Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo

“When he’d started his career, a painter was nothing but a low-class laborer, but he had forced that perception to change.”

Leonardo’s talent as an artist is evident in how he forces those around him to reconsider what it means to be a painter. Previously, painters seldom enjoyed elevated social standing. Leonardo’s talent, however, is so obvious that it transcends class expectations. In addition, his intentional focus on his patrons’ expectations, which thematically alludes to his perspective on Patriotism, Family, and Duty, gains him respect in the upper social circles. Thus, he has raised the ceiling of what a painter can be.

“On his deathbed, Duccio was rumored to have muttered in delirium that the stone had fought him as though he were not the rock’s true master.”

Michelangelo romanticizes the marble with which he works. The story about Duccio’s deathbed lament may not be true, but Michelangelo wills it to be true because he feels that his destiny is to carve this stone. His need to invest in this legend establishes why he feels so lost when the stone seems silent to him. He fears becoming a victim of his romanticization.

“He should be grateful to be reunited with his family, but instead he felt only disappointment. He had wanted them to run into the streets, raise him on their shoulders, and shower him with praise. He had dreamed of being welcomed home as a hero.”

Michelangelo has an idea about how he wishes his family reunion could be, but his family’s entitlement and disinterest toward his art confound that idea. Likewise, he has an idea about how his meeting with Leonardo might go, but Leonardo’s arrogance precludes that. Michelangelo struggles with social interaction, since humans are more flawed and more prone to unanticipated reactions than the idealized people he conjures in his mind.

“Leonardo sometimes wondered if Salaì actually found him attractive or if he only thought of him as a replacement father who was willing to buy him fancy clothes and let him filch money from the coffers?”

To others, Leonardo presents himself as a confident figure. His fashionable clothes and quick wit help him project an idealized version of himself to the world. However, this charismatic facade belies self-consciousness and anxiety that he keeps hidden from the world. Leonardo even fears that Salaì—his friend, lover, and confidant—may only be using him for his money. Even the most important person in his life, he fears, may not fully appreciate him.

“He stared into Leonardo’s golden-colored eyes and silently swore he would hold that gaze even if Dante’s Inferno started nipping at his heels. Leonardo looked away.”

Like Leonardo, Michelangelo hides his vulnerability from the world. Whereas Leonardo hides behind a mask of eloquence and sophistication, Michelangelo hides behind a veneer of sheer determination. He projects into the world the surety he wishes he felt, almost hoping to manifest the confidence he feels he lacks. This moment helps develop the theme of Artistic Rivalry as Motivation. Michelangelo looks to Leonardo for validation and inspiration, but Leonardo refuses to engage.

“He had never encountered a mute block of marble before. Every piece of stone he had ever carved had spoken to him. Some whispered, others screamed and kicked, but they all had something to say.”

For a romantic like Michelangelo, silence is terrible. He has fallen in love with the legend of the Duccio Stone and, to realize his supposed destiny, he needs to believe in what he’s about to carve. The stone’s silence reflects his anxiety, however: The stone can’t speak to him because he’s too worried about judgment to understand his own intentions. His self-doubt manifests in a romanticized way: as a silent stone.

“It was still a man, connected and whole, and there was no way to contort even this ragged human form so it would fit comfortably inside that botched block of marble and still leave room for swords and sheep and decapitated heads of giants.”

Dissecting a human body horrifies Michelangelo, yet he continues to subject himself to the horror in service of his art. He must understand the human form, the bone and the muscle and the sinew. His statue must embody the most brutal aspects of humanity as well as its beauty. Michelangelo must carve like an artist but dissect like a criminal, further embodying the duality demanded of his work. In this era, dissection was still a primary method of understanding human form even though it was considered immoral.

“Everyone knew Leonardo’s injuries had been sustained during a confrontation with Cesare Borgia’s men. The old man recounted the tale with glee anytime someone asked.”

Leonardo never intended to use his flying machine as a weapon against Cesare Borgia’s men, but he allows the story to proliferate anyway. The legend is useful to him, bolstering his credentials as a patriotic Florentine. Leonardo understands the nature of his legend, so he stokes the fires of his reputation to his advantage, spreading the lie until it becomes the truth.

“If someone had been watching from a distance, they would have seen a singular burst of genius, but this moment was the product of months of thinking, dreaming, and drawing.”

Had any observers been present, Michelangelo’s euphoric inspiration would seem like it happened within a moment. However, in reality, this moment of inspiration encompasses every second of Michelangelo’s existence and every hour of intense focus. The moment is the culmination of a long, introspective battle. The contrast between the appearance and the reality helps illustrate why people like his father undervalue art.

“Better to leave La Vacca silent than risk showing the world that her citizens were unwilling to fight.”

Soderini confesses to Michelangelo that the people of Florence have lost something of their civic pride. He dares not summon them to defend the city, he says, for fear that many people would ignore him, thus exposing the hollowness of the current Florentine spirit. In this sense, Michelangelo’s sculpture gains added importance. The statue must restore the city’s civic pride and remind Florentines of how they see themselves.

“I used to dissect inside these very walls before you—or Father Bichiellini—could grasp a piece of chalk.”

Leonardo catches Michelangelo in the morgue and, in this moment, reveals that they’re more alike than they would care to admit. Both of them have broken the taboo against dissection so that they could improve as artists. Both made the same decision: that this moral taboo was worth breaking in the name of art. Leonardo and Michelangelo may be competitors, but the competition is intense because they’re so similar, right down to their transgressions.

