Der heilige Hieronymus

1469–1482 · Wirkungsort

Florence

1478

An independent commission: an altarpiece for the Signoria

Leonardo received a commission for an altarpiece for the Chapel of Saint Bernard in the Palazzo della Signoria, Florence's town hall — a sign of his independence from Verrocchio's workshop. It was never completed.

1482

Lorenzo de' Medici's envoy to Ludovico il Moro

Lorenzo de' Medici sent Leonardo as an ambassador to Ludovico il Moro, ruler of Milan. He brought a silver string instrument, a lute or lyre, in the form of a horse's head, and wrote the duke a letter setting out what he could achieve in engineering and weapon design, adding that he could paint.

1482–1500 · Wirkungsort

Milan

spring 1485

Journey to Hungary to King Matthias Corvinus

On Sforza's behalf Leonardo travelled to Hungary to meet King Matthias Corvinus, who commissioned him to paint a Madonna.

1490

Salaì joins his household

Salaì — “the little unclean one”, that is, the devil — entered Leonardo's household as an assistant. Within a year Leonardo called him “a thief, a liar, stubborn, and a glutton”, yet treated him with great indulgence, and Salaì stayed in his household for the next thirty years.