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Leonardo da Vinci

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Leonardo da Vinci

(1452-1519) - great it. artist (painter, sculptor, architect), scientist (anatomist, mathematician, physicist, natural scientist), engineer-inventor and thinker of the Renaissance. Born in the village of Anchiano (approx. Vinci, between Florence and Pisa). The illegitimate son of a wealthy notary and a simple peasant woman. From 1469 he studied in Florence in the workshop of Andrea Verrocchio. In 1470 he was enrolled in the community of Florentine masters, but until 1481 he continued to work with Verrocchio. OK. 1476 he performed the figure of the left angel in his teacher’s painting “The Baptism of Christ,” which compares favorably with Verrocchio’s work. Among the early works of L. da V. are “Madonna of the Flower” (or “Benois Madonna”) (c. 1478), “Adoration of the Magi” and “Saint Jerome” (1481-1482).

In 1482, at the invitation of the actual. The ruler of Milan, Lodovico Sforza L. da V., moved to Milan. He worked primarily as a military man. engineer, wrote a “Treatise on Painting”, studied science, architecture and sculpture. In Milan, he created a clay model of the monument to Francesco Sforza (father of Lodovic), which was destroyed by France. by soldiers in 1499; painted “Madonna of the Rocks” (or “Madonna in the Grotto”) (1483-1494) using Leonard’s famous sfumato (the finest chiaroscuro), “Madonna Litta” (1490-1491); The fresco “The Last Supper” in the refectory of the Milan monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie (1495-1497) is the main pictorial work of this period. This huge mural (4.6x8.8 m) became an artistic event. life of Italy, but, executed in tempera, it began to gradually collapse during the artist’s lifetime.

The Milanese period - the most fruitful in the master's work - lasted until 1499. L. da V. became the most famous artist in Italy. He left Milan, occupied by the French, and after a short stay in Mantua and Venice in 1500 he returned to Florence, where he worked for some time as a military man. engineer for Cesare Borgia. In 1502, L. da V. received an order from the Florentine Signoria to paint the wall of the Council Hall in the Palazzo Vecchio on the subject of “The Battle of Anghiari”; on the other wall, Michelangelo was supposed to perform “The Battle of Cascina.” But both artists made only preparatory cardboards.

In 1503-1506. L. da V. created the most famous portrait in the history of world painting - the portrait of Mona Lisa (“Gioconda”), the wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco di Gioconde. Since 1506, a period of regular wanderings began: first Milan (1506), then Rome (1513); in 1516 L. da V. moved to France, where he spent the last years of his life in the castle of Cloux (c. Amboise).

L. da V. did not leave a large number of paintings: he worked on his works as a research scientist, considering painting a science and the daughter of nature; argued that “a good painter must paint two main things: a person and a representation of his soul.” In his “Treatise on Painting” (1498), L. da V., as an art theorist, insisted on the need to study linear and aerial perspective, anatomy, etc. As an engineer, he expressed a number of brilliant hypotheses and left a number of designs for mechanisms, machine tools, aircraft, irrigation devices, etc. L. da V. was one of the first to substantiate the idea of ​​the cognizability of the world through reason and sensations, and suggested that the Earth is only one of the celestial bodies and is not the center of the Universe.

Lit.: Leonardo da Vinci. A book about painting. M., 1934; Leonardo da Vinci. Selected natural science works. M., 1955; Leonardo da Vinci. Selected excerpts from the literary heritage // Masters of art about art. T. 2. Renaissance / Ed. A.A. Gubera, V.N. Grashchenkova. M., 1966; Vasari Giorgio. The biographies of the most famous painters, sculptors and architects. T. 3. M., 1970; Gukovsky ML. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1967; Dzhivelegov A.K. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1969; Lazarev V.N. Leonardo da Vinci. M, 1952.

encyclopedic Dictionary

Leonardo Da Vinci

1. (Leonardo da Vinci) (April 15, 1452, Vinci near Florence - May 2, 1519, Cloux Castle, near Amboise, Touraine, France), Italian artist, scientist, engineer and philosopher. Born into the family of a wealthy notary. He developed as a master, studying with Andrea del Verrocchio (1467 - 72). The methods of work in the Florentine workshop of that time, where the artist’s work was closely linked with technical experiments, as well as his acquaintance with the astronomer P. Toscanelli contributed to the emergence of young Leonardo’s scientific interests. In early works (the head of an angel in "Baptism" Verrocchio, after 1470, "Annunciation", around 1474, both in the Uffizi, "Madonna Benoit", around 1478, Hermitage) enriches the traditions of Quattrocento painting, emphasizing the smooth volume of forms with soft chiaroscuro, enlivening faces with a subtle, subtle smile. IN "Adoration of the Magi"(1481-82, unfinished; underpainting in the Uffizi) turns a religious image into a mirror of a variety of human emotions, developing innovative drawing methods. Recording the results of countless observations in sketches, sketches and full-scale studies (Italian pencil, silver pencil, sanguine, pen and other techniques), Leonardo achieves rare acuity in conveying facial expressions (sometimes resorting to grotesque and caricature), and the structure and movements of the human body leads in perfect harmony with the dramaturgy of the composition. In the service of the ruler of Milan, Lodovico Moro (from 1481), Leonardo acts as a military engineer, hydraulic engineer, and organizer of court festivities. For over 10 years he has been working on the monument to Francesco Sforza, father of Lodovico Moro; The life-size clay model of the monument, full of plastic power, has not survived (it was destroyed during the capture of Milan by the French in 1500) and is known only from preparatory sketches. "Madonna of the Rocks" This period marked the creative flowering of Leonardo the painter. IN "Madonna of the Rocks"(1483-94, Louvre; second version - 1487-1511, National Gallery, London) the master’s favorite subtle chiaroscuro ( "sfumato") appears as a new halo that replaces the medieval halos: it is equally a divine-human and natural mystery, where the rocky grotto, reflecting Leonardo’s geological observations, plays no less dramatic role than the figures of saints in the foreground. "Last Supper" Leonardo creates a painting in the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie "Last Supper"(1495-97; due to the risky experiment that the master undertook, using oil mixed with tempera for the fresco, the work has reached us in a very damaged form). The high religious and ethical content of the image, which represents the stormy, contradictory reaction of Christ’s disciples to his words about the impending betrayal, is expressed in clear mathematical laws of the composition, powerfully subjugating not only the painted, but also the real architectural space. The clear stage logic of facial expressions and gestures, as well as the excitingly paradoxical, as always with Leonardo, combination of strict rationality with an inexplicable mystery made "Last Supper" one of the most significant works in the history of world art. Also involved in architecture, Leonardo develops various options "ideal city" and the central domed temple. The master spends the following years in constant travel (Florence - 1500-02, 1503-06, 1507; Mantua and Venice - 1500; Milan - 1506, 1507-13; Rome - 1513-16). From 1517 he lived in France, where he was invited by King Francis I. "Battle of Angyari". Mona Lisa (Portrait of Mona Lisa) In Florence, Leonardo works on a painting in the Palazzo Vecchio ( "Battle of Angyari", 1503-06; not finished and not preserved, known from copies from cardboard, as well as from a recently discovered sketch - private collection, Japan), which stands at the origins of the battle genre in the art of modern times; the deadly fury of war is embodied here in the frenzied fight of the horsemen. In Leonardo's most famous painting, the portrait of the Mona Lisa (the so-called "Mona Lisa", around 1503, Louvre) the image of a rich city woman appears as a mysterious personification of nature as such, without losing its purely feminine cunning; The inner significance of the composition is given by the cosmically majestic and at the same time alarmingly alienated landscape, melting into a cold haze. Late paintings by K later works Leonardo owns: designs for the monument to Marshal Trivulzio (1508 - 12), painting "St. Anne with Mary and the Christ Child"(c. 1500-07, Louvre). The latter, as it were, sums up his searches in the field of light-air perspective, tonal color (with a predominance of cool, greenish shades) and harmonious pyramidal composition; at the same time, this is harmony over the abyss, since a group of holy characters, welded together by family closeness, is presented on the edge of the abyss. Last picture Leonardo, "St. John the Baptist"(circa 1515-17, ibid.) is full of erotic ambiguity: the young Forerunner looks here not like a holy ascetic, but like a tempter full of sensual charm. In a series of drawings depicting a universal catastrophe (the so-called cycle with "By the Flood", Italian pencil, pen, circa 1514-16, Royal Library, Windsor) thoughts about the frailty and insignificance of man before the power of the elements are combined with rationalistic, anticipatory "vortex" cosmology of R. Descartes with ideas about cyclicity natural processes. "Treatise on Painting" The most important source for studying the views of Leonardo da Vinci are his notebooks and manuscripts (about 7 thousand sheets), written in spoken Italian. The master himself did not leave a systematic presentation of his thoughts. "Treatise on Painting", prepared after Leonardo’s death by his student F. Melzi and which had a huge influence on the theory of art, consists of passages largely arbitrarily extracted from the context of his notes. For Leonardo himself, art and science were inextricably linked. Giving in "dispute of arts" the palm of painting as the most intellectual, in his opinion, form of creativity, the master understood it as a universal language (similar to mathematics in the field of science), which embodies the entire diversity of the universe through proportions, perspective and chiaroscuro. “Painting,” writes Leonardo, “is a science and the legitimate daughter of nature..., a relative of God.”. By studying nature, the perfect artist-naturalist thereby learns "divine mind", hidden under the external appearance of nature. By engaging in creative competition with this divinely intelligent principle, the artist thereby affirms his likeness to the Supreme Creator. Since he "first in the soul, and then in the hands" "everything that exists in the universe", he is there too "some god". Leonardo is a scientist. Technical projects As a scientist and engineer, Leonardo da Vinci enriched almost all areas of knowledge of his time with insightful observations and guesses, considering his notes and drawings as sketches for a giant natural philosophical encyclopedia. He was a prominent representative of the new, experimentally based natural science. Leonardo paid special attention to mechanics, calling it "paradise of mathematical sciences" and seeing in it the key to the secrets of the universe; he tried to determine the coefficients of sliding friction, studied the resistance of materials, and was passionate about hydraulics. Numerous hydrotechnical experiments were expressed in innovative designs of canals and irrigation systems. Leonardo's passion for modeling led him to astounding technical foresights that were far ahead of his era: such are sketches of designs for metallurgical furnaces and rolling mills, weaving machines, printing, woodworking and other machines, a submarine and a tank, as well as designs for flying machines developed after a thorough study of the flight of birds and parachute Optics Leonardo's observations on the influence of transparent and translucent bodies on the color of objects, reflected in his painting, led to the establishment of the principles of aerial perspective in art. The universality of optical laws was associated for him with the idea of ​​​​the homogeneity of the Universe. He was close to creating a heliocentric system, considering the Earth "a point in the universe". He studied the structure of the human eye, making guesses about the nature of binocular vision. Anatomy, botany, paleontology In anatomical studies, summarizing the results of autopsies of corpses, in detailed drawings he laid the foundations of modern scientific illustration. When studying the functions of organs, he considered the body as a model "natural mechanics". First described a number of bones and nerves, Special attention devoted to the problems of embryology and comparative anatomy, trying to introduce experimental method and in biology. Having established botany as an independent discipline, he gave classical descriptions of leaf arrangement, helio- and geotropism, root pressure and the movement of plant juices. He was one of the founders of paleontology, believing that fossils found on mountain tops disprove the idea of "global flood". Revealing the ideal of the Renaissance "universal man", Leonardo da Vinci was interpreted in subsequent tradition as the person who most clearly outlined the range of creative quests of the era. In Russian literature, the portrait of Leonardo was created by D. S. Merezhkovsky in the novel "Resurrected Gods" (1899 - 1900).
2. (Leonardo da Vinci) (1452 - 1519), Italian painter, sculptor, architect, scientist, engineer. Combining the development of new means of artistic language with theoretical generalizations, he created an image of a person that meets the humanistic ideals of the High Renaissance. In the painting "Last Supper"(1495-97, in the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan) high ethical content is expressed in the strict laws of composition, a clear system of gestures and facial expressions of the characters. The humanistic ideal of female beauty is embodied in the portrait of Mona Lisa (the so-called "Gioconda", OK. 1503). Numerous discoveries, projects, experimental studies in the field of mathematics, natural sciences, and mechanics. He defended the decisive importance of experience in knowledge of nature (notebooks and manuscripts, about 7 thousand sheets).

