Answer:
Giovanni Francesco Melzi was an Italian Renaissance painter, student of Leonardo da Vinci. He was a very talented artist who worked as a secretary and assistant to Leonardo, who in his later years could not use his hands.
Explanation:
He belonged to a noble but impoverished Milanese family. His father Girolamo had served as captain of the Milanese militia in the service of Louis XII of France. The young Francesco became part of Leonardo da Vinci's house around 1507, during the artist's second stay in the Lombard capital. A drawing conserved in the Ambrosian Library of Milan, dated August 14, 1510 and signed "Francescho di Melzo di anni 17" is his first work conserved and helps us to fix the date of his birth quite accurately. From 1508, his name appears frequently in the papers of the teacher, sometimes under the appellative names of Cecho or Cechino. He accompanied Leonardo on his trips to Rome in 1513 and to France in 1517.
The look of his personal relationship with Leonardo is not entirely clear, even suggests a possible homosexual love between disciple and teacher. However, it should be mentioned that after the death of Leonardo, Melzi married a beautiful Milanese lady, Angiola Landriani, with whom she had nothing more and nothing less than eight children. In any case, it was very close to the teacher's heart, as evidenced by the fact that Leonardo spent almost the whole year 1512 retired in the town that the Melzi had in Vaprio d'Adda.
