, which, perhaps, symbolizes nature, not yet subdued by man. And in the depths of the picture, high mountain peaks, usual for Leonardo da Vinci's compositions, appear only in sketches, they make a majestic impression.

Leonardo da Vinci. Adoration of the Magi. 1472-1477

By the multitude of actors, by the strength of the dramatic movement depicted in gestures, poses, and by the variegated variety of facial expressions, the work is one of the most remarkable works of all Italian painting of the 15th century. It is impossible to imagine a more precise study of the parallel phenomena of inner and outer life. In such a young age, about thirty years old, Leonardo da Vinci knew and remembered the complex work of muscles in a wide variety of mental states. This is a series of illustrations on the psychological theme of surprise. vinci.ru

That was the first Florentine period of the life and work of Leonardo: 1464 - 1482.

The same period includes such paintings by the artist as, "Portrait of Ginevra de Benci","Madonna with a flower" ("Madonna Benois"), "Madonna Litta", "Saint Jerome", "Saint Sebastian".

Portrait of Ginevra de Benci

Madonna with a flower (Madonna Benois)

Madonna Litta

Saint Jerome

Then the first Milan period of life and creativity begins: 1483 - 1499. Leonardo da Vinci was invited to the court of Lodovico Sforza and enlisted in the college of ducal engineers. He performs in Milan as a military engineer, architect, hydraulic engineer, sculptor, painter. But it is characteristic that in the documents of this period, Leonardo is first called an "engineer", and then an "artist".

"Madonna in the Grotto" - the first fully mature work of Leonardo - affirms the triumph of the new art and gives a complete picture of the exceptional skill of da Vinci. The icon was commissioned by the monks of the church named after St. Francis in 1483. Perfect coherence of all parts, creating a tightly welded whole. This whole, that is, the totality of the four depicted figures, the outlines of which are wonderfully softened by chiaroscuro, forms a slender pyramid, smoothly and gently, in complete freedom, growing in front of us. All the figures are united inextricably by their views and position, and this association is filled with charming harmony, for even the gaze of an angel, turned not to other figures, but to the viewer, as it were, enhances the single musical chord of the composition of the picture. This look and smile, slightly illuminating the face of an angel, are full of deep and mysterious meaning. Light and shadows create a certain unique mood in the picture. Our gaze is carried away into its depths, into the alluring gaps among the dark rocks, under the shadow of which the figures created by Leonardo found shelter. And Leonard's secret, see through in their faces, and in the bluish crevices, and in the twilight of the overhanging rocks. All the various elements of the picture, seemingly contradictory, merge together, creating an impression of a holistic and strong. "Madonna in the Grotto" shows the artist's mastery of the realistic skill that so impressed his contemporaries. The painting was intended to decorate the altar (the frame for the painting was a carved wooden altar) in the Immacolata Chapel of the Church of San Francesco Grande in Milan.

Leonardo da Vinci. Madonna in the grotto. 1483-1486

"The Mother of God, among the rocks, in a cave, embracing the baby John the Baptist with her right hand, overshadows the Son with her left, as if wishing to unite both - man and God - in one love. John, folding his hands reverently, knelt before Jesus, who blesses him By the way the Savior-baby, naked on the bare ground, sits, bending one plump dimpled leg under the other, leaning on a thick arm, with spread fingers, it is clear that he still does not know how to walk - he only crawls. His face is already perfect wisdom, which is at the same time childish simplicity.The kneeling angel, supporting the Lord with one hand, pointing to the Forerunner with the other, turns his face full of mournful foreboding to the viewer with a gentle and strange smile.In the distance, between the rocks, wet the sun shines through the haze of rain over foggy blue, thin and sharp mountains, of an extraordinary, unearthly appearance, similar to stalactites. reminiscent of the dry bottom of the ocean. And in the cave - a deep shadow, as if under water. The eye can barely make out an underground spring, round palmate leaves of aquatic plants, weak cups of pale irises. It seems that you can hear how slow drops of dampness fall from above, from the overhanging arch of black layered rocks of dolomite, sucking between the roots of creeping grasses, horsetails and club mosses. Only the face of the Madonna, half-childish, half-girlish, glows in the darkness, like thin alabaster with fire inside. The Queen of Heaven appears to people for the first time in the innermost twilight, in an underground cave, perhaps the refuge of ancient Pan and the nymphs, at the very heart of nature, as the secret of all mysteries, the Mother of the God-Man in the bowels of Mother Earth.
It was the creation of a great artist and a great scientist together. The fusion of shadow and light, the laws of plant life, the structure of the human body, the structure of the earth, the mechanics of folds, the mechanics of female curls that curl like jets of whirlpools, so that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection - everything that the scientist investigated with "stubborn severity", he tortured and measured with impassive precision, He cut him like a lifeless corpse, - the artist again united into a divine whole, turned into a living charm, into silent music, into a mysterious hymn to the Most Pure Virgin, Mother of Existence. With equal love and knowledge, he depicted both thin veins in the petals of an iris, and a dimple in a baby’s plump forehead, and a thousand-year-old wrinkle in a dolomite cliff, and the thrill of deep water in an underground source, and the light of deep sadness in an angel’s smile. He knew everything and loved everything, because great love is the daughter of great knowledge." Dmitry Merezhkovsky "The Resurrected Gods. Leonardo da Vinci"

