Leonardo Da Vinci

This chapter explores two of Leonardo’s most debated works: the lost Leda and the Swan and the rediscovered Salvator Mundi. Although Leonardo likely completed Leda, the original is lost; scholars study workshop copies and a preparatory drawing to infer its themes of sensuality, birth, and natural renewal. The painting is notable as Leonardo’s only overtly sexual work, yet it emphasizes fertility over eroticism. Salvator Mundi, in contrast, reemerged in 2011 and was authenticated through technical analysis, historical documentation, and stylistic features. The painting shows Christ holding a crystal orb and blessing the viewer, combining Leonardesque softness, psychological mystery, and optical illusions. However, its lack of scientific refraction in the orb raised questions. Whether oversight or artistic choice, the anomaly reveals Leonardo’s complex balance between scientific precision and symbolic expression.

In 1502, Leonardo entered the service of Cesare Borgia, a brutal and cunning warlord whose rise was backed by his father, Pope Alexander VI. Borgia sought to consolidate power across central Italy, and Leonardo was enlisted—possibly with Florence’s encouragement—as a military engineer. During his eight months in Borgia’s service, Leonardo conducted fortification inspections, drafted innovative maps like the one of Imola, and sketched both military designs and landscapes. His time overlapped with that of Niccolò Machiavelli, who admired Borgia’s ruthlessness and documented his exploits. Despite Borgia’s vicious tactics—including the public execution of his own deputy—Leonardo focused on his technical work, creating bridges, harbor plans, and devices like an odometer. Ultimately, disillusioned by the bloodshed, Leonardo left Borgia’s service in early 1503 and returned to Florence. His tenure with Borgia highlights the tension between his scientific passions and the violent contexts in which they were sometimes applied.

After gaining hydraulic expertise in Milan, Leonardo turned his attention to improving Florence’s water systems and military defenses. In 1503, he collaborated with Niccolò Machiavelli on an ambitious plan to divert the Arno River and cut off Pisa from its sea access—a nonviolent method to reclaim the city. Leonardo’s design included detailed calculations, labor estimates, and a dirt-removal machine. However, the project was mismanaged by a new engineer who altered Leonardo’s specifications. The river failed to divert, and the project collapsed. Despite this failure, Leonardo envisioned a navigable canal from Florence to the sea and later applied his hydraulic and engineering knowledge in Piombino, designing fortifications and swamp-draining systems—including a fantastical centrifugal pump using artificial whirlpools. Though his large-scale plans were often impractical or unrealized, they reflected a visionary blend of creativity, scientific understanding, and a willingness to fail in pursuit of innovation.

In 1503, Leonardo was commissioned to paint The Battle of Anghiari in Florence’s Council Hall—a grand mural depicting a Florentine military victory. A year later, Michelangelo was assigned the opposite wall for The Battle of Cascina. The resulting rivalry symbolized a clash of artistic philosophies: Leonardo’s smoky, dynamic sfumato versus Michelangelo’s sharply contoured, sculptural forms. Leonardo focused his mural on a chaotic struggle for a battle standard, drawing frenzied sketches of men and horses, yet failed to complete the piece due to technical problems and artistic perfectionism. Michelangelo also left his cartoon unfinished, though both works—through copies and preparatory studies—influenced a generation of Renaissance artists. The cartoon rivalry elevated the status of painters from craftsmen to stars. Though lost, the works were famously called the “school of the world,” shaping the High Renaissance and the careers of artists like Raphael and Cellini.

In 1506, Leonardo left Florence—leaving the Battle of Anghiari incomplete—for a return to Milan, using a legal dispute over Virgin of the Rocks as a pretext. His father had recently died, leaving Leonardo out of the will, and tensions with his many half-siblings furthered his desire to leave Florence. The French governor of Milan, Charles d’Amboise, and King Louis XII welcomed him warmly and helped shield him from Florentine demands to return. In Milan, Leonardo met and informally adopted Francesco Melzi, a noble youth who became his assistant, student, and eventual heir. Although briefly returning to Florence in 1507 for an inheritance battle, Leonardo spent most of his remaining years in Milan. There, he engaged in scientific, architectural, and theatrical pursuits, contributing to civic pageantry and engineering projects. Milan’s intellectual diversity and courtly indulgence made it Leonardo’s preferred home until his final years.

Between 1508 and 1513, Leonardo da Vinci resumed and intensified his anatomical studies, sparked by the dissection of a centenarian at the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova. Over five years, he performed more than 30 dissections and produced 240 detailed anatomical drawings alongside thousands of words of notes. He explored every major system of the body—from musculature and nerves to the heart and brain—using engineering techniques and artistic skill to document his findings. Notable breakthroughs included early descriptions of arteriosclerosis and the aortic valve’s spiral-flow closure. Leonardo also compared anatomy to machines and natural systems, using analogies to deepen understanding. Despite plans to publish, his anatomical work remained largely unknown until centuries later. The chapter emphasizes both his scientific genius and his failure to disseminate his findings, which limited his influence on the development of modern anatomy.