Sublime

During his career, Leonardo would be known for paintings, monuments, and inventions that he conceived but never brought to fruition. The giant crossbow falls into that category.15 That was also true, it turned out, for most of the military devices he conceived and drew during the 1480s.

As Leonardo’s de facto and perhaps legally adopted son and heir, Francesco Melzi was named the executor and bequeathed most of the estate. This included Leonardo’s pension, all sums of money owed to him, his clothes, books, writings, and “all the instruments and portraits pertaining to his art and calling as a painter.” To his most recently hired h

As a young man in Florence, he had been a second-tier recipient of Medici patronage before moving to Milan and aligning himself with the Sforzas. When they were ousted by the French, Leonardo switched allegiances, then enlisted with Cesare Borgia, and finally found a reliable patron in Charles d’Amboise, the French governor of Milan. But after Char

Leonardo’s dedication to portraying the outward manifestations of inner emotions would end up driving not only his art but some of his anatomical studies. He needed to know which nerves emanated from the brain and which from the spinal cord, which muscles they activated, and which facial movements were connected to others. He would even try, when d

Leonardo’s work producing theatrical pageants was enjoyable and remunerative, but it also served a larger purpose. It required him to execute his fantasies. Unlike paintings, performances had real deadlines. They had to be ready when the curtains parted. He could not cling to them and seek to perfect them indefinitely.

The most striking trait of Leonardo’s angel is the dynamism of his pose. Shown from slightly behind in a twisted three-quarter profile, his neck turns to the right as his torso twists slightly to the left. “Always set your figures so that the side to which the head turns is not the side to which the breast faces, since nature for our convenience ha