Leonardo da Vci: Why historians believe the famed Italian artist was gay | The Inpennt

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* LEONARDO DA VINCI IS GAY

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iRsSlw"><a class="RubricLk-gRWSOU fgWnkQ bric__lk" href="/magaze/books"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Books</span></a></div></div></div><h1 data-ttid="ContentHearHed" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ContentHearHed-NCyCC iUEiRd NbxED hpJvIc">The Secret Liv of Leonardo da Vci</h1></div><div class="ContentHearAccredatn-lfctVB enhwXT ntent-hear__accredatn" data-ttid="ContentHearAccredatn"><div class="ContentHearDek-bIqFFZ Mtme">Walter Isaacson’s bgraphy portrays a man obssed wh knowledge and almost impossible to know.</div><div class="ContentHearByle-kmPyCa gvUmxJ"><div class="ContentHearByleContent-dpPmNn DRFq"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl ContentHearByl-cZqgyJ bqbBYQ"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH ivtvgj byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span><a class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM ByleLk-gEnFiw iUEiRd ggMZaT cXqSTL eErqIx byle__name-lk button" href="/ntributors/cldia-roth-pierpont">Cldia Roth Pierpont</a></span></span></p></div><time data-ttid="ContentHearPublishDate" dateTime="2017-10-09T05:00:00-04:00" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ContentHearPublishDate-eIBicG iUEiRd kYZrFA kEBrdf">October 9, 2017</time></div></div></div></div></div></hear></div><div data-attribute-verso-pattern="article-body" class="ArticlePageContentBackGround-cNiFNN kbAoLA article-body__ntent"><div class="ActnBarWrapperContent-lasBkU cAHp"><div class="ActnBarWrapperComponent-cjwxLS bEeSLb"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="ActnBarWrapper-dhxmQh kNjTbQ viewport-monor-anchor"><button id="bookmark" aria-label="Save this story" class="ActnBarButton-dyFOZU hQrwCF bookmark large-screen"><span class="ActnBarSendaryButtonPrimaryIn-isbvyN cAwccV 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23.9508V2.95081H14V3.93211H6V22.1845L12.5 18.5536L19 22.1845V8.83866H20V23.9508Z"></path><path class="in-bookmark-fill" d="M23 3H20V0H19V3H16V4H19V7H20V4H23V3Z"></path></svg></span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ActnBarButtonText-bYXYuh iUEiRd bkefvo gkccfO">Save this story</span></button></div></div></div><div class="LightboxWrapper-dxsWBV hhylRt"><div class="ArticlePageChunksContent-etcMtP bwyLBj"><div data-ttid="ArticlePageChunks" class="ArticlePageChunks-fLyCVG gBDqlf"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa EOneK body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><div class="GenericCalloutWrapper-tojWn iHBnEl llout--has-top-borr set-embedd-le" data-ttid="GenericCallout"><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO KhjZz AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset rponsive-image rponsive-image--expandable"><noscript><img alt="An illtratn of Leonardo Da Vci wh a Mona Lisa se" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w, 1920w, 2240w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></span></div><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE iTuhkZ ptn AssetEmbedCaptn-fNQBPI fmQnYP asset-embed__ptn"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo iXWezO ptn__text">A new bgraphy celebrat the great artist’s more scientific novatns.</span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnCred-ejegDm iUEiRd iicloT jbIJNS ptn__cred">Illtratn by Tamara Shops; engravg om Hulton Archive / Getty</span></div></figure></div><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg">In Renaissance Florence, a number of signated box placed throughout the cy allowed cizens to make anonymo nunciatns of var moral crim— 1461, for example, the artist-monk Filippo Lippi was acced of fatherg a child wh a nun. But the crime that the ernment was really tryg to ntrol was sodomy, so notorly prevalent that ntemporary German slang for a homosexual was <em>Florenzer</em>. The mon nature of the offense did not erase the threat of ser nsequenc. In 1476, Leonardo da Vci, on the verge of his twenty-fourth birthday, was named as one of four men who had practiced “such wickedns” wh the seventeen-year-old apprentice of a lol goldsmh. There is ltle doubt that Leonardo was arrted. Although any time he may have spent jail was brief, and the se was dismissed, two months later, for lack of rroboratg wns, he had plenty of time to ponr the possible legal punishments: a large fe, public huiatn, exile, burng at the stake. It is impossible to know if this experience affected the artist’s hab, later ced as a mark of his character, of buyg ged birds om the market jt to set them ee. But do seem nnected wh the drawgs he ma, durg the next few years, of two fantastil ventns: a mache that he explaed was meant “to open a prison om the si,” and another for tearg bars off wdows.</p><p class="paywall">The drawgs are part of a vast treasury of texts and imag, amountg to more than seven thoand survivg pag, now dispersed across several untri and known llectively as “Leonardo’s notebooks”—which is precisely what they were. Private notebooks of all siz, some rried about for quick sketch and on-the-spot observatns, others ed for long-term, exactg studi geology, botany, and human anatomy, to specify jt a few of the areas which he posed fundamental qutns, and reached answers that were often hundreds of years ahead of his time. Why is the sky blue? How do the heart functn? What are the differenc air prsure above and beneath a bird’s wg, and how might this knowledge enable man to make a flyg mache? Mic, ary engeerg, astronomy. Fossils and the doubt they st on the Biblil story of creatn. “Dcribe,” he stcts himself, “what sneezg is, what yawng is, the fallg sickns, spasm, paralysis, shiverg wh ld, sweatg, fatigue, hunger, sleep, thirst, lt.” He tend publitn, but never got around to ; there was always somethg more to learn. In the followg centuri, at least half the pag were lost. What surviv is an unparalleled rerd of a human md at work, as fearls and dogged as was brilliant. And yet, spe ocsnal jottgs—a grocery list, a book to be borrowed—the notebooks were no way a diary or a personal journal; they nta none of the self-exploratn of Augte or Thore. Consumed wh the sire for knowledge, Leonardo told more about the world than seems possible, and next to nothg about himself.