THE LIFE OF LEONARDO DA VINCI
PART 1
Rosa, I'm hungry, come!
For a long time, the first documented facts about Leonardo
is a declaration written by Grandpa Antonio, notary of the Florence registry.
Leonardo is shown to you at age 5, among the mouths to feed.
But in 1936, a German scholar, Möller, found a note written by his grandfather
concerning the birth and baptism of Leonardo which took place in Vinci,
a Tuscan town about 20 km from Florence.
Antonio da Vinci wrote in the last page of a book of notarial deeds: "1452,"
"my grandson was born, son of Piero, my son"
"on the 15th of April, Saturday at 3 in the morning."
"His name is Leonardo."
"Battezzollo, priest of Piero Di Bartolomeo da Vinci,"
"in the presence of Papino Di Nanni, Meo Di Tonino, Pier Di Malvolto,"
"Monna Lisa of Domenico Di Brettone, Monna Antonia Di Giuliano...."
Many people attend this baptism, each one specifically mentioned,
but not the mother.
We only know that she was from Vinci and was called Caterina, nothing else.
Who was this Caterina?
And why did Ser Piero, father of Leonardo, not married to her, yet recognize,
even welcome into his house the child that she bore him?
In those days, the first impediment to matrimony was social rank.
That's why some believe that Caterina was a peasant from Vinci,
a too humble state for Ser Piero.
However, this mysterious Caterina
is the first grey area, perhaps the most serious, in Leonardo's existence.
A few months later, Ser Piero marries Albiera degli Amadori,
a girl not yet sixteen.
As we said, the Da Vinci family, who take their name from their place of origin,
is one of the first of the land. They are a rich family.
Little Leonardo was almost certainly raised at home.
He's a dear. Always good, never cries.
Especially since the marriage between Albiera and Ser Piero was barren.
Albiera had no children.
Some have argued the stepmother was not harsh towards Leonardo.
But how can so young a girl of 16 years and not able to have children of her own
love the illegitimate son of her husband?
Ser Piero is an amorous man who would marry four times.
A man in his own way lively and likable, but with essentially material interests.
A big crafty Tuscan, a notary like his father Antonio, he's covetous for money.
Vasari, in his Life tells this very significant episode.
Some years have passed, Leonardo is a beginner in painting,
but he's already full of talent.
One day, a farmer from Vinci, writes Vasari in his life,
Hello, Ser Piero.
Ser Piero being at the villa, he was sought for by a farmer.
From a fig tree cut on his farm he had made a wooden wheel
so that Leonardo could paint something on it.
Can you paint something on it for me? Whatever you like.
Want me to tell Leonardo? - That would be best.
I'll take care of it, go now. - Good, I'll leave it. - Leonardo!
Come here, look.
Would you like to paint something to your liking?
Leonardo brought to his room, lizards, crickets, bats,
and other strange kinds of like animals, from which he extracted a horrible animal
which he painted on the wooden wheel with infinite love.
This first painting has been lost and that's why we don't show it,
but it had to be so beautiful that Ser Piero, wrote Vasari,
"He secretly bought from a haberdasher another wheel with a pierced heart."
"He gave it to the peasant, who was always grateful to him."
"Later Ser Piero, naturally without saying anything to the son,"
"sold in secret to Florentine merchants."
"the one that Leonardo had painted for 100 ducats."
From this and from other episodes we see the character of Ser Piero,
who, from the land, has the healthy virtues but also the defects of the peasants.
Craving money. Sly. Greedy.
And sensual.
Of this father, so sensual and intrusive,
we can say that Leonardo presented point by point the opposite.
Until 1456, that is until Leonardo is almost 5 years old,
Ser Piero continued living in Vinci, but his business...
Tell those in the Chancellery to send back the documents once and for all!
And the father's business, which called him to Florence...
And don't forget the stamps!
And don't rub your pants on the ground, I've told you 1000 times. They'll get worn!
They won't grow back, they're not skin!
His business does not leave him time to dedicate himself to his child.
Mama!
Ah! I caught you! - Help!
The only one to care about him was Piero's brother, Francesco, not much at home.
He's a young man about 18, 20 years old,
he has no ambitions, won't be a notary, he doesn't want to study books.
Antonio writes about him with disdain, "He stays in the villa and does nothing".
But Leonardo was always by his side.
He had for him the indulgence one has for an older inept brother.
Perhaps it is this Francesco who "stays in the villa and does nothing"
who teaches little Leonardo the usefulness of doing nothing.
Oh, look! See, now I'll teach you so you learn.
This grass here is good and this is bad.
This here is good for the eyes and this does a lot of good for a stomach ache.
