Leonardo is gay

Aged 23, Leonardo was among four artists publicly accused of sodomy following an anonymous tip-off. Up first, Leonardo Da Vinci!. Historian Elizabeth Abbott argues that understanding Leonardo da Vinci’s sex life, or lackthereof, provides a rare glimpse into how sexuality and male love was understood and practised in. Skip to content. Leonardo da Vinci is celebrated for his astonishing genius and inventive mind.

A residue of shame. A controversial essay by Freud in , entitled “Leonardo da Vinci and A Memory of His Childhood,” psychoanalyses the artist, positing that he was gay, but celibate.

leonardo da vinci family

Nevertheless, writers, from the 16th-Century biographer Giorgio Vasari to Sigmund Freud, have scoured the thousands of pages of written notes left by Leonardo for clues. However, recent research suggests that he may have been gay, and that his sexuality played a significant role in his life and work. He and Leonardo soon developed a closer intimacy that Mills and Mullin liken to father and son. In honour of pride week, I’ll be bringing light to five people you may not have known were queer.

This young man, by contrast, was from a noble Milanese family, and developed a role in the workshop akin to private secretary. But a new opera is shining fresh light on his private passions — by depicting his intense relationships with two of his assistants. Hettie Judah Features correspondent. In Leonardo, the character is shown to be gay – something that chimes with the current academic consensus.

An exhibition will naturally privilege drawings, paintings and diagrams over the 4, folios of written material left by Leonardo after his death. And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc. On 9 April , Leonardo da Vinci was accused of sodomy in an anonymous report to the Florentine authorities. Leonardo left nothing that could be read directly as a diary or journal: his interest was in the outer, rather than the inner, world.

The work of composer Alex Mills and librettist Brian Mullin, Leonardo focuses on the relationship between the great artist and two of his assistants. Leonardo, then just short of his 24th birthday, was one of four men said to have had sex with the year-old Jacopo Saltarelli. He judged Melzi capable of protecting his legacy, and of such wealth and character that he would not be tempted to exploit it.

If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter. According to a recent article in The Independent, a new TV series titled “Leonardo” explores the possibility that the artist had sexual relationships with men. However in an attempt to control the practice, the city government encouraged citizens to denounce it.

The text, which was based on thousands of pages of the artist ‘s own notebooks, recounted how da Vinci had a string of younger male companions. Leonardo is being performed at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, on 8 and 9 November 8 November performance includes a panel discussion. The subject of da Vinci’s sexuality has been discussed for decades, with historians.

So far as Leonardo da Vinci is concerned, the document is the only specific written evidence from his own lifetime that we have concerning the artist’s sexuality. Historian Elizabeth Abbott argues that understanding da Vinci’s sex life, or lack thereof, provides a rare glimpse. Was Leonardo da Vinci gay or asexual? But what do we know of the man, of his passions, of Leonardo in love?

Five hundred years after his death — with exhibitions around Europe celebrating his art, engineering, science and ideas — a new opera celebrates a more private side of the Renaissance master. In , Sigmund Freud speculated that despite surrounding himself with beautiful young men, Leonardo's homosexuality was latent rather than acted upon. More like this:. A book by Walter Isaacson called Leonardo da Vinci: The Biography showed the extent to which da Vinci lived as an openly gay man in 15th century Florence.

To both composer and librettist, the relationships appear to have been more intense and profound than simply artist and assistants. The men who Leonardo da Vinci loved. Share Save.