THE LIFE OF LEONARDO DA VINCI
PART 3
Go on, read.
"The workers who work at the ships..." - Pass ahead!
"The workers who work at the ships..." - Pass on!
"They complain that they haven't been paid..." - Mm, yes. Pass on!
"The Fabbriceri of the Cathedral..." - What do these Fabbriceri want?
"They say that the work proceeds slowly because of..." - No money! Yes.
Go on! - Friar Vincenzo... - Eh? - Friar Vincenzo da Castelnuovo,
Prior of the Dominicans of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, writes,
Keep good guard, eh!
What does this prior want from me? I've rebuilt the whole back of the church...
What do you call it? The apse! Re-done by Bramante. I'll even get buried there.
Solari's there preparing my monument!
What do these friars want from me?
"We count on the duke’s benevolence."
See, benevolence! There it is, benevolence!
Well, if it's for benevolence's sake, tell them they can count on us.
Maestro Leonardo writes... - Well, what does that one write?
May I read it?
Yes, read. - "I very much regret that having to earn my bread"
"I need to interrupt the work which already your Lordship..." - Skip ahead!
"Knowing your Excellency's mind"
“as I am without any salary for 2 years..."
Two years?
It’s hardly been 2 years! - Shall I continue?
Yes, continue. - "Of the horse I say nothing, because I know the times".
Good! Better not say a word. Good.
What do they all want from me? I've redone the Duomo, the Grazie,
a 100 canals that you can go in a boat from Tesino to the end of Adda!
That Leonardo should know, he invented the locks that...
from the inside... from the outside they open from within.
I have planted 1000s of mulberry trees that I find silkworms under my bed!
Now I’ve hardships! Hardships! And then...
I must also think a little about these French.
Have them both call tomorrow. Go. - Yes, Excellency. Who?
The prior of course! And the other... Leonardo!
Give over! Hot or cold, it's all the same!
Drink first, you never know...
You who are a scientist, you think it will do me good?
You, I can't tell, but him certainly, because he gets paid.
These Tuscans are all backbiters!
Go! Come forward, you two.
So, then... So!
To prove to you and to you also of my benevolence,
I thought the famous Maestro Leonardo, who is my painter,
will paint in your convent a wall in the refectory. A Last Supper.
This way you'll have a fresco by my famous painter, and you...
Hey, Maestro! I'm talking to you.
You’ll be paid by the friars.
The friars? But Excellency...
Come now! Don't go there! All the while, the money comes from here!
I just wanted to let it be known that in the refectory the brothers...
And what do the brothers do there? - Eat.
And since Maestro Leonardo - a most excellent painter, very excellent -
isn't one really... - Isn't one really who works quickly! Fine! Be patient!
While he works, eat in the kitchen.
What do you want me to send you? A house painter who does a wall in 4 hours
and then leaves you some junk like that one in Montorfano?
You have one in the refectory!
In fact, since you're going, get rid of the whole thing!
Everytime I go to the convent, I eat so poorly, I can barely look at it!
But, Excellency... - It's fine! Like I said! Deo gratias.
Good!
Well, why you are looking like that?
Marchesino! Eh, when they see the face of my treasurer, they are all happy,
friars and painters. Listen here, give 100 ducats in advance to my friend...
Ah, yes, Leonardo, Leonardo.
The Last Supper...
The Last Supper was a subject treated several times in Italian painting.
From the first monumental composition by Giotto, in the Scrovegni Chapel,
in Padua.
Andrea Del Castagno in Sant'Apollonia Di Firenze.
Andrea Del Castagno, in Sant'Apollonia of Florence, had taken up the theme,
preserving the detail of Saint John reclining his head on the breast of Jesus,
but by placing the apostles before the viewer.
Excepting Judas, isolated on this side of the table.
Almost aware of his betrayal.
Francesco Botticini in turn took up the same idea, with a few variations,
except to display the table like a horseshoe.
The fresco by Domenico il Ghirlandaio in San Marco
repeats the traditional supper.
Leonardo starts immediately a long series of sketches.
And a drawing preserved at the Academy of Venice shows us his first idea.
This design perhaps not original is probably a copy by a student,
a copy of a first sketch of which no traces remain
and which was composed in this way,
repeating the classic model.
Which could not satisfy Leonardo.
"Then said, Jesus, with emotion in his heart, openly proclaimed:"
'In truth, verily I tell you...'