</p><p class="paywall">His bgraphers have a hard time, at once starved and overwhelmed, tasked wh nstctg a man around the spectacular evince of this disembodied md. The patgs offer ltle more the way of knowledge. Arguments persist even about the inty of the woman known as Mona Lisa, or why Leonardo never livered the portra to the hband who missned , if ed was her hband who missned . Our ept sense of this most famo artist remas subject to change. The systematic publitn of the notebooks, begng the late neteenth century, tipped our unrstandg of his goals om art toward science, and opened qutns about how to square the legendary peacefulns of his nature wh his signs for genly murro war mach. More recently, the sensatnalizg notn at the center of Dan Brown’s mega-sellg book “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">The Da Vci Co</a>”—that one of the apostl picted Leonardo’s “The Last Supper” is actually, and visibly, a woman—nnects him wh our current preoccupatn wh genr fluidy. And this sense of nnectn isn’t entirely imposed. Leonardo’s works do show a strikg fixatn on androgyny, a term often ed about his figur—a fixatn that beme unignorable wh the redisvery, the neteen-neti, of a long-lost pornographic drawg. Is there nothg Leonardo that n’t be found once we start lookg? Who will he be for today?</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">Walter Isaacson, at the start of his new bgraphy, “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Leonardo da Vci</a>” (Simon & Schter), scrib his subject as “history’s nsummate novator,” which mak perfect sense, sce Isaacson seems to have got the ia for wrg his book om Steve Jobs, the subject of his prev bgraphy. Leonardo, we learn, was Jobs’s hero. Isaacson se a particular kship between the men bee both worked at the crossroads of “arts and scienc, humani and technology”—as did Isaacson’s earlier subjects, Benjam Frankl and Albert Este. For all the unfaiar challeng this book prents, terms of history and culture, Isaacson is workg a faiar theme. As always, he wr wh a strongly synthizg telligence across a tremendo range; the rult is a valuable troductn to a plex subject. He stat right off that he tak the notebooks, rather than the patgs, as his startg pot, and isn’t surprisg that he has the most to say when he slows his pace and settl to a (still brief) discsn of optics, say, or the aortic valve. The most staed and engrossg chapter is largely voted to Leonardo’s water studi—vortic, floods, cloud formatn—and pends on one of the remag plete notebooks, the Cox Leicter. The x is currently owned by Bill Gat, who (as Isaacson do not pot out) had some of s digized pag ed for a screen saver on the Microsoft operatg system.</p><p class="paywall">Isaacson’s Leonardo is a parably morn figure, not merely “human,” as the thor lik to pot out, but a blhe societal misf: “illegimate, gay, vegetarian, left-hand, easily distracted, and at tim heretil.” Te enough, although Isaacson sometim stras the relatabily. His Leonardo is lucky to have been born illegimate—bee he was not expected to follow his father to the notary bs—and lucky, too, to have been only mimally ted, math and wrg, rather than schooled the Lat thors rerved for youths of higher rank. Untrammelled by thory, he was ee to thk creatively. As for beg easily distracted, Isaacson warns that a young Leonardo today might well be medited out of his creative urg. Beneath s diligent rearch, the book is a study creativy: how to fe , how to achieve . Isaacson’s answer, repeated like a mantra, li precisely the Leonarsque (or Jobsian) refal to distguish art om science, observatn om imagatn, and to atta a “batory creativy.” And this goal isn’t jt the prerogative of geni; we n all approach .</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoon__image rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="“Id hate to thk ther a natnal discsn Im not part of.”" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE gdZTpI ptn RponsiveCartoonCaptn-dokfdF hJgaLQ rponsive-rtoon__ptn"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo bsWloa ptn__text">“I’d hate to thk there’s a natnal discsn I’m not part of.”</span></div><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTAWrapper-CYIqa iTbFtf"><div class="RponsiveCartoonLkButtonWrapper-hqDAJK eSEhbj"><button aria-label="Copy lk to rtoon" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg button__label">Copy lk to rtoon</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT button__in-ntaer"><svg 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20.475C8.91385 21.5558 11.3602 20.9144 12.4648 19.0422L14.4648 15.6521C15.5694 13.78 14.9139 11.3859 13.0007 10.305C12.8127 10.1988 12.6195 10.1091 12.4229 10.0357C12.2195 9.95975 11.9956 10.0515 11.8867 10.236C11.7221 10.5151 11.8911 10.8724 12.1932 11.0008C12.2973 11.0451 12.4 11.0956 12.5007 11.1525C13.9356 11.9632 14.4272 13.7587 13.5988 15.1628L11.5988 18.5529C10.7704 19.957 8.93555 20.4382 7.50068 19.6274C6.0658 18.8167 5.57417 17.0212 6.4026 15.6171L7.6526 13.4983Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button><div class="AlertWrapper-gvFATk MdjE RponsiveCartoonLkAlertPopup-BPAXn kdMXRM shoppg-alert" role="dialog"><div aria-hidn="te" role="prentatn" class="AlertArrow-daOgye AlLda alert-arrow"></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ AlertMsage-jgAjgo bVCFRm ifgabc iOlxjf alert-msage"><p aria-hidn="te">Lk pied</p></div></div></div><button aria-label="Shop" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg button__label">Shop</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT button__in-ntaer"><svg class="in in-rt" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Shop</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178638)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M4 