Journal of

Leonardo da Vinci

Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does Nature, because in her inventions, nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

April 15 1452The Tuscan hill town of Vinci echoed the screams of a young peasant girl.

Beads of perspiration were running down her face. She yelled again, pulling the sheets as she heaved a heavy breathing, going faster by

seconds. The p ain of childbirth was unbearable but she had to endure it for the sake of her love and her unborn child. Caterina griped the hand of Monsieur Messer Piero and with all her might, she made the final push. .

The peasant girl, Caterina has given Messer Piero, a son, a symbol of their love. However the two lovers

could never be united as a family because Messer Piero Frusino di Antonio Da Vinca was a Florentine Notary while Caterina was just a peasant girl, a slave from the middle east.

That was how I, Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was born. In the third hour of the night in Tuscan Hill Town of Vinci in the lower valley of Amo River in the territory of Florence. Mother said it was written in the stars that i was destined to be a painter.

When i was little, a peasant dared my father to ask me paint a picture on a round plaque. I accepted the challenge and i painted a snake spitting fire figure. The painting impressed my father that he sold it to a Florentine Art Dealer. It ended in the home of the Duke of Milan

Year 1466“Leonardo, i want you to work with Andrea di Cione as his apprentice”. Father came home and announced it to me excitedly. “You will learn much from Verrocchio because his workshop is the centre of the intellectual currents of Florence. You, my son will be educated by one of the finest master of humanities.” Father convinced me.

I was 14 years of age imagined having the chance to meet the famous Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Botticelli and lorenzo di Credi. There, i learned drafting, chemistry, metallurgy, metal working, plaster casting, leather working, mechanics and carpentry as

well as the artistic skills of drawing, painting, sculpting and modeling.

I will never forget Verrocchio compliments to me the day i painted the young angel holding Jesus’ robe, The Baptism of Christ. “I swear i ‘ll never paint again for you my son has managed to portray a magnificent drawing that i could ever have!”

A memoir to Verrocchio. The Baptism of Christ.

One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself

Year 1472I was twenty and now a qualified master in the Guild of St. Luke. The guild of artists and doctors of medicine. Father was proud of me. “You shall have a workshop of your own Leonardo” he announced as his face shone with admiration. I still continued collaborating with Verrocchio as i was forever indebted to his guidance as my master apprentice.

5th of August 1473. My first drawing in pen and ink of the

Arno Valley

Year 1478 and 1481I began painting an altar piece for the Chapel of St Bernard and The Adoration of the Magi for the monks of San Donato a Scopeto

The Adoration of the Magi

Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen

Year 1482Lorenzo de Medici and Ludovico il Moro, The Duke of Milan had a disagreement. I wanted the two to be on friendly terms. I created a silver lyre in the shape of a horse’s head, which was sent to Milan. I helped to secure peace between the two of them.

I was commissioned to paint the Virgin of The Rocks for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, and The Last Supper for the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie.

Virgin of The Rocks

The Last Supper

I do a lot of work for Ludovico included floats and pageants for special occasions, designs for a dome for Milan Cathedral and a model for a huge equastrian monument to Francesco Sforza,

Ludovico’s predecessor.

I modeled a huge horse in clay, which became known as the Gran Caxallo. A Seventy tons of bronze were set aside for casting it. In 1492, the model was finally completed.

Year 1494Ludovico gave the bronze to be used for cannons to defend the city from invasion by Charles VIII.When Ludovica Sforza overthrown, I, my assistant Salai and friend, the mathematician Luca Pacioli, fled Milan for Venice. There, I was employed as a military architect and engineer, devising methods to defend the city from naval attack.

There are three classes of people : those who see.Those who see when they are shown.

Those who do not see.

Year 1495I received sad news. The woman who had brought me

into the world had finally

left. I settled her funeral expenditure. I hope my

mother, Caterina would rest in peace.

Tears come from the heart, and not from the brain

Year 1500I returned to Florence and became the guests of the Servite monks at the monastery of Santissima Annunziata. There, i created the cartoon of The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist. It was a great piece of work that won such admiration that men and women, young and old flocked to see it as if they were attending a great festival

,

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Being

willing is not enough, we must do.

Year 1502I became a millitary architect and engineer to Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI, travelling through Italy with my patron.

18th of October 1503I rejoined the Guild of St Luke and painted a great mural of the Battle of Anghiari with Michelangelo,

designing the companion piece, The Battle of

Cascina.

I) Shells that appear on mountain tops and fish bones in caves must be the remains of animals that long ago swam in these places when they were covered in sea. The claim they were swept there by the biblical flood is a completely inadequate explanation. So the surface of the earth has changed over time, with land where once there was sea.II) The most powerful natural force is the movement of water in rivers. Water has sculpted the very largest features of the landscape, a process that must have taken a very long time.III) Therefore slow and relentless natural processes, not the divine instantaneous act described in Genesis, have shaped our planet.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death

Year Between 1513-1516I spent much of my time in the Belvedee in the

Vatican in Rome. In October 1515, Francois I of France recaptured Milan. I was commissioned to make a mechanical lion which could walk forward, then open its chest to reveal a cluster of lilies. In 1516, I was given a manor house Clos Luce near the king’s residence at the royal Chateau Amboise. I spent my life accompanied by my friend, Count Francesco Melzi.