Essay About Last Supper And 1483-C

Leonardo Davinci
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1452-1519, Italian painter, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer, and
scientist, probably the supreme example of Renaissance genius. Born in Vinci,
Tuscany, he was the illegitimate son of a Florentine notary and a peasant girl.
His precocious artistic talent brought him to Verrocchios workshop in 1466,
where he met Botticelli and Ghirlandaio. The cul mination of his art in this
first period in Florence is seen in the magnificent, unfinished Adoration of the
Magi (Uffizi), with its characteristic dramatic movement and chiaroscuro. In
c.1482 Leonardo went to the court of Ludovico Sforza in Milan and there composed
most of his Trattato della pittura and the notebooks that demonstrate his versa
tile genius. The severe plagues in 1484 and 1485 drew his attention to town
planning, and his drawings and plans for domed churches reflect his concern with
architectural problems. In 1483, Leonardo and his pupil Ambrogio de Predis were
commissioned to execute the famous Madonna of the Rocks (two versions:
1483-c.1486, Louvre; 1483-1508, National Gall., London). The now badly damaged
Last Supper (c.1495-1498; Milan) was executed during the period when he was
experimenting with the Fresco medium, and this partly accounts for its damage.
Despite this, a sublime spiritual content and power of invention mark it as one
of the worlds masterpieces. Leonardos model for an equestrian monument to
Francesco Sforza was never cast, and in 1500 he returned to Florence, where he
did much theoretical work in mathematics and