9781422277645

The study of perspective was not new. It had been first looked at by Filippo Brunelleschi, the architect who had finished the Florentine cathedral dome. The theory of perspective had been put into geometrical form by Leon Battista Alberti, who was still alive when Leonardo joined Verrocchio. The use of perspective was essential for anatomical drawings. For Verrocchio, the geometrical problems of perspective were too difficult, but they encouraged Leonardo to experiment for many years. Not until 1492, in Milan, was he able to set out the results of his experiments into rules of perspective, which he based on the physics of light. In those days, it was the artists who studied anatomy, not doctors of medicine. Within a few yards of Verrocchio’s workshop was an art studio managed by the Pollaiuolo brothers. They obtained their knowledge of human muscles mostly from flayed corpses—bodies from which the skin had been removed. Their example was followed by Verrocchio, who produced a statue of a flayed Greek god, Marsyas. During his time with Verrocchio, Leonardo’s interests broadened. Wandering in the countryside around Florence, his observant eye began to notice rock formations, caves, and fossils. What he saw in the layers of rock and their fossils raised questions in his mind. It was the same with plants. There in the valley of the Arno River, he began his botanical research. The results of these can be seen in his paintings of flowers and trees in his two earliest known paintings of the Annunciation . One is in the Louvre in Paris, the other in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Leonardo was enrolled in the Company of Painters in 1472. Unhappy Years In 1476, tragedy overtook Leonardo. For the whole of his life, he never seemed very interested in women except as mother figures. To many, this suggested that he was a homosexual. A charge was brought against him by an unknown person who placed an unsigned letter in the box in the wall of the Palazzo Vecchio provided for this sort of accusation. The charge was dismissed, but there is evidence in Leonardo’s notebooks that it caused him great distress. During this period, he painted a picture of Saint Jerome that is now in the Vatican. This shows the human mind and body at the limit of suffering. Not only does

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