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When it comes to the Renaissance, his name is the first thing that comes to mind. The image of the unsurpassed and mysterious master and his creations is immediately recreated in the imagination. It seems to many that Leo was the only one in the Renaissance who did anything at all. But one has only to analyze the facts, as it becomes clear that the story of Leonardo is complete nonsense.

This man had a lot of ideas and among them, of course, there are many interesting ones. But the truth that we will reveal will bring you back from heaven to earth. There is no doubt that this man was much more talented than most of us, but in every line of da Vinci's work there was always someone who surpassed him in this. In the Renaissance, geniuses were like dirt. As soon as you step out onto the streets of 16th-century Italy, you would immediately meet a talented painter who gave his works more importance than they deserved. So: if you compare the legacy of Leonardo with that of his contemporaries, then his greatness will cease to seem so grandiose.

It is hardly possible to call the works of da Vinci in painting masterpieces, they are not much different from the works of his contemporaries

Even if you do not deny the fact that the Mona Lisa is the greatest work of art of all times and peoples (this is what we have been told since childhood), then after looking at other works of that time, you will agree that it is quite trivial for itself. Perhaps, except for the fact that she has no eyebrows at all.

Most of Leonardo's paintings are the most ordinary portraits and biblical scenes, like all artistic works of that time. And if you line them up in a row, you are unlikely to be able to choose the most outstanding. Just a few decades later, Titian and Raphael were creating paintings that surpassed those of Leonardo. Those who have seen with their own eyes the work of Caravaggio, a contemporary of da Vinci and famous for writing biblical scenes, will easily confirm that the works of Leonardo pale in comparison with his masterpieces.

The famous fresco "The Last Supper" is devoid of style. In addition, any professional artist will confirm that on the technical side this work was a failure - the fresco began to crumble during the life of Leonardo, this happened from a lack of knowledge - da Vinci did not know the rules for working with the egg yolk paint that he used. And it was not his only joint.

Da Vinci lost to Michelangelo in a one-on-one battle

His fresco on the wall of the Palazzo Vecchio did not work out due to the lack of knowledge of the master

Leonardo managed to show his professionalism not only in The Last Supper. In a competition with Michelangelo to paint the opposite walls of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, where, according to the original idea, the greatest works of that time were to appear, da Vinci lost immediately. He wasn't good enough at his craft to carry out the project.

He began applying oil paint to the unprepared wall. The colors in his work "The Battle of Anghiari" instantly faded under the influence of humid air, he was never able to recover from this blow. Leonardo left the "battlefield" in confusion, the competition ended almost without starting. Michelangelo and his work "The Battle of Kashin" emerged victorious in this "war".

But fate was not favorable to Michelangelo: this work was destroyed by a crowd of haters of his talent, and an unknown artist painted over the wall a few years later.

Leonardo's most famous inventions weren't invented by him

In fact, this is just a spinner toy, not an aircraft.

Da Vinci is known throughout the world as a first-rate inventor. But even here there is a small but: this is a pure lie.

His famous invention, the helicopter, was actually a simple spinner. The design was completely copied from a Chinese toy, whose task was not to rise into the air, it just spun in place. For those who understand even a little about aerodynamics, it is obvious that his helicopter will not be able to take off. Da Vinci did not understand anything in aerodynamics and the physics of motion, did not realize that an engine was needed for the operation of an aircraft.

He certainly gave impetus to the development of innovative machines, for example, a hang glider, but he was far from the first to design such things, and not even the second. Two others - an English monk and a Muslim polymath Abbas ibn Firnas - are the ones who first designed and tested a hang glider, risking flying off a cliff. Some historians attribute to him sketches of current instruments in his notebooks, but studies prove otherwise.

You can't call him an outstanding sculptor

The execution of the statue had to be stopped at the drawing stage due to the high cost of the project.

If you are trying to find the sculptures of Leonardo in order to somehow reanimate him, we hasten to disappoint you: you will not find them. The only real sculpture that he could create is a bronze statue of a horse with a massive base that supports the rider and horse. An important point: the advantage of bronze over marble is that it does not need a base for support if it is properly balanced. Leonardo did not know this. This fact allows us to emphasize the unprofessionalism of da Vinci and once again debunk the myth of his genius.

If you compare Leonardo with someone like Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini, then the bottomless abyss between a true master and an amateur becomes obvious. Bernini's crowning achievement is The Rape of Proserpina. The details are so skillfully executed on marble that we can see the believable folds of skin under the fingers, a tear on the cheek, curls of hair flying in the wind - and all this is done so beautifully that we forget that we are looking at an image taken from intricate Greek mythology. .

