Cultural references to Leonardo da Vinci

Overview about the cultural references to Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian Renaissance painter and polymath who achieved legendary fame and iconic status within his own lifetime. His renown primarily rests upon his brilliant achievements as a painter, the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, being two of the most famous artworks ever created, but also upon his diverse skills as a scientist and inventor. He became so highly valued during his lifetime that the King of France bore him home like a trophy of war, supported him in his old age and, according to legend, cradled his head as he died. Leonardo's portrait was used, within his own lifetime, as the iconic image of Plato in Raphael's School of Athens. His biography was written in superlative terms by Vasari. He has been repeatedly acclaimed the greatest genius to have lived. His painting of the Mona Lisa has been the most imitated artwork of all time and his drawing the Vitruvian Man iconically represents the fusion of Art and Science. Leonardo's biography has appeared in many forms, both scholarly and fictionalized. Every known aspect of his life has been scrutinized and analyzed. His paintings, drawings and notebooks have been studied, reproduced and analyzed for five centuries. The interest in and appreciation of the character of Leonardo and his talents has never waned. Leonardo has appeared in many fictional works, such as novels, television shows, video games and movies, the first such fiction dating from the 16th century. Various characters have been named after him.

No painting has been more imitated and satirised than the Mona Lisa. Beginning possibly with a naked portrait of Diane de Poitiers by Clouet, the pose and expression have been freely adapted to many female portraits. The avant garde art world has made note of the undeniable fact of the Mona Lisa's popularity. Because of the painting's overwhelming stature, Dadaists and Surrealists often produce modifications and caricatures. Already in 1883, Le rire, an image of a Mona Lisa smoking a pipe, by Sapeck (Eugène Bataille), was shown at the "Incoherents" show in Paris. In 1919, Marcel Duchamp, one of the most influential modern artists, created L. H. O. O. Q., a Mona Lisa parody made by adorning a cheap reproduction with a moustache and a goatee, as well as adding the rude inscription, when read out loud in French sounds like "Elle a chaud au cul" literally translated: "she has a hot ass". This is a manner of implying the woman in the painting is in a state of sexual excitement and availability. This was intended as a Freudian joke, referring to Leonardo's alleged homosexuality. According to Rhonda R. Shearer, the apparent reproduction is in fact a copy partly modelled on Duchamp's own face. Salvador Dalí, famous for his surrealist work, painted Self portrait as Mona Lisa in 1954. In 1963 following the painting's visit to the United States, Andy Warhol created serigraph prints of multiple Mona Lisas called Thirty are Better than One, like his works of Marilyn Monroe (Twenty five Coloured Marilyns, 1962), Elvis Presley (1964) and Campbell's soup (1961–1962).

"Il Gran Cavallo". This monumental bronze horse, 7 metres (24 feet) high, is a conjectural re creation of a clay horse that was created in Milan by Leonardo da Vinci for the Ludovico Sforza and was intended to be cast in bronze. Leonardo never finished the project because of war with France, and the clay horse was ruined. This representation was based on a number of Leonardo's preparatory drawings. It was created in 1999 in New York and given to the city of Milan.

The Last Supper is to be the subject of an animation by British film maker Peter Greenaway, who plans to project interpretative images onto its surface to enliven the scene in which the apostles all question Jesus' statement that one of them will betray him.

The story of Leonardo dying in the arms of the French king Francis I, although apocryphal, appealed to the self image of later French kings and to French history painters of the 18th and 19th centuries. Apparently on commission from Louis XVI, Ménageot painted The Death of Leonardo da Vinci in the arms of Francis I in 1781, setting it in a background of classical statuary. This painting, which was the triumph of the Salon of 1781, included a portrayal of the Borghese Gladiator (Ménageot probably having seen it at the Villa Borghese during his stay at the French Academy in Rome from 1769 to 1774), although this was an anachronism since Leonardo died in 1519, about ninety years before the statue was discovered. In 1818 The Death of Leonardo da Vinci by the French painter, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, depicts the scene of Leonardo's death shown taking place in the home Clos Lucé, which was provided for him at Amboise by King Francis I. The King is shown supporting Leonardo's head as he dies, as described by Vasari, watched by the Dauphin who is comforted by a cardinal. A distraught young man may represent Leonardo's pupil Melzi. The treatment of this subject by Ingres is indicative of Leonardo's iconic status and also specifically that he was of particular significance to the school of French Classicism. A number of his paintings had passed into the Royal collection and certain elements of them were much imitated. Leonardo's manner of soft shading known as sfumato was particularly adapted by Ingres, Jacques Louis David and their followers. An influential painting was Leda and the swan, now regarded as by a pupil of Leonardo but then generally accepted as the master's work.