This is mallow and it makes you pee!
The eyes are for looking and looking is needed to see.
And to see you need to understand and to understand is good for knowledge.
And knowledge... is good in itself!
Is it dead?
Yes, poor thing, it's all dried up. Look how nice it is!
You know what we'll do? Let's see.
Let's open it up to see how it's made inside. - Good.
Maybe that's how the anxiety was born always in Leonardo to know,
to see how things are made inside, sometimes brought to cruelty.
Caterina, the mother, also lived in Vinci.
And she saw that child grow up who they took away.
Who are you? Who?
Won't you tell me?
Then you won't tell me? - Leonardo!
Oh, Leonardo! Always running about like a vagabond, eh?
I got you! Bye! You see how big he is, eh?
Uncle, who's that lady? - A lady, silly, didn't you see?
But who is she? - A lady! Let's go!
Are we bringing these books to Florence? - Want to leave them here, fool? Eh!
Around 1456, Ser Piero decided to move with his entire family,
he and his second wife to Florence. Leaving Leonardo in Vinci.
Since Albiera died in the meantime, Ser Piero married another woman.
What are you doing, Ser Piero? - Francesca Di Ser Lanfredini.
She is the second stepmother who is destined for little Leonardo.
Leonardo will remain alone with Uncle Francesco,
the one who "stays in the villa and does nothing".
Here, son. - The wine for the stirrup! - We won't arrive in Florence 'til evening!
Your health! - A nice little cup, eh! - Here.
Be quick with those trunks, eh!
Leonardo, Leonardo! No rubbing! - Mom, give me another one.
Leonardo, want some? - Give me!
Shall we get going, Francesco? - Tie it well. - Be quick with the stuff!
Leonardo, now that I'm going to Florence, be good, eh? And don't make trouble.
Here! Leonardo, stop rubbing.
No rubbing! Pants are not skin like the ass! Those can't grow back!
Got it? Come on, it's getting late. Go. - Be good, eh?
Come, Francesca! - Like Albiera, Francesca won't give children to Ser Piero.
But both are young, their marriage is recent
and more than hope, they have certainty.
Florence, a great city.
Ser Piero who has been nominated, or is to be nominated, Notary of the Signoria.
Vinci, the narrow provincial town, abandoned forever.
It's a joyous start. - Get comfortable, because it's a long road.
Eh, you'll see how different Florence is...
Goodbye, Master! Have a good trip!
Goodbye and have a good trip!
And don't rub! Pants are not skin! You'll wear them out!
In those years spent in freedom, Leonardo will have the wonderful vigor of his body
and his passionate love for nature.
Nature, a great refuge for those who feel, or want to feel, alone.
As the stone thrown in the water becomes the center and cause of various circles,
so the sound made in the air circularly spreads out.
Leonardo! What are you doing there? I've been looking for you all morning!
What is it, Uncle? What do you want? - Come back home.
Your daddy has come to get you. He's taking you to Florence with him.
Easy, easy. Hey, you.
Oh, Caterina!
I'm bringing him to Florence.
So that he can study a little and not grow up like a wild animal.
He's coming with us to Florence.
And you Leonardo, speak to Caterina. Say goodbye. - Goodbye.
We're going now. The road is long.
Meanwhile, Caterina married a certain Accattabriga Del Vacca.
Why are you always in the entrance? Get inside!
Whose existence remains mysterious as much as hers.
Father, who is that woman? - That's Caterina, Vacca's wife.
Yes, I know. But I mean who is she?
He who inquires, receives the ire. Too many questions, bad impressions.
Look, over there is Florence. - How big it is!
Florence at that time was a small city,
governed by a family of wise and intelligent bankers: the Medici.
Florence is merry, partisan, gossipy.
It's a small city of 60,000 inhabitants,
but its vitality and economic strength make it the world's leader.
The Medici lend gold to all the kings of Europe.
Florentine artists bring a new art throughout all of Italy.
This new art is the art of the Renaissance.
In Florence, the year that Leonardo comes,
live and work the greatest talents that made that golden century famous.
Soon Leonardo was sent to a school of letters and music.
"And in a short time", Vasari writes,
"he made many acquirements"
"that often raising doubts and difficulties to the teacher who taught him,"
"he very often confounded him."
And I tell you that it's a foolishness and that's it's not proper!
And what's not proper, shouldn't be done.
At school, he'll be as good as you want, even more than the teachers.
Let's say you make him study, what do you think he'll become?
He'll be a notary like you and me? You know he can't.
He's a bastard. And who's a bastard cannot become Notary of the Republic.
But there are many...- Yes, yes! You'll tell me that there are bastard sons of the king
who govern cities, provinces and castles! But that doesn’t mean anything!
