Hello friends,
Thank you for being a valuable subscriber to my newsletter Pursuit. If you think this newsletter could be helpful to art [readers, thinkers, writers, students, and interpreters], please share the link.
Both free and paid subscriptions are available. The best way to support my work is through a paid subscription.
In 1500s Florence, the Office of the Night (aka moral police) was worried about one crime in specific — sodomy.
The 15th century Germans even had a slang for it called “Florenzer.”
In 1476, when Leonardo da Vinci was about to turn 24 on his birthday, he was accused of this “crime against nature.” He might have been jailed but never prosecuted as the young men with whom Da Vinci was involved belonged to wealthy and affluent families.
In 1492, Da Vinci’s sketched Coition of a Hemisected Man and Woman — a microscopic view of the intercourse between a man and a woman.
A man’s face, head, torso and genitals are visible, but the sketch depicts only the genitals of a woman.
What does it mean?
Elizabeth Abbott, a historian and writer, argues that this sketch might point to Da Vinci’s revulsion of heterosexual sex?
There is no denying that Da Vinci was a polymath genius. He had extensive knowledge of human anatomy, math, geology, and botany and left behind 7,000 surviving pages, known collectively as “Leonardo’s notebooks.”
But there is no denying the fact either that he was a —
vegetarian
left-handed
eccentric (he caged birds just to make them free)
non-conformist
gay
Da Vinci’s relationship with men and his sexuality have been dissected and presented to us time and again.
Let me bring my take on it.
Da Vinci’s portraits of women
Unlike Michelangelo’s women who were manly, Da Vinci made only four portraits of women in his lifetime.
Lady with an Ermine (1489) is one of those portraits that exudes desire. The finesse and her enigmatic look make it a masterpiece in art history.
The subject of this painting is Cecilia Gallerani, a mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan.
Gallerani’s petite physique, slender neck with a beaded necklace, sexy collarbones and an outstretched hand with every contour of her fingernail looks magnificent. Her hair is tied neatly into a plait, covered with a thin brown veil and a golden and black thread around her head.
The size of the ermine looks compatible with the size of the subject.
If I do not talk about Da Vinci’s magnum opus Mona Lisa, I might not do justice to the point I’m trying to make.
Da Vinci worked on Mona Lisa for an extended period of 16 years. Giving nuances to a portrait, he already gave and making it perfect he already made. Yet he did not overdo any of it.
The subject of the painting is probably Lisa Gherardini, wife of an Italian merchant Francesco del Giocondo.
Gherardini’s average physical appearance, nonfancy clothing and standard background, yet the most visited and invaluable paintings in the world.
How about her enigmatic smile that has attracted viewers for the last 600 years?
Even while Da Vinci had a special affinity with men, he handled his female muses with equal grace, finesse and detail. He might not be sexually attracted to women, but his portraits of women are testimonials to his artistic genius for both sex.
Da Vinci’s male muse
Giacomo Caprotti, known by Da Vinci as Salaí aka ‘Little Devil,’ entered Da Vinci’s life when he was 10 and his master was in his 30s.
Being from a poor background and living with Da Vinci for almost 25 years, Da Vinci developed a bond more than companionship.
In an article by BBC, artist Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo concocted an imagined dialogue between Leonardo and the Greek sculptor Phidias, in which the latter quizzes him on the nature of his relationship with Salaí:
“Did you perhaps play with him that ‘backside game’ that Florentines love so much?” Leonardo replies enthusiastically in the affirmative.
There’s a reason that Salai inherited a lot of Da Vinci’s worth and paintings after his death.
Okay, do you know who the muse of Da Vinci’s iconic painting John The Baptist was?
Art historians strongly argued that it was Salai.
As a matter of fact, this painting scandalized the Church for depicting John with effeminate body language, but that’s how Da Vinci became a man much ahead of his time.
In my opinion, this image is equally godly as we identify the image of Jesus.
The magical light on the subject’s face, well-executed chiaroscuro, the spark in Saint John’s eyes and the concealed nudity of this painting is ethereal.
Well, I can imagine why Church considered it “profane”.
Does the androgynous Saint John symbolize the psychological portrait of Da Vinci as an artist? Let me know in the comments.
Da Vinci’s relationship with another young man
Francesco Melzi, a wealthy young man, came into Da Vinci’s life in around 1505 and became Da Vinci’s personal secretary.
Again most of Da Vinci’s notebooks and paintings were inherited by Melzi.
The crux of the matter is — Da Vinci might have been gay. After accusations of sodomy, he might have chosen to be a celibate.
But what matters is the sublime artworks and notebooks he left for the world to uncover.
Before you go, here are my art musings on my YouTube channel.
Create your profile
Only paid subscribers can comment on this post
Check your email
For your security, we need to re-authenticate you.
Click the link we sent to , or click here to sign in.