A monument to Leonardo was erected in 1872 in Piazza del Scala, Milan. It comprises five marble statues by Pietro Magni, of Leonardo and his pupils Cesare da Sesto, Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, Marco d'Oggiono and “Andrea Salaino”, and four reliefs depicting scenes in Leonardo's life. A statue of Leonardo by the Bulgarian sculptor Assen Peikov stands outside Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport (Rome).

The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci (1901) by Dmitry Merezhkovsky. The Second Mrs. Giaconda (1975) by E. L. Konigsburg is a children's novel about why Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa. Leonardo Da Vinci: Detective a short story by Theodore Mathieson, portrays him using his genius to solve a murder during his time in France. Pasquale's Angel by Paul J. McAuley, set in an alternate universe Florence, portrays Leonardo as "the Great Engineer", creating a premature industrial revolution (see clockpunk). The novel The Memory Cathedral by Jack Dann is a fictional account of a "lost year" in the life of Leonardo. Dann has his genius protagonist actually create his flying machine. The novel Pilgrim by Timothy Findley describes the encounters of an immortal named Pilgrim with Leonardo da Vinci among others, as told to Carl Jung. Terry Pratchett's character Leonard of Quirm (or da Quirm) is a pastiche of Leonardo. A talented artist and inventor, Lord Vetinari, the Patrician of Ankh Morpork, imprisoned Leonard as it would have been dangerous to fall into the wrong hands given Leonard's naïvety regarding the military applications of some of his inventions (particularly his conceptual siege weapons). Leonard's talent for inventing does not extend to names which are often clunky circumlocutions; for example, his submarine is called a 'Going Under the Water Safely Device'. Crowley, the demon in Good Omens by Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, owns the original sketch or cartoon of the Mona Lisa and considers it superior to the finished work. Three novels by Martin Woodhouse and Robert Ross feature the adventures of Leonardo da Vinci in the guise of a James Bond type spy of the Italian Renaissance: The Medici Guns (1974); The Medici Emerald and The Medici Hawks. The Secret Supper (2006) by Javier Sierra explores the symbology of Leonardo's Last Supper, and its threat to the Catholic Church, as he is painting the fresco in 15th century Milan. Black Madonna (1996) by Carl Sargent and Marc Gascoigne, is set in the Shadowrun game universe and portrays Leonardo as still living in the 21st century, blackmailing corporations to finance his inventions. The Medici Seal, a children's novel by Theresa Breslin (2006). In the Children of the Red King series, a Donatella da Vinci married a Bertram Babbington Bloor. Donatella was the daughter of an Italian magician. No connection between Leonardo and Donatella has been stated since. In Robert Heinlein's 1957 novel The Door Into Summer, Dr. Twitchell recounts a tale of a student whom he displaced in time by 500 years. While there was no way of knowing whether the student went to the past or the future, Dr. Twitchell hints that he believes it was the past due to the student's name—Leonard Vincent. In the novel Saturn's Apprentice by M. A. Lang, an alchemical experiment gone wrong causes Leonardo to be lost in the present day, while back in Renaissance Florence his friend Tomasso Masini desperately tries to save him. Leonardo da Vinci is a significant character in the novels Assassin's Creed: Renaissance (2009) and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (2010), books based on the video game series Assassin's Creed. Leonardo is portrayed as a close friend of the protagonist, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a Florentine nobleman's son who joined the Assassin Brotherhood after the murder of his father and brothers by the ruling families of Italy, each part of the once thought disbanded Knight's Templar. Leonardo helps the assassin decipher encrypted codex pages left behind by legendary master assassin, Altair (the protagonist of the original Assassin's Creed game). Leonardo's flying machine is successfully built and helps Ezio travel across Venice in order to assassinate one of his targets. Leonardo makes a brief appearance in Assassin's Creed: Revelations novel. Ezio and his close friend and fellow Assassin, Niccolò Machiavelli visit him during the week that he died, present at his side while he passes away. Machiavelli recalls a rumour that King Francis cradled his head in his arms as he died, to which Ezio remarked: "Some people – even Kings – will do anything for publicity".