You're a king perhaps?
Anyone could boast, just to say it, to being the King of France's bastard.
Have no doubt that the first to glory in it would be the husband:
"My wife was honored by the king!"
But for those not kings, they say, "My wife cuckolded me!"
Shall I put it on the table? - Yes, yes. Where was I with this tax declaration?
"Francesco, who stays in the villa and does nothing". That one will hunt crickets!
"Leonardo, son of Caterina, wife of Accattabriga, 9 years old. Illegitimate!"
I must note that he's illegitimate in the document!
And if they ask, "And where's the mother?" This whole discussion started here!
Illegitimate!
Here is the declaration to the registry. 6 mouths to support! Taking into account...
Nowadays the taxes eat us alive!
Listen to me. Keeping the boy studying Latin is good for nothing.
Now that the year is over, take him out and put him in a shop to learn a skill.
There are so many.
Taxes... taxes... taxes...
Help me make the beds. - Yes, Donna Francesca. - You must hurry in your work.
Daddy! - Don't you know the left hand is the hand of the devil?
The sun rises from the left and the clock... - What are you saying?
That the sun rises from the left and the clock moves the balls from the left.
Also the shells, the spiral that forms starts from the left. - You know too much.
Come with me! - Why? They're drawings. I didn't do any wrong.
Will you be quiet? I've never heard a boy talk so!
I've decided: If you want, I'll put you in Master Verrocchio's shop. If you want...
Andrea Verrocchio? - Hello, Master Verrocchio. I came to talk to you.
Good morning, Notary. Come in.
I've some scribblings here. I'd like you to glance over them. - With pleasure.
A master's workshop from the 1400s is different from a modern painter's.
It's first of all an office.
The Renaissance artist is a painter, goldsmith, blacksmith, artisan.
His product is alive.
Yes, a living product because it always corresponds to a daily necessity.
Like this big orb covered in copper to be placed on Santa Maria Del Fiore's dome.
Leonardo will remember this many years later, writing,
"Remember the welds with which you welded Santa Maria Del Fiore's orb."
"Of copper imbued in stone, like the triangles of this orb."
And here there are pictures and statues of saints because the people pray kneeling.
Be careful there!
And further on, portraits to remember loved ones.
Pots for the tables of the rich and the not so rich.
Church furniture.
Pietro Perugino.
Almost certainly Botticelli.
And Lorenzo Di Credi, then very young, already works in the Verrocchio workshop.
Not bad. Your son's? - Yes.
I'll will take him. Where is the boy? - Outside waiting.
Leonardo!
You're left-handed, eh? - Yes. - How did you know?
From the strokes. You'll give me 3 lire a month, I'll provide food and lodging.
When shall we begin? - Immediately.
Immediately? - Yes.
Lorenzo. Lorenzo! - Yes, Master?
Get an apron for that boy. - Right away.
From now on you'll live here. - And home? - This will be your home.
And remember, 3 lire a month! - Don't worry. And you make us proud, eh?
Goodbye, son.
Hey! Here.
What's your name? - Leonardo, and you? - My name is Lorenzo.
Come, look. This is the orb that will go on the dome of Santa Maria Del Fiore.
Here, Lorenzo.
Thanks. What will it be tonight? - The same old frittata.
Leonardo began his apprenticeship living under the roof of Verrocchio.
Because the pupils at that time were living together with the master,
not disdaining at times the humblest tasks.
Thus the years passed, 4 or 5 years.
...and I go by, I'm already there.
You see... - Come on, be quick! - The same old frittata tonight!
Tradition has it that Verrocchio took Leonardo as a model for his David.
That clever face is reminiscent of another who is often found in Leonardo's drawings
and also in one of his first paintings, where he is said to have portrayed himself.
Soon Leonardo proved to be the most gifted among the students of the workshop.
Only to Leonardo, Verrocchio allows to touch one of the angels
on the altarpiece he was commissioned: "The Baptism of Jesus".
Hey, you girls! I'm talking to you!
Perugino is starting with the washerwomen! - Let's go make noise!
Good, that's Verrocchio!
What are you washing? And where's Isabella? Didn't she come?
Ah! Beautiful beautiful! How beautiful you are!
I want to see too!
You're nice and fat like a duck! - Fool!
Come on, come here, don't go away! I've a shirt for you to wash, you know?
I'll pay you! - Come here! - Lisetta is the most beautiful!
She's pasty! - Oh, look! - Look at her! - Stand aside!
Hey, oh! Watch your skirt, lovely! Some nice things can be seen!
Move, you're hiding the landscape! - Behave!
Leonardo, always working? Don't you eat?