European art: Painting. Sculpture. Graphics: Encyclopedia

Leonardo Da Vinci

(Leonardo da Vinci)

1452, Vinci - 1519, Amboise.

Italian painter, sculptor, architect, scientist, engineer, art theorist. Master of the Florentine school, student of Verrocchio. He began his creative journey in Florence. In 1481/1482 he was invited to Milan by Duke Lodovico Moro. Until 1499 he worked in Milan as a painter, sculptor, architect, military engineer, and organizer of court festivities. In 1500-1506 (with interruptions) he worked in Florence; in 1502-1503 he was in the service of Cesare Borgia as a military engineer; in 1506-1513 he worked in Milan, in 1513-1514 - in Rome. In 1516, at the invitation of King Francis I, he moved to France; He spent the last years of his life (1516-1519) at the castle of Cloux near Amboise. Having surpassed all the geniuses of the Italian Renaissance in the universality of his talents, Leonardo da Vinci belonged to the same generation as Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Carpaccio, Perugino, Pinturicchio, Signorelli, who completed the development of the Early Renaissance. At the same time, he acted as one of the greatest reformers Italian art, who embodied in his works a new worldview, new principles of artistic generalization, which became the basis of the art of the High Renaissance. The uniqueness of Leonardo da Vinci as an artist lies not only in the versatility of his talents and in his inherent innovative spirit, but also in the organic unity of his artistic and scientific interests. Leonardo gave the palm among the plastic arts to painting, which he called “science and the legitimate daughter of nature,” capable of cognizing, in his words, “the beauty of nature’s creations,” in contrast to the exact sciences, cognizing “discontinuous and continuous quantities.” For him, a pictorial work was a concentrated embodiment in a picture of certain general and most essential principles of visible reality. At the same time, the work on the composition itself was for Leonardo a process of aesthetic knowledge of the world and its theoretical research, which was continued in his extensive scientific treatises. Hence the unusually large place even for a Renaissance artist, which he devoted to clarifying the concept in compositional sketches, full-scale and anatomical studies, searching for gestures and movements that most fully express feelings, etc. The process of working on each composition was so long, and Leonardo's creative time was so often divided between his artistic works, scientific and technical research that his painting heritage totals only about one and a half dozen works (including unfinished ones and those made together with his students). But these few works became the starting point for the formation of the aesthetic principles of the High Renaissance. In the development of Leonardo da Vinci's creative image, the first Florentine period (c. 1470-1480) occupies an important place, when in his few works the features of a new artistic style were formed, marked by a desire for generality, laconicism, concentration on the image of a person, a new degree of completeness of images; Chiaroscuro begins to play an important role, gently modeling forms and combining them with the spatial environment. These features, outlined in the figure of an angel in the Baptism of Christ by Verrocchio (c. 1470), in the Annunciation (c. 1474, both Florence, Uffizi Gallery) acquire more complete expression in the works of con. 1470 - beginning 1480s. In the Madonna with a Flower (the so-called Benois Madonna, c. 1478, St. Petersburg, State Hermitage), Leonardo abandons the detail typical of his contemporaries, focusing all his attention on the Virgin Mary and the Child, combining in the depicted moment the naturalness of the manifestation of feeling and the solemn seriousness. Leonardo's preparatory drawings make it possible to trace the search for the most compact and harmonious compositional formula, when the figures seem to fit into an invisible arch that follows the outlines of the picture. An even more decisive departure from the traditions of the Early Renaissance is demonstrated by the unfinished Adoration of the Magi (1481-1482, Florence, Uffizi Gallery), remaining at the stage of golden-brown underpainting, built on the contrast of dramatic excitement permeating the crowd merged together by large masses of light and shadows, a strange landscape with ruins, fiercely fighting horsemen, and reverent silence uniting the Madonna and the Magi. The study of the pathos of feelings expressed in the plasticity of the human body, which found expression in preparatory drawings to the Adoration of the Magi, determined the solution of the unfinished composition of St. Jerome (c. 1481, Vatican, Pinakothek). Leonardo da Vinci's first experience in the field of portrait dates back to the Florentine period. Small Portrait Ginevra Benci (c. 1474-1476, Washington, National Gallery) stands out from the portraits of this time by the artist’s desire to create a sense of the richness of spiritual life, which is facilitated by the subtle play of light and shadows. The pale face of a young woman glows against the backdrop of a landscape shrouded in evening twilight with a dark juniper bush and reflections of light on the surface of the pond, anticipating the artist’s later works by the understatement of its expression. The Milanese period (1482-1499) was the time of Leonardo's most intense and multifaceted activity. Court engineer of Duke Lodovico Moro, he supervised construction work and the laying of canals, designed military structures, siege equipment, developed projects for improving weapons, participated in the design of court festivities, and worked on a project that was never implemented equestrian statue Ludovico Moro's father, Duke Francesco Sforza. Most of Leonardo's scientific manuscripts and his notes on the problems of painting, subsequently systematized and published by his student Melzi under the title Book of Painting, date back to the Milanese period. Leonardo da Vinci's few paintings from the Milanese period are among his most significant creations. The altar painting Madonna in the Grotto (c. 1483, Paris, Louvre) is unusual in the motif chosen by the artist - the quiet solitude of the Madonna with the Child Christ, John the Baptist, a young wingless angel in the twilight of a grotto with a fantastic pile of sharp rocks. Their figures are inscribed in the pyramid, classic for compositional solutions of the Renaissance, which gives the composition clear readability, composure, balance; at the same time, glances, gestures, turns of heads, the pointing finger of the angel turning his gaze to us create an internal movement, a cycle of rhythms that involves the viewer, forcing him to turn to each character again and again, imbued with an atmosphere of reverent spiritual concentration. A major role in the picture is played by subdued diffused light, penetrating through the crevices into the twilight of the grotto, giving rise to smoky chiaroscuro - “sfumato”, in Leonardo’s terminology - which he called “the creator of expressions on faces.” Softening, blurring the contours and relief of forms, sfumato creates a feeling of tenderness and warmth of naked children's bodies, gives the beautiful faces of the Madonna and the angel a subtle spirituality. Leonardo strives to convey this elusive movement of feelings both in the Litta Madonna (c. 1490-1491, St. Petersburg, State Hermitage) and in the Lady with an Ermine (c. 1483, Krakow, National Czartoryski Gallery). The central place among the works of the Milanese period is occupied by monumental painting Last Supper (1495-1497, Milan, monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie). Having abandoned the traditional fresco technique, which required speed of execution and almost did not allow for corrections, the artist preferred a complex mixed technique, which caused already in the 16th century. crumbling of the painting. Freed these days from numerous restoration records, it has preserved both traces of destruction from numerous falls of paint, and the grandeur of the artist’s plan. This is the first work of Leonardo in which he achieved that measure of artistic generalization, grandeur and spiritual power of images that are characteristic of the art of the High Renaissance. Based on the compositional and plot interpretation found by Castagno (the symmetry of the composition deployed parallel to the image plane, the reaction of the apostles to the words “one of you will betray me”), Leonardo found a solution that excluded traditional ritual solemnity and was based on the dramatic contrast of the calm detachment of Christ and the explosion of feelings , as if spreading from him in waves, capturing the shocked apostles. The time of Leonardo da Vinci's new creative flourishing was the second Florentine period (1500-1506). The works of these years had the greatest influence on the formation of the High Renaissance style, the work of Raphael and other younger contemporaries of Leonardo. According to Vasari, the now lost carton of St. Anne (c. 1501), a life-size graphic version that usually preceded the creation of a painting in the Renaissance, prompted a pilgrimage of Florentines to the artist’s studio. Survived over early version (St. Anne, cardboard, c. 1499-1500, London, National Gallery) is distinguished by the naturalness and ease with which the artist combined the Madonna sitting on the lap of her mother Anne and the children playing at her feet into a compact and full of life group - Christ and John the Baptist; the breadth and generality of forms and rhythms, the energy and softness of modeling, the subtle spirituality of faces illuminated by a smile, which is indicated not so much by the movement of the lips as by the elusive thickening and thinning of chiaroscuro, are remarkable. This strange, unsaid, more guessed than visible, smile created an aura of mystery surrounding the most famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci, the Mona Lisa (La Gioconda; c. 1503-1505, Paris, Louvre). Its solution, apparently, should be sought in the fact that Leonardo saw in his model, the wife of a Florentine notary, something that allowed him to embody in a portrait image the entire sum of his ideas about man and the Universe, beauty, harmony and order, about the “science of painting”, its cognitive and creative capabilities. The composition of the picture is so flawless, the female figure outlined by a smooth generalized silhouette is so impeccably inscribed in a rectangular frame, in a natural and calm pose there is such balance and completeness, the relationship between dark and light spots, the natural chaos of the landscape immersed in a bluish haze and the power dominating it is so precisely found , as if absorbing the harmony and spiritual power of the universe of the human figure, that the image of Mona Lisa acquires a generalized, as if universal, character. The sfumato haze, enveloping not only the figure, but also the deserted rocky landscape, gives unity to the world depicted by the artist and imparts ambiguity to the facial expression and elusive, mysterious smile of Mona Lisa. Leonardo's third significant Florentine work was the cardboard for the central episode of the Battle of Anghiari painting, commissioned from him for the main hall of the Palazzo Vecchio (1503-1505). The cardboard, depicting the fierce battle of four horsemen for the banner, survived until the 18th century; a drawing by Rubens (Paris, Louvre), painted copies (Florence, Uffizi Gallery; Vienna, Academy Gallery) and two drawings by Leonardo for the heads of warriors (Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts) give an idea of ​​the power of expression and the intensity of passions that weaved the combatants into a single ball. Leonardo's last paintings were St. Anne, completed after returning to Milan (c. 1509, Paris, Louvre) and a replica of the Madonna of the Rocks, completed with the help of A. di Predis (c. 1505-1508, London, Nat. gallery) - testify to the growing creative crisis of the master, returning to already found formulas. For the last ten years of his life, Leonardo apparently did not turn to painting.