'one of you will betray me.'
'One of you will betray me,'
"The disciples looked at each other, unsure who he was talking about."
"One of them, the one whom Jesus loved, was leaning on the breast of Jesus."
“Leaning on the breast of Jesus..."
"Jesus said, ' Where I go, you...'"
" 'you cannot come’ “
"Where I go, you cannot come ".
"Jesus said, ' Where I go, you cannot go.’ "
These words isolate Christ in an unreachable solitude.
The shadow of death, which he knows is near, places him away from his disciples,
plunges him into a long silence that he'll break only later with the words
"love one another".
Solitude.
A command to love, perhaps a longing for love.
“If you are alone, you will be all yours.”
Even Leonardo sought solitude
and maybe only now realizes that this loneliness is similar to the void.
No affection, maybe not even a friend gives meaning to his laborious study.
The students are selfish. Salay never rises above mediocrity.
His mother is dead remaining until the last, to him, Caterina.
Is the fault in him or in others?
Maybe as always, the fault is half on one side and half on the other.
Maybe others find too fatiguing the rarefied sphere which he lives in.
And he is not sufficiently humble. - "If you are alone, you'll be all yours.”
He is alone. But how much does it cost to be alone?
From now on, in the designs of the Supper there is a solitary Christ,
not even John is close to him. He doesn’t rest his head anymore as in the Gospel
as he was represented by Giotto and Andrea Del Castagno.
Alone, in the midst of the apostles, Christ no longer speaks and doesn't accuse.
He is absorbed in his inner thoughts,
already far from the tumult that his words "one of you will betray me" have aroused.
Farther than that distant sky which sinks behind his head,
in the last transparency of the evening.
Now that he created the emotional center of the fresco and set the main idea,
Leonardo, as usual, begins to investigate, to study.
And the Grazie refectory with the scaffolding ready
and the large fresco space already marked on the wall, remains empty.
Is this how you work, Leonardo? - If not I'd lose the thread!
Ideas for the apostles: One lays down a cup, one speaks with another
and the one who listens holds a knife in his hand
and in the other hand bread divided by the knife.
Another... - Sorry, I didn’t know paintings needed to be written.
Painting is a mute poetry.
And for today he's done working.
But then, Leonardo begins working. Vasari writes,
“When he saw certain strange heads”
“he would have chased after one he liked all day."
“And then he memorized it so that later when he drew, it was if they were there."
“Leonardo was accustomed to get on the scaffold in the morning”
“and from dawn until dusk never left off the brush,”
“forgetting to eat and drink.”
So writes Matteo Bandello, the famous writer, in a lively description
which he makes of Leonardo, when he worked in the Grazie refectory
Patience, brothers. We must be patient! It will end, it will end...
He’s inside and we’re out in the rain.
Salay, prepare the colors! - Yes, Maestro.
Salay! - Yes, Maestro? - Ultramarine.
Hey, boy! Salay! You're hungry, want some? - You bet!
Here. Eat. - “Then 2 or 3 days would pass"
“where he would not touch the painting.” - Salay! The blue!
“And he only examined what he had painted.”
Matteo Bandello, who describes Leonardo thus, was nephew of the Grazie prior.
He was then only 9 years old, studying with other kids in the convent.
Come, he's gone!- - Let's see! Look.
What a beautiful painting! - It's huge.
Let's go see!
Who brought you in? - How lovely! - How can you say so if it’s not finished?
Do you see? - St John! - St Peter! - That's Judas!
Judas looks like your uncle the prior! - Shut up!
Ugly idiot!
The painter! The painter comes!
Let's get out! - Where are you going, fool? - Let's hide!
Run! - I'll go here. - Hurry up!
No, they’ll see you there! Come here!
Shut up!
The door! You forgot the door!
Years later, when grown up and famous Bandello tells in a short story,
"He left the old courtyard”
where he worked on that stupendous horse and..."
"He left the old courtyard where he worked on that stupendous horse..."
“And in full midday, when the sun is at its zenith,”
“went through the streets straight to the Grazie.”
What is he doing with that hat? - Quiet!
“He went up the scaffold taking his brush, giving one or two more brush strokes,”
“then quickly came down and went away.”
Watch out! Get down!
He's gone! - What did he come to do? - Nothing!
He gave a brushstroke and left. Maybe he’s a madman?
Now out, guys. Your part is done. Go. You too, Matteo, like a good boy.