A huge statue with a horse was made by Leonardo by order of a Milan count, but it was never assembled into one, since Leonardo had no idea how to do it. The count, whose name was Ludovico Sforza, did not hide his surprise at Leonardo's relaxed mood. In this project, the matter did not go beyond the sketch, this happened for the same reason that the “Battle of Anghiari” was never completed - Leonardo simply lacked skill. After the maestro pulled some time, the count stopped funding the project, and after all, Sforza could quickly find a replacement for Leonardo and embody the idea with the statue of a rider.

His real inventions had no practical application

He created useless things and seemed to understand this

Da Vinci's inventions were amazing, weren't they? It's fair if you shout it at the screen while reading our article, but more often than not, his inventions were ill-considered and doomed to failure. It is for this reason that they remained on paper, many of them were abandoned in the early stages of development, since in order to put them into action, a lot of additional devices or a serious revision of the drawing were required.

Sketches form a large part of Leonardo da Vinci's legacy. But in order to boldly call yourself an inventor, you need not only draw an idea, but also bring it to life, refine the shortcomings and bring it to mind. We cannot provide evidence that da Vinci designed his inventions. The robotic soldier he created was just a gimmick, the design was able to function only after being finalized by modern engineers.

His tank, after being tested in the real world, turned out to be very slow even on perfectly dry and even surfaces (and in the 15th century the conditions on the field were clearly worse), the car shook violently, and the people inside were deafened by cannon shots. In addition, self-propelled vehicles were not new and anyone who says that it was da Vinci who changed military affairs is deeply mistaken.

The assumption that da Vinci invented the perpetual motion machine is also erroneous. Any physicist since the 18th century will confirm that it is impossible to create such a machine. Modern science also denies this fact. Leonardo was not the creator of this idea and was not the one who would bring it to mind. We can no longer pretend that he was ahead of his time, his mentality was quite mediocre for that era.

While Leonardo invented the parachute, the practical use of which only became possible after 400 years, he gave up, having come up with the conical shape of the dome (yes, that's what is used today).

He copied his legendary diaries from others

Some scholars suggest that Leo simply copied the diaries of his contemporaries.

Da Vinci's diaries are really interesting, they actually have a lot of ideas that, if successfully finalized, could change the world. But modern scientists say that these records are just copies of ... copies. Mariano Taccola was another eccentric figure in Italy of that time, it was from his works that Leonardo drew what became his hallmark - the "Vitruvian Man". Many historians also believe that the mathematician Giacomo Andrea also deserves attention.

Nor did Leonardo invent the underwater bomb; he borrowed his "death ray" from Archimedes. The flywheel, which never found practical use, was also invented long before Da Vinci by some guy whose name we don't care much about.

It is also interesting that many of his inventions have something in common with the inventions of the Chinese, and this makes some sense, given the fact that it was the Chinese civilization that gave the world many modern goods: a printing press, guns, rockets, rifles and paper back in pre-Colombian times. time.

Leo was not a respected engineer of his time

He designed the bridge, but it was never built

His achievements in the field of engineering are even worse than you can imagine: he did not complete a single order on time. In addition to the bridge, which never materialized, and the crazy idea of ​​reversing the Arno River, which failed (earth dams were destroyed by a rainstorm), there were several projects in Venice. For example, a gutter that was not built because the estimate went beyond the budget. Da Vinci did not realize a single work. He only unfoundedly stated that he was a talented civil engineer. Any engineer will tell you that designing something is not a sign of skill.

His ideas were too far from reality or too complex and expensive to execute. They did not solve any issues, they were only a farce. When a team of Norwegians, out of curiosity, tried one of Leonardo's ideas, they ran into the same problem as the Italian counts of the 16th century: it was too expensive.

His research in anatomy was not that significant.

The image of the Vitruvian man is known to all

The use of corpses for the purpose of studying anatomy was forbidden by the church, so Leonardo's drawings were given more importance. But his contemporaries - Michelangelo, Durer, Amusco and Vesalius - all of them also conducted research in the field of anatomy, so again da Vinci was not the only one.

Leonardo was careful with his manuscripts, he did not want anyone to use the knowledge he had obtained. Charles Etienne created the most detailed diary on the anatomy of the human body, where he described all the internal organs, muscles, arteries, veins, while Leo's notes were kept under lock and key for several centuries. His merits in the field of science are again in question; he did not stand out among his contemporaries.

