Leonardo's Early Life

  There are a few facts about Leonardo's early life and about those around him which have been used to formuate the following most likely sequence of events:

14th April 1452 - Leonardo is born "at three in the morning" according to the record kept by his grandfather Ser Antonio da Vinci (see star map). He is the illegitimate son of Ser Piero, a notary, and Caterina, a peasant woman.  Leonardo is baptised in a ceremony attended by members of the da Vinci family indicating that he was accepted and recognised by the da Vincis although he was not legitimised.  In the same year Ser Piero marries Albiera Amadori - a sixteen year old woman of good family who, it later transpired, was unfortunately unable to have children.

April 1452 to Autumn 1453 - Leonardo is nursed by Caterina following which he goes to live with the da Vinci family.  The household consists of a grandfather Ser Antonio, a grandmother Monna Lucia, his father Ser Piero, his wife Albiera and an uncle.

Between Autumn 1453 and December 1453 - Caterina marries Accattabriga di Piero del Vacca, a peasant who had ties with the da Vinci family.

Between June 1454 and December 1455 Caterina gives birth to a daughter, Piera.  A few years later a second daughter is born.

According to one theory it was while being nursed by Caterina that the primary driving forces behind Leonardo's psychology were formed.  This theory supposes that infants are curious about their mother's genitals and want to see if she has a penis.  The twin desires to see and to know were conceived which, perhaps frustrated by the early separation from his mother and maybe exacerbated by the relatively unusual circumstances of his birth (illegitimacy) and upbringing (by a person who was not his natural mother and who was unable to have children), were later translated into Leonardo's acute powers of observation (seeing) used in painting and describing the natural world and into his scientific researches (knowing).

The Man with Two Mothers

  In The Virgin and Child with St Anne the odd arrangement of the two women gives the appearance of merged figures.  Leonardo had at least two (and possibly three) maternal figures - Caterina, his stepmother Albiera and his grandmother Monna Lucia.

The painting shows St Anne to be little older than Mary (which was against the artistic tradition of the time, St Anne being the mother of Mary) and perhaps this was influenced by the fact that Caterina and Albiera had less than ten years separating their ages.