Lit.: Leonardo da Vinci. A book about painting. M., 1934; Leonardo da Vinci. Selected works / Ed. A.K. Dzhivelegova and A.M. Efros. M.; L., 1935. T. 1-2; Leonardo da Vinci. Favorites. M., 1952; Lazarev V.N. Leonardo da Vinci. M.; L., 1969; Zubov V.P. Leonardo da Vinci. M.; L., 1961; Gukovsky M. A. Leonardo da Vinci. L.; M., 1967; Dzhivelegov A.K. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1974; Gastev A. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1972; Batkin L. M. Leonardo da Vinci and the features of Renaissance creative thinking. M., 1990; Suida W. Leonardo und sein Kreis. Munchen, 1929; Clark K. Leonardo da Vinci. Cambridge, 1939; Cambridge, 1952; Heydenreich L. Leonardo di Vinci. Berlin, 1945; Basel, 1953; Castelfranco J. La pittura di Leonardo da Vinci. Milano, 1956.

I. Smirnova

Russian language dictionaries

Painter, engineer, mechanic, carpenter, musician, mathematician, pathologist, inventor - this is far from full list facets of the universal genius. He was called a sorcerer, a servant of the devil, an Italian Faust and a divine spirit. He was ahead of his time by several centuries. Surrounded by legends during his lifetime, the great Leonardo is a symbol of the limitless aspirations of the human mind. Having revealed the ideal of the Renaissance “universal man,” Leonardo was interpreted in the subsequent tradition as the person who most clearly outlined the range of creative quests of the era. He was the founder of the art of the High Renaissance.

Biography

Childhood

The house where Leonardo lived as a child.

Defeated teacher

Verrocchio's painting "The Baptism of Christ". The angel on the left (lower left corner) is the creation of Leonardo.

In the 15th century, ideas about the revival of ancient ideals were in the air. At the Florence Academy, the best minds in Italy created the theory of new art. Creative youth spent time in lively discussions. Leonardo remained aloof from his busy social life and rarely left his studio. He had no time for theoretical disputes: he improved his skills. One day Verrocchio received an order for the painting “The Baptism of Christ” and commissioned Leonardo to paint one of the two angels. This was a common practice in art workshops of that time: the teacher created a picture together with student assistants. The most talented and diligent were entrusted with the execution of an entire fragment. Two Angels, painted by Leonardo and Verrocchio, clearly demonstrated the superiority of the student over the teacher. As Vasari writes, the amazed Verrocchio abandoned his brush and never returned to painting.

Professional activity, 1476-1513

At the age of 24, Leonardo and three other young men were put on trial on false, anonymous charges of sodomy. They were acquitted. Very little is known about his life after this event, but he probably had his own workshop in Florence in 1476-1481.

In 1482 Leonardo, being, according to Vasari, very talented musician, created a silver lyre in the shape of a horse's head. Lorenzo de' Medici sent him as a peacemaker to Lodovico Moro, and sent the lyre with him as a gift.

Personal life

Leonardo had many friends and students. As for love relationships, there is no reliable information on this matter, since Leonardo carefully hid this side of his life. According to some versions, Leonardo had a relationship with Cecilia Gallerani, a favorite of Lodovico Moro, with whom he painted his famous painting “Lady with an Ermine”.

End of life

In France, Leonardo hardly painted. The master's right hand was numb, and he could hardly move without assistance. 67-year-old Leonardo spent the third year of his life in Amboise in bed. On April 23, 1519, he left a will, and on May 2, he died surrounded by his students and his masterpieces. Leonardo da Vinci was buried at Amboise Castle. The inscription was engraved on the tombstone: “Within the walls of this monastery lie the ashes of Leonardo of Vinci, greatest artist, engineer and architect of the French kingdom."

Key dates

• - Leonardo da Vinci enters Verrocchio's studio as an apprentice artist (Florence)
• - Member of the Florence Guild of Artists
• - - work on: “The Baptism of Christ”, “The Annunciation”, “Madonna with a Vase”
• Second half of the 70s. “Madonna with a Flower” (“Benois Madonna”) was created
• - Saltarelli scandal
• - Leonardo opens his own workshop
• - according to documents, this year Leonardo already had his own workshop
• - the monastery of San Donato a Sisto commissions Leonardo to create a large altarpiece “Adoration of the Magi” (not completed); work has begun on the painting “Saint Jerome”
• - invited to the court of Lodovico Sforza in Milan. Work has begun on the equestrian monument of Francesco Sforza.
• - work has begun on “Madonna in the Grotto”
• Mid-80s - “Madonna Litta” was created
• - “Portrait of a Musician” was created
• - development of a flying machine - ornithopter, based on bird flight
• - anatomical drawings of skulls
• - painting “Portrait of a Musician”. A clay model of the monument to Francesco Sforza was made.
• - The Vitruvian Man is a famous drawing that is sometimes called canonical proportions.
• - - “Madonna in the Grotto” is finished
• - - work on the fresco “The Last Supper” in the monastery of Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan
• - Milan is captured by the French troops of Louis XII, Leonardo leaves Milan, the model of the Sforza monument is badly damaged
• - enters the service of Cesare Borgia as an architect and military engineer
• - cardboard for the fresco “Battle of Andjaria (at Anghiari)” and the painting “Mona Lisa”

House in France where Leonardo da Vinci died in 1519

• - return to Milan and service with King Louis XII of France (who at that time controlled northern Italy, see Italian Wars)
• - - work in Milan on the equestrian monument to Marshal Trivulzio
• - painting in St. Anne's Cathedral
• - “Self-portrait”
• - moving to Rome under the patronage of Pope Leo X
• - - work on the painting “John the Baptist”
• - moving to France as a court artist, engineer, architect and mechanic

Achievements

Art

Our contemporaries know Leonardo primarily as an artist. In addition, it is possible that Da Vinci could also have been a sculptor: researchers from the University of Perugia - Giancarlo Gentilini and Carlo Sisi - claim that the terracotta head they found in 1990 is the only sculptural work of Leonardo da Vinci that has come down to us. However, Da Vinci himself, at different periods of his life, considered himself primarily an engineer or scientist. He did not devote much time to fine art and worked rather slowly. Therefore, Leonardo’s artistic heritage is not large in quantity, and a number of his works have been lost or severely damaged. However, his contribution to world artistic culture is extremely important even against the background of the cohort of geniuses that he gave Italian Renaissance. Thanks to his works, the art of painting moved to a qualitatively new stage of its development. The Renaissance artists who preceded Leonardo decisively rejected many of the conventions of medieval art. This was a movement towards realism and much had already been achieved in the study of perspective, anatomy, and greater freedom in compositional solutions. But in terms of picturesqueness, working with paint, the artists were still quite conventional and constrained. The line in the picture clearly outlined the object, and the image had the appearance of a painted drawing. The most conventional was the landscape, which played a secondary role. Leonardo realized and embodied a new painting technique. His line has the right to be blurry, because that’s how we see it. He realized the phenomenon of light scattering in the air and the appearance of sfumato - a haze between the viewer and the depicted object, which softens color contrasts and lines. As a result, realism in painting moved to a qualitatively new level.

Science and Engineering

His only invention that received recognition during his lifetime was a wheel lock for a pistol (started with a key). At the beginning, the wheeled pistol was not very widespread, but by the middle of the 16th century it had gained popularity among the nobles, especially among the cavalry, which was even reflected in the design of the armor, namely: Maximilian armor for the sake of firing pistols began to be made with gloves instead of mittens. The wheel lock for a pistol, invented by Leonardo da Vinci, was so perfect that it continued to be found in the 19th century.

