Chronological Table : HOLOPROGRAM SCENARIO OF LEONARDO DA VINCI & HIS WORKSHOP

Leonardo's Life - Chronological Table

click to enlarge
the Chronological Table in Leonardo's Room Index If you did not arrive via Leonardo's Room Index (of Leonardo's Life), the table is visual wordplay and is just one of the items, which are symbolic to a greater or lesser degree, that are used in the image map there.
In the Chronological Table, every year of Leonardo's Life has an entry, but some are "empty" which is intended to convey the passage of time.

Not all Leonardo's works are mentioned. As the Da Vinci section focuses on [Voyager], they are not all mentioned on site either.

Dates - why dates are approximate and a note on the Renaissance calendar.

Clickable easel images are for certain items seen, mentioned or inferred in [Voyager]. For complete list, see Da Vinci Index.

inactive link, for illustration purposes only pop-up picture. pop-up picture (portrait of person, not by Leonardo)

Year Leonardo's Life Other events

1452 Born 15th April in Anchiano near Vinci near Florence, Italy, the illegitimate child of a notary Ser. Piero and a farm girl Catarina. Same year, his father marries a young Florentine. At first, Leonardo is cared for by his mother who also marries shortly afterwards.

1453

1454

1455 Gutenberg & Fust Bible publish the 42-lines Mazarin Bible, the first large printed book. War of the Roses begins in England.

1456

1457 Leonardo lives with his paternal grandparents in Vinci.

1458

1459

1460

1461

1462

1463

1464 King Louis XI establishes French Royal Mail.

1465

1466 Johann Mentel publishes the first German Bible.

1467 Leonardo's father marries again after his first wife dies.

1468 Ser Piero takes offices in Florence.

1469 Around this time, Leonardo moves to Florence with his father and begins an apprenticeship in the workshop of noted painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio. Lorenzo de'Medici "The Magnificent" comes to power in Florence.

1470
"The Annunciation" c.1470-73

1471

1472 Leonardo becomes a member of the Florentine painters' guild of the Company of St Luke.

1473

1474 William Caxton prints the first book in English, "Histories of Troy", at Bruges.

1475 Painter Michelangelo Buonarroti born.

1476 Together with four other men, Leonardo is twice charged with homosexual indecency. The charge is withdrawn when no witnesses come forward. For a time he is kept under surveillance by Florence's anti-sodomy police, the Officers of the Night. William Caxton establishes a printing press at Westminster, England.

1477 Violent dispute begins between Germany and France over disputed territory.

1478 Leonardo works on two pictures of the Madonna. Receives a contract for an altarpiece for the Chapel of St Bernard in the Palazzo Vecchio (work later completed by Filippino Lippi).

1479 Leonardo moves into his first apartment. Draws the hanged assassin of the Medici, Bernardo di Bandino Baroncelli.

1481 Commission from the monastery of S. Donato for a Scopeto for an altarpiece, "The Adoration of the Magi", a picture which Leonardo never finishes.

"The Adoration Of The Magi" c.1481-82 Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, which is established this year.

1482 Leonardo settles in Milan. Duke Ludovico Sforza "Il Moro" accepts his offer of his services as an artist and engineer. Leonardo will stay in Milan for 18 years until his patron Sforza is overthrown. The German-French conflict is settled and the disputed lands apportioned.

1483 Together with the de Predis brothers, Leonardo receives a commission for an altarpiece for the Brotherhood of the Immaculate Conception in Milan. The work, known as "The Madonna Of The Rocks" ends up as two versions, one 1483-90 and the other c.1490-1508
Circa 1483-90 Leonardo paints "Lady With An Ermine", a portrait of his patron's mistress.

"Lady With An Ermine"

1484

1485 Circa this year, Duke Ludovico Sforza gives Leonardo the commission to design an equestrian statue to commemorate his father Francesco Sforza. Leonardo spends years studying horses in preparation.
"the great bronze horse in Milan" - the Sforza equestrian monument c.1485-99 Painter Raphael Santi born. The Wars of the Roses ends in England and Henry VII becomes King of England.