This turbulent investigation did not overturn the initial idea.
The tumult and the agitation of the apostles
seem to make even more unreachable the lonely silence of Jesus,
whose face, which looks thoughtful standing against the evening sky,
brings together all the picture's lines. And the gestures of the apostles
composed with admirable wisdom in groups of three
and in threes.
Two large circular arcs unite the two right-hand groups
and the two groups on the left.
And at the climax of these two arcs are the two dramatic poles of the composition:
On the right, higher than everybody,
is the face of Philip who personifies candor, faith.
The apostle who followed Christ from the first. So Philip is higher than everyone.
On the left, lower than everybody is the face of Judas.
The line uniting the face of Judas with Philip passes through the face of Christ.
One more word on the technique used by Leonardo for the painting,
which cannot be called a fresco.
Affresco, as the word implies, painted in the fresco style,
is done by painting the plaster still fresh (fresco) on the wall.
The plaster absorbs the color which is deeply absorbed into itself.
But this technique demands speed and doesn't allow for second thoughts.
When you make a mistake, you scratch out everything and start over.
Nothing further from the spirit of Leonardo, who approaches his ideas
through a long study, a long internal work,
which translates into a no less tormented execution.
His very personal nuanced way of working does not fit the fresco.
For this he, abandoning traditional techniques,
above the first plaster still wet,
spreads a second plaster like a compact putty.
Above this putty he spreads a primer like on a panel before painting.
On the wall thus prepared, he will paint with a strong tempera,
after the ancient way, that is with colors dissolved in egg yolks.
This artifice allows Leonardo to work on the immense wall
with the same minuteness and patience with which he would have painted a panel.
But, unfortunately, the three superimposed layers
- the plaster, the stucco, the primer - will expand in different ways
and will absorb moisture differently, producing cracks.
On January 2, 1497, Beatrice d'Este,
the stubborn and willful wife of Ludovico the Moor,
she who defeated the favorite of Ludovico,
she who pushed him to get rid of Gian Galeazzo and proclaim himself duke,
enters the church of the Grazie.
She is infirm, suffering.
The already advanced pregnancy is difficult and painful.
Maestro Leonardo, you are here painting "The Last Supper".
Everyone tells me wonders. We're passing from the cloister to go...
We're going to pray over poor Bianca's grave.
Poor girl, she was not yet 15 years old. Her father, the Moor, the Duke, adored her.
What a beautiful painting!
It must be done soon! Tonight there's a dance. Another feast...
But John...
Why isn't John leaning his head on Jesus's shoulders?
Because... because in that hour nobody can comfort him.
It's true. Nobody can comfort him.
Let's go, it's late.
Lorenzo! - I'm so tired...
That same evening, at the feast, Beatrice had a serious illness.
Beatrice! Beatrice!
Help me, let's get her over there!
Beatrice... Beatrice!
But what's wrong with you? Let me pass!
Get away!
There, on the bed!
Slowly.
Careful. Go easy.
Beatrice... Beatrice...
What’s wrong, Beatrice?
A doctor, hurry! Hurry!
A doctor, be quick! - The doctor, the doctor!
What's wrong with her? What is it? - She's very bad. A premature birth.
What’s wrong?
What is it?
The music... - Eh?
Have them sing... - What?
The music...
Ah, yes. Music, music!
Marchesino!
The music. - The music? - Yes! - Don't stop on my account...
Gentlemen.
Gentlemen! The duchess wants to the party to go on.
Play.
There, you hear it? The music’s here.
You hear it? - No, I don’t.
Yes, yes! There's music, you hear it?
Beatrice, you hear it? - Yes. - There it is!
Beatrice! Beatrice!
Thus, at the feast, Beatrice died.
At midnight.
Eyes on the ladder.
The boards and the scaffolding there! - Boards and scaffolding there!
Here, all together, come on. - All together!
Start taking them away. - Take them away, come on!
Forward! Throw it down now! - Down in the refectory! - Come! - Come!
Salay, what are you doing? Come down and help! - I’m giving the orders up here, no?
What orders, come! - Push all together!
In February 1498, the painting could be said to be finished.
The admiration that would have raised could have been immense.
Unfortunately, it lasted only a few years intact.
It's all taken down. - Take everything away, the duke is coming to see it today!
Salay with that new cape looks like a peacock.
Careful with the posts! - Put them in order! And together.