Leonardo da Vinci was interested in the problems of flight. In Milan, he made many drawings and studied the flight mechanism of birds of various breeds and bats. In addition to observations, he also conducted experiments, but they were all unsuccessful. Leonardo really wanted to build a flying machine. He said: “He who knows everything can do everything. If only you could find out, you’ll have wings!” At first, Leonardo developed the problem of flight using wings driven by muscle strength of man: the idea of ​​the simplest apparatus of Daedalus and Icarus. But then he came to the idea of ​​​​building such an apparatus to which a person should not be attached, but should maintain complete freedom in order to control it; The apparatus must set itself in motion by its own force. This is essentially the idea of ​​an airplane. In order to successfully build and practically use the device, Leonardo lacked only one thing: the idea of ​​a motor with sufficient power. He got to everything else. Leonardo da Vinci worked on a vertical take-off and landing apparatus. Leonardo planned to place a system of retractable staircases on the vertical “ornitottero”. Nature served as an example for him: “look at the stone swift, which sat on the ground and cannot take off because of its short legs; and when he is in flight, pull out the ladder, as shown in the second image from above... this is how you take off from the plane; these stairs serve as legs...” Regarding landing, he wrote: “These hooks (concave wedges), which are attached to the base of the ladders, serve the same purposes as the tips of the toes of the person who jumps on them, and his whole body is not shaken by it, as if he I was jumping on my heels."

Inventions

1. Metal cart for transporting soldiers (tank prototype)
2. Lightweight portable bridges for the army.

Anatomy

Thinker

...Those sciences are empty and full of errors that are not generated by experience, the father of all certainty, and do not culminate in visual experience...

No human research can be called true science unless it has gone through mathematical proof. And if you say that sciences that begin and end in thought have truth, then I cannot agree with you on this, ... because such purely mental reasoning does not involve experience, without which there is no certainty.

Literature

Huge literary heritage Leonardo da Vinci has survived to this day in a chaotic form, in manuscripts written with his left hand. Although Leonardo da Vinci did not print a single line from them, in his notes he constantly addressed an imaginary reader and throughout the last years of his life he did not abandon the thought of publishing his works.

After the death of Leonardo da Vinci, his friend and student Francesco Melzi selected from them passages related to painting, from which the “Treatise on Painting” (Trattato della pittura, 1st ed.) was subsequently compiled. The handwritten legacy of Leonardo da Vinci was published in its entirety only in the 19th and 20th centuries. In addition to its enormous scientific and historical significance, it also has artistic value due to its concise, energetic style and unusually clear language. Living in the heyday of humanism, when the Italian language was considered secondary compared to Latin, Leonardo da Vinci delighted his contemporaries with the beauty and expressiveness of his speech (according to legend, he was a good improviser), but did not consider himself a writer and wrote as he spoke; his prose is therefore an example of the colloquial language of the 15th century intelligentsia, and this saved it in general from the artificiality and eloquence inherent in the prose of humanists, although in some passages of the didactic writings of Leonardo da Vinci we find echoes of the pathos of the humanistic style.

Even in the least “poetic” fragments by design, Leonardo da Vinci’s style is distinguished by its vivid imagery; Thus, his “Treatise on Painting” is equipped with magnificent descriptions (for example, the famous description of the flood), amazing with the skill of verbal transmission of pictorial and plastic images. Along with descriptions in which one can feel the manner of an artist-painter, Leonardo da Vinci gives in his manuscripts many examples of narrative prose: fables, facets (humorous stories), aphorisms, allegories, prophecies. In his fables and facets, Leonardo stands on the level of the prose writers of the 14th century with their simple-minded practical morality; and some of its facets are indistinguishable from Sacchetti's novellas.

Allegories and prophecies are more fantastic in nature: in the former, Leonardo da Vinci uses the techniques of medieval encyclopedias and bestiaries; the latter are in the nature of humorous riddles, distinguished by brightness and accuracy of phraseology and imbued with caustic, almost Voltairean irony, directed at the famous preacher Girolamo Savonarola. Finally, in the aphorisms of Leonardo da Vinci his philosophy of nature, his thoughts about the inner essence of things, are expressed in epigrammatic form. Fiction had a purely utilitarian, auxiliary meaning for him.

Leonardo's Diaries

To date, about 7,000 pages of Leonardo’s diaries have survived, located in various collections. At first, the priceless notes belonged to the master's favorite student, Francesco Melzi, but when he died, the manuscripts disappeared. Individual fragments began to “emerge” at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. At first they did not meet with enough interest. Numerous owners did not even suspect what a treasure fell into their hands! But when scientists established the authorship, it turned out that the barn books, art history essays, anatomical sketches, strange drawings, and research on geology, architecture, hydraulics, geometry, military fortifications, philosophy, optics, and drawing techniques were the fruit of one person. All entries in Leonardo's diaries are made in a mirror image.

Students

From Leonardo's workshop came such students ("Leonardeschi") as:

• Ambrogio de Predis
• Giampetrino

The renowned master summarized his many years of experience in educating young painters in a number of practical recommendations. The student must first master perspective, examine the shapes of objects, then copy the master’s drawings, draw from life, study the works of different painters, and only after that begin his own creation. “Learn diligence before speed,” advises Leonardo. The master recommends developing memory and especially imagination, encouraging one to peer into the unclear contours of the flame and find new, amazing forms in them. Leonardo encourages the painter to explore nature, so as not to become like a mirror that reflects objects without having knowledge about them. The teacher created “recipes” for images of faces, figures, clothes, animals, trees, sky, rain. In addition to the aesthetic principles of the great master, his notes contain wise worldly advice to young artists.

After Leonardo

In 1485, after a terrible plague epidemic in Milan, Leonardo proposed to the authorities a project for an ideal city with certain parameters, layout and sewer system. The Duke of Milan, Lodovico Sforza, rejected the project. Centuries passed, and the authorities of London recognized Leonardo's plan as the perfect basis for the further development of the city. In modern Norway there is an active bridge designed by Leonardo da Vinci. Tests of parachutes and hang gliders made according to the master’s sketches confirmed that only the imperfection of materials did not allow him to take to the skies. With the advent of aviation, the most cherished dream the great Florentine became a reality. At the Roman airport named after Leonardo da Vinci, there is a gigantic statue of a scientist with a model of a helicopter in his hands, stretching into the sky. “Do not turn around, he who is directed towards the star,” wrote the divine Leonardo.

• Leonardo, apparently, did not leave a single self-portrait that could be unambiguously attributed to him. Scientists have doubted that the famous self-portrait of Leonardo's sanguine (traditionally dated to -1515), depicting him in old age, is such. It is believed that perhaps this is just a study of the head of the apostle for the Last Supper. Doubts that this is a self-portrait of the artist have been expressed since the 19th century, the latest to be expressed recently by one of the leading experts on Leonardo, Professor Pietro Marani.

• One day Leonardo's teacher, Verrocchio, received an order for the painting “The Baptism of Christ” and instructed Leonardo to paint one of the two angels. This was a common practice in art workshops of that time: the teacher created a picture together with student assistants. The most talented and diligent were entrusted with the execution of an entire fragment. Two Angels, painted by Leonardo and Verrochio, clearly demonstrated the superiority of the student over the teacher. As Vasari writes, the amazed Verrocchio abandoned his brush and never returned to painting.

• He played the lyre masterfully. When Leonardo's case was heard in the Milan court, he appeared there precisely as a musician, and not as an artist or inventor.

• Leonardo was the first to explain why the sky is blue. In the book “On Painting” he wrote: “The blueness of the sky is due to the thickness of illuminated air particles, which is located between the Earth and the blackness above.”

• Leonardo was ambidextrous - he was equally good with his right and left hands. They even say that he could write different texts at the same time different hands. However, he wrote most of his works with his left hand from right to left.

• Was a vegetarian. He wrote the words “If a person strives for freedom, why does he keep birds and animals in cages? .. man is truly the king of animals, because he cruelly exterminates them. We live by killing others. We are walking cemeteries! I gave up meat at an early age.”

• Leonardo wrote in his famous diaries from right to left in mirror image. Many people think that in this way he wanted to make his research secret. Perhaps this is true. According to another version, mirror handwriting was his individual feature (there is even evidence that it was easier for him to write this way than in a normal way); There is even a concept of “Leonardo’s handwriting.”

• Leonardo's hobbies even included cooking and the art of serving. In Milan, for 13 years he was the manager of court feasts. He invented several culinary devices to make the work of cooks easier. Leonardo's original dish - thinly sliced ​​meat stewed with vegetables placed on top - was very popular at court feasts.

Bibliography

Essays

• Natural science essays and works on aesthetics. ().

About him

• Leonardo da Vinci. Selected natural science works. M. 1955.
• Monuments of world aesthetic thought, vol. I, M. 1962.
• I. Les manuscrits de Leonard de Vinci, de la Bibliothèque de l’Institut, 1881-1891.
• Leonardo da Vinci: Traité de la peinture, 1910.
• Il Codice di Leonardo da Vinci, nella Biblioteca del principe Trivulzio, Milano, 1891.
• Il Codice Atlantico di Leonardo da Vinci, nella Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milano, 1894-1904.
• Volynsky A.L., Leonardo da Vinci, St. Petersburg, 1900; 2nd ed., St. Petersburg, 1909.
• General history of art. T.3, M. “Art”, 1962.
• Gukovsky M. A. Mechanics of Leonardo da Vinci. - M.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1947. - 815 p.
• Zubov V.P. Leonardo da Vinci. M.: Publishing house. USSR Academy of Sciences, 1962.
• Pater V. Renaissance, M., 1912.
• Seil G. Leonardo da Vinci as an artist and scientist. Experience in psychological biography, St. Petersburg, 1898.
• Sumtsov N. F. Leonardo da Vinci, 2nd ed., Kharkov, 1900.
• Florentine readings: Leonardo da Vinci (collection of articles by E. Solmi, B. Croce, I. del Lungo, J. Paladina, etc.), M., 1914.
• Geymüller H. Les manuscrits de Leonardo de Vinci, extr. de la "Gazette des Beaux-Arts", 1894.
• Grothe H., Leonardo da Vinci als Ingenieur und Philosopher, 1880.
• Herzfeld M., Das Traktat von der Malerei. Jena, 1909.
• Leonardo da Vinci, der Denker, Forscher und Poet, Auswahl, Uebersetzung und Einleitung, Jena, 1906.
• Müntz E., Leonardo da Vinci, 1899.
• Péladan, Leonardo da Vinci. Textes choisis, 1907.
• Richter J. P., The literary works of L. da Vinci, London, 1883.
• Ravaisson-Mollien Ch., Les écrits de Leonardo de Vinci, 1881.

