Giovanni Francesco Melzi (1491/93–ca. 1570)
• Was an Italian painter born into a family of the Milanese nobility in Lombardy.
• 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 grew up in the Milanese court, and was raised with proper manners and was granted a good education, which included training in the arts.
• Leonardo da Vinci 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.
• Francesco and another pupil of Leonardo's, Boltraffo, stood out from the other students as they were capable painters, very bright, and well-learned.
• Francesco began studying and working at Leonardo's workshop and quickly became his master's favorite pupil, and the most devoted as well.
• 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, and with her he fathered eight children.
• Before Leonardo's death in 1519, Francesco's career consisted largely of being an assistant to, and an executor for, Leonardo.
• Francesco was Leonardo's only pupil who stayed with him until his death, traveling and working with him in Milan, Rome, and France.
• 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, while Francesco Melzi received 400.