1486

1487 Leonardo enters the competition to design the dome of Milan Cathedral.
From earlier and throughout his life, Leonardo researches and draws design sketches for flying machines.

Aerial Screw c.1480-90 "The Hammer of Witches" is published on the proper procedure for the judicial prosecution and punishment of witches, intensifying the already-existing persecution of women by the Church; notably, informants' suspicions and hear-say evidence is acceptable.

1488

glider with maneuverable tips, pilot lying prone, c.1488-89, link goes to "The Dream Of Flight" article

1489 Leonardo begins work on a book on human anatomy.

1490 Circa this year, draws "Virtruvian Man".

1491

1492 Christopher Columbus, in the service of Spain, sets sail westwards from Palos and lands on an island which he names San Salvador. This event is universally marked by historians as the discovery of the New World continent later to be named America.

1493 The life-sized clay model, about 22 feet high, of the planned equestrian statue to commemorate Francesco Sforza is erected in the courtyard of the Sforza castle.

1494

1495 Leonardo begins works on his patron's commission for "The Last Supper" in the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. He also continues to produce technical constructions, and architectural and geometric studies.

1496

1497 Leonardo's patron urges him to complete "The Last Supper".

1498 Leonardo completes "The Last Supper".
click for pic
'The Last Supper' wall-painting
He also decorates a hall in the Sforza castle with murals and ceiling paintings for his patron.
Christopher Columbus reaches the mainland of North America. Portuguese mariner Vasco da Gama reaches India by sea, thus laying the foundations for Portugal's colonial expansion into the Indian Ocean. The penitential preacher Savonarola is burned at the stake in Florence.

1499 In October the French under King Louis XII capture and occupy Milan, overthrowing Leonardo's patron. Leonardo stays until one morning he discovers French crossbowmen using the clay model of the equestrian statue for target practice. Failing to receive any commissions from the French, he leaves Milan accompanied by several pupils and stays at the Mantuan court of Isabelle d'Este.

1500 Leonardo does the preliminary drawing for an oil portrait (never done) of Isabelle d'Este and he devises an air-conditioning system for her home. Leonardo travels to Venice then to Florence. Geographer Martin Behaim produces the first globe.

1501 Leonardo starts upon designs for the painting "The Virgin And Child With St Anne" before he starts to paint it. He carries out mathematical studies.

"The Virgin And Child With St Anne" c.1506-13

1502 Leonardo becomes a military engineer working for Cesare Borgia (son of Pope Alexander VI and Captain-general of the Papal Armies) who issues him with an all-areas travel pass. Leonardo travels with his employer around parts of Italy. During this time Leonardo proposes creating a dry route across the Gulf of Istanbul, connecting the Golden Horn and the Bosporus with a bridge, but other engineers (incorrectly) kill the plan as unfeasible. Probably during this time, Leonardo produces a map of Imola and a general map of Tuscany and the Chiana Valley presumably a strategic map produced for his employer and possibly in connection with Leonardo's plans to build a canal from Florence to the sea.

map of Imola 1502 Ismail I founds the Persian Empire.

1503 Leonardo returns to Florence. Receives commission for "The Battle of Anghiari" in the Palazzo Vecchio.

"The Battle Of Anghiari" 1503-06
Conjectured date for the Marquese del Giocondo's commission for a portrait of his wife Lisa. The portrait, which Leonardo never finishes, will become known to history as "Mona Lisa" a.k.a. "La Gioconda", and come to epitomise Renaissance portraiture and typify Leonardo's "sfumato" painting style.

"Mona Lisa" 1503-06

1504 Leonardo's father dies. Franz von Taxis creates the first postal communication between, at first, two European courts.

1505 Probably travels to Rome. Study of bird flight.
Works on the portrait "Mona Lisa".

1506 At the end of May, Leonardo enters French-occupied Milan. He stays for 3 months, persuaded by the French occupying governor Charles d'Amboise whose master, King Louis XII employs Leonardo. Circa this time, Leonardo works on the last version of "The Virgin And Child With St Anne", probably as a commission from Louis XII. Pope Julius II lays the foundation stone for the new St Peter's in Rome.