Lovely, I'm talking to you! See you tonight in Via delle Vergini!
Please, come, eh? What are you doing? Throwing me soap?
Come, go on and grab it! Go on! Not you, you're old!
Send me that young one! That one! - I'll give you "old", imbecile!
You know it's beautiful? Much more beautiful...
You know your angel is a 100 times more beautiful than Master Verrocchio's angel?
A 100 times more!
What are you doing there, you good for nothing rascals?
Perugino, you'll always be a boor! You too, Botticelli, get to work!
One wasted minute is too much!
Here comes the martinet! - Get away! Go!
Wait!
So it's better, eh? Much better...
Better than the angel I painted.
100,000 times better.
Go now.
The fool is right. Go on! Keep working!
Keep going with that forge! One wasted minute is too much!
"This was the reason that Verrocchio never wanted to touch colors again,"
"disdaining that a youth knew more about it than he."
Not only paintings or statues are made in Verrocchio's workshop.
The Medici, like all intelligent rulers,
distract the people with parties and tournaments.
And the Verrocchio workshop works for them.
Come on with these standards! Forward!
Go to the back to the right. - Botticelli, where are you? - Here I am!
Take these too away! - Immediately. Giovanni, these too with the others!
That year 1471, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, the ruler of Milan,
comes to visit Giuliano and Lorenzo de' Medici, the rulers of Florence.
A procession! There's a procession! Come quick!
Come, the procession is passing! Come!
It's an act of political alliance between two governing families,
because in almost every city in Italy, the era of the municipalities was over,
and a nobleman reigns as a little ruler.
Leonardo! The Duke Sforza of Milan goes to the Magnificent Lorenzo, look!
Behind him follow 90 carts of precious fabrics.
Is that the Duke Sforza? - No, he already past.
That Duke Sforza!
That's nobody. He's a brother of the duke.
His skin is so dark they call him Ludovico the Moor. - Ludovico the Moor!
This sumptuous procession marches towards its own death.
In 2 years, 2 attacks in Milan and Florence break out against Sforza and Medici.
In Milan, Galeazzo Maria Sforza is killed and that "nobody" who followed him,
Ludovico the Moor, will take power.
In Florence, Giuliano de' Medici dies stabbed.
His brother, Lorenzo the Magnificent, manages to flee.
His revenge will be swift and ruthless.
No! No! No!
No!
No! Let go of me! No!
No!
It's December 28th, 1479.
Bernardo de Baroncelli, who took part in the Pazzi conspiracy
and was one of the assassins of Giuliano de' Medici,
was tracked by Lorenzo's police to Turkey where he fled.
And he was dragged to Florence to be hanged publicly.
Drawing that hanged man? - Yes.
Go! Return home! Move!
Go home! Go home!
What are you writing?
Tan cap, black satin doublet, turquoise jacket lined with fox tail.
He's still dressed like a Turk. What a strange dress!
It really is true: the left hand is the devil's hand.
Baffled, perplexed, his friend went away from Leonardo, left him alone.
"If you're alone, you will be all yours. If you're with someone,"
"you'll only be half your own." This one day Leonardo will write with bitter pride.
It's not easy to associate the delicate painter of the angel with this icy annotator.
Much easier to think that Leonardo has an insatiable thirst to know, to see.
Like the boy who opens the lizard's belly. Sometimes curiosity is cruel.
Because of this Leonardo often appears to us a disconcerting character.
It matters for an example, an episode Leonardo himself has handed down to us
and that is read in one of his anatomy codices.
It's an episode that happened many years later.
More than twenty years later.
The mystery of the human machine,
a complex machine of muscles, bones, blood, has always fascinated Leonardo.
So, to study corpses truly,
he frequented the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence.
How old are you? - Very old! - How old? - 100, more than 100.
And what is your ailment?
Old age, Sir. Old age. - Old age.
"And this old man," Leonardo writes, "a few hours before his death,
"told me that he was 100 years old,"
"and that he did not feel any faintness in his body other than weakness."
"And so, sitting up on the bed, without any movement or accident,"
"he sweetly left this life. "
So writes with bland melancholy Leonardo.
Then in the same tone and without transition, he continues,
"And I made a dissection, that is, I cut the corpse,"
"to see the cause of so sweet a death".
A sense of horror invades us at the thought of Leonardo's dissection,
that is to cut to pieces with a knife to see how this old man died
with which, not even an hour ago, he so affably spoke with.
"The other dissection I did", he writes, "was upon a two-year-old boy."
Antonio? Hey, Antonio!
The boys that Leonardo observes and draws is his brother Antonio.
