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Francesco Melzi
Francesco Melzi (Francesco de' Melzi) was an Italian painter during the 16th century. Born into a noble Lombard family, he grew up in the Milanese court and was raised with proper manners and an education. He was reasonably talented in the arts and worked hard, however considering his political position, he would not have continued in painting or the arts if it were not for his relationship with Leonardo da Vinci. Around 1505, da Vinci returned to Milan and stayed with the Melzi family in their villa, which is where he and Francesco first met. From that moment on, Francesco de Melzi was to become Leonardo da Vinci's most devoted pupil. Despite this, fairly little is written this apprentice painter, and what is known about him is almost exclusively within the context of Leonardo. In fact, other than Francesco, none of Leonardo's pupils went on to become accomplished artists. And although he is not well-known, he 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 by Melzi known as the Codex Urbinas.

Early Life and Training
Francesco de Melzi, born into a family of the Milanese nobility in Lombardy, was granted a good education and training in the arts. He lived with his family lived 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. As a member of a prominent family of the Milanese court, Francesco would have had political and social responsibilities as he got older that may 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 making acquaintance with the young boy. Francesco is described as charming and graceful, an adolescent without the typical awkwardness or lack of manners typical of boys around this age. Francesco and another pupil of Leonardo's Boltraffo stood out from the other students as they were capable painters, very bright, and well-learned. This showed through In contrast to some of Leonardo's other pupils, Francesco (and another pupil, Boltraffo), were capable painters and decidedly intelligent. Because of his upbringing in the high court, Francesco was gracious and dignified, and had a very good education.

Shortly after they met, Francesco began studying and working at Leonardo's workshop and quickly became his master's favorite pupil.

Career and Life
Francesco Melzi's career is inextricably linked to Leonardo da Vinci, a reason why he is not well-known. Sigmund Freud attributed the lack of success of Leonardo's pupils, including the talented Francesco, to their inability to distinguish themselves as separate from their master, and thus their careers were unable to flourish after his death. Before Leonardo's death in 1519, Francesco's career was largely comprised of being an assistant and an executor. Because of their close relationship, more like father-son rather than master-apprentice, he was content with aiding and caring for Leonardo. One of his main tasks was to scribe his master's Codex Trivulzianus, a manuscript of learned words and ideas.

Francesco was Leonardo's only pupil who stayed with him until his death, traveling and working with him in Milan, Rome, and France. He accompanied the master painter to Milan, where the French governor of Milan Charles d'Amboise was Leonardo's patron, and went to Rome with him in 1513. In his notebook Leonardo wrote, "I left Milan for Rome on the 24th day of September 1513, with Giovanni Boltraffio, Francesco de' Melzi, Lorenzo di Credi, and il Fanfoia." After three years in Rome, Francesco accompanied Leonardo to France in 1516 where they stayed in the Chateau de Cloux in Amboise. During this time, Francis I of France was Leonardo's patron, and the French court account books logged Leonardo's annual payment was 1000 gold crowns (écus de soleil), and Francesco Melzi received 400.

During this time in France, Andrea Salai, another pupil, left Leonardo and build a house on his estate in Italy, and so Francesco was the last pupil who continued to work for his master until his death. He was the executor and heir of Leonardo's Will, in which he left his pupil all of his works. Francesco's responsibility attaching him to Leonardo da Vinci was to care for his late master's works. Leonardo wanted his works to be shared with the world and read by others after his death, however Francesco never fully accomplished this. The works would eventually be compiled, and published as the Codex Urbinas. In addition to this, Melzi actually executed and completed a number of plans for paintings, and paintings themselves, that were left unfinished after Leonardo's passing.

