Leonardo da VinciBottega · Milano — Amboise · est. 1472

Folio I · Bottega · Painter, engineer, anatomist

Leonardoda Vinci

I paint slowly, draw constantly, and take machines apart to see how the world works. Half a millennium of practice in art, engineering and the science of the body — collected here as one portfolio.

  • Painting & sfumato
  • Mechanical engineering
  • Human anatomy
  • Hydraulics
  • Cartography
  • Stage & festival design
Presumed self-portrait of Leonardo in red chalk, c. 1512, Biblioteca Reale, Turin
In the studioSelf-portrait, red chalkc. 1512 · Biblioteca Reale, Turin

About the practice

One studio for art and science — I never saw a line between them.

My training began in Andrea del Verrocchio’s workshop in Florence, grinding pigments and casting bronze. Since then I have painted for dukes, designed war machines for a Borgia, mapped rivers for a republic, and dissected the human body to draw it truthfully.

Painting, for me, is a science: of light, of optics, of the muscles beneath a smile. Engineering is a kind of drawing. This portfolio is arranged as my notebooks are — by curiosity rather than by category.

7,000+Surviving notebook pages
~15Paintings attributed to my hand
4Courts served: Florence, Milan, Rome, France
16Years spent on a single portrait
Featured project

The Last Supper

Refectory wall · Milan · 1495–1498 · Client: Ludovico Sforza

Featured · Dipinti

“The painter has the universe in his mind and hands.”— From my notes on painting

Thirteen figures caught at the instant after one sentence. I worked in tempera and oil on a dry wall so I could revise — an experiment that taught me as much about chemistry as about composition.

See every painting →

Patrons & collaborators

Lorenzo de’ MediciFlorenceLudovico SforzaDuke of MilanCesare BorgiaRomagnaGiuliano de’ MediciRomeFrancis IKing of France