On April 25, 1483, members of the Brotherhood of the Holy Conception commissioned paintings (the central composition is the Madonna and Child, the side compositions are Musical Angels) by Leonardo da Vinci, who was entrusted with the execution of the most important part of the altar, as well as the brothers Ambrogio and Evangelista de Predis. Currently, art historians are of the opinion that both paintings on an identical subject, of which one is kept in the Louvre and the other in the National Gallery in London, are variants of a painting made for the same purpose. A signature Madonna on the Rocks from Paris (Louvre) originally adorned the altarpiece of the Church of San Francesco Grande; perhaps it was given by Leonardo da Vinci himself to the French king Louis XII as a token of gratitude for mediating in the conflict between customers and artists over payment for paintings. It was replaced in the altar by a composition now in London. For the first time, Leonardo was able to solve the problem of merging human figures with the landscape, which gradually occupied a leading place in his artistic program.

From the testimony of Ammoreti, it should be concluded that the picture Last Supper was completed in 1497. Unfortunately, Leonardo da Vinci painted it with paints, some of which turned out to be very fragile. Already fifty years after the end, the picture, according to Vasari, was in the most miserable state. However, if at that time it was possible to fulfill the desire of King Francis I, expressed sixteen years after the completion of the painting, and, having broken down the wall, to transfer the painting to France, then perhaps it would have been preserved. But this could not be done. In 1500, the water that flooded the meal completely ruined the wall. In addition, in 1652 a door was broken in the wall under the face of the Savior, which destroyed the legs of this figure. The painting was unsuccessfully restored several times. In 1796, after the French crossed the Alps, Napoleon gave a strict order to spare the meal, but the generals who followed him, ignoring his order, turned this place into a stable, and later into a storage place for hay .

Leonardo da Vinci. The Last Supper

1488-1490, "Lady with an Ermine" and "Portrait of a Musician" were painted.

lady with ermine

Portrait of a musician

Second Florentine period 1500-1506.

Preparation and work on the fresco "Battle in Anjaria (at Anghiari)" . The real battle of Anghiari in 1440, in which the Florentines defeated the Milanese, was insignificant: one person died during the entire military campaign. Nevertheless, one episode of this battle deeply touched Leonardo: a fight between several cavalrymen that unfolded around the battle banner.

Leonardo da Vinci's sketches for a large wall painting show that he intended to give a general panorama of the battle, in the center of which the battle for the banner took place. If one phrase (which, alas, is regrettably monotonous in our narrative) describes the further fate of the picture, then let's say: Leonardo's canvas is lost. Da Vinci finished the cardboard (also lost) and painted a picture on the wall. The colors slowly melted away (over a period of about sixty years) until they disappeared altogether. As in the case of The Last Supper, Leonardo experimented - and the experiment ended with the loss of painting, which gradually crumbled. sketch for sculpture. The rearing horses echo those that amaze us in Leonardo's early painting The Adoration of the Magi, but in this case they express not joy, but rage: while the warriors of the picture rush at each other with hatred, the animals bite and kick. The picture can be seen as an expression of Leonardo da Vinci's attitude to the war, which he called "pazzia bestialissima" - "the most brutal madness" - and the image of which, no doubt, was too fresh in his memory, which kept the impressions of Cesare Borgia's military campaigns. He considered his painting an indictment. Let's add: no less relevant for our time. There is no scenery in the picture, and the fantastic costumes of warriors are not related to any particular period. To make his generalization even more impressive, Leonardo directed all the lines of his composition: swords, people's faces, horse bodies, the movement of horse legs - inward. Nothing takes the eye away from the center of this horrendous "material evidence" as if lying alone on a bare table in front of the prosecutor.