Salay is still the same. He is 16 now,
always more handsome, more and more vain and presumptuous.
Marco, can we take the scaffold away? - Yes! - Boys, come on!
He is in his own way fond of Leonardo who keeps writing down with minuteness...
The reverse writing of Leonardo needs to be read in a mirror.
"April 4, 1497, the cape of Salay."
4 yards of Argentine cloth 15 lire, 4 lire of soldi,
"velvet to decorate: 9 lire, 1 lira of soldi, ribbands, shirts of mail, labor ".
Leonardo records all and at the bottom adds, in the same dry tone,
"Salay steals the money".
Put down the carpet. - We want to be quick! - And the benches!
Two? - Yes, the duke wants it so even if the duchess is gone.
Come on, put in order! Get the shavings! - Put down the carpet well.
Go on! - Here, give me a hand.
The masterpiece is not finished yet
and already the three layers of plaster begin to crack.
We must think that destiny favors a desire for self-destruction,
which, never admitted, lurks in the soul of Leonardo.
By design or adverse fate,
almost all the work recently made by this great man begins to crumble
- more serious examples we'll see later - or become lost.
Or remains hidden, like the inventions entrusted to his writings in dusty archives,
which are only found when after centuries later,
humanity with great labor invents them again.
However, in the few years it was intact, the "Last Supper" set a world precedent.
Although 50 years later Vasari wrote that it appeared
"like a dazzling ruin".
Even hostile fortune seemed to rage against the masterpiece.
In 1652, the friars cut a piece out of it to open a passage
between the kitchen and the refectory, so that their food wouldn't get cold.
Thank goodness! We need a door here. - Meanwhile, time's pitiless work goes on.
The soldiers of Napoleon transformed the refectory into a stable,
despite Napoleon's counterorder Stendhal says, "wrote by his horse on his knees".
And in August 1943...
The area of the Grazie was heavily bombed.
The fresco had been protected with sandbags.
And there, this fragile defense seemed to hold up, almost miraculously.
But the war raged, the rain fell and nobody could take care of the "Last Supper".
In 1946, the refectory rebuilt, began a very patient and learned restoration work.
But the current state of the "Last Supper" is what you see.
That crack could have been almost a warning sign for a landslide.
In a year and a half, the whole world he lived in, would crumble and collapse.
Foreigners, the French, often called to help the Italian lords
in the rivalries that divided their little states learned the way of the Alps.
Louis Xll invades the duchy of Milan,
claiming a presumed legacy of his grandmother Valentina Visconti.
The French occupy Alessandria, reaching the gates of Milan.
Calm, brothers, calm down.
Calm. Duke!
The night of September 2, 1499, Ludovico defeated, before fleeing Milan
comes to pray for the last time at the tomb of Beatrice d'Este, his young wife.
Death to the Moor! - Viva the French! - Death to the Moor!
Go, go!
For the Moor to leave Milan is to leave the Grazie.
The Grazie were particularly dear to him.
He had lavished work and money and placed his and Beatrice’s graves here.
He wanted to be buried at the Grazie.
He decorated the refectory with the finest fresco in the world.
And now he had to flee, leave everything,
the Grazie, Milan, the duchy with so much patient cunning conquered.
Defeated by the French once more, he'll die in France, a prisoner, only 57 years old.
On October 6, 1499, the French enter the city.
All that way!
Louis Xll made a solemn entrance accompanied by a Te Deum in the Duomo.
And a band of Gascon crossbowmen
made target practice on the wonderful horse of Leonardo.
Watch out!
Go for it!
Shit!
Right in the middle!
With Salay and Luca Pacioli, Leonardo leaves Milan.
He noted with his usual cold precision,
“The Duke has lost his estate, property and freedom”
“and no more works will be finished for him.”
Before leaving, Leonardo fenced off and barred to no purpose
that small vineyard outside Porta Ludovica which only a few months before the Moor,
always in debt with his "excellent painter", had given him.
It was not large: 16 rods, less than one hectare,
but Leonardo had made there a thousand projects.
He had been 20 years in Lucovico's service and feared reprisals from the French,
who in fact will sequester his vineyard.
So he goes to Mantua, where lsabella d'Este, sister of Beatrice,
reigns on a tiny state.
But what welcome will Mantua reserve for him?
“The water that touches the rivers is the last of the one that went”
“and the first of the one that comes.”
