Leonardo's First Landscape: The Beginning of a Lifelong Love of Nature

For a man who sought employment in bustling Italian cities like Florence, Milan, and Rome, Leonardo da Vinci never lost his longing for the quiet of the natural world. He wandered the countryside in every season, unhurried, stopping to study the curve of a flower petal or the swirling eddies around a rock in a stream. According to tradition, he carried a notebook and charcoal wherever he went, ready to capture any observation before it slipped away.

It may have been during one of these walks that Leonardo sat down to sketch the Tuscan countryside. In a drawing dated August 5, 1473, the twenty-one-year-old artist produced what Martin Kemp describes as the "first dated landscape study in the history of Western art" (Kemp, 2006, p. 30). Kemp notes that we cannot know whether Leonardo sketched the scene while sitting among the Tuscan hills or recreated it later from memory. In the end, he argues, the location matters less than what the drawing reveals about Leonardo's remarkable powers of observation and the originality already emerging in his work.

At first glance, the sketch seems surprisingly modern. Rolling hills stretch toward the horizon while steep cliffs frame the foreground. A winding river cuts through the valley, and scattered trees break up the landscape. Rather than arranging nature into a neat decorative backdrop, Leonardo allows the countryside to feel alive. The terrain rises and falls naturally, inviting the viewer's eye to wander through the scene much as Leonardo himself may have wandered through Tuscany. 

This small drawing hints at a pattern that would define Leonardo's entire career. While many Renaissance artists focused primarily on the human figure, Leonardo became fascinated by the natural world itself. Mountains, rivers, flowers, fossils, clouds, and flowing water all became subjects worthy of careful study. Kemp argues that Leonardo's genius lies not only in the landscape itself, but in its countless small details. It is those tiny observations that bring the drawing to life, ensuring that "everything stirs, rustles, and flickers under the suggestive touch of his pen" (Kemp, 2006, p. 31). 

Over the coming week, we'll explore how that lifelong curiosity shaped some of the most famous works in art history.

Further Reading

Kemp, Martin. Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature and

Man. Oxford University Press, 2006.