3H2V4H4.23828L6.99617 15.2631C7.11483 15.6982 7.50998 16 7.96094 16H18.0365C18.4875 16 18.8826 15.6982 19.0013 15.2631L20.9648 7.26312C21.1383 6.62698 20.6594 6 20 6H10V7H20L18.0365 15H7.96094L5.03652 3H4.58055H4ZM10.0365 19C10.0365 19.5523 9.58881 20 9.03652 20C8.48424 20 8.03652 19.5523 8.03652 19C8.03652 18.4477 8.48424 18 9.03652 18C9.58881 18 10.0365 18.4477 10.0365 19ZM11.0365 19C11.0365 20.1046 10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">The most up-to-date if ocsnally dismayg aspect of the book is s amg as a self-help gui, along the l of “How Leonardo Can Change Your Life.” Isaacson explas that, while workg on the book, he tght himself to be more observant, and isn’t hard to rpect his good tentns—he mentns sunlight, eddyg water—until he wr, “When I saw the ht of a se e across someone’s lips, I tried to fathom her ner mysteri.” One hop that she shook him out of . Fortunately, the book ntas several clear and absorbg pag about the “Mona Lisa” ’s famoly myster se, particularly relatn to Leonardo’s studi of lip mcl, which he dissected, and drew, alternately, wh sk on and sk off. Most important, Isaacson tells a powerful story of an exhilaratg md and life, which is rewardg even if don’t set you on the path to enlightenment.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">What’s more, he brgs news. Five hundred and sixty-five years after Leonardo’s birth, 1452, we at last know who his mother was. Her first name, Catera, was prevly all we had, although had been assumed that she was of lower statn than Leonardo’s father, Piero, who left the ty Tn town of Vci for btlg Florence around the time his son was born, and married a highly rpectable woman wh a year. Speculatn about Catera has been rampant. Mike Lankford’s “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Beg Leonardo</a>” (Melville Hoe) builds on theori that she was a slave, possibly of North Ain orig, th addg “mixed race” and “cross-cultural” to the artist’s twenty-first-century crentials. Isaacson, though, relays the fdgs of a new work of documentary scholarship, Mart Kemp and Gieppe Pallanti’s “<a data-offer-url=" class="external-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Mona Lisa: The People and the Patg</a>” (Oxford), which tablish Catera as a sixteen-year-old orphan om a neighborg hamlet, quickly married off to a lol farmer to avoid awkward suatns. But many qutns rema. Did the boy ever live wh his mother? Whom did he love, and who loved him? Beg illegimate was not a disgrace; although the stat rried legal limatns, Leonardo’s baptism was a well-attend event, and he seems to have grown up mostly wh his father’s fay, while Catera (who soon had other children) lived a short distance away. Still, he was a untry boy of few prospects. Left-hand, he had trouble wrg except reverse, om right to left, each letter backward on the page—perhaps a trick he’d tght himself to keep om smearg his k, or for keepg secrets, but a hab that no one seems to have bothered rrectg. All he uld certaly do was draw.</p><p class="paywall">He moved to Florence to live wh his father at about the age of twelve, shortly after Piero’s wife and their only child died. The exact year is uncerta, as is the year, not long after, when he beme an apprentice the workshop of Verrocch, a leadg artist and his father’s client. The cy mt have been a revelatn to Leonardo: enormoly wealthy, wh numero palazzi built by the newly domant bs class, room after room to be filled wh art. There were more wood-rvers town than butchers, and the streets were a livg gallery of works by Donatello, Ghiberti, and Bnellchi—the revolutnary generatn that had jt passed. Verrocch provid a practil tn, not only patg and sculpture but also metalwork and engeerg. And Leonardo, even his teens, ma a strong imprsn. He was reportedly a boy (and later a man) of exceptnal good looks and grace, and art historians have njectured that he might have posed for Verrocch’s lite, curly-haired bronze David, scribed by Isaacson as “a slightly effemate and strikgly pretty boy of about fourteen,” whose face bears the ht of a se. The intifitn is appealg (if not the tablished fact that Isaacson ultimately suggts). Most fascatg, however, is the way that Leonardo transformed this lightly boyish charm to a radiantly pure yet sensual ial of male bety.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-1 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">He had an affy for angels. In Verrocch’s patg “The Baptism of Christ,” the Master’s hardy, pug-nosed angel seems to stare wonr at the rapt creature bi him, one of the earlit works of Leonardo, s noble profile trailg a s of goln curls. The divi between the two is technil as well as imagative: Leonardo ed oil pat, not old-fashned egg-based tempera, and applied multiple th layers, each a lumcent veil, so that his angel appears to be molled light. Grg Vasari, who wrote the first thorative bgraphi of Renaissance artists, 1550, claimed that Verrocch gave up patg when he saw what his pupil had done, an exaggeratn meant to strs the unprecented nature of Leonardo’s geni, and of the generatn he troduced.</p><p class="paywall">Yet Leonardo’s reputatn, unlike Michelangelo’s and Raphael’s after him, was slow to rise. He do not seem to have been nventnally amb: he stayed wh Verrocch for roughly a , far longer than the ual term, both workg and livg wh the Master. Another angel he pated this perd, part of an “Annunciatn” now the Uffizi, was distguished by scpuloly naturalistic bird wgs. Although they were cly overpated sometime later, one n make them out, short and strong: real wgs to give fantasy flight. Clearly, Leonardo’s md was already roamg beyond the stud.