Gallery

In Europe, since the Proto-Renaissance, there has been a custom of giving nicknames to artists. In fact, they were analogues of modern nicknames on the Internet, and later became creative pseudonyms under which artists remained in history.

Today, few people think that, for example, Leonardo da Vinci did not have a surname at all, because he was the illegitimate son of the notary Piero, who lived in the village of Anchiano near the town of Vinci. So the full name of the Renaissance genius is Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, which translates as “Leonardo son of Mr. Piero from the town of Vinci,” abbreviated as Leonardo da Vinci. Or Titian. His last name was Vecellio and the prefix da Cadore was often added to it, because the painter was born in the province of Pieve di Cadore. True, today most art history lovers and connoisseurs only remember the first name of the maestro of the Venetian school of the High and Late Renaissance. The same applies to Michelangelo Buanarroti, whose full name is Michelangelo di Lodovico di Leonardo di Buonarroti Simoni ( Michelangelo di Lodovico di Leonardo di Buonarroti Simoni), or Rafael Santi da Urbino, whom we simply call Raphael. But these are just abbreviations, in which, by and large, there is nothing special; today we’ll talk about the pseudonyms of significant artists of various periods of the Renaissance, which are radically different from their true names.

"Birth of Venus" by Sandro Botticelli

1. Perhaps the best example of a nickname that completely erased the artist’s full name and family surname in the mass consciousness is - Sandro Botticelli. It’s worth starting with the fact that Sandro is a shortened name from Alessandro, that is, it is an analogue of the Russian name Sasha. But the real name of the artist is di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi (di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi). Where did the pseudonym Botticelli come from, under which the creator of The Birth of Venus entered art history? Everything here is very interesting. Botticelli's nickname means "barrel", and it comes from the Italian word “botte”. They teased Sandro's brother Giovanni, who was fat, but the artist simply inherited his brother's nickname.

“Venus and Mars” by Sandro Botticelli, it is believed that the artist depicted his muse in the image of Venus
Simonetta Vespucci, and features of Alessandro can be seen in the image of Mars.

2. Giotto- also a pseudonym. At the same time, we do not know the real name of the creator of the frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel and the paintings in the upper church of St. Francis in Assisi. The name of the artist is known - di Bondone, because he was born in the family of the blacksmith Bondone, who lived in the town of Vespignano. But Giotto is a diminutive form of two names at once: Ambrogio(Ambrogio) and Angiolo(Angiolo). So the artist’s name was either Amrogio da Bondone, or Angiolo da Bondone; there is still no complete clarity on this issue.

3. El Greco actually called Domenikos Theotokopoulos. The nickname under which he entered the history of art is translated from Spanish as “Greek,” which is logical, since Domenicos was born in Crete, began his creative career in Venice and Rome, but his name is more closely associated with Spanish Toledo, where the artist worked until his death. Although Domenikos, until the end of his days, signed his own works exclusively with his real name Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος, the nickname that stuck with him El Greco not at all not derogatory. On the contrary, it is even honorable, because its correct translation into Russian "that same Greek", and not some obscure character from Greece. The thing is, the prefix El- definite article in Spanish. For comparison, for example, in Padua, the city patronized by Anthony of Padua, San Antonio is often called Il Santo (the Italian article Il is analogous to the Spanish El), which means “that same beloved saint.”

"Portrait of an Old Man", El Greco

4. Andrea Palladio- the only architect whose name is named after the architectural movement “Palladianism”, this thesis can be read in any reference book on art history. And it is not entirely correct, because Palladio is a pseudonym that refers to the ancient goddess of wisdom Pallas Athena, or more precisely, to her statue, which, according to ancient Greek legend, fell from the sky and protected Athens. The real name of the architect Andrea di Pietro della Gondola(Andrea di Pietro della Gondolla), which means “Andrea son of Pietro della Gondolla”, and Palladio’s father was an ordinary miller. By the way, Andrea didn’t come up with the idea of ​​changing the unassuming surname “della Gondola” to the sonorous “Palladio” himself. The idea was suggested to him by the Italian poet and playwright Gian Giorgio Trissino from the city of Vicenza, where the architect later worked. Trissino was the first to recognize the potential of the young man and patronized him in every possible way at the beginning creative path, that is, as they say now, he took on the role of producer.

In the photo: statues on top of the Basilica Palladiana and the roofs of Vicenza

5. Sometimes, to understand exactly which rich family patronized the artist, it is enough to look at his pseudonym. Speaking example - Correggio. The real name of the creator of the paintings “Jupiter and Io” and “Danae”, deeply erotic by the standards of the High Renaissance, is Antonio Allegri(Antonio Allegri), by the way, this can be translated into Russian as “Anton Veselov”.

"Danae" Correggio

According to one version, he received his nickname thanks to Countess Correggio Veronica Gambara, whom Antonio captured in the painting “Portrait of a Lady,” which is in the Hermitage collection. The fact is that it was she who recommended the artist to the Duke of Mantua, after which the painter’s career began to take off. According to another version, Andrea received his nickname from the city of Correggio, where he actively worked. However, if we remember that the name of this locality is in fact simply the surname of the same influential feudal Correggio family, which also ruled neighboring Parma, where Andrea also worked, the contradiction disappears.

Portrait of Veronica Gambara by Correggio

6. From an Italian painter Rosso Fiorentino(Rosso Fiorentino), who worked not only in his homeland, but also in France, the nickname is “red-haired Florentine,” no more, no less. The real name of the painter Giovan Battista di Jacopo(Giovan Battista di Jacopo) was not remembered by most of his contemporaries. But red hair color is such a thing. Obliges.

CHAPTER FIRST. THE SECRET CODE OF LEONARDO DA VINCI

There is one of the most famous - immortal - works of art in the world. Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper fresco is the only surviving painting in the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria del Grazia. It is made on a wall that remained standing after the entire building was reduced to rubble as a result of Allied bombing during World War II. Although others have presented their versions of this biblical scene to the world wonderful artists- Nicolas Poussin and even such an idiosyncratic author as Salvador Dali - it is Leonardo’s creation that, for some reason, amazes the imagination more than any other painting. Variations on this theme can be seen everywhere, and they cover the entire spectrum of attitudes towards the topic: from admiration to ridicule.

Sometimes an image looks so familiar that it is practically not examined in detail, although it is open to the gaze of any viewer and requires more careful consideration: its true, deep meaning remains a closed book, and the viewer glances only at its cover.

It was this work of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) - the suffering genius of Renaissance Italy - that showed us the path that led to discoveries so exciting in their consequences that at first they seemed incredible. It is impossible to understand why entire generations of scientists did not notice what was available to our astonished gaze, why such explosive information patiently waited all this time for writers like us, remained outside the mainstream of historical or religious research and was not discovered.

To be consistent, we must return to the Last Supper and look at it with fresh, unbiased eyes. This is not the time to consider it in the light of familiar ideas about history and art. Now the moment has come when the view of a person who is completely unfamiliar with this so famous scene will be more appropriate - let the veil of bias fall from our eyes, let us allow ourselves to look at the picture in a new way.

The central figure, of course, is Jesus, whom Leonardo, in his notes relating to this work, calls the Savior. He thoughtfully looks down and slightly to his left, his hands are stretched out on the table in front of him, as if offering the viewer the gifts of the Last Supper. Since it was then, according to the New Testament, that Jesus introduced the sacrament of Communion, offering bread and wine to the disciples as his “flesh” and “blood,” the viewer has the right to expect that there should be a cup or goblet of wine on the table in front of him in order for the gesture to appear justified . Ultimately, for Christians, this supper immediately precedes the passion of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he fervently prays “let this cup pass from me...” - another association with the image of wine - blood - and also the holy blood shed before the Crucifixion for the atonement of sins of all humanity. Nevertheless, there is no wine before Jesus (and not even a symbolic amount of it on the entire table). Could these outstretched arms mean what in the vocabulary of artists is called an empty gesture?

Given the absence of wine, it is perhaps no coincidence that of all the bread on the table, very few are “broken.” Since Jesus himself associated with his flesh the bread to be broken in the supreme sacrament, is there not a subtle hint sent to us of the true nature of Jesus' suffering?

However, all this is just the tip of the iceberg of heresy reflected in this picture. According to the Gospel, the Apostle John the Theologian was physically so close to Jesus during this Supper that he leaned “to his chest.” However, in Leonardo this young man occupies a position completely different from that required by the “stage instructions” of the Gospel, but, on the contrary, exaggeratedly deviated from the Savior, bowing his head in right side. An unbiased viewer can be forgiven if he notices only these curious features in relation to a single image - the image of the Apostle John. But, although the artist, due to his own preferences, was, of course, inclined towards the ideal of male beauty of a somewhat feminine type, there can be no other interpretations: at the moment we are looking at a woman. Everything about him is strikingly feminine. No matter how old and faded the image may be due to the age of the fresco, one cannot help but notice the tiny, graceful hands, delicate facial features, clearly female breasts and gold necklace. This is a woman, precisely a woman, which is marked by an attire that especially distinguishes her. The clothes she wears represent mirror reflection clothes of the Savior: if he is wearing a blue tunic and a red cloak, then she is wearing a red tunic and a blue cloak. No one at the table wears clothing that is a mirror image of Jesus' clothing. And there are no other women at the table.