To follow the silent and infinite track of time.
To abandon works, costing blood and pain.
To fall into doubt and need.
At 50 years old.
His departure from Florence one spring morning had been a liberation.
His departure from Milan in this cold December is a flight.
Mantua is a tiny state where lsabella d'Este, married to Francesco Gonzaga,
reigns over a small but refined court.
Intelligent, cultured, brilliant, lsabella loves painting, music, literature.
Not only by inclination, but also for the luster art reflects on her nobility.
Isabella has written to each illustrious painter for at least one work,
a masterpiece to be added to those she already owns.
Masterpieces to show to princes and ambassadors
passing through the marquisate.
Excuse me, I’ll introduce you without ceremony.
We are a simple family.
Isabella?
The ambassadors wanted to greet you before leaving for Venice. - Oh, gentlemen!
You surprise me in my study. - Excellent Marchesa!
In the privacy of my things, my paintings. Perugino...
Mantegna... I feel like among friends. - Great friends!
Your Excellency loves paintings? - Very much.
Then come, Excellency. There’s a room I want to show you.
We call it "the married couple room", the frescoes are by Andrea Mantegna.
This way. Sorry if I introduce you so into one of our rooms.
The beauty of the paintings will make you forget this offense to etiquette.
The violet!
The violet of that dress!
I can't take my eyes off it.
And this blue!
Marchese Lodovico and Marchesa Barbara of Hohenzollern.
Extraordinary! - Please, come in. - Thank you. - You're welcome.
Beautiful! - How great! - Entertain them. - Certainly.
On any other occasion, the arrival of an artist like Leonardo
would have made lsabella happy. - Go on.
Unfortunately, now the conditions of its small state are precarious.
The French, masters of Milan, are dangerous neighbors.
What will they say if Mantua becomes a refuge to those fleeing Milan?
Please, come. There's a friend of yours.
Even Cecilia Gallerani like other shipwrecked from Milan,
has sought refuge from lsabella who though not having the courage to reject them,
knows that the presence of these fugitives compromises her.
Maestro Leonardo!
No, you are a prince of art and as such you must be received.
Come, I have a surprise for you.
Cecilia!
Contessa Bergamini.
Dear Maestro, seeing you passing through Mantua fills us with sincere joy.
Truly.
Ah, how many events!
How many sad events in these sad autumn months.
Enough, enough!
So, where are you headed? Venice?
Yes, Venice. - But you must stop here a few days. I need a work from you.
Mantegna, Perugino... But without a Leonardo my studio is not my studio.
Remember Cecilia when I begged you to send me even for a day
the portrait that Leonardo made for you? Oh, if you had time to make me a portrait!
Leonardo, who probably thought of staying in Mantua,
understands that he cannot stay.
Zoroastro, is the luggage ready? - Yes, Maestro.
Good morning, my son.
I've already said goodbye to her Excellency.
Shall we leave now? - Ah, you have made a copy.
Yes, to take it with me and maybe make a painting.
Zoroastro, the easel. - Right away.
Paid thus with a magnificent sketch, now at the Louvre,
his debt for those few days' hospitality, Leonardo takes his leave.
How beautiful!
Beautiful! Thank you! But a true painting, with your magic of lights and shadows!
Of this portrait of your Excellency, I plan to do a painting.
Will you take it away? - No, I made a perfect copy,
but the most vivid image of your Excellency I will keep here.
I am quite sure, quite sure you will keep your promise.
Quite sure.
Goodbye. If times were different!
Leonardo will not keep his promise.
He left leaving in the restless Marchesa
a regret for a great lost opportunity.
If times were different...
Times are hard. The King of France, in Milan, thinks of invading even Mantua.
Isabella will meet him with a dress of golden lilies, the French emblem,
and a picture of Mantegna as a gift.
And you, little woman, will thus save the marquisate.
But the departure of Leonardo gives no peace.
She will chase him for years with letters and embassies.
Leaving the little hospitable Mantua, Leonardo heads towards Venice.
Surely Leonardo went to Venice.
During his stay, did he come into contact with the senate and the Signoria?
We don't know, but he tried to establish himself there because need urged him on.
He thought of conquering the small group of nobles who ruled the Serenissima
facing the great problem of Venice: How to defend the city from the Turks.