Left no truly meaningful legacy

Unfortunately, none of Leo's ideas became a hypothesis.

We used to think that Leonardo was a genius, in fact he did not have the proper knowledge in any of the sciences, be it chemistry, medicine, sociology, astronomy, mathematics or physics. He did not leave behind any scientific works, or just ideas or technologies, even his own theories, such as, for example, Bacon or Newton.

His only independent idea was the hypothesis that the Flood probably did not exist at all. Such conclusions were made on the basis of observations of rocks, which the maestro, of course, kept to himself, instead of making them public. He was a talented scientist, had an idea about the structure of the human body, but it would be dishonest to call him a genius of science, because there were other great people at that time: Gilbert, Fibonacci, Brahe, Mercator, who also contributed to the development of the social consciousness of the Renaissance.

He was not the best role model

During the Renaissance, there were a great many scientists, inventors, researchers who deserve more attention than da Vinci.

Leonardo was not stubborn. Many great minds could change their point of view under the pressure of public opinion.

Few people could boast of a better position than Leonardo: he had the best teachers and mentors. Master Leonardo Filippo Brunelleschi was a jeweler who was also interested in architecture and construction, like da Vinci. But that's where their similarities end. The master was instructed to finish the dome of the Florence Cathedral and he did it, although before him the architects could not finish the construction for decades. Not only did he beat his rival, he designed the cranes that completed the project. The innovations he developed have become a cultural and architectural legacy.

While da Vinci was just beginning to study anatomy, Bartolomeo Eustashi was already teaching and writing books on dentistry, the internal structure of the ear, creating visual models, diagrams close to modern ones. A body part was even named after him.

Giordano Bruno was a scientist, poet, mathematician and mystic. He became famous for suggesting that the stars are small suns and that they also have their own planets. He also suggested the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations, his ideas were close to the ideas of modern scientists. In matters of religion, he was ahead of Copernicus and refuted, as it seemed to him, stupid assumptions. As a reward for this, he was executed.

Meanwhile, da Vinci was inventing incredible machines that were impossible to sell to customers. Most likely, he understood this, but continued to create. While others gave their lives defending their scientific or religious views, da Vinci bowed at the feet of despots and aristocrats.

Like any historically significant personality, Leonardo has fans and opponents. During his life he created many objects of science and art, but if you compare them with the works of his contemporaries, it becomes clear that they are all quite trivial.

(Leonardo da Vinci) (1452-1519) - the greatest figure, the multifaceted genius of the Renaissance, the founder of the High Renaissance. Known as an artist, scientist, engineer, inventor.

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in the town of Anchiano near the town of Vinci, located near Florence. His father was Piero da Vinci, a notary who came from a prominent family in the city of Vinci. According to one version, the mother was a peasant woman, according to another - the owner of the tavern, known as Katerina. At about the age of 4.5 years, Leonardo was taken to his father's house, and in the documents of that time he is called the illegitimate son of Piero. In 1469 he entered the workshop of the famous artist, sculptor and jeweler Andrea del Verrocchio ( 1435/36–1488). Here Leonardo went the whole way of apprenticeship: from rubbing paints to working as an apprentice. According to contemporaries, he painted the left figure of an angel in a painting by Verrocchio Baptism(c. 1476, Uffizi Gallery, Florence), which immediately attracted attention. The naturalness of movement, the smoothness of lines, the softness of chiaroscuro - distinguishes the figure of an angel from the more rigid writing of Verrocchio. Leonardo lived in the house of the master and after in 1472 he was admitted to the Guild of St. Luke, the guild of painters.

One of the few dated drawings by Leonardo was created in August 1473. View of the Arno Valley from a height was made with a pen with quick strokes, transmitting vibrations of light, air, which indicates that the drawing was made from nature (Uffizi Gallery, Florence).

The first painting attributed to Leonardo, although its authorship is disputed by many experts, is Annunciation(c. 1472, Uffizi Gallery, Florence). Unfortunately, the unknown author made later corrections, which significantly worsened the quality of the work.

Portrait of Ginevra de Benci(1473-1474, National Gallery, Washington) is permeated with a melancholy mood. Part of the picture below is cut off: probably, the hands of the model were depicted there. The contours of the figure are softened with the help of the sfumato effect, created before Leonardo, but it was he who became the genius of this technique. Sfumato (it. sfumato - foggy, smoky) - a technique developed in the Renaissance in painting and graphics, which allows you to convey the softness of modeling, the elusiveness of object outlines, and the feeling of the air environment.

