Editing Leonardo da Vinci (section)

=== First Florentine period (1472 – c. 1482) ===
[[File:Adoration of the Magi (Leonardo).jpg|thumb|''Adoration of the Magi'' {{circa|1478–1482}},{{#tag:ref|'''''The Adoration of the Magi'''''
* {{Harvtxt|Kemp|2019|p=27}}: {{circa|1481–1482}}
* {{Harvtxt|Marani|2003|p=338}}: 1481
* {{Harvtxt|Syson ''et al.''|2011|p=56}}: {{circa|1480–1482}}
* {{Harvtxt|Zöllner|2019|p=222}}: 1481/1482
|group=d}} [[Uffizi]], Florence]]
By 1472, at the age of 20, Leonardo qualified as a master in the [[Guild of Saint Luke]], the guild of artists and doctors of medicine,{{efn|That Leonardo joined the guild by this time is deduced from the record of payment made to the Compagnia di San Luca in the company's register, Libro Rosso A, 1472–1520, Accademia di Belle Arti.{{sfn|Ottino della Chiesa|1967|p=83}}}} but even after his father set him up in his own workshop, his attachment to Verrocchio was such that he continued to collaborate and live with him.{{sfn|Bortolon|1967}}{{sfn|Wallace|1972|p=13}} Leonardo's earliest known dated work is a 1473 pen-and-ink drawing of the [[Arno]] valley (see below).{{sfn|Arasse|1998}}<ref name=Polidoro>{{cite journal |last1=Polidoro |first1=Massimo|author-link=Massimo Polidoro |title=The Mind of Leonardo da Vinci, Part 1 |journal=Skeptical Inquirer |date=2019 |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=30–31 |publisher=Center for Inquiry}}</ref>{{efn|On the back he wrote: "I, staying with Anthony, am happy," possibly in reference to his father.}} According to Vasari, the young Leonardo was the first to suggest making the Arno river a navigable channel between Florence and [[Pisa]].{{sfn|Wallace|1972|p=15}}

In January 1478, Leonardo received an independent commission to paint an altarpiece for the Chapel of Saint Bernard in the Florentine town hall, the [[Palazzo Vecchio|Palazzo della Signoria]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Clark |first1=Kenneth |last2=Kemp |first2=Martin |title=Leonardo da Vinci |publisher=Penguin |location=London |isbn=978-0-14-198237-3 |page=45 |edition=New, revised |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fXifCgAAQBAJ&pg=PR45 |date=26 November 2015}}</ref> an indication of his independence from Verrocchio's studio. An anonymous early biographer, known as [[Anonimo Gaddiano]], claims that in 1480 Leonardo was living with the Medici and often worked in the garden of the [[Piazza San Marco, Florence]], where a [[Platonic Academy (Florence)|Neoplatonic academy]] of artists, poets and philosophers organised by the Medici met.{{sfn|Ottino della Chiesa|1967|p=83}}{{Efn|Leonardo later wrote in the margin of a journal, "the Medici made me and the Medici destroyed me."{{sfn|Bortolon|1967}}}} In March 1481, he received a commission from the monks of [[:it:Chiesa di San Donato in Scopeto|San Donato in Scopeto]] for ''[[Adoration of the Magi (Leonardo)|The Adoration of the Magi]]''.{{sfn|Wasserman|1975|pp=77–78}} Neither of these initial commissions were completed, being abandoned when Leonardo went to offer his services to [[Duke of Milan]] [[Ludovico Sforza]]. Leonardo wrote Sforza [[Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci#Résumé|a letter]] which described the diverse things that he could achieve in the fields of engineering and weapon design, and mentioned that he could paint.{{sfn|Arasse|1998}}{{sfn|Wallace|1972|pp=53–54}} He brought with him a silver string instrument – either a [[lute]] or [[lyre]] – in the form of a horse's head.{{sfn|Wallace|1972|pp=53–54}}

With Alberti, Leonardo visited the home of the Medici and through them came to know the older Humanist philosophers of whom [[Marsiglio Ficino]], proponent of [[Neoplatonism]]; [[Cristoforo Landino]], writer of commentaries on Classical writings, and [[John Argyropoulos]], teacher of Greek and translator of [[Aristotle]] were the foremost. Also associated with the Platonic Academy of the Medici was Leonardo's contemporary, the brilliant young poet and philosopher [[Pico della Mirandola]].{{sfn|Rosci|1977|pp=9–20}}<ref name="Rach" />{{sfn|Williamson|1974}} In 1482, Leonardo was sent as an ambassador by [[Lorenzo de' Medici]] to [[Ludovico il Moro]], who ruled [[Milan]] between 1479 and 1499.{{sfn|Rosci|1977|pp=9–20}}{{sfn|Ottino della Chiesa|1967|p=83}}

<gallery widths="165" heights="165">
File:Leonardo da Vinci Madonna of the Carnation.jpg|''[[Madonna of the Carnation]]'', {{circa|1472–1478}}, [[Alte Pinakothek]], Munich
File:Paisagem do Arno - Leonardo da Vinci.jpg|''Landscape of the Arno Valley'' (1473)
File:Leonardo da Vinci - Ginevra de' Benci - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[Ginevra de' Benci]]'', {{circa|1474–1480}}, [[National Gallery of Art]], Washington D.C.
File:Madonna benois 01.jpg|''[[Benois Madonna]]'', {{circa|1478–1481}}, [[Hermitage Museum|Hermitage]], Saint Petersburg
File:Leonardo da Vinci - Hanging of Bernardo Baroncelli 1479.jpg|Sketch of the hanging of [[Bernardo Bandini Baroncelli]], 1479
</gallery>