</p><div class="Contaer-bkChBi byNLHx"></div><p class="paywall">He was still livg wh Verrocch when he was charged wh sodomy 1476. As soon as he was cleared, he left town for a year, to work on a project Pistoia. Some have speculated that the charg ed a break wh his father—who, by now remarried, went on to have several legimate sons. Others have wonred if the accatns (there was a send one, soon after the first) ntributed to the evint disfavor of Florence’s most important patron, Lorenzo ’ Medici. Although Leonardo had already produced his first disputable masterpiece—a poetic portra of a lol banker’s dghter, Gevra ’ Benci, which is now a treasure of the Natnal Gallery Washgton—and had tablished his own stud on returng to Florence, his name was notably absent om a list of the bt paters the cy that Lorenzo provid to the Pope, 1481. (Botticelli, Pego, and Ghirlanda were among those who ma the cut and were hired to pat the walls of the newly built Siste Chapel.) But there were other possible reasons for the omissn. Leonardo had never pated , the durable technique favored for wall patgs. And he was already known for leavg thgs unfished. Ined, by 1483, he had abandoned two important missns and parted for Milan. He was thirty years old, and had acplished ltle. In a long and tailed letter that reads like a job applitn, he offered his servic to the lol ler, Ludovi Sforza, as a ary engeer. As a seemg afterthought, he mentned that he uld also pat.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">A chart fted wh enormo whirlg blas, slicg men half or cuttg off their legs, leavg piec sttered; guns wh multiple barrels arranged like an pip to crease the speed and tensy of firg; a lossal missile-lnchg crossbow. Leonardo ma many such ighteng drawgs while the employ of Ludovi, who gaed the tle of De of Milan only after poisong his nephew, some years later, but who effectively served that role throughout the seventeen years that Leonardo spent the cy. Partly bee Ludovi’s claim was shaky, Milan was unr equent siege by rival powers, and Leonardo offered him skills—“I have methods for stroyg any fortrs or redoubt, even if is found on solid rock”—that seem both opportunistilly savvy and fantastil, rather like the drawgs. He had never monstrated any ary skills before, and his tentn the drawgs remas a matter of dispute. Was he an unworldly visnary or a nsciencels ventor? Isaacson wants both ways: “I believe his proposal was ser,” he wr of the fearsome crossbow, potg to some thirty preparatory drawgs, yet he believ that the sign was neverthels “a work of imagatn rather than ventn,” for the pla reason that wouldn’t have worked—and didn’t work, even when nstcted by morn engeers, for televisn, 2002. This argument blurs the qutn of tent, but suggts the plexi volved makg any moral judgments about the man.</p><p class="paywall">It was a new life Milan, which is perhaps jt what Leonardo wanted. He was not put to work on ary matters, or ed on any major project, for years—his first job was to fix a plumbg problem—but he proved his worth by signg the elaborate pageants that were a hallmark of Ludovi’s regime, a theatril form of fay propaganda. This sort of work, however, was ephemeral, and has left almost nothg behd, to the immense regret of art historians, who have often etted that he was wastg his time. Yet Leonardo appears to have been ntent. The hedonistic urt life sued him: he beme somethg of a dandy, drsg pks and purpl, sats and velvets, his hands scented wh lavenr. He pleted portras, much admired, of Ludovi’s mistrs, and set up a workshop that turned out votnal pictur for a wealthy clientele. He enjoyed the pany of lleagu wispread discipl, om archecture to mathematics. Even the damp Lombard weather seems to have sued him; s blue-gray mists, so different om Tn sunlight, bee the weather of his patgs. And was Milan that he began to keep notebooks. Kenh Clark, whose book on Leonardo, wrten the neteen-thirti, remas dispensable, observ that the range of his activi led him to wre down his ias, his strange right-to-left script, and to annotate his drawgs, begng wh simple piec of machery and endg wh the world.</p><p class="paywall">“Thief liar obstate greedy”: wh the four exasperated words, wrten 1491, after a Milan, Leonardo scribed the figure wh whom he had the most endurg relatnship of his life. Gian Giao Caprotti was ten years old when he entered the workshop, the prev year. A poor boy of extraordary bety, he was brought as a servant, probably also as a mol, and to be traed as a pater—he later had a most reer—and stayed for twenty-eight years. He seems to have rembled one of Leonardo’s angels. Vasari wrote about his bety and particularly about his “lovely curlg hair which Leonardo adored.” Sce, however, he was the hab, early on, of stealg purs, silverpot pens, and anythg else he uld get his hands on, Leonardo gave him the nickname Salaì—Ltle Devil, more or ls—and that is how he has been known to history.</p><p class="paywall">It seems fair to assume that they beme lovers when Salaì was his teens. Another of Leonardo’s early bgraphers, Gvanni Paolo Lomazzo, wrg about 1560, vented a dialogue between Leonardo and the Greek sculptor Phidias, which Leonardo repli to the qutn of whether he and Salaì ever played “that ‘backsi game’ which Florent love so much” wh a boistero affirmative: “Many tim!” By way of explanatn, he rells Salaì’s bety, “pecially at about fifteen.” Morn scholars have intified a number of drawgs prumably of Salaì, mostly at a later age, when the hair is still curly but the ch is weak and the flh already somewhat slack. If he do not entirely imprs , though, he ntued to imprs Leonardo, whose most touchg portra shows the maturg man sketched lightly, almost absentmdly, around a drawg of the human heart.</p><p class="paywall">It was while he was makg not on the flight patterns of birds, and particularly the fork-tailed red ke, that he was remd of an early experience, and wrote the only passage about his childhood the notebooks. Disregard until Frd wrote a small book about , 1910, the passage still mands attentn. In this memory—or, as Frd suggted, this fantasy—a ke flew down on the artist the cradle, “and opened my mouth wh s tail, and stck me several tim wh s tail si my lips.” Frd was apologetic about potg out that the fantasy “rrponds to the ia of an act of fellat,” which rears might well nsir a grave sult to the artist, although “tradn do fact reprent Leonardo as a man wh homosexual feelgs.” Feelgs that, Frd believed, did not have a sexual outlet: the very existence of the notebooks, his view, was evince of the redirectn of Leonardo’s sexual energi to his obssnal rearch. Leonardo himself was not a stranger to such thoughts, wrg, one of the notebooks, “Intellectual passn driv out sensualy.” It is impossible to know if he was alludg to the experience of an afternoon or of a lifetime, but isn’t hard to image what he would have ma of Frd’s assertn that he had never known sexual passn.