Leonardo Da Vinci. The Universal Person - Great And Terrible

Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci by an unknown author. C. 1505

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) belongs to that small cohort of generally recognized geniuses who at all times have attracted the closest attention of scientists, including psychiatrists. Researchers have tried to examine the character traits of this "universal man" of the Renaissance through the thick of time. Numerous studies confirm that the genius has unique physical health and … mental abnormalities

Childhood of Leonardo

Childhood Leonardo can hardly be called successful. The father tried to introduce the illegitimate son to the family profession of a notary, but Leonardo did not succumb to the accepted traditions of his society.

The father, in addition to being in touch with Leonardo's mother, was married four times and had nine sons and two daughters. In his will, he did not even mention Leonardo da Vinci. The son was brought up practically without a mother.

Researcher Valentin Badrak suggests: "Due to the fact that the father did not show genuine interest in his son, and the connection with his mother, most likely, was also completely absent, Leonardo grew up as a spiritually deprived, underdeveloped and extremely closed child with a whole range of psychological problems." Isn't that why Leonardo, separated from his mother, tried all his life to recreate her image in his masterpieces?

At the age of 14, Leonardo da Vinci entered the workshop of the sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio as an apprentice. An inquisitive mind forced Leonardo to be often distracted from the business he had begun, which gave the impression of some scattering. But such was the peculiarity of his genius, who developed in a poorly educated rural boy.

British conspiracy theorists Lynn Picknett and Clauve Prince ask the question: "What possible knowledge could he have if what he proposed made sense or became widespread only five centuries after his time?"

Was there sex in Florence?

We are more interested in the personality traits of this "miracle of nature", as Leonardo da Vinci was sometimes called, and their possible influence on creativity. A separate issue in this regard is the sex life of the Florentine genius.

Referring to descriptions of contemporaries, physician Leonard Schlein concludes that in his youth, da Vinci was known as “a handsome extrovert who, with his manner of dress, defied strict cultural norms. While most men of the time preferred dark cloaks, Leonardo wore bright, short tunics. His behavior can be called exhibitionistic."

There were almost never women next to Leonardo, and in his notebooks there is not a single mention of friendship or other relations with a woman.

Sigmund Freud suggested: “It is doubtful whether Leonardo passionately hugged a woman at least once; nothing is known about his intimate spiritual relationship with any woman. "

But this, as they say, is not so bad. At the age of 24, Leonardo da Vinci was involved in sodomy. In his cultural bestseller Penis, American journalist David Friedman gives some details of this fact. “The court archives of the city of Florence contain information that in 1476 Leonardo was arrested on charges of“immoral”relations with a male prostitute and sodomitari - a sodomite named Jacopo Saltarelli. … after two hearings, da Vinci was released for lack of evidence. Some historians believe that this was the result of interference in the affair of the wealthy Tornabuoni family. … the young offspring of this wealthy and influential clan was among the detainees and was the co-defendant of the young da Vinci in the ensuing trial."

However, this incident had no effect, and subsequently Leonardo more than once entered into homosexual relationships.

Anthropological miracle

Vitruvian man. C. 1492

Interesting is the fact that Leonardo called himself "omo sanza lettere" ¹, that is, "illiterate", because he did not receive a liberal arts education that would open the way to university. Moreover, of all the known historical figures, he was the only one who wrote from right to left. Apparently, he did not have the dominance of the left hemisphere over the right, typical for the absolute majority of people.

Therefore, it is logical to assume that the same development of both hemispheres ensured Leonardo's achievements both in science and art

But the habit of writing with the left hand “does not fit all sorts of abbreviations, mysterious phrases and multi-page notes resembling ciphers, many of which remain a mystery to this day. There is only one explanation: being a very suspicious person, Leonardo always feared that his ideas would be stolen, used, and thus robbed of his fame and material success."

Notebooks often reveal to us the hidden attractions of a person, but in the case of Leonardo, they turned out to be of little information. “Moreover, they are encrypted: you can read them only in the mirror, and even then not always, and intentional errors are hidden in his design drawings. The secret is important not even by its depth, but by its very presence. Leonardo did not want his notes to be read, and blocked all access to his "inner" side. " This is the opinion of the historian of science and art Vyacheslav Shevchenko.

The man who woke up too early

The character of the already famous Leonardo da Vinci was considered by those around him to be very strange. The philosopher V. G. Gitin writes: “He, for example, did not show any emotions on any occasion, was incredibly indifferent to everything that is considered to be good, and to everything that is considered to be evil, that is, in his manifestations he reminded a clockwork doll, but not a living person. " So it was not for nothing that Leonardo was considered a mysterious person prone to conscious loneliness.