Between 1476 and 1478 Leonardo opens his workshop. To this period belongs Madonna with a flower, so-called Madonna Benois(c. 1478, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg). The smiling Madonna addresses the baby Jesus sitting on her lap, the movements of the figures are natural and plastic. In this picture, there is a characteristic interest in the art of Leonardo to show the inner world.

An unfinished painting also belongs to the early works. Adoration of the Magi(1481-1482, Uffizi Gallery, Florence). The central place is occupied by a group of the Madonna and Child and the Magi placed in the foreground.

In 1482, Leonardo left for Milan, the richest city of that time, under the patronage of Lodovico Sforza (1452–1508), who supported the army, spent huge amounts of money on lavish festivities and the purchase of works of art. Introducing himself to his future patron, Leonardo speaks of himself as a musician, military expert, inventor of weapons, war chariots, machines, and only then speaks of himself as an artist. Leonardo lived in Milan until 1498, and this period of his life was the most fruitful.

The first commission received by Leonardo was the creation of an equestrian statue in honor of Francesco Sforza (1401–1466), father of Lodovico Sforza. Working on it for 16 years, Leonardo created many drawings, as well as an eight-meter clay model. In an effort to surpass all existing equestrian statues, Leonardo wanted to make a grandiose sculpture in size, to show a rearing horse. But faced with technical difficulties, Leonardo changed the idea and decided to depict a walking horse. In November 1493 model Horse without a rider was put on public display, and it was this event that made Leonardo da Vinci famous. It took about 90 tons of bronze to cast the sculpture. The metal collection that had begun was interrupted, and the equestrian statue was never cast. In 1499, Milan was captured by the French, who used the sculpture as a target. After a while, it collapsed. Horse- a grandiose, but never completed project - one of the significant works of monumental plastic art of the 16th century. and, according to Vasari, "those who have seen the huge clay model ... claim that they have never seen a work more beautiful and majestic," called the monument "the great colossus."

At the court of Sforza, Leonardo also worked as a decorator for many festivities, creating hitherto unseen scenery and mechanisms, and made costumes for allegorical figures.

unfinished canvas Saint Jerome(1481, Vatican Museum, Rome) shows the saint at the moment of repentance in a complex turn with a lion at his feet. The picture was painted in black and white paints. But after coating it with varnish in the 19th century. the colors turned to olive and golden.

Madonna in the rocks(1483-1484, Louvre, Paris) - the famous painting by Leonardo, written by him in Milan. The image of the Madonna, baby Jesus, little John the Baptist and an angel in a landscape is a new motif in Italian painting of that time. In the opening of the rock, a landscape is visible, which has been given sublimely ideal features, and in which the achievements of linear and aerial perspective are shown. Although the cave is dimly lit, the picture is not dark, faces and figures gently emerge from the shadows. The thinnest chiaroscuro (sfumato) creates the impression of a dim diffused light, models faces and hands. Leonardo connects the figures not only with a common mood, but also with the unity of space.

LADY WITH ERMIN. 1485–1490. Czartoryski Museum

lady with ermine(1484, Czartoryski Museum, Krakow) - one of the first works of Leonardo as a court portrait painter. The painting depicts the mistress of Lodovik Cecilia Gallerani with the emblem of the Sforza family, an ermine. The complex turn of the head and the exquisite bend of the lady's hand, the curved pose of the animal - everything speaks of the authorship of Leonardo. The background was repainted by another artist.

Portrait of a musician(1484, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan). Only the face of the young man is completed, the rest of the picture is not spelled out. The type of face is close to the faces of Leonardo's angels, only executed more courageously.

Another unique work was created by Leonardo in one of the halls of the Sforza Palace, which is called the Donkey. On the vaults and walls of this hall, he painted willow crowns, whose branches are intricately intertwined, tied with decorative ropes. Subsequently, part of the paint layer crumbled, but a significant part was preserved and restored.