Central to the composition is a huge, widened the letter “M”, which is formed by the figures of Jesus and this woman taken together. They seem to be literally connected at the hips, but they suffer because they diverge or even grow from one point in different directions. As far as we know, none of the academicians ever referred to this image other than “St. John”; they also did not notice the compositional form in the form of the letter “M”. Leonardo, as we have established in our research, was a magnificent psychologist who laughed at presenting to his patrons, who commissioned him a traditional biblical image, highly unorthodox images, knowing that people would calmly and unperturbedly look at the most monstrous heresy, since they usually only see what they want to see. If you have been called upon to write a Christian scene, and you have presented to the public something which at first sight is similar and responsive to their wishes, people will never look for ambiguous symbolism.

At the same time, Leonardo had to hope that perhaps there were others who shared his unusual interpretation of the New Testament, who would recognize secret symbolism in the painting. Or someone someday, some objective observer will one day understand the image of the mysterious woman associated with the letter “M”, and ask questions that obviously follow from this. Who was this “M” and why is she so important? Why did Leonardo risk his reputation—even his life, in those days when heretics were burning at the stake everywhere—to include her in a fundamental Christian scene? Whoever she is, her fate cannot but cause alarm as the outstretched hand cuts her gracefully arched neck. The threat contained in this gesture cannot be doubted.

The index finger of the other hand, raised right in front of the Savior’s face, threatens him with obvious passion. But both Jesus and “M” look like people who do not notice the threat, each of them is completely immersed in the world of his thoughts, each in his own way is serene and calm. But all together it looks as if the secret symbols were used not only to warn Jesus and the woman sitting next to him. woman(?), but also to inform (and perhaps remind) the observer about some information that would be dangerous to disclose in any other way. Did Leonardo use his creation to promulgate some special beliefs that would be simply madness to proclaim in the usual way? And could these beliefs be a message addressed to a much wider circle, and not just to his inner circle? Maybe they were intended for us, for the people of our time?

Let's get back to looking at this amazing creation. In the fresco on the right, from the observer's point of view, a tall bearded man is bent almost double, telling something to a student sitting at the edge of the table. At the same time, he almost completely turned his back to the Savior. The model for the image of this disciple - Saint Thaddeus or Saint Jude - was Leonardo himself. Note that images of Renaissance artists were usually either accidental or were made when the artist was a beautiful model. IN in this case we are dealing with an example of the use of an image by a follower double entendre(double meaning). (He was preoccupied with finding the right model for each of the apostles, as can be seen from his rebellious offer to the most irate prior of St. Mary's to serve as a model for Judas.) So why did Leonardo portray himself as so clearly turning his back on Jesus?

Moreover. An unusual hand aims a dagger at the stomach of a student sitting just one person away from "M". This hand cannot belong to anyone sitting at the table, since such a bend is physically impossible for the people next to the image of the hand to hold the dagger in this position. However, what is truly striking is not the very fact of the existence of a hand that does not belong to the body, but the absence of any mention of it in the works about Leonardo that we have read: although this hand is mentioned in a couple of works, the authors do not find anything unusual in it. As in the case of the Apostle John, who looks like a woman, nothing could be more obvious - and nothing more strange - once you pay attention to this circumstance. But this irregularity most often escapes the attention of the observer simply because this fact is extraordinary and outrageous.

We often hear that Leonardo was a devout Christian whose religious paintings reflect the depth of his faith. As we can see, at least one of the paintings contains images that are very dubious from the point of view of an orthodox Christian. Our further research, as we will show, has established that nothing could be so far from the truth as the idea that Leonardo was a true believer - by implication, a believer according to the canons of the generally accepted or at least acceptable form of Christianity. Already from the curious anomalous features of one of his creations we see that he was trying to tell us about another layer meanings in a familiar biblical scene, about another world of faith hidden in the conventional imagery of wall paintings in Milan.

Whatever the meaning of these heretical irregularities - and the significance of this fact cannot be exaggerated - they were absolutely incompatible with the orthodox dogmas of Christianity. This in itself is unlikely to be news to many modern materialists/rationalists, since for them Leonardo was the first true scientist, a man who had no time for any superstitions, a man who was the antithesis of all mysticism and occultism. But they also could not understand what appeared before their eyes. Depicting the Last Supper without wine is tantamount to depicting a coronation scene without a crown: the result is either nonsense, or the picture is filled with other content, and to such an extent that it represents the author as an absolute heretic - a person who has faith, but a faith that contradicts the dogmas of Christianity. Perhaps not just different, but in a state of struggle with the dogmas of Christianity. And in other works of Leonardo we have discovered his own peculiar heretical predilections, expressed in carefully crafted relevant scenes, which he would hardly have written exactly as he was simply an atheist earning his living. There are too many of these deviations and symbols to be interpreted as the mockery of a skeptic forced to work according to an order, nor can they be called simply antics, such as, for example, the image of St. Peter with a red nose. What we see in the Last Supper and other works is the secret code of Leonardo da Vinci, which we believe has a striking connection with our modern world.

One can argue what Leonardo believed or did not believe, but his actions were not just the whim of a man, undoubtedly extraordinary, whose whole life was full of paradoxes. He was reserved, but at the same time the soul and life of society; he despised fortune tellers, but his papers indicate large sums paid to astrologers; he was considered a vegetarian and had a tender love for animals, but his tenderness rarely extended to humanity; he zealously dissected corpses and observed executions with the eyes of an anatomist, was a deep thinker and a master of riddles, tricks and hoaxes.

With such a contradictory inner world, it is likely that Leonardo's religious and philosophical views were unusual, even strange. For this reason alone there is a temptation to ignore it. heretical beliefs as something that has no significance for our modernity. It is generally accepted that Leonardo was an extremely gifted man, but the modern tendency to evaluate everything in terms of "era" leads to a significant underestimation of his achievements. After all, at the time when he was in his creative prime, even printing was a novelty. What can one lone inventor, living in such primitive times, offer to a world that is swimming in an ocean of information through the global network, to a world that, in a matter of seconds, exchanges information through telephone and fax with continents that were not yet discovered in his time?

There are two answers to this question. First: Leonardo was not, let's use the paradox, an ordinary genius. Most educated people know that he designed a flying machine and a primitive tank, but at the same time some of his inventions were so unusual for the time in which he lived that people with an eccentric turn of mind may imagine that he was given the power to foresee the future. His bicycle design, for example, became known only in the late sixties of the twentieth century. Unlike the painful trial-and-error evolution that the Victorian bicycle underwent, Leonardo da Vinci's road eater already in the first edition has two wheels and a chain drive. But what is even more striking is not the design of the mechanism, but the question of the reasons that prompted the invention of the wheel. Man has always wanted to fly like a bird, but the dream of balancing on two wheels and pressing the pedals, taking into account the deplorable state of the roads, already smacks of mysticism. (Remember, by the way, that unlike the dream of flying, it does not appear in any classical story.) Among many other statements about the future, Leonardo also predicted the appearance of the telephone.

Even if Leonardo were an even greater genius than the history books say, the question still remains unanswered: what possible knowledge could he have possessed if what he proposed made sense or became widespread only five centuries after his time. One can, of course, make the argument that the teachings of a first-century preacher would seem to have even less relevance to our time, but the indisputable fact remains: some ideas are universal and eternal, the truth, found or formulated, does not cease to be true after the passage of centuries.

But what first attracted us to Leonardo was not his philosophy, explicit or hidden, nor his art. We have undertaken extensive research into everything related to Leonardo, because of his most paradoxical creation, the glory of which is incomprehensibly great, but knowledge is practically non-existent. As detailed in our last book, we discovered that he was the master who fabricated The Shroud of Turin, a relic on which the face of Christ was miraculously preserved at the time of his death. In 1988, the radioisotope method proved to all but a handful of fanatical believers that this object was an artifact from the late Middle Ages or early Renaissance. For us, the Shroud remained a truly remarkable work of art. The question of who this hoaxer was was of burning interest, since only a genius could create this amazing relic.

Everyone - both those who believe in the authenticity of the Shroud and those who disagree with this - recognize that it has all the features inherent in photography. The relic is characterized by a curious "negative effect", which means that the image to the naked eye looks like a hazy burn of the material, but is visible in absolutely clear detail on the photographic negative. Since such features cannot be the result of any known painting technique or other method of depicting the image, adherents of the authenticity of the relic (those who believe that it is indeed the Shroud of Jesus) consider them to be evidence of the miraculous nature of the image. However, we have established that the Shroud of Turin exhibits photographic properties because it is a photographic print.

No matter how incredible this fact may seem at first glance, the Shroud of Turin is a photograph. The authors of this book, along with Kate Prince, have recreated what they believe was the original technology. The authors of this book were the first to reproduce the inexplicable features of the Shroud of Turin. We got a camera obscura (a camera with a hole without a lens), fabric treated with chemicals available in the fifteenth century, and bright lighting. However, the object of our experiment was a plaster bust of a girl, which, unfortunately, is light years away in status from the first model, despite the fact that the face on the shroud is not the face of Jesus, as has been repeatedly proclaimed, but the face of the hoaxer himself. In short, The Shroud of Turin, among other things, contains a five-hundred-year-old photograph of none other than Leonardo da Vinci himself. Despite some curious claims to the contrary, such work could not be done by a devout Christian. The image on the Shroud of Turin, when viewed from a photographic negative, clearly represents the bloody, broken body of Jesus.