“For him, the risk of not using a chisel was greater than the risk of using it.”

Michelangelo realizes that using a chisel at this stage of the process is a risk, since he might inadvertently break the stone too broadly, but it’s the only way he knows how to work. To shy away from using the chisel would mean betraying his instincts and, he believes, lessen the impact of his art. If he’s to truly invest the statue with his sense of self, then he must also accept the risk of following his instincts.

“He didn’t have the energy to tell Granacci not to worry.”

The carving of the David statue has taken so much from Michelangelo that he can’t even muster the energy to lie to his friend. He’s in a bad state; he knows that his friend is right to be concerned. However, he believes that this physical toll is an essential part of the creative process. Granacci doesn’t need to hear this lie again because, as childhood friends, they both know the truth and don’t need to speak it.

“He wanted to use a brush so small that his strokes would be imperceptible. He didn’t want anyone to focus on him.”

Leonardo shows his artistic talent by using his technical ability to achieve his thematic goals. He intends for his portrait to bring the attention of viewers to Mona Lisa for the first time in her life. As such, the artist must disappear. Leonardo achieves this by making his brushstrokes imperceptibly small. He removes the evidence of his involvement, disguising the act of painting itself to help draw attention to the subject. This moment helps develop The Need for Objectivity as a theme.

“He’s a family man now, not a stonecutter.”

Lodovico has never fully understood his son’s art. After Michelangelo forsakes his statue to help his family, Lodovico is convinced that Michelangelo has become a family man rather than a stonecutter, as though the two are fundamentally incompatible. Lodovico says this with certainty that is later disproved when Michelangelo rushes to his statue. Even when he feels that he has won, Lodovico doesn’t understand his son’s attachment to his art. Furthermore, his lack of understanding vindicates Michelangelo’s decision to return to his art. This moment ironically foreshadows Lodovico’s finally understanding the difference between sculpture and stonecutting at the public unveiling of the statue.

“Like it or not, a colossal nude male statue is controversial.”

For purely selfish reasons, Leonardo is desperate that the statue not be given pride of placement in Florence’s central piazza. Thus, he dresses up his contribution to the discussion in cynical fears about not angering the pope. Leonardo’s comments are particularly insincere given the frequency with which he rejects traditional morals in his private life. Leonardo doesn’t care about the controversy; he cares only about the competition, and he’s willing to win that competition by whatever means necessary, highlighting the theme of Artistic Rivalry as Motivation.

“And I know how much weight the system will bear. Return to my specifications. They will hold.”

Leonardo oversees the building of levees as part of his efforts to reassert his devotion to Florence. His basing the defense of the entire city on his self-interest reflects his hubris and arrogance: Leonardo is helping build the levees not for the city as much as for his ego. His failure to consider the builders’ concerns seriously foreshadows the disaster that follows when unprecedented rain causes the levees to fail.

“Let’s go down to the Arno, so I can prove that you’re wrong.”

Even after the levees break and the city floods, Leonardo is unwilling to concede defeat. He doesn’t trust an eyewitness account of the flood because he can’t countenance the idea that he might have been wrong. In this moment, his hubris reaches a peak before the full extent of the disaster spectacularly, tragically proves him wrong and leads him to reevaluate his perspective.

“His old, bony knees creaked and popped. His feet tingled. He could not catch his breath. He had a dreadful feeling he was dying.”

The flood destroys more than just the buildings and takes more than just lives. It chastens Leonardo, dealing his ebullience and ego a severe blow. The impact of this blow manifests physically, as he suddenly begins to feel his age. His body can’t maintain the myth of youth, just as his mind struggles to maintain the myth of his genius.

“Panting, Michelangelo gathered up the remaining rocks and stacked them in a pile under the rope swing.”

Early in the novel, Leonardo experiences war, and his art becomes a reflection of this experience. For Michelangelo, the situation is reversed. He carves a statue of a boy about to head into battle, armed only with rocks and a sling. Then, he must go to war to defend the statue when vandals attack it during transport. Leonardo invests his experiences of war into his art, while Michelangelo uses his art to prepare himself for war.

“He opened his mouth and whispered to the wind, ‘Arrivederci, Father.’”

The only time that Leonardo addresses the notary as father is when he says goodbye. This farewell acknowledges the role his father played in his life; only in death does Leonardo feel prepared to acknowledge this influence, for better or for worse, since he can no longer hold it against his father. The revelation that the notary is Leonardo’s father is more impactful because of its brevity.

“Let them unveil David without him. He didn’t need to be there. He couldn’t be. Because, no matter what he did now, he knew he could never beat the Master from Vinci.”

Michelangelo is about to be lauded for his statue, yet he feels nothing from this adulation. His viewing of Leonardo’s small, modest painting showed a level of technical expertise that Michelangelo fears he may never match. Michelangelo felt that he was about to defeat his rival, only to learn that they may be operating on entirely different levels. His moment of triumph nearly becomes a terrible defeat in this scene.

“Behold, my pebble.”

Though humbled by his viewing of Leonardo’s portrait, Michelangelo turns this humility into the introductory words of his speech. Leonardo represented bravado and arrogance in the public sphere, so Michelangelo asserts his own identity by reducing his colossal work to a mere “pebble.” In this humility, Michelangelo makes peace with his own identity.