In 1495 Leonardo began work on last supper(area 4.5 × 8.6 m). The fresco is located on the wall of the refectory of the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, at a height of 3 m from the floor and occupies the entire end wall of the room. Leonardo oriented the perspective of the fresco to the viewer, thus it organically entered the interior of the refectory: the perspective reduction of the side walls depicted in the fresco continues the real space of the refectory. Thirteen people are seated at a table parallel to the wall. In the center is Jesus Christ, to the left and to the right of him are his disciples. The dramatic moment of exposure and condemnation of betrayal is shown, the moment when Christ just uttered the words: “One of you will betray Me”, and different emotional reactions of the apostles to these words. The composition is built on a strictly verified mathematical calculation: in the center is Christ, depicted against the background of the middle, largest opening of the back wall, the vanishing point of the perspective coincides with his head. The twelve apostles are divided into four groups of three figures each. Each is given a vivid characteristic by expressive gestures and movements. The main task was to show Judas, to separate him from the rest of the apostles. By placing him on the same line of the table as all the apostles, Leonardo psychologically separated him by loneliness. Creation last supper became a notable event in the artistic life of Italy at that time. As a true innovator and experimenter, Leonardo abandoned the fresco technique. He covered the wall with a special composition of resin and mastic, and painted in tempera. These experiments led to the greatest tragedy: the refectory, which was hastily repaired by order of Sforza, the pictorial innovations of Leonardo, the lowland in which the refectory was located - all this served a sad service to safety. last supper. The paint began to peel off, as already mentioned by Vasari in 1556. Secret supper it was repeatedly restored in the 17th and 18th centuries, but the restorations were unqualified (the paint layers were simply reapplied). By the middle of the 20th century, when The Last Supper came to a deplorable state, began a scientific restoration: first, the entire paint layer was fixed, then later layers were removed, and Leonardo's tempera painting was opened. And although the work was badly damaged, these restoration works made it possible to say that this Renaissance masterpiece was saved. Working on the fresco for three years, Leonardo created the greatest creation of the Renaissance.

After the fall of Sforza's power in 1499, Leonardo went to Florence, stopping by Mantua and Venice on the way. In Mantua he creates cardboard with Portrait of Isabella d "Este(1500, Louvre, Paris), executed in black crayon, charcoal and pastel.

In the spring of 1500, Leonardo arrived in Florence, where he soon received an order to paint an altar painting in the monastery of the Annunciation. The order was never completed, but one of the options is the so-called. Burlington House Cardboard(1499, National Gallery, London).

One of the significant commissions received by Leonardo in 1502 for the decoration of the wall of the Council Hall of the Signoria in Florence was Battle of Anghiari(not saved). Another wall for decoration was given to Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564), who painted a painting there. Battle of Kashin. Sketches by Leonardo, now lost, showed the panorama of the battle, in the center of which the battle for the banner took place. Cardboards by Leonardo and Michelangelo, exhibited in 1505, were a huge success. As in the case with last supper, Leonardo experimented with paints, as a result of which the paint layer gradually crumbled. But preparatory drawings, copies, have survived, which partly give an idea of ​​the scale of this work. In particular, a drawing by Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) has been preserved, which shows the central scene of the composition (c. 1615, Louvre, Paris).
For the first time in the history of battle painting, Leonardo showed the drama and fury of the battle.

MONA LISA. Louvre, Paris Mona Lisa- the most famous work of Leonardo da Vinci (1503-1506, Louvre, Paris). Mona Lisa (short for Madonna Lisa) was the third wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco di Bartolomeo del Giocondo. Now the picture is slightly changed: columns were originally drawn on the left and right, now cut off. Small in size, the picture makes a monumental impression: Mona Lisa is shown against the backdrop of a landscape, where the depth of space, the air haze are conveyed with the greatest perfection. Leonardo's famous sfumato technique is brought here to unprecedented heights: the thinnest, as if melting, haze of chiaroscuro, enveloping the figure, softens the contours and shadows. There is something elusive, bewitching and attractive in a slight smile, in the liveliness of facial expression, in the stately calmness of the pose, in the stillness of the smooth lines of the hands.

In 1506 Leonardo received an invitation to Milan from Louis XII of France (1462-1515). Having given Leonardo complete freedom of action, regularly paying him, the new patrons did not demand certain jobs from him. Leonardo is fond of scientific research, sometimes turning to painting. Then the second version was written Madonnas in the rocks(1506-1508, British National Gallery, London).

MADONNA WITH CHILD AND ST. ANNO. OK. 1510. Louvre, Paris

St. Anne with Mary and the Christ Child(1500-1510, Louvre, Paris) - one of the themes of Leonardo's work, to which he repeatedly addressed. The last development of this theme remained unfinished.

In 1513, Leonardo went to Rome, to the Vatican, to the court of Pope Leo X (1513–1521), but soon lost the pope's favor. He studies plants in the botanical garden, draws up plans for draining the Pontine Marshes, writes notes for a treatise on the structure of the human voice. At this time, he created the only self-portrait(1514, Reale Library, Turin), executed in sanguine, showing a gray-haired old man with a long beard and a fixed gaze.