Battle of Anghiari (copy of Rubens from a fresco by Leonardo da Vinci). 1503-1505

Leonardo put a lot of work into creating a mural for the Great Council Hall in the Palazzo Vecchio, the government building of the Florentine Republic. He was commissioned to depict the Battle of Anghiari, which took place in June 1440 and ended with the victory of the Florentines over the Milanese. Leonardo's notes, which were later included in the Treatise on Painting, are apparently connected with this work.
They tell how to depict a battle: how to depict the smoke of artillery pieces mixed in the air with dust, how to make the figures of the fighting, the bodies of horses, how to convey the lighting of these figures, etc. Leonardo began to work on cardboard in the so-called hall Pope at the Church of Santa Maria Novella October 24, 1503 The author of an anonymous biography reports that the cardboard depicted the Battle of Anghiari at the moment when the Florentines rush to Nicolo Poccinino, captain of the Duke of Milan Filippo. In February 1505, Leonardo began work on the fresco. But, says Vasari, “thinking of painting on the wall with oil paints, he composed a mixture of such a rough composition to prepare the wall that when he set to painting in the said room, it began to dampen, and soon he stopped work, seeing that it was deteriorating” . Paolo Giovio speaks of "the shortcomings of a plaster that stubbornly refused to take paints diluted with walnut oil." According to the author of an anonymous biography, Leonardo learned the recipe from Pliny, but "understood it poorly." This is hardly the case, it is much more likely that the great artist experimented on his own. According to the same anonymous author, “before painting the picture on the wall, Leonardo fanned a great fire in the coals, which, with its heat, was supposed to draw moisture out of the named material and dry it. Then he set to work on his picture in the hall, and below, where the fire reached, the wall was dry, but upstairs, where, due to the great distance, the heat did not reach, the wall was damp. Leonardo's experiment ended in failure. And the very interpretation of the plot, chosen by him, could not satisfy the customers. As you know, Michelangelo turned out to be the winner, having developed for the other wall of the same hall an episode from the war between Florence and Pisa, dating back to 1364. The glorification of the plot given by Michelangelo was more flattering to the narrowly local patriotism of the Florentines. The war between Florence and Pisa - after all, it was precisely this strife that prevented the implementation of Leonardo's large hydrotechnical projects! Could he have been inspired by episodes from the struggle between Florence and Milan, Florence and Pisa? Benvenuto Cellini later made a mistake, arguing that both artists had to depict how Pisa was taken by the Florentines, choosing only different moments of the same historical event: “the amazing Leonardo da Vinci” depicted “a horse battle with the capture of banners”, Michelangelo depicted “a lot of foot soldiers who, since it was summer, began to bathe in the Arno; and at that moment he pretends to sound the alarm, and these naked infantrymen run to arms. “There were these two cardboards,” Cellini concludes, “one in the Medici palace, the other in the papal hall. As long as they were intact, they were a school for the whole world. (The life of Benvenuto, the son of Maestro Giovanni Cellini, a Florentine, written by himself in Florence. Translated by M. Lozinsky, M., 1958, book I, ch. 12, pp. 49-50). Zubov V.P., Leonardo da Vinci, From the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, M.-L., 1962

The second Milan period of life and work: summer 1506 - autumn 1513.

Finished work on the painting "Leda" . Mona Lisa was created at a time when Leonardo da Vinci was so absorbed in the study of the structure of the female body, anatomy and problems associated with childbirth that it is almost impossible to separate his artistic and scientific interests. During these years, he sketched a human embryo in the uterus and created the last of several versions of the painting "Leda" on the plot of the ancient myth of the birth of Castor and Pollux from the union of the mortal girl Leda and Zeus, who took the form of a swan. Leonardo studied comparative anatomy and was interested in analogies between all organic forms.

Leonardo da Vinci. Ice with a swan. 1508 - 1515

1508-1512 - work on the paintings "Saint Anna" and John the Baptist.

