Leonardo da Vinci

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00264cj/episodes/player BBC Four, 2 epidosdes. 180 min. Programme: Leonardo da Vinci Format: 2-part documentary series Year: 2024 Date watched: March 2026 Status: Completed Overall reaction This was a revelatory series for me. Before watching it, I had a strong but somewhat abstract sense of Leonardo: the Mona Lisa, the London exhibition with the two Virgin of the Rocks paintings face to face, the mythology around “Da Vinci,” and the broad idea of a genius who lived 500 years ago. But this series gave me a much clearer chronological understanding of his life: who his mother was, who his father was, why he returned to Florence, why he went to Rome, how he moved between patrons, and how all of this shaped him. The 2011 National Gallery exhibition you remembered really did bring the London and Louvre versions of The Virgin of the Rocks together for the first time.  What affected me most is that I came to identify with Leonardo. Not in the simplistic way people talk about genius, but in a more human way: his refusal to accept limits from patrons, his restlessness, his movement from court to court, and his ability to find almost everything worthy of observation and understanding. The series renewed my admiration for him. I came away feeling that he did not live a sad or diminished life at all, but a fantastic one—restless, searching, difficult, unfinished, but extraordinarily rich. Leonardo was born in 1452 and died in France in 1519, at Clos Lucé near Amboise, which is exactly the detail that had struck you years ago when you were in northern France.  Episode 1 — The Disciple of Experience My reaction This first episode gave me a much stronger sense of Leonardo as a real person rather than a distant icon. It begins with his childhood in a Tuscan village and then moves to Florence, where he apprentices and begins absorbing the Renaissance world around him. The programme’s own synopsis emphasizes his early life in Tuscany, his move to Florence, his apprenticeship, and later his move to Milan, where he enters court life and paints The Last Supper.  What stayed with me was how much Leonardo seems to have been formed by observation, illegitimacy, displacement, and freedom from strict inherited roles. He was the son of a Florentine notary and a peasant woman, and that background seems to help explain some of his outsider quality. The series also helped clarify his family origins in a way I had not previously held clearly in mind. Britannica likewise summarizes him as the son of a landowner/notary and a peasant, and the Met notes his Florentine artistic training under Verrocchio.  What stayed with me Leonardo’s curiosity did not feel ornamental; it felt existential. He seemed unable not to inquire. That combination of artistic, scientific, and almost philosophical attention is one of the things I admire most in him now. Episode 2 — Painter-God My reaction The second episode is where I felt even closer to him. The official synopsis follows him through Florence, Milan, Rome and finally France, while he keeps seeking the right patron, studies anatomy, light, gravity and engineering, and pours everything into what becomes the Mona Lisa.  This was also the part where I felt I could identify personally with Leonardo. His constant search for patrons and his unwillingness to settle permanently under one authority rang a bell. He seems to have resisted being fully contained by anyone else’s expectations. That, together with his openness to every branch of knowledge, made him feel unexpectedly contemporary to me. You also mentioned Salaì, and that connection makes sense in the context of your response. Historically, Salaì—Gian Giacomo Caprotti—entered Leonardo’s household as a boy and remained associated with him for many years. The exact nature of their relationship is still interpreted cautiously by historians, but Salaì is widely understood to have been a very important companion, assistant and model in Leonardo’s life.  You also asked, in effect, which pope brought Leonardo back to Rome. The relevant pope was Leo X, and Leonardo’s Roman period is tied to the Medici circle there, including Giuliano de’ Medici, Leo X’s brother.  What stayed with me The rivalry with Michelangelo was amazing, but even more than that, what stayed with me was Leonardo’s refusal to become only one thing. Painter, engineer, anatomist, designer, observer—he remained many selves at once. Personal reflection This series made Leonardo much less abstract to me. I had seen the Mona Lisa, I had carried the memory of that London exhibition, and I had long been interested in him, but now I feel I understand him more as a life: a son, an apprentice, a court artist, a seeker of patrons, a rival, a man of desire, and a mind that kept expanding in every direction. It also made me feel that identifying with Leonardo is not merely vanity. It can also be about recognizing something more specific: a restlessness, a refusal to be boxed in, an attraction to multiple domains of thought, and the instinct to keep moving toward whatever environment lets one continue growing. Main themes I took from the series Leonardo’s life makes more sense when seen chronologically. His illegitimacy and unusual family position matter. He moved repeatedly in search of patrons who could sustain his work. His life joined art, science, inquiry and philosophy into one temperament. He was not merely a genius in isolation, but a man navigating power, patronage, rivalry and intimacy. He died in France in 1519 after a remarkably full life.  My verdict A superb series. It did not just increase my knowledge of Leonardo; it deepened my admiration for him and made him feel alive in a new way. Personal rating: 9.5/10