Leonardo's last painting was also painted in Rome - Saint John the Baptist(1515, Louvre, Paris). St. John is shown pampered with a seductive smile and feminine gestures.

Again, Leonardo receives an offer from the French king, this time from Francis I (1494-1547), the successor of Louis XII: to move to France, to an estate near the royal castle of Amboise. In 1516 or 1517, Leonardo arrives in France, where he is assigned apartments in the Cloux estate. Surrounded by the respectful admiration of the king, he receives the title of "The first artist, engineer and architect of the king." Leonardo, despite his age and illness, is engaged in drawing canals in the Loire Valley, takes part in the preparation of court festivities.

Leonardo da Vinci died on May 2, 1519, bequeathing his drawings and papers to Francesco Melzi, a student who kept them all his life. But after his death, all countless papers were distributed all over the world, some were lost, some are stored in different cities, in museums around the world.

A scientist by vocation, Leonardo even now impresses with the breadth and diversity of his scientific interests. His research in the field of aircraft design is unique. He studied the flight, planning of birds, the structure of their wings, and created the so-called. ornithopter, an aircraft with flapping wings, and never realized. He created a pyramidal parachute, a model of a spiral propeller (a variant of the modern propeller). Observing nature, he became an expert in the field of botany: he was the first to describe the laws of phyllotaxy (the laws governing the arrangement of leaves on a stem), heliotropism and geotropism (the laws of the influence of the sun and gravity on plants), discovered a way to determine the age of trees by annual rings. He was an expert in the field of anatomy: he was the first to describe the valve of the right ventricle of the heart, demonstrated anatomy, etc. He created a system of drawings that still help students understand the structure of the human body: he showed an object in four views to examine it from all sides, created an image system organs and bodies in cross section. His research in the field of geology is interesting: he gave descriptions of sedimentary rocks, explanations of marine deposits in the mountains of Italy. As an optical scientist, he knew that visual images on the cornea of ​​the eye are projected upside down. He was probably the first to use a camera obscura for sketching landscapes (from Latin camera - room, obscurus - dark) - a closed box with a small hole in one of the walls; rays of light are reflected on the frosted glass on the other side of the box and create an inverted color image, used by landscape painters of the 18th century. for accurate reproduction of views). In the drawings of Leonardo there is a project for an instrument for measuring the intensity of light, a photometer, brought to life only three centuries later. He designed canals, locks, dams. Among his ideas can be seen: light shoes for walking on water, a life buoy, webbed gloves for swimming, an underwater movement device similar to a modern spacesuit, machines for the production of rope, grinders and much more. Talking to mathematician Luca Pacioli, who wrote the textbook On Divine Proportion, Leonardo became interested in this science and created illustrations for this textbook.

Leonardo also acted as an architect, but none of his projects was ever brought to life. He participated in the competition for the design of the central dome of the Milan Cathedral, designed the mausoleum for members of the royal family in the Egyptian style, a project he proposed to the Turkish Sultan to build a huge bridge across the Bosphorus, under which ships could pass.

A large number of Leonardo's drawings remained, made with sanguine, colored crayons, pastels (it is Leonardo who is credited with the invention of pastels), silver pencil, and chalk.

In Milan, Leonardo begins to write Treatise on painting, work on which continued throughout his life, but was never completed. In this multi-volume reference book, Leonardo wrote about how to recreate the world around him on the canvas, about linear and aerial perspective, proportions, anatomy, geometry, mechanics, optics, about the interaction of colors, reflexes.

John the Baptist. 1513-16

Madonna Litta 1478-1482 Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia

Leda with a swan 1508 - 1515 Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy

The life and work of Leonardo da Vinci left a colossal mark not only in art, but also in science and technology. Painter, sculptor, architect - he was a naturalist, mechanic, engineer, mathematician, made many discoveries for future generations. It was the greatest personality of the Renaissance.

"Vitruvian Man"- the common name for a graphic drawing by da Vinci, made in 1492. as an illustration to the entries in one of the diaries. The figure depicts a naked male figure. Strictly speaking, these are even two images of the same figure superimposed on each other, but in different poses. A circle and a square are described around the figure. The manuscript containing this drawing is sometimes also referred to as The Canon of Proportions or simply The Proportions of Man. Now this work is stored in one of the museums in Venice, but it is exhibited extremely rarely, since this exhibit is truly unique and valuable both as a work of art and as a subject of research.