After a few months, the Doge Antonio Grimani was severely defeated by the sultan
and Venice feared being invaded by land. He writes,
"Most illustrious lords,"
”As I've perceived that the Turks cannot invade Italy by any part of the mainland”
”without crossing the Isonzo, it's not possible to a make a defense in any place”
"which would be of such universal efficacy as that made over this river. "
We don't know whether these letters refer to a specific charge
or are projects Leonardo plans to propose.
Since Venice is vulnerable above all by sea, an invention,
absurd in its temerity, flashes into Leonardo's head.
Bravo! Put the stones in the scull slowly.
Put them in slowly, so it doesn't sink! The boat must be half in water,
to stand well.
Half in the water like that!
Don’t teach it!
Don’t teach it and you will alone be excellent!
Ah, yes!
Call a boy. A boy, secretly.
To get you to sew the clothes at home.
In secret, yes! Secretly.
Below is the man. A mask...
with glass eyes, with which you can swim underwater.
And as to breathing...
the face...
a lock.
At the changing of the guard, you explode the ship, give fire to all the galleys!
You'll need a vest, jacket, hose and something for you to blow in to breathe.
Deflated, you'll go to the bottom pulled by the sandbags,
inflated you will return above the water.
A mask with glass eyes.
Bring a knife that cuts well, so that a net won’t take you.
These broken, confusing phrases, sometimes incomprehensible to us,
Leonardo has really thought and written down.
He had the intuition of a new terrible weapon to offer Venice: the submarine.
And to support it, men who swim and act underwater: the divers.
This unexpected, exalting Leonardo, almost upset by the ideas that stir him,
leaps to our eyes, alive and precise,
from the nervous notes of the pages of the Atlantic Codex like an X-ray.
The superior man, melancholic, ironic like the smile of one of his figures,
is full of enthusiasm before the possibility of an undertaking never attempted by man
which will tempt him.
So he advises himself in secret "not to teach and only you will be excellent".
And like a boy, dreams of setting fire to the galleys himself.
If you do not surrender within 4 hours, you will go to the deep!
This sentence too can be read in the Atlantic Codex.
This almost absurd undertaking,
to attack the Turkish fleet and destroy it with submarines and divers,
for a second, Leonardo dreams of doing it himself.
In secret the garments will be sewn and he'll set fire to the galleys himself.
He will have eternal fame for audacity and will gain immense wealth.
He will be rich, powerful, free to devote himself to his studies.
And to be sure not to get fooled, he writes,
“Draw up a legal contract”
"that half the plunder of the prisoners”"
“will be yours without any exception.”
“And the deposit of the money and the payment”
“will be done by Manetto".
This "Manetto" is Alvise Manetti, a trusted person.
Leonardo never ceases to surprise us. We believe him cold, dry,
so high in his meditations to give us a sense of frost,
like an ever snowy top because it's so high.
But soon after, maybe in spite of himself, we find him at our same level,
overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of an invention, unheard of for those times.
But overwhelmed by an emotion unsuspected in him,
from an emotion that we would dare call childish.
The admirable shock which he has always communicated to us
gives way to an emotion and what we’ll call an affection.
"The how and the why, I will not write my method”
“of remaining under water.”
“This I do not want to divulge or publish”
“on account of the evil natures of men,”
“who would only use it to assassinate from the bottom of the seas,”
“destroying the canals”
“and submerging them with the men inside."
The exalted hours of the night have passed.
The dream of greatness and destruction has remained and must remain a dream.
A very modern scruple,
imagine the inventors of the atomic bomb, restrains Leonardo.
The diving suit and the underwater ship that have flashed in his imagination
will have to remain buried in the pages of his secret books.
Zoroastro. Zoroastro! Come on then!
If not, we go nowhere! The Maestro? - In the square. - Ah, good.
Maestro! Maestro!
Wait!
In Florence, while he was studying minutely the anatomy of the horse,
Verrocchio was modeling and completing his monument to Colleoni.
And now Verrocchio's horse is here in the square,
cast in bronze, defying the centuries.
While the remains of his horse, scarred by the Gascons, - Maestro!
Is being dismantled in the rain.
How much work, wasted ingenuity, and studies started and never completed.
But it's not too late. He too, Leonardo, shall do!
He is 50 and with his hands he can still bend and break a horseshoe.
He will no longer be lost in studies and dreams.
Now that much knowledge has been accumulated, he will not stray anymore.
He shall do!
Shall we leave, Maestro?
Yes!
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