1519•2019 © 2019 Toscana Promozione Turistica Design: CD&V - Firenze Art direction Marco Capaccioli Layout Paolo Valeri We thank all the institutions, the organizers, Fondazione Istituto Dramma Popolare di San Miniato the museum sites that collaborated on the project. Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi Fondazione ParSeC The following archives provided the images: Fondazione Sistema Toscana Istituto di BioRobotica - Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna Archivio Aboca Museo del Tessuto, Prato Archivio CD&V, Firenze Museo della Battaglia e di Anghiari - Comune di Associazione Ecomuseo della Montagna Pistoiese Anghiari Associazione Mus.e Firenze Museo Galileo Biblioteca Leonardiana di Vinci - Comune di Empoli Museo Leonardiano di Vinci Comune di Firenze, Musei Civici Fiorentini Unione dei Comuni Empolese-Valdelsa Comune di Pontedera Toscana Promozione Turistica Comune di Sansepolcro (The images of the Leonardian codes are drawn Dipartimento fotografico delle Gallerie degli Uffizi from facsimilari reproductions) www.visittuscany.com www.regione.toscana.it/celebrazionileonardodavinci www.toscanapromozione.it LEONARDO: DANGER AND SALVATION by Tomaso Montanari verse by Friedrich Hölderlin, rity. But in such a way that would fantastical, often ludicrous attri- al texts. The search for the bones personal Leonardo. Ignore the mar- to assuming our roles as sovereign dear to Martin Heidegger, have, in all likelihood, baffled him butions to Leonardo the painter – of Lisa del Giocondo (subject of keting, the breathless hyperbole, citizens. asserts that “where there is completely. from sophisticated commercial op- the hyper-famous portrait) as well the well-trodden path: Instead, go A danger/also grows the sav- erations surrounding doubtful (and as for The Battle of Anghiari (the directly to the source. The Lives of Today more than ever, to seek Leon- ing power”. There could hardly be A critical step in this involutive pro- often very faulty) paintings, whose legendary and ill-fated mural at the Vasari, the various Treccani diction- ardo can be perilous… but to know more fitting words to keep in mind cess was The Da Vinci Code, the prices have been known to ascend Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, which aries, and the many other credible Leonardo can save us. In pursuing as we enter this Leonardian year, best selling novel by the American into the millions; to provincial dross we know has been completely lost) resources that can be found for free the truth with curiosity and rigor, we commemorating the death on May writer Dan Brown. Presented at first which may achieve a few minutes are just the best-known episodes of online, for example. inoculate ourselves against the su- 2, 1519 of the most famous artist as a novel based on original histor- of fame in local newspapers before this new season. perstitions and the ‘fake news’ that in Western history. ical research, it is actually a skill- sinking back into obscurity. Anoth- Leonardo wrote that “the trial of swirl around us each day. Today more than ever, Leonardo is ful montage of old urban legends: er popular trend is the hunt for In the Italian public discourse, Leon- things should leave the final judg- dangerous. And today more than from the relationship of Leonardo inscriptions, forms, and figures of ardo has become the subject of a ment up to experience”: that is to In this eclipsing of the true Leonar- ever, it is Leonardo who can save with the Holy Grail (the legendary the most absurd and preposterous tremendous amount of ‘fake news’, say, true knowledge is gained only do we art historians have a great us. cup from which Jesus is said to nature in the artist’s famous paint- a malady which can only be fought through direct experience. He also responsibility: to make more wide- have drunk during the Last Sup- ings: the search for a literal ‘da with a massive dose of historical wrote that “anyone who conducts ly known the joy, the intensity, the On television, Rai has recently per) to the alleged relationship be- Vinci code’. Generally the fruits of skepticism, and above all, with the an argument by appealing to au- emotion of a true acquaintance with presented us with a delightfully tween Jesus and Mary Magdalene. these incredible ‘discoveries’ con- diffusion of knowledge. thority is not using his intelligence; this extraordinary artist and thinker, satirical miniseries ((Leonardo’s All of this, combined with a plot fit cern Leonardo’s relationships with he is just using his memory.” Sig- as well as with his very great works Mysteries) which parodies ‘Leon- for a TV thriller, has had extraordi- power (the Templars are among the This is exactly what we hope will nificantly, Leonardo uses the word which, fortunately, Tuscany contin- ardomania’. When mainstream nary success, and has managed to favored protagonists) and with sex happen in Tuscany this year, at each ‘ingegno’, translated here as ‘in- ues to