Contents

List of plates 9
Preface 13
Introductory note 14

Chapter one: 1452-1482 17
Aim of the book; leonardo’s boyhood; apprenticeship to verrocchio; ver-
Rocchio’s painting and sculpture; leonardo’s part in verrocchio’s baptism;
The uffizi annunciation; the liechtenstein portrait; the munich madonna;
The benois madonna; the louvre annunciation

Chapter two: 1481-1490 37
The uffizi adoration; leonardo’s departure to milan; his engines of war;
The list of his works; the vatican st jerome; the paris virgin of the rocks;
The portraits; leonardo’s pupils; leonardo and salai

Chapter three: the notebooks 60
Their extent and contents; general character of leonardo’s thought; the con-
Tents of the early notebooks, architecture, pageants, allegories, allegorical
Drawings, caricatures

Chapter four: the trattato della pittura 72
Leonardo’s writings on art; the trattato della pittura; his aesthetic theory;
His notes on the science of painting and chiaroscuro, anatomy, dramatic pro-
Priety; his character as an artist as revealed in the trattato

Chapter five: 1485-1496 86
The sforza monument; the last supper

Chapter six: 1497-1503 98
The divina proportione; the sala delle asse; leonardo leaves milan and
Visits mantua and venice; his return to florence; the cartoon of the virgin
And child and st anne; the burlington house cartoon; he takes service
With cesare borgia; portraits painted in florence; the mona lisa; leon-
Ardo’s landscapes and studies of plants; the leda

Chapter seven: 1503-1508 118
Leonardo’s productivity in florence; the christ among the doctors; the
Neptune; studies of the flight of birds, anatomy, and canalization; the battle
Of anghiari; leonardo recalled to milan; the london virgin of the rocks;
Lost madonnas; work with rustici in florence; the wax bust of flora

English