Self Portrait 1512
Red chalk

Mona Lisa
1502 - 1503

Cannons 1485 - 1488
Pen and ink

Signature of
Leonardo da Vinci
1473
The Valley of the Arno


Profile of a Warrior*
1475
Silverpoint, buff paper


Madonna Litta*
(The Head of the Virgin)
1480
Silverpoint,
greenish paper


An Ideal City
1488 - 1489
Plague outbreak inspired da Vinci to plan an advanced "ideal city" with communications, services, and sanitation -- not actually acheived until modern times.


Proportions of the
Human Figure
After Vitruvius
1492
Pen and ink

1452
Leonardo was born in April 1452 at Anchiano
near Vinci in Tuscany, the illegitimate son
of Ser Piero da Vinci, a young lawyer and
Caterina, a village girl.

1469
Leonardo lived in Florence; apprenticed to
Andrea Verrocchio.

1472
da Vinci completes Verrocchio's painting,
The Baptism of Christ, and is admitted to the
Guild of St. Luke as a painter.

1473
Leonardo draws his first dated work on
August 5, a landscape of the Arno Valley.

1476
Leonardo was an assistant and collaborator
in Verrocchio's studio.

1478
Leonardo da Vinci's first independent
commission - an uncompleted altarpiece
for the government of Florence;
later began the Benois Madonna
and the Madonna Litta.

1480
da Vinci gained the patronage of
Lorenzo de Medici, ruler of Florence.

1481
Leonardo was commissioned to paint
Adoration of the Magi for the monastery of
S. Donato a Scopeto near Florence.
(Never completed, it is now in the Uffizi)

1481-82
da Vinci went to Milan as painter
and engineer to Duke Ludovico Sforza,
and to sculpt an equestrian monument
of Francesco Sforza, the duke's father

1483
Leonardo da Vinci contracted to paint
The Virgin of the Rocks;
painted portrait of Cecilia Gallerani,
known as The Lady with the Ermine.

1487
Leonardo designed the pageant of
Il Paradiso with its revolving stage;
worked on designs of the central tower
for the cathedral of Milan until 1488.

1489
Leonardo da Vinci worked on
anatomical research
and architectural design.

1490
da Vinci resumed his work on the
equestrian monument; went to
Pavia with Francesco di Giorgio,
and stayed to study mathematics
and architecture.

1493
Leonardo's full-scale model of the
equestrian monument was exhibited
at the time of the Bianca Maria Sforza
and Emperor Maximilian wedding.

1st dated work
1473
Landscape of the Arno Valley. Inscription: "The Day of the Holy Virgin of the Snows"


Double Crane
1475 - 1480
Machine designed by
Leonardo for canal digging.
Pen, ink and wash


Giant Crossbow
on Wheels
1485 - 1488


Anatomical
Drawing of Skull
1489
Pen and ink


A Study from Nature
for Sforza Monument
1490
Silverpoint on blue paper


Study of Construction
of a Flexible Wing
1495
Pen and ink