Leonardo created his "Vitruvian Man" as an illustration of the geometric studies he carried out on the basis of a treatise by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius (hence the name of da Vinci's work). In the treatise of the philosopher and researcher, the proportions of the human body were taken as the basis of all architectural proportions. Da Vinci, on the other hand, applied the studies of the ancient Roman architect to painting, which once again clearly illustrates the principle of the unity of art and science, put forward by Leonardo. In addition, this work also reflects the master's attempt to correlate man with nature. It is known that da Vinci considered the human body as a reflection of the universe, i.e. was convinced that it functions according to the same laws. The author himself considered the Vitruvian Man as "the cosmography of the microcosm". This drawing also has a deep symbolic meaning. The square and circle in which the body is inscribed do not simply reflect physical, proportional characteristics. The square can be interpreted as the material existence of a person, and the circle represents its spiritual basis, and the points of contact of geometric figures between themselves and with the body inserted into them can be considered as a connection between these two foundations of human existence. For many centuries this drawing was considered as a symbol of the ideal symmetry of the human body and the universe as a whole.

Where is the famous Da Vinci Horse located? Of course, in my beloved Italy, in Milan!

The history of the Da Vinci horse sculpture is unusual.

The famous Sforzo Castle is probably the most beautiful building in Milan.

Da Vinci's horse was supposed to be located in front of him on the square where the beautiful one is now located.

The sculpture of Leonardo's Horse even stood here for some time. True, it was a clay version.

What is the history of the real sculpture of Da Vinci's Horse?

Leonardo wanted to erect the largest statue of a horse to commemorate the father of his patron, Ludovic Sforza. He worked on the Leonardo project for 10 years, visited the most elite horse yards, made sketches, looked at the existing equestrian statues. After 10 years, he embodied his idea in clay, the horse was installed exactly in the place where the entire statue with the rider was to be installed later.

The events took place at the end of the 25th century, by this time Leonardo had already painted the Lady with the Ermine, the Madonna in the Rocks and the Last Supper, and became famous during his lifetime, thanks to this monument to the Horse. Money was already being raised to cast the original and install the clay sculpture in its place. And then the unforeseen happened, they entered and began to practice shooting at a clay horse. This could have been a sad end for the Da Vinci Horse if not for a miracle. This is exactly how I see it.

Almost 500 years later, an American pilot, amateur sculptor Charles Dent, after reading an article in National Geographic, was outraged by this fact. It was Charles Dent who made it his life's work to recreate the statue of the Da Vinci Horse. In 1977, Charles Dent began the reconstruction of the sculpture. The project required a lot of time and money - 15 years and about $2.5 million. In 1994 Dent died, the sculpture was not completed. Luckily, Japanese-American sculptor Nina Akama completed the project. In 1997, on a special plane flight, this horse was delivered from America to. Of course, we wanted to install with sculpture of the Da Vinci Horse in the square near the Sforzesco castle, but the mayor's office did not agree, and the sculpture was installed here, at the hippodrome IPPODROMO DEL GALOPPO where a horse should be.

Da Vinci's horse stands on two limbs and seems to be floating in the air. Every muscle, every relief is clearly visible. At the same time, the sculpture weighs 13 tons, and the height is 7.5 meters without a pedestal, in a word, Da Vinci's Horse is Leonardo's masterpiece.

The memorial plaque with the names of all those who participated in the recreation of the Da Vinci Horse is impressive. Thanks a lot to them. And first of all, Charles Dent, who was able to inspire with his idea Someone always says: This is impossible! And at the same time, there are often those who do the impossible!

The hippodrome is close to the San Siro stadium, just turn your back on it and you immediately have a view of the stadium.

Going to San Siro, our plans included seeing this masterpiece along the way. That's how it all happened.

By the way, there are a lot of wonderful monuments in the area of ​​the stadium, they even have their own horse, but the Da Vinci Horse is on the hippodrome.

This story of the Da Vinci Horse is unusual in my opinion.

Another refurbishment project for the Da Vinci Horse culminated in the installation of a sculpture in the Meyer Gardens. It was financed by billionaire Frederick Meyer, and the installation site of the Horse is quite obvious.

How to get to the San Siro stadium and Hippodrome read in the next post.

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A magnificent forgery or a masterpiece of the Renaissance?
The list of surviving works by Leonardo da Vinci is very short. And it is constantly decreasing due to reattributions (we don’t take cases with the swindle of Russian oligarchs and Arab sheikhs, this is a separate story).

About how recently they allegedly found a relief of his work (in fact, of course, not his).

And here is a much more famous "his" work, the debate about which did not subside for much longer.
This is a bust of the goddess Flora, made of painted wax.