Finally Ser Piero had a son from the 3rd terrible wife, Margherita Di Francesco.
because Ser Piero, now advanced in years, has remarried for the 3rd time.
Oh, come on! - Ser Piero! - And keep silent!
I'll wind up telling your wife!
Leonardo! Did you imagine that at my age I could make such a handsome son? Eh?
Leonardo! Give me some wine.
What are you drawing? - See. - No, keep pouring.
The Madonna, the child and the cat? Put me in too, I'll be St Joseph!
Just look at them! For fun, they have him catch cold!
He's near the hearth, the room is warm.
Maybe she was right. - Ser Piero? - You know, women...
Ser Piero, I'm talking to you! - Eh? - Are you going deaf in your old age?
Didn't you hear me? - Yes, I heard. I'm coming!
Damn the cat too!
What do you want? - Can one know if that bastard is always going to be around?
Before, when you had wives incapable of giving you a child, one could understand,
but now you harm your own son! Don't you understand and you a scholar?
Come, you exaggerate... - You call it exaggerating?
Of the "Madonna of the Cat" so cherished, perhaps never realized,
only a few sketches remain today.
And in Leonardo there is a bitter contempt for the stepmother's meanness.
Ser Piero will continue to be a slave to his gullet and his lust.
After Margherita he'll have a 4th wife, Lucrezia Cortegiani,
who'll give him more children.
On the death of Ser Piero, the child with the cat
and the other half-brothers born later, united,
will contend with Leonardo the inheritance that is his,
asserting that he is illegitimate.
In one of his notebooks, many years later, Leonardo writes dryly,
"The day 9, July 1504,"
"on Wednesday at 7, died Piero da Vinci, notary, my father at 7 o'clock."
"He was 80 years old. He left behind 10 boys and 2 girls."
No other comment. Nothing else.
The last ties with the family were thus dissolved.
"Wild is he who saves himself", he'll write in one of his pages.
This drawing is dated "Sancta Maria Della Neve, August 2, 1473."
Leonardo is alone.
But he is not alone. Nature is his great refuge.
Nature, the things that surround him,
offer themselves to his investigation with their mysterious faces.
Leaves alternate in branches according to precise symmetrical laws. Why?
In the fruit, the seed, it is the germ of a new plant. Just that, no more.
Why? Why?
And why? Why?
But, although alone, he doesn't fly the company of men.
In the Careggi Villa, Lorenzo the Magnificent
brings together philosophers, writers and artists from Florence:
Marsilio Ficino, Angelo Puliziano. Studies and discussions are underway.
Ancient statues are excavated, the writings of Greek and Latin authors are searched for
which for the entire long Middle Ages were buried in the monastery libraries.
Leonardo, as we know, did not have the chance to complete his studies.
He seeks to make up for lost time and to learn by himself,
with great labor, Latin.
But like all these meetings of philosophers and writers, they argue and argue.
Leonardo's practical mind reacts with ill-concealed intolerance
to the thin and sterile discussions on nature and the essence of the soul.
Well..., I believe that instead of defining what the soul is, which you cannot see,
it's much better to study what you can know with experience.
Because only experience doesn't fail. And where science cannot be applied,
you cannot have true certainty.
They are for Leonardo years of intense work and neverending studies.
Everything attracts him, on everything he gives a thought.
And yet, in spite of so many studies,
these are the most fruitful years for Leonardo the painter.
The "Madonna of the Carnation".
The " Benois Madonna".
The "Litta Madonna", both in Leningrad.
The portrait of Ginevra Benci, and the two "Annunciations":
That of the Louvre and that of the Uffizi.
Even with the Flemish, a similar detailed study of nature is often found.
Leonardo certainly saw the Portinari triptych by Van der Goes,
brought in those years to Florence.
But Leonardo has very little in common with them.
He is always a scientist who analyzes every detail in order to better see the whole.
He is never a meticulous imitator.
The flowers of the Van der Goes triptych, though beautiful, remain decorative.
Leonardo's lily is part of the narrative, immersed in the painting's atmosphere.
These are Leonardo's landscapes.
And this is the landscape of Van der Goes.
He did it! - But how? - With his hands! - He bent it!
Boys, come here, look at this! - He bent it!
Vasari writes,
"It was in that talent thanks to the grace of God,"
"every day he made models and drawings which his brain always dreamt up."
"And among these models there was one he said could raise the St John temple"
"by putting stairs underneath."
"His reasoning was so convincing that everyone remained convinced."
Listen! Do you know what Leonardo said? He wants to raise St John!
He wants to pull it up to put stairs beneath! - Has he lost his mind?
As always, admiration is followed by envy, slander.