</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoon__image rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="“Which is the bt variety for stg around and eventually rottg bee you dont even like appl you jt wanted..." class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE gdZTpI ptn RponsiveCartoonCaptn-dokfdF hJgaLQ rponsive-rtoon__ptn"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo bsWloa ptn__text">“Which is the bt variety for stg around and eventually rottg bee you don’t even like appl, you jt wanted to do somethg ‘fallish’?”</span></div><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTAWrapper-CYIqa iTbFtf"><div class="RponsiveCartoonLkButtonWrapper-hqDAJK eSEhbj"><button aria-label="Copy lk to rtoon" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" 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5.18327 18.4272 6.97878 17.5988 8.38295L16.3488 10.5017ZM7.6526 13.4983C7.79067 13.2643 7.70873 12.965 7.46959 12.8299C7.23044 12.6948 6.92464 12.775 6.78657 13.009L5.53657 15.1278C4.432 17 5.0875 19.394 7.00068 20.475C8.91385 21.5558 11.3602 20.9144 12.4648 19.0422L14.4648 15.6521C15.5694 13.78 14.9139 11.3859 13.0007 10.305C12.8127 10.1988 12.6195 10.1091 12.4229 10.0357C12.2195 9.95975 11.9956 10.0515 11.8867 10.236C11.7221 10.5151 11.8911 10.8724 12.1932 11.0008C12.2973 11.0451 12.4 11.0956 12.5007 11.1525C13.9356 11.9632 14.4272 13.7587 13.5988 15.1628L11.5988 18.5529C10.7704 19.957 8.93555 20.4382 7.50068 19.6274C6.0658 18.8167 5.57417 17.0212 6.4026 15.6171L7.6526 13.4983Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button><div class="AlertWrapper-gvFATk MdjE RponsiveCartoonLkAlertPopup-BPAXn 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15H7.96094L5.03652 3H4.58055H4ZM10.0365 19C10.0365 19.5523 9.58881 20 9.03652 20C8.48424 20 8.03652 19.5523 8.03652 19C8.03652 18.4477 8.48424 18 9.03652 18C9.58881 18 10.0365 18.4477 10.0365 19ZM11.0365 19C11.0365 20.1046 10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">Frd’s study has been discreded on many unts, the most profound beg his theory that the “psychil genis of homosexualy” li a boy’s erotic attachment to a too-lovg mother. Workg backward om this theory, he nclud that “poor, forsaken” Catera mt have lived alone wh her son for at least the first three years of his life. Surprisgly, the most admirable of Leonardo’s morn bgraphers—Serge Bramly, wrg 1988, and the richly nuanced Charl Nicholl, wrg 2004—while hardly uncril of Frd’s analysis, nsir his thoughts about the artist’s relatnship wh his mother to be of endurg value. Isaacson is almost rehg his sweepg rejectn not only of Frd but of any attempt to psychoanalyze a man who lived five hundred years ago (although he ocsnally bends his own le). As he se , the bird, tail and all, reflects nothg more than Leonardo’s tert flight. Whether or not this is te—who n say?— is good to have a major bgraphy that (at last) prum no need to put forth a reason for the artist’s sexualy.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-2 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">Long before Frd, crics noted that Leonardo pated figur that displayed what Frd lled the “blissful unn of the male and female natur.” The ravishg angel each of the two versns of “The Virg of the Rocks,” missned Milan, is a clear scendant of the early Florente angels, and nfounds any attempt to assign the figure a pronoun—perhaps nveyg a theologil ial as well as a personal one. In fact, the preparatory drawg, ed for both figur, is of a woman. (Michelangelo elid genr a parably obssive way: his heavily mcled female figur—the Libyan Sibyl on the Siste Ceilg, Night the Medici Chapel—were clearly molled on men, as the drawgs attt.) In more openly erotic terrory, Leonardo’s late patg of St. John the Baptist is notorly epicene (Isaacson wr of s “e-hher nghts”) and some have seen as an ialized Salaì. Stranger still, there is a remblance between this St. John and the woman the patg often lled the “Nu Mona Lisa,” who ss wh breasts exposed, agast a misty landspe, turng to look the viewer the eye. At least eight pi of this softly sg, semu portra exist, emphatilly Leonarsque style, and a fished drawg may show the Master’s own rrectns. Evintly, his stud fed an appete for more than Madonnas.</p><p class="paywall">But no one was prepared for the emergence, 1991, New York, of a drawg of a hollow-eyed, wgls angel, a sure but dissipated to the other figur, sportg both the suggtn of a woman’s breasts and a huge erectn, jt slightly blurred where attempts to erase had failed. Playful riture? Hermaphrodic pornography? Isaacson suggts both, but even a thick volume voted to the drawg, eded by a leadg Leonardo expert, Carlo Pedretti, fails to provi any answers. One story has that the drawg was part of a secret che of obscene Leonardo material held the Royal Collectn at Wdsor Castle. The works were allegedly stolen, the neteenth century, promptg not legal prosecutn but relief.