Leonardo da Vinci [antikvár]

Life The birthplace of Leonardo has for many years been a matter of speculation. It is generally thought that he was born at Anchiano, just outside Vinci, but somé historians believe, on insufficient evidence, that he was born in Florence. Most probably he was born in the town of Vinci in 1452, the illegitimate son of Ser Piero, a notary, and of Caterina, the wife of Acattabriga di Piero del Vacca da Vinci. The legends handed down to us by his biographers, the Anonimo Gaddiano and Vasari, are products of the aura of myth which surrounds the circumstances of his birth. A document dated 1467 refers to Leonardo as one of the dependants of Ser Piero, and in the same year he joined Verrocchio's studio. In the following year he became a member of the Guild of Painters and seems alsó to have attended the studio of the Pollaiolo brothers. The entry in the Libro rosso dei Debitori e Creditori (Red Book of Debtors and Creditors) of the Guild of Painters is dated 1472. Leonardo's first dated work is the Landscape Drawing in the Uffizi, dated 1473. Legal documents dated 1476 relating to Leonardo's arrest for homosexual offences in a public place provide evidence that he was then still at Verrocchio's studio. It was about that time that he was given permission by Lorenzo de' Medici to work in the orto mediceo (the Medici garden) in the Piazza San Marco, Florence. In January 1478 Leonardo was commissioned to paint a panel in the San Bernardo Chapel of the Palazzo Vecchio. This commission had previously been granted to the Pollaiuolo brothers. However, for reasons unknown, Leonardo did not complete the work. In the same year he executed a painting of the Tivo Marys, now lost, and made a drawing depicting Bernardo Bandini Hanged after the Pazzi Conspiracy (Bayonne Museum). Records dated 1478 no longer include Leonardo's name among his father's dependants. In 1481 he signed a contract with the monks of San Donato a Scopeto, near Florence, for an altarpiece Adoration of the Magi-, this unfinished painting is now in the Uffizi.