An anonymous letter, April 8th, 1476,
files a very serious complaint against a group of Florentines, including Leonardo,
to the night magistrate of the Uffiziali who watches over morality.
The complaint in question implicates:
Bartolomeo Di Pasquino, a goldsmith in Vacchereccia,
Leonardo of Ser Piero da Vinci, stands with Andrea Del Verrocchio...
Excuse me. One moment, sorry.
The accusation is anonymous, and like all such accusations, it is vile.
Most likely it is false, but it is serious, very serious.
If confirmed, it even calls for an infamous death at the stake.
Please, if you may...
Please, sit down.
Here, I'd like to speak a few words concerning... - Of course.
The high consideration we have for Ser Piero
would advise us to postpone... - Of course, but it should be at least...
Shall we proceed? - Proceed.
Baccino Farsettaio remains in Orto San Michele.
Leonardo Tornabuoni...
It's for a Tornabuoni, you heard, right? - Tornabuoni?
I don't think that would please the Magnificent...
This Tornabuoni is a cousin on the female side of Lorenzo the Magnificent...
I think it's better to keep everything quiet for now. Then, later, privately...
It's better to suspend it. - Oh, yes.
You think so? - It's better. - It's better.
It is suspended pending investigations!
Thank you, thank you.
It is suspended pending investigations! - And in the meantime write the reports.
Findings, reports, files: Everything is buried in the archives.
And this accusation,
which is not investigated so as not to offend Lorenzo with a public scandal,
this accusation remains stuck halfway, murmured by an anonymous voice,
buried by the hypocrisy of trembling archivists, burns even more in Leonardo.
To be able to fly like the birds, flee, free, far away.
The bird rises up, by force of the air that sustains it.
Perhaps from this state of mind is born in Leonardo his first intuitions of flight.
"The bird is an instrument which acts by mathematical force,"
"so much force makes the wing against the air as much as air against the wing."
"It must therefore be in the power of man to reproduce those conditions"
"which allows for flight in birds."
But there is another way to escape the vulgar curiosity of men.
Show them only what we want and only when it has reached such perfection
that admiration silences even envy.
Then hide the preparatory stages towards which the work is depicted.
Hide them in secret notes, written with an indecipherable reverse writing
that only initiates can read in a mirror.
And study, study, study!
Studying every detail, since everything consists of many small parts
that we must know one by one.
This meticulous study often ends up consuming Leonardo's creative force.
In fact, in these years, Leonardo's works are becoming increasingly rare.
And the books where the studies are noted for his paintings grow.
Meanwhile, the work awaits.
It waits sometimes for years and years, unfinished. And often, stays unfinished.
In this neverending, continuous setting new goals for knowledge,
there is an obscure will to postpone the moment
in which the perfect work can be shown.
Since this is undoubtedly in Leonardo's unconscious:
To show little, very little of himself, and only what is perfect.
The rest, like his pictures,
conceal it in a warm shadow, complicit, protective.
For the friars of San Donato a Scopeto,
Leonardo paints an "Adoration of the Magi",
that with studies and changes of mind, has been going on for more than a year.
The contract, of which a copy exists, was laid out fastidiously by Ser Piero
and provides advantageous conditions for the painter.
This is why the impatience of the friars and the prior increases every day.
My Leonardo, it's been months. This Adoration of the Magi never finishes!
Father, the perfection that I seek... - Perfection is not of this earth.
Be humble. - I am. I always think I haven't studied enough.
You had 4 lire and 10 soldi in June, correct? - Yes.
You had 28 florins in July, is this true? - Yes. - Then wheat, wine...
You force us to call another painter. Less gifted than you,
but who will put a picture on the altar!
Sometimes, in his most discontented days, he returned to the Verrocchio workshop,
to listen again to the rough and sure voice of the teacher,
to rediscover the human warmth of old shop friends.
But time passed, the companions were no longer his.
In their place there were new students who now considered him an elder.
Did they put you to work the clay? The shop is always moving, eh?
Eh, yes! - Where is Master Verrocchio?
Customers have come. He's talking to them.
And who are they? - They come from Venice.
Leonardo! It's been a while since I've seen you!
A little while. - What's the matter? - Nothing.
Come, I know you. What's the matter? - Discontent. - Of what?
Of myself. Who are they? - Envoys of the Venetian Republic.
They're here to order a statue on horseback, an important work.
They've been here since the morning.
Here the students paint and work. They stay for six or seven years,
according to who is more or less skilled, or affectionate,
like Lorenzo, who is still with me.
Leonardo is now too good for my shop.
My shop is all here. There's room and we make the models in clay, then in plaster.
The melting will take place in Venice. - The space seems small to me.
