Leonardo da Vinci, Letter to the Duke of Milan Video Lecture - Humanities/Arts

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When Leonardo is
emerging on his own
as a artist in Florence in
the late 1470's, Florence,
at that time, was full of very
important, successful artists.
Not only is their Verrocchio,
but you also people
like Botticelli, Filipino Lippi
and the Pollaiuolo brothers.
And so Leonardo decides
to try his luck elsewhere,
outside of Florence.
And he writes a letter
to the Duke of Milan.
And in the job letter, Leonardo
states all of the skills
that he has.
He's trying to get hired.
And he's essentially
trying to sell himself
to the Duke of Milan.
And what's very interesting
about this letter, which
actually survives,
most of the letter
is a list of Leonardo's skills
that have absolutely nothing
to do with painting
or sculpture.
The things that
Leonardo says he can do
include building forts,
inventing new weapons
and so on.
And then at the very
end of the letter
he says, also "I can
execute sculpture
in marble, bronze, or
clay, and also painting."
We can think of Leonardo
as a great painter,
and, indeed, that's what he was.
But when we read this
letter from Leonardo,
he does not prioritize painting.
And if anything, it comes last
in the long list of things
that he can do.
For instance, he could
invent new weapons systems.
And so here's a
crossbow machine where
you see men climbing on
the wheel and the crossbow
would be shooting arrows out.
He's interested in saying he
can design weapons of war,
because that's what he
thinks the Duke of Milan
is going to want.
When an artist would
be a court artist,
when they will be working
for something like a duke,
they were responsible
for many, many things.
It was not just making
paintings and sculptures.
They had to design weapons.
And here's another one.
It's almost like a tank
that slices people in half.
He tells other
things that he can
do for the duke, including
irrigation things.
This is a machine
that is designed
to make water go uphill.
He also says he can draw
maps for military purposes,
but also for
agricultural purposes.
And this one is from
a little bit later.
But it shows the
same basic idea.
This is of a valley in Tuscany.
This is the way that an
artist needed to sell himself
when he is looking for a job
in late 15th century Italy.
Now one other thing that
Leonardo talks about
in his letter was the idea of
making an equestrian monument
for the duke's illustrious
father, Francesco Sforza.
This was a project that had
actually been, at first, given
to one of the
Pollaiuolo brothers.
And here we see the
Pollaiuolo design
for the Sforza
Equestrian Monument.
And this was to
be, probably, made
out of bronze, although
it's not entirely certain.
And this project was never
completed by the Pollaiuolo.
And so when Leonardo
was writing his letter
he says specifically,
I can carry out
this project, because
he knows that this
is a priority of the duke.
And what it illustrates
is that a work of art
wasn't necessarily
linked exclusively
to the artist who thought it up.
But that it existed as an idea,
as a project for a patron.
And that various,
different artists
could claim to
execute the project,
or say that they
wanted to finish it.
And so here we see
Pollaiuolo's drawing.
And then Leonardo's early
drawing for the same project,
is this.
And you can see
that, basically, it
is the same design
that Pollaiuolo
had, but in a slightly
more Leonardo,
more energetic kind of style.
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