Codex Urbinas
Francesco Melzi is most known for creating the Codex Urbinas, which is a compilation of Leonardo's thousands of pages of notes and sketches under the title "On Painting", and was later known as the Tratatto della Pintura (Treatise on Painting). Although today we would not have the many manuscript copies and versions of Leonardo's notes and sketches, we can also attribute the loss of much of Leonardo's genius to Francesco. Once Francesco inherited Leonardo's manuscripts after his passing, he extensively catalogued them and possibly had the intention to publish them. However the reality is that Leonardo's works were not seen for the whole of the 16th century. After Francesco's death in 1570 the manuscripts were not cared for and thus began their dispersal. When Francesco died in 1568 his son Orazio Melzi, who was a lawyer, inherited the manuscripts. He knew very little of Leonardo da Vinci and the manuscripts his father kept and therefore did not understand their value, so they laid neglected in his attic for years.

Despite his failure to publish them, Francesco did in fact ensure the future preservation of his late master's works that he treasured so greatly. He gathered 944 short chapters from Leonardo's scattered notes, and had difficulty organizing and arranging the material and even left some pages blank. Being a Milanese noble, he must have employed helpers to sort through the thousands of pages of notes, but he was the only one who could decipher Leonardo's unique left-handed mirror-like writing style and enigmatic abbreviations and spellings. However, this was just the beginning. Before the manuscript was published at least five copies were hand scribed by students, some of which are in The Elmer Belt Library of Vinciana at the University of California, Los Angeles Library. We can see each of these efforts, starting with Francesco's, as steps leading up to the final production and printing of the manuscript. In addition, he made Leonardo's works accessible to scholars at the time such as Vasari, Lomazzo, Antonio Gaddiano, Cardano, among others, whose names are listed in numerous manuscript copies.

Relationship with Leonardo da Vinci
From the time Francesco Melzi became an apprentice at Leonardo da Vinci's workshop, his life largely revolved around his master's. Leonardo took an immediate liking to Francesco when he met him as an adolescent at his house in Milan and took him under his wing as an apprentice. Francesco became like a son to his master, and Leonardo like a father, and followed him up until his death in 1519. Francesco quickly became aware of his master's loneliness, seeing past his legendary fame, and felt impelled to care for him, essentially devoting his whole life to him. Leonardo's second Milanese period, when he resided with the Melzi family, is by some considered his most creative years in art and canal engineering. This is the time when he created the engineering plans for the Martesana Canal, which still regulates the Arno river in Milan today.

Because the two were so close, lived together, and cared for each other so deeply, there have been theories that Leonardo and Francesco engaged in romantic, homosexual relations. However, these theories have no hard evidence and have been largely refuted, stating their relationship never extended past platonic or familial affection. There have also been no accounts of Leonardo having sexual or romantic relations of any kind with a woman. Leonardo was also charged with homosexual acts that were at the time forbidden during his apprenticeship with Verrocchio, however was acquitted.

Francesco also influenced his master's religious beliefs. As a man of science, Leonardo was not particularly religious. In Giorgio Vasari's first edition of Lives of the Artists he accused the polymath of having heretical beliefs, however in his second edition revised this statement and states that he "earnestly resolved to learn about the doctrines of the Catholic faith and the good and holy Christian religion." Although he may have overstated his master's devotion to Christianity, it is true that he was a firm believer towards the end of his life, and that his apprentice influenced him greatly--Francesco was a very devoted Christian and they spent much time together. In fact, the only people at Leonardo's deathbed were Francesco and members of the clergy -- the vicar of the church of St. Denis at Amboise, two Franciscan friars, and two priests.

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. In addition to Francesco Melzi, some of his pupils were Cesare da Sesto, Boltraffio and Andrea Salaino (Andrea Salai). However, as they were chosen based on attractiveness rather than talent, they were not very skilled painters, and therefore it is easy to identify paintings they worked on based on their lower quality. 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. 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 paintings attributed to him, as well as drawings and studies. There are several drawings attributed to him in the Ambrosiana in Milan, his Vertumnus and Pomona is in the Berlin Museum, and his Columbina (recently has been argued to be Leonardo's work hangs in the Leningrad Hermitage, to give examples of some of his more well-known works. He is responsible for the infamous 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." La Belle Ferronniére 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, other times to Leonardo's Workshop.

Also talk about "the green madonna" on the wall of the Villa Melzi