Leonardo da Vinci by Burno Nardini

Leonardo da Vinci by Bruno Nardini
Portrait of a Master

After waiting for a long time going through temperature controlled rooms, when you finally enter the old dining room of the priests in the monastery and look at masterpiece painted on the wall, it is a bit underwhelming. Although restored, the paint is faded and hazy in many areas. One has to look at the other forms of reproduction of "The Last Supper" like the one reproduced below, and to know the history to really appreciate the work. Here the moment is captured when Jesus reveals that one of his disciples will betray him. This painting, and of course, Mona Lisa. are the two by which Leonardo is known to the world. 

I bought the book in March 2016 in the gift shop of monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, where The Last Supper adorns the wall, but it took me more than one year to finish the book.

An excerpt from the book.

Leonardo was a living contradiction. In a century rich in innovatory trends, leaving behind it a vast heritage of art, he impersonated in himself the themes of Humanism and the Renaissance, but also turned his back on that century to gaze far in to the future, anticipating an age still to come- our own, the twenty-first century.

I have a confession to make. I don't know much about Western art despite going to museums for a while. As I was not exposed to this side of art while growing up, it is hard to learn. So the following account is not for those who know art inside out. It is for many like me, as I learn along the way.

We learnt growing up that Renaissance, the "Fire in the Ashes"  took Europe out of dark ages on the path to enlightenment. I did not realize that it was Italy, and Florence to be precise, where it all started. Social and cultural renaissance happened earlier than the later roller coaster of scientific and industrial  innovations and inventions. Even in science, Leonardo and Galileo are connected to Florence and both have a museum to their names in the city.  

It is the emancipation of thoughts which lays the ground work for development in other fields. The concept of Humanism, fore bearer of modern ethics, is perhaps the first step in the 12th to 17th centuries of Renaissance.

Late 1400' were the days when many Greek scholars and others found a conducive environment in Florence, thanks to the trader-rulers Medici who came to power after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks. So in some way, the Muslims indirectly led to the beginning of renaissance

It also meant that the merchants can be good rulers, can promote humanism and an atmosphere of culture and arts.

It was that conducive atmosphere where a young Leonardo, just moving from his town Vinci to Florence to join his father, found himself.

For a beginner like me it is not difficult to get confused between Leonardo and Michelangelo. It was not until I visited Italy and saw first hand that the difference was clear. Leonardo has Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Michelangelo is the one painted the ceiling of Sistine Chapel in Vatican and sculpted David in Florence.

Both were from Florence, and contemporaries. Leonardo was older. Although known to posterity for his paintings, he was an illiterate who self taught himself and had been an engineer, (conceived the first flying machine), sculptor, anatomist,. inventor of war machines, etc.

His grandfather was a notary of means and had influence in the town of Vinci. Leonardo was a love child, 'illegitimate". His grandfather took control of the situation and had his son, ( Leonardo's father) married somewhere else right away and influenced another person to marry Leonardo's mother. Later his status was legalized. That did not prevent, much later, his eleven or so legitimate siblings to keep him away from their father's inheritance.

He was illiterate by choice. Although son and grandson of notaries, he showed no interest in learning math and other subjects. His father realized that early on and showed his drawing to Verrocchio, an artist, who ran one of the successful workshops in Florence. Those workshops were residency institutions. where the students lived, worked and learnt the trade under the direct supervisor of the master who also acted as a guardian. Verrocchio realized the talent and took the young boy under his wings. Soon the teacher broke his brush when he saw that the pupil had painted an angel better than the master in a pair of angels.

It was in his workshop that Leo got the attention of Lorenzo the Magnificent, the Medici king of Florence, who like his grandfather was a great patron of arts. Much of the Florentine Renaissance is credited to the conducive and nurturing atmosphere of the Medici's. Hard for me to accept, but it seems to be true that the early seeds of what became the fire in the ashes were laid by the lords of feudal system.

That was the time that Renaissance was taking birth in Florence. He had the privilege to be in the companies of great artists, thinkers and philosophers, many had converged to the city from various parts of the world. That is where the early field of Humanism developed.

