What relationships did Leonardo da Vinci have?

Answer 1

He may have been gay, although in Florence Italy, at the time it was known as "citta di note" or city of the night. the local powers organized a snitch box which citizens were able to drop names of persons along with supposed crimes. More than likely Leonardo was the target of a rival artist. They dropped his name in the box in hopes of eliminating competition. He was found innocent. He was a private man and we know only what and who he was by his writings and the writings of Vasari. We really do not know who Leonardo was intimate with.

Answer 2

They seldom met. Leonardo spent a few months in Rome about the time Michelangelo got the commission to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling and that this made Leonardo envious and came to hate Michelangelo, but this is pure guesswork.

Answer 3

In 1503 the city of Florence commissioned both Leonardo and Michelangelo to paint two frescoes on opposing walls in the Salone dei Cinquecento (Palazzo Vecchio) depicting the battle of Anghiari (Leonardo) and the battle of Cascina (Michelangelo). The purpose of this commission was to be a competition between both master to see which one was the better one. This project was never really completed. Leonardo painted his fresco using some technique he was trying to develop and it didn't work. Soon after he finished the fresco, the paint started peeling off. His fresco was later covered by a fresco painted by Vassari.

Michelangelo never started to paint his fresco but was able to do a cartoon (preparatory drawing) of it.

The preparatory drawings of both frescoes were copied by other artists and those copies of the drawings have survived so that we can take a glimpse of what the frescoes would look like. Peter Paul Rubens copied the Battle of Anghiari by Leonardo and Aristotele da Sangallo copied the Battle of Cascina by Michelangelo.

If you'd like to see what the drawings look like, you can do an internet search for the names of the battles and pictures will come up.

Answer 4

They may have met in Rome. It is rumored that Leonardo was jealous of Michelangelo's papal commissions, but he soon left Rome.