The statue that Donatello made... - In Padua. - For the Gattamelata.
It's more than 7 feet tall. - And a half! - Up to the horse's tuft.
9 feet at the head of Gattamelata. - But the will of Bartolomeo Colleoni...
100000 ducats left in Venice. - It stipulates a large equestrian statue.
So the model will need space. - The model will be here. - Where?
Here, in the courtyard. - Ah, yes! Right! In the courtyard!
I think there is enough space even for a 10 foot statue.
But out in the open? If it rains? - It'll get wet! - First they'll make
a covering of wood and canvas. - To work sheltered if it rains!
And the contract? - About the contract and payment,
we'll be back tomorrow to put it in writing. - Your lordships shall make a great work.
Worthy of Venice and we'll know how to reward you.
It's for an equestrian statue, bigger than the Gattamelata of Donatello!
A year's work for the whole shop! - Lorenzo!
The Venetians have money. - Who were they? - Important people
who'll bring much work and much money!
You go back to work! - Where are you going? Today's a holiday!
Giovanni, buy bread, salami, eggs and a flatbread. You go too!
And wine! Lots of wine! Put the tables here. Lorenzo, take this away. - Yes, Master.
Gather up the paints. But being quick doesn't mean wasting anything, eh?
I'll put you all to work! - Hurry, be quick!
Over here! - Easy on the paper! The cost!
I'm so hungry! - Lorenzo, next to me! - Let's drink the wine!
Leonardo! Oh, Leonardo, where are you? Come on, sit down!
Yes, sit with us! - You're from the shop too!
Sit down! - Sit at the head of the table! - Drink to Colleoni! - Hurray!
Of course they were so very funny!
But will it be high enough? - 10 feet! - With their statue of Mr Donatello!
Will the courtyard be wide enough? - And if it rains?
We'll get wet! What matters is they pay! Tomorrow I'll haggle over the contract!
It will rain, but money! - Of course, it's a great nuisance...
What are you doing? Not drinking? Pass me the wine! - What wine?
Quiet! Can't you see he's drawing?
He's putting it down, look! - Of course, it's the horse.
You see, he already has it figured out! - Look at the mane!
It's a marvel! - Pour the wine, careful! - Come, come! - It's good!
Don't get to close to him! - Let me see! - He already has it.
Paper, paper! - Paper!
Sorry, Leonardo. - Come on! - Here, Master.
Let the master draw. - Get off!
He has to move his neck. If you pull the reins...!
The horse moves! - And I will have him turn his head.
We too have many studies from Leonardo on horses.
Rearing horses, ferocious horses. Noses, hooves, muscles.
He thinks of using them in his "Adoration of the Magi", but once again
he's not satisfied with studying form, capturing movement with a brilliant stroke.
He wants to study the why of that form, to know the reason for that movement.
Thus begins his interminable studies on anatomy.
His drawings could form a treatise on the anatomy of the horse.
And meanwhile, the picture that he's painting for the friars of San Donato
remains always at the same pass.
Good morning, Maestro. - Good morning.
Leonardo, you're leaving? - Yes. - May I see? - Please.
Go slow with those ropes! Slow! And don't rest the ladder on the horse!
Get down! And stop walking on the model, it's chalk!
Meanwhile the equestrian monument to Colleoni,
to which Verrocchio has certainly given less preparatory and anatomical studies,
has been molded. It's finished. It's beautiful.
It was even formed in plaster
and now it is disassembled to be shipped together with the molds to Venice.
Get your head down! Lorenzo! Make a list of the parts! - I'm getting it!
Leonardo!
Lorenzo!
You see it?
It's done. We're dismounting it. - Lower it!
Did you see it before they put it in the molds? - All together! Easy!
Come, lower it. - Easy!
Beautiful, is it not? A great work. Think about when it'll be in bronze!
We send it now by land up to Piacenza and then by boats along the Po.
Last week many people came to the shop to see it before it was molded.
Half of Florence was there. Too bad you didn't see it.
I came to see it too. - When?
Last week, at evening in the courtyard, nobody was there. - But I didn't see you.
You were talking about the journey with the Maestro.
Is he taking you? - Yes, I'm helping with casting in Venice. It'll be a great work!
One by one you all leave. You, Perugino... - Perugino and Botticelli are now in Rome!
They're working in the Sistine Chapel.
You hurry up with those crates! - Right away!
Lower it down slowly. - Easy! - Easy. That's it. - Good.
More straw! Hurry! - Remove the ropes! - Tomorrow the other one is going!
Let's clear out. But who's going to Venice with the Maestro? - Giovanni and Andrea.
And the other Giovanni, from Empoli. - Will the shop be closed? - Yeah.