It helped his imaginations fly and they did fly.

The Medici King. in order to export the talent of Florence around, asked him to go to Milan to help Ludovico il Moro, the Sforza ruler, realize a dream of making a magnificent horse sculpture of his ancestor. Leonardo landed in Milan. After a long delay, as he got easily distracted, he could only make a clay model of it before the French moved in and the Sforzas ran away.

But in the meantime, he was asked to paint the Last Supper on the wall of the mess, the dining room of priests of the church.That turned out to be his classical masterpiece. That is where I bought this book by Bruno Nardini.

He had arranged great shows for the royal wedding where the planets revolved and actors played; a precursor to the mega million shows we seen these days at the opening and closing ceremonies of Olympics.

Sometime in Milan, his birth mother showed up and he took care of her till she died. That was for a brief time. He mentions that in his journals emotionlessly, and not acknowledging her as mother, only by her name, Catelina. He walked alone behind her funeral.

When Milan fell to the French, he moved to Venice and eventually to Florence. Back in Florence he had started to paint the young wife of a Francesco del Giocondo known as  Mona Lisa Gherardini.

Then there are years of wandering along with the General Giuliano with whom he moved to various cities. He was also accomapined by the famous Machiavilli of the "Prince' fame. Later the brother of the general, became the Pope. Like others Leo tried his luck in Rome for a while but was of now avail. Later as a part of a truce between the French King and the Pope, Leonardo was asked to accompany the entourage of Pope. The French King, Francis I, at that time was already impressed by Leonardo and asked Pope for Leonardo, Pope agreed and Leonardo moved to France to pass the last days of his life. He had to do nothing, just provide company to the King from time to time.

It is there in France that he died and was buried.

A life well spent is long.

He was particularly religious and doubted the doubts of agnostics. He thought both the believers and atheists were ignorant and much has to be learnt before one can make a determination. He however did think there was a Prime Mover.

He had no clear relationship with women. He was once accused of sodomy by an anonymous complaint. Charges could not be proven, and his father was helpful in getting him out of trouble. That episode left a mark on him and perhaps he became even more private in his personal affairs.

There were at least two pupils with whom he may have had romantic relationship, it could have been platonic. One of them, Salali, who inherited Mona Lisa portrait, may have been a muse of some of his works. Salali was a young arrogant, vivacious man whom Lenoardo had a sudden liking of. That was despite the fact that he stole from Leo and his friends all the times. Leonardo tolerated him all along; except in the end of his life, when he went to live as a guest of the King of France, that he did not take him along. Salali may have refused to go, as he realized that now another pupil, son of a Count Melzi was now the favorite of the Master.

Other realized that primarlily he was a painter, but he wanted to be much more than that. He had ventured into the fields: anatomy, (dissected the human body twice to know for sure how it is), engineer, inventor, sculptor. and much more.

He had a habit of documenting everything. His notes, recently discovered, provide much information on his attention to details. He took in things slow and was habitually late for things. That is why many of his works remained unfinished, One can imagine how much the world would have inherited had he been not as laid back as he was.

There is an interesting story about the story of a shield which he make out of a log, It was given to his father by a peasant. Leonardo painted a speculator demon on it which would put the viewer in awe. His father was impressed by it and realized the peasant was not worth getting it. He bought a cheap painting from the market at gave it to the peasant and sold the original painting of Leonardo at a much bigger prize. It showed the difference between a worldly father and an artist who was happy that he made his father feel scared at the first sight of the demon painting. That was a prize worth his work and he needed nothing more than that.

He had two prophetic dreams. One was that he saw a flying kite, It was a memory of infancy, that while lying in a cradle, a kite came down and opened his mouth with its tail and struck him many times with its tail between his lips. Full of symbolism.

Second was near the end of life. Breathing heavily, were his last words. " Yes, now I remember. I wanted to say that everything we know begins from feelings. Now I feel myself flowing away like the water in the rivers. I feel myself borne by the currents towards death. Now I am going to live it, to experience it."