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">It was often Leonardo’s ambn that kept him om pletg thgs, or that ed the thgs he pleted. A bronze horse that he signed for Ludovi was so enormo that proved impossible to st; Ludovi fally dispatched the raw bronze to a neighborg state to be turned to nnons, preparatn for a threatened attack by the French. It may have been Ludovi’s fear that the French would make off wh “The Last Supper” that ed Leonardo to execute the patg directly on the wall of the refectory of Santa Maria lle Grazie, the church that Ludovi had chosen for his tomb. Aga, the sle was enormo—twenty-ne feet wi, fifteen feet tall—and Leonardo was a prediment about technique. He liked to work slowly, to rethk, to add layer upon layer, none of which was possible wh , which dried quickly and bond to the wall. Yet he wasn’t sure how to make his preferred medium—oil pat—bond succsfully. Experimentg, he ncted a mixture of oil and tempera, and, sometime around 1495, he went to work. Usg everythg he had learned, years of study, about anatomy, perspective, light, lor, and the physil maniftatns of human emotn, he pated one of the world’s most celebrated masterpiec, pleted by early 1498, and flakg off the wall by 1517. Leonardo was alive then, and would have known.</p><p class="paywall">The French were unable to pry the patg om the wall, ’s te, although they gave ser thought almost as soon as they stormed the cy, 1499, drivg Ludovi out. They were more succsful, however, wh the pater. Leonardo was soon on zy terms wh Louis XII’s occupyg force, earng unspecified “obligatns to His Majty the Kg of France.” It was only the threat of Ludovi’s return that ma him leave the cy and go back to Florence, where he ma the acquatance of an even greater master of Realpolik, Niclò Machiavelli. At the time, Machiavelli was an envoy for the Florente Republic, negotiatg to keep the famo warlord Care Bia om attackg the cy. It seems to have been unr Machiavelli’s spic that, 1502, Leonardo beme Bia’s ary engeer. He spected fortrs, ma maps, and signed weapons—he may also have acted as a spy for Florence—as Bia nquered towns through central Italy a trail of slghter that rattled even Machiavelli. Leonardo lasted eight months the job.</p><p class="paywall">Back Florence, where the fame of “The Last Supper” had spread, he was greeted as a great master e home. Crowds flocked to see a new work on display; he turned asi missns om the tled and the rich. But he accepted the missn for a patrtic battle scene on a wall of the cy’s Great Council Hall and pleted a preparatory rtoon that was among the most powerful works he ever ma. “The Battle of Anghiari” has been viewed as both a monument to the passns of war and a passnate antiwar statement: men’s fac savagely twisted, hors tearg at one another’s flh, one horse screamg pa, like somethg out of a Renaissance “Guerni.” Jt as he was readyg himself to work on the patg self, though, the cy ernment missned Michelangelo to pat another wall the same room, liberately spurrg a petn between Florence’s two greatt artists.</p><p class="paywall">Michelangelo loathed Leonardo. It’s clear om their work why they might not have got along. Michelangelo’s hard-edged le, even patg, was sculptural, and liberately anthetil to the softened atmospherics that Leonardo pursued. But the anim was also personal. Michelangelo, then his mid-twenti, was gff, hardworkg, ill-kempt, and, by his own acunt, celibate, bee of what appears to have been his severely reprsed and spirualized homosexualy. At one pot, he sulted Leonardo on the street, wh a tnt about the bronze horse that had been left unfished, reportedly leavg Leonardo standg red-faced. The wns to this cint found worth notg that Leonardo, ever betiful his person, went around Florence a rose-pk tunic, and is irristible to fer how irratg Michelangelo mt have found the olr artist, wh his peack cloth and his perfumed air, and wh what now amounted to an entourage of swankily drsed assistants.</p><div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--article-mid-ntent" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--article-mid-ntent nsumer-marketg-un__slot---ntent"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><p class="paywall">Leonardo seemed to light addg fuel to the fire. Some months before Michelangelo was missned to pat alongsi Leonardo, early 1504, there was a meetg to view his nearly pleted statue of David and to ci where the cy would stand. All the important artists town were prent—Botticelli, Pego, Filippo Lippi (child of the artist-monk and the nun)—but Leonardo alone objected to the figure’s exposed nudy, and pronounced the need for “cent ornament.” A ty sketch he ma on the spot shows the statue wh s offendg member neatly hidn by what Isaacson scrib as “a bronze leaf.” It’s hard to believe that the man whose notebooks nta a sectn, “On the Penis,” which he argu agast “verg and ncealg somethg that serv to be adorned and displayed wh ceremony” was tly offend by what he saw. Yet his objectns prevailed. The genals of the marble loss were vered, and stayed that way for some forty years.</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><asi class="PersistentAsiWrapper-VGrR daRVRt persistent-asi" style="posn:absolute;top:to;height:to" data-ttid="PersistentAsiWrapper"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="6so4ij"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></asi></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="dzc9if"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa EOneK body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">It isn’t hard to image the fiant mood which Michelangelo set about producg his rival rtoon for the Council Hall. Instead of a battle scene, he picted a whole troop of naked, twistg, posg, and extremely well-mcled men, who are ught bathg a river jt as the battle alarm sounds. (As Jonathan Jon not, “The Lost Battl,” this work, like Leonardo’s, quickly beme a school for younger artists.) But, before Michelangelo uld beg to pat, the Pope summoned him to Rome for another missn. Leonardo had seen enough to ment on certa artists who ma figur so nspicuoly mcled that they rembled “a sack of walnuts.” Still, he was nonplsed by the aggrsive younger artist, and was temperamentally ill-sued to this sort of head-on petn. Worse, he had ntued to experiment wh materials, and as he worked he disvered that, yet aga, the pat was not adherg to the wall. When Michelangelo sudnly returned, 1506, Leonardo abandoned the project and fled back to Milan. As happened, Michelangelo, nsumed by other tasks, never even began his patg. All that remas of eher work are a few sublime preparatory drawgs—the monumental rtoons are both lost—and later pi.