L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 4 The myth of Leonardo da Vinci: five hundred years of mystery and geniality T his , more than any other before, is the year of Leonardo da Vinci, as we celebrate the 500th anniversary of his death, which took place in Amboise (France) on the 2nd of May 1519. Leonardo, then, was 67. He had left Italy some three years earlier, when his patron, Giuliano de Medici passed away, to serve as a confidant and intel- lectual guide for Francis I, king of France. Leonardo's hands were crippled by age and wear and tear, so painting was out of the question, yet his enlightened mind was enough for French royalty to want him at court. Giorgio Vasari, author of the Lives of the M os t Eminent Painters, wrote in 1550 that, in fact, Leonardo died in the king's arms . A romantic depiction indeed, to the point it als o inspired a famous painting by A ugu s te D ominiqu e Ingres , some 300 years later. Five hundred years without Leonardo, but doesn't it seem like we actually all grew up with him as a mentor and a teacher? Of course: his name is ubiqui- tous in the arts and in science, his genial inspirations behind some of the world's most impor- tant discoveries: the calculator, the helicopter, the bicycle. And what about the paintings? What about the Vitruvian Man and the Mona Lisa? Leonardo was, and still is, the ultimate trans- gener- ational, or better, trans-epochal icon: from intellectuals to chil- dren from North to South and East to West, everyone knows his name and what he has done. But in the year that celebrates the 500th anniversary of his departure from this world, we should really ask ourselves what we truly know about him, and what he really achieved for the development of our civilization. Interesting questions, both requiring a bit of research and a certain amount of mental archae- ology to find out what's still in our heads after all these years without school. What's curious about Leonardo is that, in fact, the w orld does n't know that much about him at all. We know where he was born - in Vinci, a small village near the Tuscan town of Empoli - and the name of his father, Ser Piero, a well known florentine notary with a penchant for beautiful women. And so, here comes the first thing about Leonardo we ignore: the origins of his mother. Her name was Caterina, she may have been a pauper, she may have been the daughter of a small landowner, she may even have been a converted slave: this last theory became fairly popular after a group of international researchers managed to isolate Leonardo's fingerprint and rec- ognized in it a pattern typical of M iddle Eas tern populations . They say they may be able to get his DNA and finally shed some light on the mystery. But how could they get Leonardo' DNA, as we don't even really know where his bones have been laid to res t? The S aint F lorentin church of Amboise, where tradi- tion wants his mortal remains to be, no longer exis ts : it w as demolished in the yearly years of the 19th century. Sure, some bones were found and buried as his, but are they, really? Leonardo, a true man of mys- tery. You wouldn't expect any- thing less from the mind who protected for decades the most explosive secret of western civi- The Vitruvian Man, and an example of Leonardo Da Vinci writing: he used to write right to left and to read his notes, we should use a mirror SIMONE SCHIAVINATO Continued to page 6 NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS The Last Supper is one of Leonardo's most famous works, but it has been deteriorating easily, because it was painted on dry plaster, rather than using the usual fre- sco technique

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