preserve. television takes on a subject, we transform Leonardo, in the imag- (in all possible combinations). Mu- of the myriad and various events telligence’. The root from which we know that the phenomenon is ination of millions of people, from seums proliferate with more-or-less which you will find listed below. also derive ‘genius’, it refers to the widespread enough to speak to the an essential historical figure to one reliable reconstructions of Leon- The objective is that you will each skill of critical thinking, as opposed So let’s enjoy Leonardo: majority of spectators: Leonardo of legend. ardesque machines, or immersive be able to take back Leonardo: the to blind trust. This is the key to our the real one. da Vinci is, today, a universal celeb- Today we can scarcely count the projections accompanied by surre- historical Leonardo, and even your development as a culture; the path LEONARDO’S TUSCANY VINCI FLORENCE Carrara Massa Pistoia Pescia Prato Vinci Fiesole, Montececeri Pisa Firenze Fortezza della Verruca Anghiari 1 2 7 9 10 11 Livorno Ponte a Buriano Arezzo Siena 4 8 Piombino 3 12 13 14 Grosseto Leonardian places in Tuscany 5 6 15 16 17 Tuscany and Leonardo: a perfect pair- as contemporary art. We can go from do and Anatomy’ 6 ; the Villa Il Ferrale Verrocchio, located just behind the Du- home to the museum of the Cenacolo Adjacent to the Uffizi Gallery is theMu - ing. Get to know the genius through the admiring the church of Santa Croce 7 presents reproductions of his paint- omo 9 . In this city he created his early – Last Supper – by Andrea del Sarto, a seo Galileo - Institute and Museum region where he was born, which fol- 2 , with its fifteenth-century baptis- ings, including The Last Supper in full works, and it is here that he would return masterpiece of this Florentine painter of the History of Science 14 , which, lowed his youth, and which welcomed mal font where a young Leonardo was scale. after his sojourn in Milan. who was strongly influenced by Leonar- apart from acting as a venue for events him back upon his return as a famous baptized, and the houses that belonged Another place of interest is the Biblio- Following this itinerary, you will discover do). The Annunciation 12 is not doc- relating to this important anniversary, artist. to his family, to enjoying the piazza dei teca Leonardiana (Leonardian Library) the essential monuments of the city that umented by period sources, but today also preserves in its library facsimiles Many are the places in which we will find Guidi by Mimmo Paladino, the wooden 8 , ), an important center for studies preserve memories related to the geni- is generally attributed to Leonardo, or of every one of Leonardo’s codices. hints of Leonardo, though far fewer are sculpture by Mario Ceroli inspired by the and research, where facsimiles of all the us. possibly to the workshop of Verrocchio, those, which retain direct testimonies of drawing of the “Vitruvian Man” and the codices and drawings as well as the first but with large parts executed by Leon- Another Leonardo stop is the Palazzo his stay and his work. bronze horse of Nina Akamu. printed editions of Leonardo’s work are Today, the essential first stop to discover ardo. (It comes from the Church of della Signoria , also known as Palaz- preserved, not to mention a vast collec- Leonardo in Florence is the Uffizi Gal- San Bartolomeo in Monteoliveto. The zo Vecchio 15 . Here, on a wall of the The first step in the search for Leonardo At the center of the village stands the me- tion comprising thousands of volumes, lery 10 : inside these walls are the only church itself, with its fifteenth-century Salone dei Cinquecento, Leonardo is in the place where it is believed that dieval Castle of the Guidi Counts 3 , photographs, movies and other docu- works signed by Leonardo, which are façade, is situated atop a hill and can painted the 16 , Leonardo painted the the genius was born on April 15, 1452: which houses the Museo Leonardiano mentary material on the genius of Vin- still present in Tuscany. be reached via a series of charming Battle of Anghiari 17 , which, due to a the Anchiano House 1 . A typical Tus- 4 . On display is a collection of models, ci. Recently the itinerary has expanded The altarpiece depicting the Baptism country roads). faulty painting technique, was ruined can country home surrounded by the ex- based on Leonardo’s designs, of ma- with the opening of the Rossana and of Christ 11 is a painting by Andrea The Adoration of the Magi 13 was left and abandoned by the artist, to be sub- quisite landscape of Montalbano, since chines for use in war, civil engineering, Carlo Pedretti Foundation, created to del Verrocchio, but in the biography unfinished, due to Leonardo’s depar- sequently covered over with frescoes by 1952 it is a museum where audio-visual flight, optics, and movement in water as spread knowledge about Leonardo da of Leonardo written by Vasari we are ture for Milan in 1482.