His blood, it should be remembered, is not ordinary blood, but for Christians it is divine, holy blood, through which the world has found redemption. According to our concepts, falsifying blood and being a true believer are incompatible concepts, moreover, a person who has at least a modicum of respect for the person of Jesus cannot pass off his own face as his face. Leonardo did both, masterfully and, we suspect, not without some secret pleasure. Of course, he knew, he could not help but know that the image of Jesus on the Shroud - since no one realizes that this is an image of the Florentine artist himself - would be prayed to by many pilgrims during the artist’s lifetime. As far as we know, he did spend time in the shadows, watching people pray in front of the relic - and this is completely consistent with what we know about his character. But did he realize how many countless people would make the sign of the cross in front of his image throughout the centuries? Could he imagine that someday in the future people would be converted to Catholic dogma just because they saw that beautiful, tormented face? Could he have foreseen that in the world of Western culture the concept of what Jesus looked like would be influenced by the image on the Shroud of Turin? Did he realize that one day millions of people from all over the world would worship the Lord in the form of a 15th century homosexual heretic, that a man Will Leonardo da Vinci become a literal depiction of Jesus Christ? The Shroud became, we believe, the most cynical - and successful - hoax ever carried out in human history.

But despite the fact that millions of people were fooled, it is more than a hymn to the art of the tasteless prank. We believe that Leonardo took the opportunity to create the most revered Christian relic as a means of achieving two goals: to convey to posterity the technology he invented and the coded heretical views. It was extremely dangerous - and events confirm this - to make public the technology of primitive photography in that age of superstition and religious fanaticism. But there is no doubt that Leonardo was amused by the fact that his image would be looked after by the very clergy whom he so despised. Of course, this irony of the situation could be purely accidental, a simple whim of fate in a plot that was already quite entertaining, but for us it looks like another proof of Leonardo’s passion for complete control over the situation, extending far beyond the boundaries of his own life.

Besides the fact that the Shroud of Turin is a falsification and a work of genius, it also contains certain symbols characteristic of Leonardo's predilections, which are found in other recognized works of his. For example, at the base of the neck of the man depicted on the Shroud, there is a clear dividing line. In the image completely converted to " contour map"Using sophisticated computer technology, we see that this line marks the bottom of the frontal head, followed by a dark field underneath until the top of the chest appears. It seems to us that there were two reasons for this. One of them is purely practical, since the display is composite - the body is really a crucified man, and the face of Leonardo himself, so the line could turn out to be a necessary element indicating the place of “connection” of the two parts. However, the forger was not a simple artisan and could easily get rid of the treacherous dividing line. But did Leonardo really want to get rid of her? Maybe he left it for the viewer intentionally, according to the principle “he who has eyes, let him see”?

What possible heretical message could the Shroud of Turin contain, even in coded form? Is there a limit to the number of symbols that can be encoded in an image of a naked, crucified man - an image that has been painstakingly analyzed by many of the best scientists using all the equipment at their disposal? We will return to this issue later, but for now let us hint that the answer to these questions can be found by taking a fresh, unbiased look at two main features of display. The first feature: the abundance of blood, which gives the impression of flowing through the hands of Jesus, which may seem to contradict the feature of the Last Supper, namely, the symbol expressed through the absence of wine on the table. In fact, one only confirms the other. Second feature: a clear dividing line between head and body, as if Leonardo is calling our attention to the beheading... As far as we know, Jesus was not beheaded, and the image is composite, meaning we are invited to look at the image as two separate images , which are nevertheless for some reason closely related. But, even if this is so, then why is someone beheaded placed above someone who was crucified?

As you will see, this allusion to the severed head in the Shroud of Turin is an amplification of symbolism found in many of Leonardo's other works. We have already noted that young woman“M” in the Last Supper fresco is clearly threatened by a hand, as if cutting her graceful neck, as in the face of Jesus himself a finger is raised menacingly: a clear warning, or perhaps a reminder, or both. In Leonardo's works, the raised index finger is always, in every case, directly associated with John the Baptist.

This holy prophet, the forerunner of Jesus, who declared to the world “behold the lamb of God,” whose sandals he is not worthy to untie, was of great importance to Leonardo, as can be judged by his numerous images in all the artist’s surviving works. This bias in itself is a curious fact for a person who believed the modern rationalists who claim that Leonardo did not have enough time for religion. A person for whom all the characters and traditions of Christianity were nothing would hardly devote so much time and effort to one individual saint to the extent that he devoted himself to John the Baptist. Time and time again, John dominates Leonardo's life, both on a conscious level in his works and on a subconscious level, expressed through the many coincidences that surround him.

It seems as if the Baptist follows him everywhere. For example, his beloved Florence is considered under the patronage of this saint, as is the Cathedral in Turin, where the Holy Shroud, which he falsified, is located. His last painting, which along with the Mona Lisa was in his room in the last hours before his death, was an image of John the Baptist. His only surviving sculpture (made jointly with Giovanni Francesco Rustici, a famous occultist) is also the Baptist. It now stands above the entrance to the Baptistery in Florence, rising high above the heads of crowds of tourists, representing, unfortunately, a convenient perch for pigeons indifferent to shrines. The raised index finger - what we call the “gesture of John” - appears in Raphael’s painting “The School of Athens” (1509). The venerable Plato repeats this gesture, but in circumstances which are not connected with any mysterious allusions, as the reader may imagine. In fact, Plato's model was none other than Leonardo himself, and this gesture was obviously not only characteristic of him, but also had a deep meaning (as, presumably, for Raphael and other people from this circle).

If you think we're putting too much emphasis on what we've called "John's gesture," let's look at other examples in Leonardo's work. The gesture appears in several of his paintings and, as we have already said, always means the same thing. In his unfinished painting The Adoration of the Magi (which was begun in 1481), an anonymous witness repeats this gesture near the hill on which the carob tree. Many hardly even notice this figure, since their attention is focused on the main thing, in their opinion, in the picture - the worship of the wise men or magi to the Holy Family. The beautiful, dreamy Madonna with the baby Jesus on her lap is depicted as if in shadow. The Magi are kneeling, offering gifts to the child, and in the background there is a crowd of people who have come to worship the mother and baby. But, as in the case of The Last Supper, this work is only at first glance Christian, and it deserves careful study.

The worshipers in the foreground are hardly models of health and beauty. The Magi are exhausted to such an extent that they look almost corpses. Outstretched hands do not give the impression of a gesture of admiration; rather, they look like shadows reaching out to a mother and child in a nightmare. The Magi extend their gifts, but there are only two of the canonical three. Frankincense and myrrh are given, but not gold. In Leonardo's time, the gift of gold symbolized not only wealth, but also kinship - here Jesus was denied it. If you look in the background, behind the Beautiful Virgin and the Magi, you can see a second crowd of worshipers. They look healthier and stronger, but if you follow where their gaze is directed, it becomes obvious that they are not looking at the Madonna and Child, but at the roots of the carob tree, near which one of them raised his hand in the “gesture of John.” And the carob tree is traditionally associated with - who would you think - John the Baptist... The young man in the lower right corner of the picture deliberately turned away from the Holy Family. According to popular belief, this is Leonardo da Vinci himself. A rather weak traditional argument that he turned away, considering himself unworthy of the honor of beholding Holy Family, does not stand up to criticism, since it was widely known that Leonardo did not particularly favor the church. In addition, in the image of the Apostle Thaddeus, he completely turned away from the Savior, thereby emphasizing the negative emotions that he associated with the central figures of Christian history. Moreover, since Leonardo was hardly the embodiment of piety or humility, such a reaction is unlikely to have resulted from an inferiority complex or servility.

Let us turn to the wonderful, memorable painting “Madonna and Child and Saint Anne” (1501), which is the pearl of the London National Gallery. Here again we find elements which should - although this rarely happens - disturb the observer with their underlying meaning. The drawing depicts the Madonna and Child, Saint Anne (her mother) and John the Baptist. The Child Jesus apparently blesses his "cousin" John, who instinctively looks up, while Saint Anne, at close range, gazes intently into her daughter's detached face and makes the "John gesture" with a surprisingly large and masculine hand. However, this upraised index finger is positioned directly above Jesus' tiny hand giving the blessing, shading it both literally and metaphorically. And although the Madonna’s pose seems very uncomfortable - she sits almost sideways - in fact, the pose of the baby Jesus looks most strange.

The Madonna holds him as if she is about to push him forward to give a blessing, as if she brought him into the picture in order to do this, but holds him in her lap with difficulty. Meanwhile, John rests serenely on the lap of Saint Anne, as if the honor bestowed upon him does not bother him. Could it be that Madonna's own mother reminded her of a certain secret connected with John. As stated in the National Gallery's accompanying explanation, some experts, puzzled by the youth of Saint Anne and the anomalous presence of John the Baptist, have suggested that the painting actually depicts the Madonna and her cousin Elizabeth - mother of John. This interpretation seems plausible, and if accepted, the argument becomes even stronger. The same obvious reversal of the roles of Jesus and John the Baptist can be seen in one of the two versions of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “Madonna of the Rocks.” Art historians have never given a satisfactory explanation why the painting was executed in two versions, one of which is in the National Gallery in London, and the second - for us the most interesting - in the Louvre.

The original order was made by the Order Immaculate Conception, and the painting was to become the centerpiece of a triptych in the altar of their chapel at San Francesco Grande in Milan. (The other two paintings in the triptych were commissioned from other artists.) The contract, which is dated April 25, 1483, survives today and contains interesting details regarding what the painting should be and which Order received it. The dimensions were scrupulously discussed in the contract, since the frame for the triptych had already been made. It is strange that the dimensions are maintained in both versions, although why he painted two paintings is unknown. However, we can speculate on differing interpretations of the plot that have little to do with the pursuit of perfection, and the author was aware of their explosive potential.

The contract also specified the theme of the film. It was necessary to write an event that is not mentioned in the Gospels, but is widely known from Christian legend. According to legend, Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus took refuge in a cave during their flight to Egypt, where they met the baby John the Baptist, who was guarded by the Archangel Gabriel. The value of this legend is that it allows us to leave aside one of the quite obvious but inconvenient questions regarding gospel history about the baptism of Jesus. Why did the originally sinless Jesus suddenly need baptism at all, given that the ritual is a symbolic washing away of sins and a declaration of commitment to divinity? Why should the Son of God go through a procedure that represents an act of the authority of the Baptist?