1507 Spends the winter with the Florentine Piero di Braccio Martelli.

1508 Returns to Milan. German geographer Martin Waltseemuller calls the New World "America" for the first name, after the sailor Amerigo Vespucci.

1509 Leonardo's 2-dimensional illustrations of 3-dimensional geometric shapes are published in the influential book of his friend Luca Pacioli , the book being called "The Divine Proportion".

polyhedra Henry VIII becomes King of England.

1510 Sometime this year and into next, Leonardo begins working with the anatomist Marcantonio della Torre. Works on the painting "Virgin And Child With St Anne".

human anatomy

1511 In March, Charles d'Amboise (French governor of Milan) dies on a military campaign. Leonardo works on designs for an equestrian monument to Marshal Gian Giacomo Trivulzio. Portuguese explorers occupy the coast of Malaya and thus secure a Portuguese monopoly in the spice trade.

1512 Swiss mercenaries drive the French out of Milan and Allessandro Sforza takes power. Work on the Trivulzio Monument is abandoned. Left without work, Leonardo spends much of his time at the Villa Melzi in Vaprio d'Adda as guest of his pupil Francesco Melzi. Florentine sculptor Gian Francesco Rustici also lives there, and several of his small sculptural groups may be connected with Leonardo's unfinished painting "The Battle of Anghiari".

1513 24th September, accompanied by Melzi, apprentice and intimate Salai as well as Il Fanfoia and Lorenzo di Credi, Leonardo leaves Milan and, via Florence, reaches Rome in December. His new patron, Giuliano de'Medici pays for him to take rooms in the Belvedere Palace of the Vatican and pays him a monthly allowance. Circa this year, Leonardo draws the famous self-portrait (probably done by one of his circle perhaps Francesco Melzi, or arguably even a 19th century forgery). Spanish mariner Vasco Nunez discovers the Pacific Ocean which he names the South Sea. Around this time, Rome was the leading artistic metropolis as the Renaissance popes were investing enormous sums in art and architecture, with Michelangelo and Raphael leading the way. Pope Julius II dies, succeeded by Giovanni de'Medici the brother of Leonardo's patron who takes the papal name Leo X. The Pope bans Leonardo from dissecting human corpses thereby hampering his anatomical studies which hereafter are restricted to animal dissection.

1514 Circ.1513-16, Leonardo produces probably his last painting "John the Baptist".

"John The Baptist" 1513-16 Copernicus speaks for the first time about his theory that the Earth revolves around the sun, which the Church considers heresy as it espouses that the Earth is the centre.

1515 French King Louis XII dies, succeeded by Francis I who will be deemed France's first Renaissance monarch. Francis I recaptures Milan. Switzerland declares permanent neutrality. Hereafter only Swiss soldiers will provide the personal guard for the popes.

1516 Leonardo's patron Giuliano de'Medici dies. Seeing no reason to stay in Rome where he had felt the old outsider compared to the crowd of young painters and sculptors, Leonardo accepts the invitation of King Francis I to settle in France. He leaves Rome in December to travel to France.

1517 Leonardo arrives in France, with only three paintings in his baggage: "Mona Lisa", "The Virgin And Child With St Anne" and "John the Baptist". King Francis I provides him with a generous stipend and the chateau of Cloux near the royal court at Amboise. Melzi lives with Leonardo there. Cardinal Luigi d'Aragona visits and reports that Leonardo's right hand is lame. Martin Luther nails his 95 theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, sparking the start of the Reformation.

1518 Free of external obligations, Leonardo does no painting but occasionally draws a costume sketch or an architectural sketch. He works on several horse figurines for his patron, one of which King Francis I particularly admires.

1519 Leonardo writes his Will. In his Will he appoints Melzi as his executor and leaves him his manuscripts. Dies at Cloux on 2nd May at the age of 67, and is buried there in the monastery church of St Florentin. Before or after his death, Francis I acquires the "Mona Lisa". Charles V becomes Holy Roman Emperor. Spaniard Hernan Cortez invades Mexico and begins the conquest of the Aztec Empire.