Leonardo da Vinci. John the Baptist. 1512

The index finger of his right hand turned to heaven is another motif associated with the iconography of this saint who came into the world to preach repentance, which would “clear the way” for the coming appearance of the Messiah. On the face, highlighted by light, with a sharp, almost faun-like oval, framed by a cascade of curly hair, a mysterious intriguing smile plays, which is not consistent with the image of an ascetic prophet who lived in the desert and ate locusts and all kinds of wild food. The history of this work, which reveals either mannerism or the search for a language of expression, is shrouded in mystery. It does not appear in the sources under the name John the Baptist: Vasari speaks of an "angel" from the Medicean collections, attributing it to Leonardo, and in his description this picture is very reminiscent of John the Baptist. One might think that the first idea of ​​the artist was to depict the gospel angel, if only this is consistent with a strange figure that evokes in the viewer a feeling of embarrassment rather than enthusiastic amazement. It has the same spirit of irony that is characteristic of the Gioconda, but there is no landscape on which this irony could be projected, reflecting the more complex connections between man and nature. Because of this, John the Baptist makes a strange, even ambiguous impression on the viewer. Meanwhile, the picture certainly belongs to the circle of Leonardo's works, and in its design is one of the most innovative, since in the figure of St. John the master synthesized his search for means of expressing feelings and human nature as a whole. Overloaded with symbolism and illusions, this image seems to exist on the verge of mystery and reality.

Saint Anna

Roman period of life and work: 1513-1516.

In Rome in May 1513, under the name of Leo X, the son of Lorenzo de' Medici, Giovanni, was elected to the papacy.

Leo X owns the saying: "We will enjoy the papacy, if God has given it to us." He surrounded himself with artists and poets. Raphael and Michelangelo worked for him, but the pope treated Leonardo da Vinci with distrust. Leonardo's closest patron in Rome was the pope's brother, Duke Giuliano de' Medici.

In accordance with the philosophical interpretation of phenomena accompanying his art, da Vinci sought to express his own concept of cosmic destruction: equalization, merging in the unity of all elements inevitably coincides with absolute harmony. It begins and ends the story of creation. The Leonardian system could not have come to a more logical conclusion.

And the final point of such a vision of nature can be the image of an artist with intellect and the look of a sage, whose features, both clear and severe, Leonardo captured in self-portrait , - an artist who, deeper than others, managed to explore the secrets and laws of the world and human feelings and express them in the sublime language of art and painting.

Leonardo da Vinci. Self-portrait. 1514 - 1516

And this self-portrait, apparently, also refers to the description of Lomazzo: “His head was covered with long hair, his eyebrows were so thick and his beard was so long that he seemed to be a true personification of noble learning, which the druid Hermes and the ancient Prometheus had already been.”

Ancient biographers of Leonardo da Vinci describe his appearance in the most attractive features:

According to Vasari: "with the brilliance of his appearance, which showed the highest beauty, he returned clarity to every saddened soul."

In the words of Anonymous: “he was beautiful in himself, proportionately complex, graceful, with an attractive face. He wore a red cloak that reached to his knees, although long clothes were then in vogue. A beautiful beard fell down to the middle of the chest, curly and well combed. Zubov V.P., Leonardo da Vinci, From the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, M.-L., 1962

Vinci was handsome, beautifully built, had great physical strength, was well-versed in the arts of chivalry, horseback riding, dancing, fencing, etc. BES Brockhaus and Efron

"... he was tall, slender, beautiful in face and of extraordinary physical strength, charming in dealing with people, a good speaker, cheerful and affable. He loved beauty in the objects surrounding him, wore shiny clothes with pleasure and appreciated refined pleasures ." Freud 3., Leonardo da Vinci. childhood memory

"About ... Leonardo's love for luxury, almost always beyond his means - for numerous servants, thoroughbred horses, original, slightly bizarre costumes, all his biographers speak, as well as about his exceptionally beautiful appearance and physical strength. Tradition, rather old and stubborn, although not supported by documentary evidence, considers the portrait of Leonardo in the early years of his stay in Florence to be the image of the Archangel Michael in a painting by an unknown artist (most likely Botticini or Verrocchio).The painting depicts a young man of very tall stature, with a calm face of exceptional beauty This image corresponds to the descriptions of biographers and the general impression of Leonardo's personality, but whether it is really his portrait, we are unlikely to ever know, since the senile self-portrait, which is usually reproduced by Leonardo's biographers and depicts a bald, unusually significant head with long flowing beard, thick eyebrows and a piercing intelligent look om, is not an undoubted portrait of him.A beautiful appearance that stood out from the crowd, exceptional physical strength, love and the ability to dress in an original and bright way, a passion for a wide life, finally acquired, apparently in these young years, a love for festivities, performances, masquerades - these are the external features that distinguished the young student of Verrocchio. These features are essential, but they only give a decorative frame to that complex set of internal properties and qualities, which also undoubtedly began to form in the first years of Leonardo's life in Florence. "Gukovsky M.A. Mechanics of Leonardo da Vinci, 1947