Book excerpt: A.C. Bernatsky. "Perfect Criminals"

In 1909, the director of Berlin museums, Wilhelm Bode, was offered a wax statue of Flora for purchase. Bode was immediately interested in the offer, since, according to the family legends of the owners of the statue, Leonardo da Vinci himself sculpted it. An important argument in favor of such an assumption was one characteristic detail of the work - a mysterious smile inherent in some female images of the great Italian.

Fascinated by the beauty of the statue and the idea that one of his museums would be replenished with a unique creation by da Vinci, Bode purchased Flora for an impressive amount of 150 thousand marks at that time. The statue was put on the most honorable place among the exhibits of the Renaissance in the Museum of Emperor Frederick.

London journalists, always closely following the flow of national treasures to other countries, a few months after the deal placed a caustic article that the Germans had acquired under the guise of a masterpiece the work of a certain Richard Lucas, made in the 19th century in England.

Richard Cockle Lucas. "Lady Catherine Stepney as Cleopatra", c. 1836

Of course, Bode and his German collaborators did not believe the English reporters. Moreover, he even complained to his English colleagues that they gave out information about the deal to the press.

But the British insisted on their own and, in confirmation of their innocence, they sought out their eighty-year-old son Lucas. He not only confirmed the authorship of his father, but also indicated that the statue was molded from some old picture, which he, at that time a seventeen-year-old youth, remembered well.

The Germans again did not believe the journalists, saying that only a brilliant sculptor could sculpt such a masterpiece, and Lucas, as you know, was not one of those.

Photo portrait of the sculptor

Then, on behalf of the British, a certain Thomas Whitebourne spoke, who was in the house of Lucas the father and watched him work on the statue. It was this witness who remembered that the painting from which the statue of Flora was sculpted did not belong to Lucas, but was temporarily borrowed from the antiquary Buchanan, who ordered the wax sculpture. He also indicated the street and the house where the customer's shop was located.

But this story did not shake the confidence of the Berliners that they were right.

Can't find which picture you mean. Apparently, something like this "Flora" by a student of Leonardo named Melzi ()

Then the British, realizing that words cannot be sewn into action, began to look for material evidence to confirm their statements. And soon they presented the store's trading book for 1846, in which the presence of a painting with the name "Flora" was registered.

Or something like this "Flora", also Melzi

A lithograph from this work, dated 1840, was also found, and, in addition, documents from the Christie auction in which the antiquary's property was sold to the collector Morrison for 640 guineas. And after some time, Morrison's granddaughter was also found, in which English researchers found the last proof of their innocence: the painting "Flora".

Or perhaps it's "Flora" by Carlo Antonio Procaccini (which, by the way, represents the undressed "Mona Lisa")

However, the vicissitudes did not end there. Already almost laid out on the shoulder blades, the Germans suddenly announced that Lucas had got a genuine statue of Leonardo, from which Morrison's painting was made.

Oh, I think I found an old article. There is a reproduction of this "Flora" as an example. Today the painting is attributed to Bernardino Luini

Whitebourne entered the argument again, suddenly remembering that Lucas, for some reason, had to layer the wax in layers, and he complained that the new wax candles used for this purpose were of terrible poor quality.

Reproduction from the London Times

Now it was up to the chemists. And they found that a surrogate was added to the wax from which the statue was made to reduce its cost. And it began to be used only from 1840. And the dilapidation of the sculpture was due to the fact that a certain Simpson, who bought the house of Lucas with all his works, kept Flora in an open gallery for sixteen years.

Bust in an early 20th century illustration from Bode's book

Just at that moment there were tense relations between England and Germany, and therefore English journalists gladly raised this story to the shield, and with the help of it they scoffed at the "stupid Deutsches" who were beaten by British talent. For three years, a record number of newspaper notes and articles were printed on this topic - about 700 pieces.

Despite this evidence, Bode continued to maintain that his original attribution was correct. To prove this, he exhibited a bust of Flora among Lucas's works - however, this exhibition rather backfired as it showed that Lucas regularly made wax sculptures inspired by the great works of the old masters.

"Nymph", wax figurine by Lucas.

His own wax "Leda and the Swan"

Since some continue to cling to the authorship of Leonardo, everyone is trying to prove it.
For example, this bust was the first sculpture to be studied using x-rays.

Spermaceti found in chemical samples later proved that the material was too old for Lucas and too young for Leonardo. In 1986, chemical analysis showed that the wax contained synthetically produced stearin, a substance that was first produced in 1818.

Today it is exhibited in Berlin museums with a plaque "England, 19th century".