It looks like a ghost town. - Everybody is gone!
"The water that touches the rivers"
"is the last of what left and the first of what returns."
"Like the present time."
So wrote one day Leonardo in the Trivulzio Codex.
Time flies, the moment cannot be stopped, minute by minute today becomes yesterday.
Leonardo is now 30 years old and maybe those years in Florence haven't been happy.
In these years between 1478 and 1481, what actually happened to Leonardo?
In the Atlantic Codex, there are these mysterious words:
"When I represented the Lord God as an infant you put me in prison,"
"but now if I represent him as an adult, you'll do worse to me."
Was Leonardo in prison?
The drawings on how to escape from a prison could make us believe just that.
But why?
In the 1st edition of Vasari's Life
there's a sentence he took out in the following editions.
"He was so heretical a cast of mind, that he conformed to no religion,"
"accounting it, perhaps, much better to be a philosopher than Christian."
Of those years so little is known,
that there has even been stories of a trip to the East.
These were intense years of study, which his curiosity has led to every field.
But what does he have to show for these 10 years?
Many preparatory studies, many drawings,
the "Annunciation" of the Uffizi,
perhaps the two Madonnas found at the Hermitage in Leningrad,
and some minor work which became lost.
That is all.
He has 2 more panels and has worked on them for more than 2 years.
The "Adoration of the Magi" we have seen and this Saint Jerome.
Both will remain unfinished.
Why?
This doesn't pretend to be history nor legend. It's pure conjecture.
A conjecture intended to understand what from time to time moved Leonardo.
To attempt to discover what he hides in his soul.
Leonardo never shows himself, or almost never, openly.
Between him and us, between him and his own works,
we almost always notice something that at first prevents us from fully understanding.
Leonardo always wants to be conquered.
Sometimes with difficulty, often with patience, always with love.
His is an introverted, shy, difficult character.
Perhaps in the most civilized but petty and provincial Florence, one feels suffocated.
This perfect, tiny city where everyone knows each other and knows their all,
where everything is an object of discussion, examination, gossip,
it has become unbearable to him.
Of the trial which was not held to not displease the Magnificent,
perhaps no one speaks about it, but many, too many, smile.
However another air, another city less arid will benefit from his discontent.
He chooses Milan purposely.
Milan, where a sumptuous court, perhaps as rough as a nouveau riche but lively,
dominates a less refined city than Florence, but more industrious.
Ludovico the Moro seeks wits who will give prestige to his lordship
and suddenly Leonardo decides to leave.
"Many flowers portrayed from nature, a curly face, some San Girolami,"
"a duke's head, many drawings of groups, certain instruments for ships,"
"certain water tools, a cupid's head with..."
Thus Leonardo is careful to tell us why he is parting,
by leaving us a detailed list of his luggage.
Vasari gives us another version of this departure. Is it true? False?
"In the same year 1494, he was invited to Milan,"
"because he played in front of the Duke, who was pleased with his lyre's music."
Vasari's first mistake: Leonardo left Florence 12 years earlier, in 1482.
Vasari continues:
"Leonardo brought an instrument made by his hands,"
" in silver, in the shape of a horse skull, something strange and new."
"And in Milan he surpassed all the musicians gathered to perform,"
"because he was the best improviser of rhymes of his time."
That Leonardo was an excellent musician and excellent singer there is no doubt,
but that he would go to Milan to sing leaves us dumbfounded.
In fact, before going to Milan, he wrote a letter, which still exists today,
to Ludovico the Moro, offering him his services: architect, writer, sculptor,
but certainly not a musician.
However, true or false that episode,
Leonardo leaves Florence together with two companions.
One of them is Atalante Migliorotti, a musician.
And having a musician with him is the only argument in favor of Vasari's thesis.
The other is Tommaso Masini, also known as Zoroastro,
a skilled worker whom Leonardo has served himself and will be even more useful
for his models and mechanical devices.
Zoroastro will play an important part in the construction of the flying machines.
It is a spring day of the year 1482.
Leonardo turns his back on Florence. Milan awaits him.
Milan: rich, alive, industrious.
The spot at the intersection of roads which unite Europe with Italy,
in a sweet, soft plain all furrowed with canals and water.
Bestir thyself lover for the one beloved.
But if the one beloved is not worthy,
the lover makes himself unworthy.
When the lover has joined the beloved,
there is repose.
When the weight is laid down,
there he reposes.
Bestir thyself lover for the one beloved.
But if the one beloved is not worthy,
the lover makes himself unworthy.
When the lover has joined the beloved,
there is repose.
When the weight is laid down,
there he reposes.
There he reposes.
English subtitles by sineintegral@KG