Leonardo Da Vinci's Virgin Of The Rocks

In Milan, Leonardo sought and gained the patronage of Ludovico Sforza, and soon began work on the painting Virgin of the Rocks. After some years, he began work on a giant bronze horse, a monument to Sforza's father. Leonardo's design is grand, but the statue was never completed. Meanwhile, he was keeping scrupulous notebooks on a number of studies, including artistic drawings but also depictions of scientific subjects ranging from anatomy to hydraulics.

Leonardo da Vinci’s embryological drawings of the fetus in the womb and his accompanying observational annotations are found in the third volume of his private notebooks (Hilary J Gilson). The drawings of Leonardo’s embryological studies were conducted between the years 1510–1512 and were drawn with black and red chalk with some pen and ink wash on paper (Hilary J Gibson). The drawings illustrate how much of a genius Leonardo is at the human
Here, he was left entirely free to pursue his own researches until his death. Although there is no certain record of his last years, he seems to have been active with festival decoration and to have been interested in a canal project (McGarty). Notes and drawings ascribed to this late period show his continued interest in natural philosophy and experimental science (McGarty). In 1506, Leonardo traveled to Milan. He became the exquisite painter and engineer to Louis XII. In 1507, he returned to Florence to battle against his brothers for their uncle Francesco's inheritance. In 1513, he moved to Rome. There, he worked on mirrors, and probably the above self- portrait. In 1516, he left Italy for France, joining King Francis I in Amboise, whom he served as a wise philosopher for three years before his death in