Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. Childhood
- 2. Florence and Cosimo the Elder
- 3. The Cultural Climate of Florence
- 4. First Years in Florence and the Verrocchio Workshop
- 5. First Works in Florence and the Artistic Milieu
- 6. Early Pursuits in Engineering ??? Hydraulics and the Movement of Water
- 7. The Bust of a Warrior and Leonardo's Creative Method
- 8. Early Participation in the Medici Court
- 9. Leonardo's Personality and Place in Florentine Society
- 10. Important Productions and Collaborations in the Verrocchio Shop
- 11. Leonardo's Colleagues in the Workshop
- 12. Leonardo's Madonna of the Carnation and the Exploration of Optics
- 13. The Benois Madonna and Continued Meditations on the Theme of Sight
- 14. The Madonna of the Cat
- 15. Leonardo, the Medici, and Public Executions
- 16. Leonardo and Ginevra de??? Benci
- 17. Leonardo as Portraitist and Master of the Visual Pun
- 18. The Young Sculptor
- 19. The Madonna Litta
- 20. The Adoration of the Magi and Invention of the High Renaissance Style
- 21. The Adoration and Leonardo's Military Interests
- 22. Leonardo and Allegorical Conceits for the Medici Court
- 23. Early Ideas for the Last Supper
- 24. Leonardo and the Saint Sebastian
- 25. Saint Jerome
- 26. First Thoughts for the Virgin of the Rocks and the Invention of the Mary Magdalene-Courtesan Genre
- 27. Milan
- 28. Leonardo and the Sforza Court
- Bibliography with Endnotes
- Index
21. - The Adoration and Leonardo's Military Interests
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. Childhood
- 2. Florence and Cosimo the Elder
- 3. The Cultural Climate of Florence
- 4. First Years in Florence and the Verrocchio Workshop
- 5. First Works in Florence and the Artistic Milieu
- 6. Early Pursuits in Engineering ??? Hydraulics and the Movement of Water
- 7. The Bust of a Warrior and Leonardo's Creative Method
- 8. Early Participation in the Medici Court
- 9. Leonardo's Personality and Place in Florentine Society
- 10. Important Productions and Collaborations in the Verrocchio Shop
- 11. Leonardo's Colleagues in the Workshop
- 12. Leonardo's Madonna of the Carnation and the Exploration of Optics
- 13. The Benois Madonna and Continued Meditations on the Theme of Sight
- 14. The Madonna of the Cat
- 15. Leonardo, the Medici, and Public Executions
- 16. Leonardo and Ginevra de??? Benci
- 17. Leonardo as Portraitist and Master of the Visual Pun
- 18. The Young Sculptor
- 19. The Madonna Litta
- 20. The Adoration of the Magi and Invention of the High Renaissance Style
- 21. The Adoration and Leonardo's Military Interests
- 22. Leonardo and Allegorical Conceits for the Medici Court
- 23. Early Ideas for the Last Supper
- 24. Leonardo and the Saint Sebastian
- 25. Saint Jerome
- 26. First Thoughts for the Virgin of the Rocks and the Invention of the Mary Magdalene-Courtesan Genre
- 27. Milan
- 28. Leonardo and the Sforza Court
- Bibliography with Endnotes
- Index
Summary
The ultimate decision to represent sportive combat, rather than ritual sacrifice, in the Adoration of the Magi (fig. 54) also may have reflected the artist's growing military interests. At virtually the same moment that he conceived the painting, he was devoting much time to the invention of machines of war and defense. On one page of the Codice Atlantico, he designed a mechanism for repelling ladders (of attacking soldiers) from a crenellated fortress wall, not unlike those that surrounded Florence in the Renaissance. On other sheets, Leonardo contrived huge catapults and colossal crossbows (fig. 61) – the sprightly, scattered figures that operate those weapons are similar to the cavalry of the Adoration. For these inventions, he probably would have studied any designs for war devices left to him by Martini, reviewed Valturio's military tracts, and consulted the architectural treatises of the ancient writer Vitruvius and contemporary theorist Alberti, which included sections on fortifications and other defense systems. There is no evidence that any of these ideas ever left Leonardo's drawing board. Further, in many instances, what appear to be plausible machines, conscientiously planned down to the specification of bolts and hinges, could not possibly have worked, due to the intrinsic properties – such as tensile strength and flexibility – of wood and the other materials involved.
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- Information
- The Young LeonardoArt and Life in Fifteenth-Century Florence, pp. 139 - 144Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011