</p><p class="paywall">Among the patgs that Leonardo took away wh him was the portra later known as the “Mona Lisa,” begun around 1503 and soon admired for s astonishg naturalism. Although most scholars agree that reprents Lisa l Gndo, the wife of a lol silk merchant, there is no nsens on why the artist chose such a paratively lowly subject when he was evadg requts om the Marchns of Mantua. As for the “Mona Lisa” ’s hntg se—“Mona,” a ntractn of “Madonna,” is a tle ak to Lady or Madam—, too, remas a mystery. Was Leonardo rellg his mother’s se? Or Salaì’s? Both theori have been proposed. Or was the se jt a clever alln to the fact that the lady’s last name, Gndo, means “cheerful”? (In France, the portra has always been known as “La Jon.”) Whatever this portra meant to Leonardo—the biggt mystery of all—he chose never to relquish , but went on, year after year, addg small perfectg strok and glaz. Nohels, he creasgly turned away om patg, anx to plete his studi and to orr the ntents of his notebooks. He was his fifti and feared that he was nng out of time.</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoon__image rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="The Secret Liv of Leonardo da Vci" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div 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fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Shop</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178638)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M4 3H2V4H4.23828L6.99617 15.2631C7.11483 15.6982 7.50998 16 7.96094 16H18.0365C18.4875 16 18.8826 15.6982 19.0013 15.2631L20.9648 7.26312C21.1383 6.62698 20.6594 6 20 6H10V7H20L18.0365 15H7.96094L5.03652 3H4.58055H4ZM10.0365 19C10.0365 19.5523 9.58881 20 9.03652 20C8.48424 20 8.03652 19.5523 8.03652 19C8.03652 18.4477 8.48424 18 9.03652 18C9.58881 18 10.0365 18.4477 10.0365 19ZM11.0365 19C11.0365 20.1046 10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">In Milan, he acquired the servic of another betiful boy who beme central to his life. Franc Melzi, however, was every other way Salaì’s oppose: aristocratic, ted, ser, a voted amanuensis, and ultimately somethg of a son. When polil chang forced Leonardo to leave Milan 1512, he (and Salaì) stayed wh the Melzi fay outsi the cy, before movg on to pass three mostly miserable years Rome. His reputatn for not fishg thgs meant that he no longer received big missns, a suatn that he generally felt as a relief, except when nonted wh the gallg achievements of Michelangelo and Raphael, their posns as favor of the Pope. (It was one thg to be ee om unwanted work, another to be ignored.) Although he was universally revered, Leonardo still need money, and so required a patron wh more patience than this class of person ually displayed. Fortunately, Francis I, the new Kg of France, jt twenty-one years old, was eager to import Italian art, and very much the market for a grand old man of the Renaissance. All that Leonardo need to supply, exchange for a stipend and a small châte, was his wisdom.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">We get a last glimpse of him 1517, well ensnced France but ail, when the secretary for the Cardal of Aragon rerd a vis. Leonardo is still posssn of a portra of “a certa Florente lady,” and two other patgs that appear equally imprsive. He shows off his notebooks, llg them “an fy of volum,” and the acunt ntu, “If the were to be brought to light they would be both eful and lightful.” None of the notebooks had been brought to light by the time Leonardo died, May, 1519, at the age of sixty-seven. Instead, the task fell to Melzi, who hered most of Leonardo’s tate, the notebooks clud. He managed to anize the not on patg, and did his reful bt—the sellg of pag did not beg until after his ath—but was fally overwhelmed. A sgle lifetime was not enough.</p><p class="paywall">Melzi was wh Leonardo at the end, but Salaì was livg Milan. He had left the entourage on s way to France, and, spe reported viss to Leonardo, has been easy to assume a ser break. Leonardo, his will, left Salaì only half of a property he owned near Milan, leavg the other half to a favore new servant. Many bgraphers, cludg Isaacson, assume that Salaì was sentially cut off. The will, moreover, mak no mentn of the patgs, an omissn that has been the source of much scholarly agatn. A document tailg Salaì’s effects, ma out after his ath, only five years later, lists a number of patgs intified by Leonarsque tl (“La Ionda”), but leav unclear whether the were origals or pi. Isaacson nclus, somewhat rashly, that Salaì ( his late thirti) “lived up to his reputatn as a sticky-fgered ltle vil, one who was somehow able to get his hands on thgs.”</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-3 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">But another document, not discsed by Isaacson, suggts a happier possibily. Brought to light 1999 by the scholar Bertrand Jtaz, shows that, 1518, while Leonardo was still alive, Francis I’s treasurer Milan issued a small fortune to Salaì exchange for a group of patgs. Acrdg to Jtaz, the sum volved was so large that they n only have been Leonardo’s origals; several of his patgs did ed enter the Kg’s llectn and are now the Louvre. (The on still Salaì’s posssn at his ath fell steeply value soon after and were surely pi.) The art historian Lre Fagnart plsibly nclus that Leonardo left so ltle to Salaì his will bee he’d already provid for him very well.</p><p class="paywall">Salaì’s reputatn has never been the bt, and Isaacson’s suggtn hardly do further damage. But the two terpretatns say very different thgs about Leonardo. No one believ anymore that a great artist mt be a sat, and there are many thgs we will never unrstand about the man. The way that he treated the grownup child who had been the love of his life, as that life was g to an end, may not be on the same moral plane as the issu raised by his mach of war, but offers at least one answer to the qutn of who Leonardo really was.