Francesco Melzi student of Leonardo da Vinci
Francesco Melzi, or Francesco de Melzi (1491–1570), was an Italian painter born into a family of the Milanese nobility in Lombardy. He became a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci and remained as his closest professional assistant throughout his career. After da Vinci's death he became the literary executor of all da Vinci's papers, editing them into a manuscript on painting he published as Tratatto della Pittura [Treatise on Painting] or a compilation entitled the Codex Urbinas.Early life and training
Francesco's father, Gerolamo Melzi, was an engineer for Francesco II Sforza's military, and a captain in the militia in Milan under Louis XII. Francesco lived with his family in the Villa Melzi in Vaprio d'Adda (not to be confused with the Villa Melzi d'Eril in Bellagio, Lombardy), which today is still under the ownership of the Dukes Melzi d'Eril.(p19) Francesco grew up in the Milanese court, and was raised with proper manners and was granted a good education, which included training in the arts. He was reasonably talented in the arts and worked very hard.As a member of a prominent family of the Milanese court, however, Francesco would have had political and social responsibilities as he got older that would have caused him to discontinue his studies in art had it not been for Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo returned to Milan for some time around 1505 and stayed with the Melzi family. It was there that he met Francesco for the first time, enticed by his good nature and handsomeness. In a biography of Leonardo da Vinci, it is argued that he felt compelled to stay in Milan longer than he had intended after meeting with the young Francesco.(p381) Francesco is described in literature as charming and graceful, an adolescent without the awkwardness or lack of manners typical of boys around this age.(p381) Francesco and another pupil of Leonardo's – Boltraffo – stood out from the other students as they were capable painters, very bright, and well-learned. Because of his upbringing in the high court, Francesco was gracious and dignified, and had a very good education.(p351) Shortly after they met, Francesco began studying and working at Leonardo's workshop and quickly became his master's favorite pupil, and the most devoted as well. Despite this, fairly little is written about the apprentice painter, and what is known about him is almost exclusively within the context of Leonardo.
Other than Francesco, none of Leonardo's pupils went on to become respected artists. And although he is not well-known, Francesco is referred to as being the first person responsible for collecting, organizing, and preserving Leonardo da Vinci's notes on painting, and transforming it into a manuscript copy known as the Codex Urbinas. After Leonardo's death in 1519, Francesco returned to Italy and married Angiola di Landriani; with her he fathered eight children.(p371) One of his children, Orazio, inherited Leonardo's manuscripts after Francesco's death in 1569~1570.Selected works
Leonardo da Vinci chose only very handsome boys, as was Francesco, to be his pupils and cared for them considerably as if they were family.(p52) In addition to Francesco Melzi, some of his pupils were Cesare da Sesto, Giovanni Boltraffio, and Andrea Salaí. However, as they were chosen based on attractiveness rather than talent, they were not very skilled painters, and therefore most critics consider it easy to identify paintings they worked, on based on their lower quality.(p359)Because of the general workshop practice where multiple artists work on one painting, it has become common practice to ascribe Leonardo's pupils to his less known (or lower quality) works.(p359) These might be referenced to as paintings done by his pupils that Leonardo touched up, as opposed to the inverse. Francesco Melzi, in contrast to his peers, actually does have a handful of completed, high quality paintings attributed to him, as well as drawings and studies. He is responsible for the red chalk portrait, from approximately 1515, of da Vinci's profile which depicts him as very classically handsome and regal. This is most likely the portrait to which Vasari and Anonimo Gaddiano, as well as other later writers, refer to in describing Leonardo as having such "grace and beauty."There are several other drawings attributed to him in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan. This includes Head of an Old Man which he signed himself saying "1510 a dí 14 Augusto p.a caveat de relic Franchesco de Melzo de anti 17" ["on the day 14 August taken from a relief by Francesco Melzi 17 years of age"].(p116) There is a note on the back sheet that identifies the man in this drawing as Artus Boysi.(pp370–380) This drawing is red chalk on paper, and although it highlights the artist's keen ability to render from observation, Francesco's note at the bottom leads us to believe that it was based on a relief, most likely by Leonardo.(p116) It is also conjectured that he uses this same head in his Vertumnus and Pomona. He also created the chalk drawing Five Grotesque Heads, in addition to Seven Caricatures and Two Grotesque Heads, all in similar style. There are many drawings attributed to Francesco, however it is often difficult to know definitively if they are his because his style is so influenced by, and therefore similar to, Leonardo's.(p120)He is also responsible for some paintings, some of which are relatively well-known. His Vertumnus and Pomona is in the Berlin Museum displayed in the altarpiece, and his Flora, which was attributed to Leonardo until the mid 19th century, hangs in the Hermitage Museum.(p18) La Belle Ferronnière is a painting of an unidentified woman whose author is not certain. In the Louvre it is attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, but is sometimes attributed to Francesco Melzi, and even other times to Leonardo's Workshop. (PLATE III. (a)) Other paintings by or attributed to Francesco are Nymph at the Spring (Washington Gallery of Art), Portrait of a Young Man with a Parrot (Milan, private collection), and Saint Anne with the Virgin and the Child Embracing a Lamb (Galleria degli Uffizi).(pp370–380)Francesco's Flora appears on the cover of Mango's 2009 album Gli amori son finestre.
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