Legend says that at this remarkable meeting of the two holy infants, Jesus gave his cousin John the right to baptize him when they became adults. There are many reasons why it may be ironic that the Order gave the order to Leonardo, but equally there is reason to suspect that Leonardo was quite pleased with the commission and that the interpretation of the scene, in at least one version, was clearly his own.

In the spirit of the time and in accordance with their tastes, the members of the brotherhood would like to see a luxurious, richly decorated canvas with an ornament of golden leaves with many cherubs and prophets of the Old Testament that were supposed to fill the space. What they ended up with was something so radically different from their vision that the relationship between the Order and the artist not only deteriorated, but became hostile, culminating in a legal battle that dragged on for more than twenty years.

Leonardo chose to depict the scene as realistically as possible, without including a single extraneous character: there were no plump cherubs, no shadow-like prophets proclaiming future destinies. In the film, the number of characters was kept to a minimum, perhaps even excessively. Although it is supposed to depict the Holy Family during their flight into Egypt, Joseph is not in the painting.

The painting in the Louvre, an earlier version, depicts the Madonna in a blue robe, with her arm around her son, protecting him, and another child next to the Archangel Gabriel. It is curious that the children look alike, but even stranger is the child with the blessing angel and the baby of Mary, who knelt as a sign of humility. In this regard, some versions suggested that Leonardo, for some reason, placed the baby John next to Mary. Ultimately, the painting does not indicate which baby is Jesus, but of course the right to give the blessing must belong to Jesus. However, the painting can be interpreted in another way, and this interpretation not only suggests the presence of hidden and highly unorthodox messages, but reinforces the codes used in other works of Leonardo. Perhaps the similarity of the two children is due to the fact that Leonardo deliberately made them that way for his own purposes. And also, while Mary protects the child, who is believed to be John, with her left hand, her right hand is extended over the head of Jesus in such a way that this gesture seems to be an openly hostile gesture. It is this hand that Serge Bramley describes in his recently published biography of Leonardo as “reminiscent of the claws of an eagle.” Gabriel points to Mary's child, but also looks mysteriously at the observer - that is, clearly not at the Madonna and her baby. It may be easier to interpret this gesture as a reference to the Messiah, but there is another possible meaning in this part of the composition.

What if the baby with Mary in the version of the painting “Madonna of the Rocks” kept in the Louvre is Jesus - a very logical assumption - and the baby with Gabriel is John? Remember that in this case John blesses Jesus, and he bows before his authority. Gabriel, who acts as John's defender, does not even look at Jesus. And Mary, protecting her son, raised her hand in a threatening gesture over the head of the child John. A few inches below her hand, the pointing hand of the Archangel Gabriel cuts through space, as if these two hands form some mysterious key. It looks as if Leonardo is showing us that some object - important, but invisible - should fill the space between the hands. In this context, it does not seem fantastic to suggest that Mary's outstretched fingers hold the crown, which she places on an invisible head, and Gabriel's pointing finger cuts the space exactly where this head should be. This phantom head floats high above the child who is next to the Archangel Gabriel... So, isn't there an indication in the painting, after all, which of the two will die through beheading? And if the assumption is correct, then it is John the Baptist who gives the blessing, he is of higher rank.

However, if we turn to the later version, which is in the National Gallery, we will find that all the elements that allow us to make such a heretical assumption have disappeared - but only these elements. The children's appearances are completely different, and the one next to Mary has a traditional Baptist cross with an elongated longitudinal part (although this may have been added later by another artist). In this version, Mary’s hand is also extended over the other child, but no threat is felt in her gesture. Gabriel no longer points anywhere, and his gaze is not taken away from the unfolding scene. It looks as if Leonardo is inviting us to play a game of “find the differences in two pictures” and draw certain conclusions when we identify the anomalies of the first option.

This kind of examination of Leonardo's creations reveals many provocative implications. Through several ingenious devices, signals and symbols, the theme of John the Baptist seems to be constantly repeated. Time and time again he, or images representing him, rise above Jesus, even - if we are right, of course - in the symbols depicted in the Shroud of Turin.

Behind such insistence there is a tenacity, manifested at least in the very complexity of the images that Leonardo used, and also, of course, in the risk that he took upon himself in presenting to the world a heresy, however subtle and subtle. Perhaps, as we have already hinted, the reason for so many unfinished works is not the desire for perfection, but the consciousness of what might happen to him if someone of sufficient authority saw through a thin layer of orthodoxy to the outright blasphemy contained in the painting. In all likelihood, even such an intellectual and physical giant as Leonardo preferred to be careful, fearing to disgrace himself before the authorities - once was quite enough for him. However, there is no doubt that he would not have needed to put his head on the chopping block by inserting such heretical messages into his paintings if he did not have a passionate belief in them. As we have already seen, he was far from being an atheistic materialist, as many of our contemporaries claim. Leonardo was a deep, serious believer, but his faith was the complete opposite of what was then - and now - the main stream of Christianity. Many people call this faith occult.

Most people nowadays, upon hearing this term, immediately imagine something that is not at all positive. It is usually used in relation to black magic, or to the antics of outright charlatans, or to denote both. But in fact, "occult" just means "hidden" and is often used in English language in astronomy, when one celestial object overlaps another. Regarding Leonardo, everyone will agree: of course, although there were sinful rituals and practices of magic in his life, it is still true that first of all and above all he sought knowledge. Most of what he sought, however, was effectively driven underground, turned into the occult by society and, in particular, by one powerful and omnipresent organization. In most countries of Europe, the Church discouraged scientific pursuits and took drastic measures to silence those who made public their unorthodox views or opinions that diverged from the generally accepted one.

But Florence, the city where Leonardo was born and where his career at court began, was a thriving center new wave knowledge. This happened only because the city became a refuge for a large number of influential magicians and people involved in occult sciences. Leonardo's first patrons, the Medici family, which ruled Florence, actively encouraged activities in the occult and paid a lot of money for the search and translation of particularly valuable ancient manuscripts. It's a hobby secret knowledge during the Renaissance cannot be compared with modern newspaper horoscopes. Although sometimes the fields of research have been - and inevitably - naive or simply associated with superstition, much more of them can be called a serious attempt to understand the Universe and man's place in it. The magicians, however, went a little further - they looked for ways to control the forces of nature. In this light, it becomes clear: there is nothing special about the fact that Leonardo, among others, was actively involved in the occult at that time, in such a place. Respected historian Dame Frances Yates has suggested that the key to understanding Leonardo's genius, which extends so far into the future, lies in contemporary ideas related to magic.

A detailed description of the philosophical ideas that dominated the occult movement of Florence can be found in our previous book, but the basis of the views of all groups of that time was Hermeticism, named after Hermes Trismegistus, the great, legendary Egyptian magician, in whose works a logical system of magic was built. The most important concept of these views was the thesis of the partly divine essence of man - a thesis that so strongly threatened the power of the Church over the minds and hearts of people that it was doomed to anathema. The principles of Hermeticism are clearly visible in the life and works of Leonardo, but at first glance there is a striking contradiction between these complex philosophical and cosmological views and heretical errors, which are nevertheless based on belief in biblical figures. (We must emphasize that the unorthodox views of Leonardo and the people of his circle were not only a reaction to corruption and other shortcomings of the Church. History has shown that there was another reaction to these shortcomings of the Roman Church, and the reaction was not underground, but in the form of a powerful open Protestant movement. But If Leonardo were alive today, we would hardly see him praying in this other Church.)

There is a large body of evidence that the Hermetics may have been absolute heretics.

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), a fanatical adherent of Hermeticism, proclaimed that the source of his faith was the Egyptian religion, which preceded Christianity and eclipsed it in its wisdom. Part of this thriving occult world were alchemists who could only go underground for fear of church disapproval. Once again, this group is underestimated due to modern bias. Today they are looked upon as fools who wasted their lives trying in vain to turn base metals into gold. In fact, these activities were a useful cover for serious alchemists, who were more interested in truly scientific experiments along with personality transformation and the potential to control their own destinies. Again, it is not difficult to imagine that a man as passionate about knowledge as Leonardo would be a participant in this movement, perhaps even one of the main ones. There is no direct evidence of Leonardo’s activities of this kind, but it is known that he mixed with people devoted to the ideas of various kinds of occultism. Our research into the falsification of the Shroud of Turin allows us to to a large extent It is plausible to assume that the image on the fabric is the result of his own “alchemical” experiments. (Moreover, we have come to the conclusion that photography itself was once one of the greatest secrets of alchemy.)

Let's try to formulate this more simply: it is unlikely that Leonardo was unfamiliar with any of the systems of knowledge that existed at that time; however, given the risk associated with open participation in these systems, it is equally unlikely that he would entrust any evidence of this to paper. At the same time, as we have seen, the symbols and images that he repeatedly used in his so-called Christian paintings would hardly have received the approval of the churchmen if they had guessed their true nature.

Even so, the fascination with Hermeticism may seem, at least at first glance, to be almost exactly the opposite end of the scale from John the Baptist and the supposed importance of the woman "M". Indeed, this contradiction so puzzled us that we were forced to delve deeper and deeper into the investigation. Of course, one can challenge the conclusion that all those endless raised index fingers mean that John the Baptist was obsession genius of the Renaissance. However, is there perhaps a deeper meaning to Leonardo's personal faith? Was there a message encrypted in symbols on some plane true?

There is no doubt that the master has long been known in occult circles as the owner of secret knowledge. When we began to investigate his involvement in the falsification of the Shroud of Turin, we came across many rumors circulating among people in this circle that he not only had a hand in its creation, but was also a famous magician with a high reputation. There is even a nineteenth-century Parisian poster advertising the Salon de la Rose+Cross, a famous meeting place for artistic circles involved in the occult, which depicts Leonardo as the Guardian of the Holy Grail (in these circles this meant the Guardian of the Supreme Mysteries). Of course, rumors and posters by themselves mean nothing, but everything taken together has fueled our interest in the unknown identity of Leonardo.