</p><p class="paywall">Leonardo seems to have found peace his fal years, closely attend by the young Kg—who lived a châte jt a few hundred yards away—anizg urt celebratns and ponrg geometric puzzl to his heart’s ntent. His last certa work was not a patg, or even a drawg, but a party he put on his garns, honor of the Kg, the summer of 1518. There was an enormo nopy of sky-blue cloth rated wh gold stars, supported on lumns vered wh ivy. There was mic. A spectacle tled “Paradiso” was performed, wh players stumed as the plas, surround by the sun, the moon, and the twelve celtial signs. Four hundred torch were set burng, so that, as a letter-wrer of the time relled, “the night was chased away.” And the morng all of was gone. ♦</p><p class="paywall">An earlier versn misspelled the first name of the thor Mike Lankford.</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="6zw"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 PaywallInleBarrierWhWrapperGrid-fyrGfS kLQIUk 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href="/magaze/2008/09/15/the-florente" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-1" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg bDvSkO summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg bDvSkO summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The Florente" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl XMZX summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN lapGFj summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">A Cric at Large</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM dVrbhU summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-1" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href="/magaze/2008/09/15/the-florente" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ fzzTdh summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">The Florente</div></a><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd kxnNhB jDyfzW summary-em__k">The man who tght lers how to le.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span>Cldia Roth Pierpont</span></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff hNpSyX summary-em summary-em--article summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below summary-em--layout-posn-image-left summary-em--layout-proportns-50-50 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm hKqhyj" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb cPpCwE summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href="/magaze/2015/02/09/change-artist" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg bDvSkO summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg bDvSkO summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="Change Artist" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl XMZX summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN lapGFj summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">The Art World</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM dVrbhU summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href="/magaze/2015/02/09/change-artist" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ fzzTdh summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">Change Artist</div></a><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd kxnNhB jDyfzW summary-em__k">The works of Piero di Cosimo.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span>Peter Schjeldahl</span></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff hNpSyX summary-em summary-em--ARTICLE summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below summary-em--layout-posn-image-left summary-em--layout-proportns-50-50 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm hKqhyj" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb cPpCwE summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg bDvSkO summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg bDvSkO summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="On Killg Charl Dickens" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl XMZX summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN lapGFj summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Life and Letters</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM dVrbhU summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ fzzTdh summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">On Killg Charl Dickens</div></a><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd kxnNhB jDyfzW summary-em__k">I did everythg I uld to avoid wrg my historil novel. When I fally started “The Frd,” one prciple was clear: no Dickens.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span>Zadie Smh</span></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff hNpSyX summary-em summary-em--ARTICLE summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below summary-em--layout-posn-image-left summary-em--layout-proportns-50-50 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm hKqhyj" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb cPpCwE summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-4" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg bDvSkO summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg bDvSkO summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The Upper Wt Si Cult That Hid Pla Sight" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl XMZX summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN lapGFj summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Unr Review</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM dVrbhU summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-4" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ fzzTdh summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">The Upper Wt Si Cult That Hid Pla Sight</div></a><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd kxnNhB jDyfzW summary-em__k">In the sixti and seventi, the Sullivanian Instute had a wng sal pch for young New Yorkers: parti, sex, low rent, and affordable therapy.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL 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