Vinci, birthplace of Leonardo

“LA COLLANA” by Beatrice Brandini

“Because anything you can love or hate if you do not have prior knowledge of that”  Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was everything, painter, engineer, scientist, inventor, musician, designer ….. To talk about him it would take pages, and might never be enough to describe its immense and countless ” endeavour”.

Therefore I want to mention a few things in his life and advise you to visit the Leonardo Museum in Vinci, near Florence, an ancient village in the Tuscan hills.

Castle of the Counts Guidi, the museum

Meanwhile, there are beautiful tributes by Mimmo Paladino and Mario Ceroli at the Maestro. The first has created a floor inlaid with evocative and poetic motifes of its popular iconic universe,  the second a large wooden sculpture, entitled “The Man from Vinci” , clear homage to the man ”s Vitruvian of Leonardo.

Mimmo Paladino

Mario Ceroli

Il museum is divided into two locations: the Uzielli palace and the Castle of the Counts Guidi. The first seat on the studies of construction machinery, textile technology and mechanical watches . In the Castle are instead machines and models that document the interests and Leonardo”s studies for the mechanics, the war, the architecture and the flight. With a section dedicated to optics.

Studies of machineries

A room of the museum devoted to studies for the flight

The first art “experimental” of Leonardo da Vinci must be at the Bottega del Verrocchio, around 1470, where other students were called Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Domenico Ghirlandaio…

Studies of time and astrology

However Leonardo had not yet demonstrated a specific passion for something in particular, it is said that Andrea del Verrocchio rebuke Leonardo to start many things and then moving all in half (drawings, sculptures , studies …) . Probably this is the ” legend of Leonardo “, a complex personality, who as a young man was in need of constant stimuli, in my opinion this incoherence he was nothing more than the manifestation of his genius. ( Do not despair, mothers especially, if some children have this peculiarity, probably behind their “instability” hides a genius ).

Then you approach the circle of Lorenzo de ” Medici, who will send him to Milan to boost its diplomatic and expansion policy. In this town you will strengthen the love of science and technology, mainly due to military demands and needs of Ludovico il Moro. By this time the Lady with an ermine, The Virgin of the rocks.

Lady with an ermine (Czartoryski Museum in Krakow )

Later he will be commissioned a major work to celebrate the Sforza family, in the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, The Last Supper. Leonardo drew on the tradition of Florentine circles, but gave to this a original touch. Christ is depicted in the center, almost isolated and Judah no longer, as he wanted the current iconography, but next to the other apostles .

Madonna of the spindles (New York private collection)

Leave Milan, to move first in Mantova and then Venice. To return finally to Florence. Important to remember  Our Lady of the spindles, at the request of Isabella d” Este, The Battle of Anghiari, to decorate one of Palazzo Vecchio’s walls and of course the magnificent Mona Lisa. Perhaps the most famous painting in the world. The revolution of this painting lies mainly in the “mystery”, in her eyes , in the psychology of the protagonist. Before relied reading the character”s personality to objects or to gesture’s written. Here, however, the woman is motionless and yet the soul is present but impenetrable …. 

The Mona Lisa (Louvre in Paris)

Sensitive and generous man, animal lover (he bought in a cage and then release them … ), but also lonely (his works were carried out preferably in solitude ) and pessimistic, especially against human nature. Manic (were the endless tweaks and changes to the Mona Lisa ), the pursuit of perfection (“the painting does not die immediately after its creation as does the music, but a long time will witness your ignorance … but if you ”ll study let works that will give you more honor than the pecuniary , “ in the words of Leonardo ) .

I want to conclude this brief tribute to Leonardo with a Leonardo’s quote, a phrase that should be an incentive and example: ” It is like a day well spent gives happy sleep, so life well used gives die happy . ” ….

 

Bust of Leonardo

In the birthplace of Leonardo is also held the Unicorn Festival , a summer event in the ancient village of Vinci, during an entire weekend. The town is in fact falls into a magical atmosphere, where magnificent scenery backdrop to traveling shows. The main feature however is the imagination of its inhabitants and visitors, all engaged in folk costumes , almost always very impressive. Visit during this event will catapult you into a dream world, a sort of Carnival Magic ….

        

    

Some pictures taken at passers-by ….. and my favorite stand ..

Good life to all!

Beatrice