50Minutes - Leonardo da Vinci: The quintessential Renaissance man

The Renaissance began in the Italian city of Florence in the mid-15 th century, and spread across the rest of Europe over the course of the 16 th century. This tremendously influential movement was born from the study of ancient Greek and Latin texts, which led to the rediscovery of many artistic and cultural principles dating from antiquity. Its aims were to revive these traditions and restore learning and knowledge to a more prominent position within society. The great thinkers of the era also began placing greater emphasis on the inherent value of humanity, particularly through the idea that human beings could improve themselves by gaining knowledge. As such, it was a time of research and discovery, which led to innovation in a wide range of scientific and artistic fields. For example, the new theories on perspective and proportions that were developed by sculptors and architects had a tremendous influence on artistic techniques.

Artists also began to receive a great deal more recognition for their work: they began signing their artwork with their names and were no longer considered mere artisans. Furthermore, they began drawing inspiration from different sources, notably from ancient Greek and Roman mythology, and secular works such as portraits, nudes and mythological allegories became much more popular. Italian nobles also realised that art could be used as a tool to glorify themselves or their cities, and patronage became a much more common practice. This meant that artists received more commissions, which in turn bolstered their reputations.

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Unlike other great thinkers of his time, da Vinci did not base his work on classical principles, and even admitted that he was unfamiliar with them in his writings. On the contrary, his painting style was primarily influenced by his own worldview, which was based on his life experience and scientific experiments. In a way, it could be said that he did not believe anything unless he had seen it with his own eyes.

Italy did not become a unified country until 1870, and was made up of a variety of city-states in the 15 th century. One of these cities was Florence, which was ruled by the wealthy Medici family from 1434 onwards. Under their leadership, the city entered a golden age of political, economic and cultural prosperity, and notably became the central hub of artistic production on the Italian peninsula under the guidance of Lorenzo de Medici, also known as Lorenzo the Magnificent. The greatest artists and philosophers of the era flocked to the city, but Lorenzos death in 1492 plunged the metropolis into a period of crisis which lasted until 1494, when his son Piero II (1472-1503) was banished from the city. This marked the beginning of a period of exile for the Medici family which lasted until 1512.

Furthermore, the King of France, Charles VIII (1470-1498), set out to conquer the Duchy of Milan and the Kingdom of Naples in 1494, and also conquered Florence that year. Fear spread through the city, reinforced by the surging belief in millenarianism, a doctrine that claimed the world would end at the turn of the century (in other words, in 1500). The preacher Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498) took advantage of this climate of fear to call for a return to austerity, and set up bonfires of the vanities where books, paintings, jewellery and any other objects that he deemed to be a source of vanity could be publicly burned. However, these practices drew the ire of the Florentine authorities and of Pope Alexander VI (1431-1503), and he was executed in Florence in 1498.

In 1502, the citys prior Piero Soderini (1450-1522) was elected gonfaloniere for life of Florence. However, when Lorenzo de Medicis second son Giovanni was elected pope in 1513 under the name Pope Leo X, he restored the Medici family to power and made his younger brother Giuliano the new ruler of the city. From that point onwards, Florence was effectively controlled by the papacy until the sack of Rome at the hands of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500-1558) in 1527.

The city of Milan was at that time the capital of a rich duchy founded by the Visconti dynasty, and had been governed by the Sforza family since 1450. Although it was not quite as influential as Florence, it was another major cultural hub, particularly from 1476 onwards, when it flourished under the leadership of Ludovico Sforza and entered a period of great political, economic, cultural and artistic prosperity. Although his court only counted a few high-ranking nobles, Sforzas aim was to become a worthy rival of Florence and the Medici family. However, he adopted a somewhat different strategy, and primarily focused on scientific research and entertainment rather than the arts, which only interested him insofar as they could be used to bolster his own position. However, his goal of turning Milan into a new Athens that all the greatest artists and philosophers of the era would flock to was jeopardised by threats to his grasp on power in the duchy. In 1500, during the Battle of Novara between Sforza and King Louis XII of France (1462-1515), Sforzas hired mercenaries who had not been paid handed him over to the French army, who imprisoned him in the Chteau de Loches. He died there in 1508.