Self-portrait. C. 1512

“I never ate meat - I considered it unfair to take the life of God's creatures. When the master had money, he went to the bazaar, bought up all the songbirds there and set them free. And the same kind-hearted person could calmly look at the torture of the executed criminals and sketch their convulsions! " In the second half of his life, Leonardo became already so unsociable, and his loneliness and egocentrism were so acute that he could not live in harmony with the world around him.

Art history professor L. Yu. Limanskaya believes that “Leonardo's relentless thirst for research is the result of his extraordinary ability to sublimate. Analyzing the peculiarities of diary entries, mistakes, slips, slips, Freud comes to the conclusion that the absence of the mother and the lack of paternal authority transferred part of the libido to the intellectual and cognitive channel."

Leonardo did not complete any of his treatises, he did not compose any of his encyclopedias. There is no evidence that at least one of the many inventions was “implemented” during his lifetime. Many paintings remained unfinished, others were completed by the students, and the frescoes began to deteriorate before his eyes due to unsuccessful experiments with paints. Therefore, the list of started and abandoned works by Leonardo is more impressive than the list of his completed works.

The writer Dmitry Merezhkovsky wrote about Leonardo da Vinci: "He looked like a man who woke up too early when it was still dark and when everyone else was still asleep."

Portrait of Mrs. Lisa del Giocondo. C. 1506

The Medici family, who have always generously patronized the people of art, treated Leonardo with understandable distrust. “He had a tarnished reputation: incredibly talented, but scattered about, does not bring anything to the end … Not a single finished creation, be it a canvas or a treatise, a statue, a car or a building … The Vatican ordered him a painting, and da Vinci instead took up”Varnish to cover it”.

But here we should take into account the fact that Leonardo always worked slowly and thoroughly. His slowness often irritated his clients and, naturally, they turned to other painters, without waiting for the end of his work.

What's with Gioconda?

The famous "Portrait of Madame Lisa del Giocondo", which is a landmark of the Parisian Louvre, Leonardo wrote for four years. But about this "unsurpassed masterpiece", which the public has admired for more than four hundred years in the Parisian Louvre, it is interesting to cite the original opinion of the Russian philosopher Alexei Losev. And it is difficult to deny the correctness of his "special opinion".

Losev considers the mysterious smile of Mona Lisa to be "demonic". “After all, one has only to look into the eyes of the Mona Lisa, as you can easily notice that she, in fact, does not smile at all. This is not a smile, but a predatory face with cold eyes and a clear knowledge of the helplessness of the victim that Gioconda wants to possess …"

Apparently, neurologists are not in vain saying that the brain decides for us what to see and what not.

PROSPECTED DIAGNOSIS

Schizoid personality with narcissistic and homosexual tendencies.

Monument to Leonardo da Vinci in Amboise (France)

Sources

• Badrak V. Anthology of genius. Kiev: Publishing house KVITs, 2005.
• Bronivetsky P. Leonardo: secrets of a strange genius // "GEO" № 2, 2004, p. 63-74.
• Vasari D. Biographies of the most famous painters, sculptors and architects of the Renaissance. In 5 vols. T. 3. / Per. A. I. Venediktov and A. G. Gabrichevsky. - M.: Astrel; AST, 2001.
• Gaev G. Geniuses in private life. M.: KRON-PRESS, 1999.
• Gitin V. G. World history without complexes and stereotypes. In 2 vols. T. 2. Kharkov: Torgsin, 2005.
• Kandel E. Age of self-knowledge. The search for the unconscious in art and science from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day / Per. from English. P. Petrova. M.: AST; CORPUS, 2016.
• Landi E. The Secret Life of Great Artists / Per. from English. E. Poletskaya. M.: Book Club 36.6, 2014.
• Limanskaya L. Yu. The theory of art in the aspect of cultural and historical experience. Research on the theory and methodology of art history. M.: Russian State University for the Humanities, 2004.
• Losev A. F. Aesthetics of the Renaissance. M.: Thought, 1978.
• Merezhkovsky D. S. Resurrected Gods. Leonardo da Vinci. St. Petersburg: Published by M. V. Pirozhkov, 1907.
• Picknett L., Prince C. Leonardo da Vinci and the Brotherhood of Zion. M.: Eksmo, 2006.
• Freud Z. Leonardo da Vinci's Memories of Early Childhood // Artist and Fantasy / Per. R. F. Dodeltseva. M.: Republic, 1995. S. 176-211.
• Friedman D. Penis. History of ups and downs / Per. from English. V. I. Bolotnikov. - M.: RIPOL classic, 2010.
• Shevchenko V. V. Farewell perspective / Comp. B. M. Tseitlin. M.: Canon +; ROOI Rehabilitation, 2013.
• Schlein L. Leonardo's Brain: Comprehending the Genius of Da Vinci / Transl. from English. M.: Alpina non-fiction, 2016.

Notes

The literal translation from Italian is "a man without letters." ↩