In 1482, at the age of 20, Leonardo Da Vinci entered the service of the Duke of Milan. He remained in the Duke's service for 17 years until the Duke Ludovico Sforza's fall from power in 1499.

The Duke had Leonardo perform many works such as painting and sculpting and designing elaborate court festivals. Spending this time in the Court of Milan challenged Leonardo to develop his talents and ingenuity in all the areas of his interest.

He was able to develop his ability to be a great architect. He entered competitions to design the dome of Milan Cathedral and he also planned a palace for a nobleman. Sadly, neither of them were constructed. His earliest painting commission in Milan was an altar piece for the "Confraternity of the Immaculate conception, the Virgin of the Rocks(right). He also exectued a portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, the Duke's mistress. Between 1495 and 1497 he painted the well known mural of the Last supper(below left).

A French invasion in 1499 caused Leonardo to leave Milan. He returned to Florence in 1500 and began his work on the composition St. Anne with the virgin and child. The cartoon (beginning sketch) was later put on public display.

Two years later he began working in the service of Cesare Borgia as a military engineer. In Borgia's service he traveled Italy and produced a great deal of maps that became important monuments.

In 1503, Leonardo returned to Florence and got involved in a competition with Michaelangelo in which he painted the Battle of Anghiari. He had completed the cartoon and was starting the painting when, in 1506, King Louis XII of France asked him to reutrn to Milan. Only the central of the Battle of Angiari was finished and has been preserved, in copies. In this time period he also completed the incredibly famous painting Mona Lisa(below right).

Leonardo stayed in Milan for seven years and had the post of artistic advisor to the French governor, Charles d'Amboise. His goal was set on forming an equestrian monument to the marshal Giacomo Trivulzio but it too was never completed.

By the end of 1513, at the age of 61, Leonardo was in Rome as a guest of Guilano de' Medici. Medici offered Leonardo a studio in the Beldevere of the Vatican so Leonardo stayed there for two years and rarely went outside the city. He worked on no major commissions and apparently had little contact with extraordinary artistic life then turning the city into the capital of High Renaissance Art.

His notebooks are filled with studies of all sorts, such as anatomical, mathematical, and mechanical studies. Still, there is no mention of Bramante's St. Peter's, Raphael's frescoes in the Vatican, or Michaelangelo's Sistine Ceiling. Francesco De Melzi, Leonardo's favorite student and long time friend, would take possession of these notebooks and files after Leonardo's death.

In 1517, Leonardo was invited by King Francis I to move to France. Here he was proclaimed royal painter, architect, and engineer, even though he wasn't active in these roles and he was established in his very own residence in Cloux. This is where he lived the rest of his life.