The character arc of Leonardo da Vinci
Born 15 April 1452 near Vinci, outside marriage and outside the guilds' usual roads. Died 2 May 1519 at Amboise, in the service of a king. Between the two sit a Florentine workshop, a job letter that listed painting last, a mural that began flaking in his lifetime, a small portrait he never delivered, and thousands of notebook pages the world took centuries to catch up with. The line below draws that whole life in order.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who was Leonardo da Vinci?
He never finished. He never stopped.
He was born outside marriage, which closed the universities and the respectable professions, and so he was apprenticed at about fourteen to Verrocchio's workshop in Florence, where the curriculum was everything: painting, bronze, engineering, music. When he offered his services to the Duke of Milan at thirty, his letter listed thirty talents. War machines came first. Painting came last.
In Milan he painted The Last Supper on a refectory wall in an experimental technique that began failing almost at once, which is the most Leonardo fact there is: the reach always exceeded the materials. When the French took Milan and his patron fell, he was fifty and starting over, and the years that followed produced the battle mural that failed, the anatomy winters of dissection drawings centuries ahead of their field, and a small portrait of a merchant's wife he kept refining and never gave up.
The King of France finally gave him what patrons of half measures never had: a manor, a pension, and no deadlines. He died there with the Mona Lisa still in his baggage. His line is worth reading for its refusal to close anything: the notebooks outnumber the paintings a hundred to one, and the world is still mining them.
The moments
Leonardo da Vinci's timeline.
The 1460s
Apprenticed to Verrocchio
Everyday. A workshop that taught everything at once: paint, bronze, gears and music.
The 1470s
Joined the painters' guild
Milestone. Twenty years old, listed as a master, and in no hurry to leave the workshop.
First commissions of his own
Milestone. Independent at last, and already forming the habit the world would learn: brilliant starts.
The 1480s
Florence, or the new court
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: offer Milan everything, taken, or stay in Florence. The letter listed thirty talents and put painting last; history reversed the order.
Moved to Milan
Milestone, and it changed his direction. His job letter listed thirty talents. War machines came first; painting came last.
The 1490s
Filled the notebooks
Everyday. Flying machines, water screws, grotesques and grocery lists, in mirror writing, for himself.
Finished The Last Supper
Milestone, and it changed everything. Painted in an experimental technique that began failing almost at once. The image survived anyway.
Milan fell, patron gone
Setback, and it changed his direction. The French took the city, the Sforza court collapsed, and at fifty he was starting over.
The 1500s
Began the Mona Lisa
Milestone, and it changed everything. A merchant's wife, a small panel, and sixteen years of refinements he never called finished.
The battle mural failed
Setback. The experimental paint ran on the wall. He walked away from the city's biggest commission.
The 1510s
The anatomy winters
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Dissection drawings centuries ahead of the field, unpublished in his lifetime.
Rome had little for him
Setback. Younger men had the ceilings and the walls. He studied mirrors and grew restless.
The French king's invitation
Milestone, and it changed his direction. First painter and engineer to the king: a manor, a pension, and no deadlines at all.
The line ends 2 May 1519, at Amboise. What it set moving has not ended: the notebooks kept arriving for centuries after him, and every mind that refuses to choose between art and science is keeping his page open.
Your turn
Every story draws a unique line.
His took sixty seven years and outran its own century. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about three minutes.
Sources
- Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists, 1550.
- Walter Isaacson, Leonardo da Vinci, 2017.
- The Codex Atlanticus, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan.
- The Windsor anatomical folios, the Royal Collection.
- The Louvre, Paris.