Peter Barnes's 1969 play Leonardo's Last Supper centres on Leonardo being "resurrected" in a filthy charnel house after being prematurely declared dead. David Davalos's 2002 play Daedalus tells a fantasized story of Leonardo's time as a military engineer in the service of Cesare Borgia, in the company of Lucrezia Borgia and Niccolò Machiavelli.

Author Charles Anthony Silvestri and composer Eric Whitacre collaborated to create an "opera bréve" based on text from Leonardo's journals and original text by Silvestri. This piece, Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, was modeled after Leonardo's conceptual flying machine. This piece was written on commission by the American Choral Directors Association as the second piece in Whitacre's series of Element Works, the first being Cloudburst, written in 1992. Dream Theater vocalist James LaBrie performed as Leonardo in the progressive metal album Leonardo: The Absolute Man, an album which itself explored his life and works through the milieu of music. In the Red Hot Chili Peppers video for Californication, Leonardo can be seen working on the Mona Lisa and a cartoon John Frusciante can later be seen riding Leonardo's helicopter. Mona Lisa is used as a stage name by Kimberley Leadbetter, an American pop and R&B singer songwriter. "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" is a song by Panic! at the Disco, an American rock band, published in February 2011. "Why Mona Lisa Smiled" is a song by Chris de Burgh from the album Moonfleet & Other Stories, about Leonardo and why he painted the Mona Lisa.

The DC Comics Elseworlds story "Black Masterpiece", in Batman Annual No. 18, shows Leonardo's apprentice becoming a Renaissance Batman, using the Master's devices in his war on Florentine crime. DC Comics's Vertigo division published a ten issue miniseries "strongly laced with sex, violence, and magic" In Assassin's Creed II, a young Leonardo befriends the protagonist, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, in 1476 when introduced by Ezio's mother Maria, a patron of Leonardo's. He later helps Ezio by deciphering pages of an ancient Assassin Codex written by legendary Assassin Mentor Altaïr Ibn La'Ahad and using his mechanical know how to build various devices, inventions and weapons. An older Leonardo appears in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, having been forced to make war machines for Cesare Borgia and Rodrigo Borgia and asking Ezio to help him by destroying them. In the DLC The Da Vinci Disappearance for Brotherhood, Leonardo is kidnapped by Hermeticists, members of the Cult of Hermes, and Ezio must rescue him. The DLC also includes Leonardo's pupil and suspected lover, Salaì. In Super Monday Night Combat, a clone of Leonardo da Vinci under the name of "Leo" is playable. In LittleBigPlanet 2, a tutorial and supporting character is also named Da Vinci with some few difference: he wears 3D glasses, his head is made of craft, and his first name is "Larry". In the mobile game Fate/Grand Order, Leonardo is portrayed as a woman with visual characteristics of Mona Lisa, and manifested as a Caster class Servant. She willingly changed her gender and form upon being summoned, and is a genius in magecraft, mathematics, engineering, natural history, music, architecture, sculpture, painting, inventing, and weapons development. In Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, his fighting vehicle is the final boss of the Renaissance faction.

2014: In the Epic Rap Battles of History episode "Artists vs. TMNT", da Vinci, portrayed by Link Neal of Rhett and Link, appears alongside portrayals of Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael, engaged in a battle rap with the eponymous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Leonardo da Vinci: Machines in Motion is a traveling exhibition of 40 full scale machines that were built after study of Leonardo da Vinci's designs by a group of scientists and craftsmen in Florence, Italy. The exhibition was produced by Evergreen Exhibitions and has been exhibited by many science museums, including Museo Tecnologico in Mexico City, Witte Museum in San Antonio, Texas, South Carolina State Museum in Columbia, South Carolina, McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Alabama and many more.