The men must have been close friends. The younger artist stayed with his master long beyond his apprenticeship. One leap of imagination I take is the competition between Verrocchio and Leonardo regarding Ginevra, but this invention is inspired by fact. Verrocchio did create a sculpture, Lady with Primroses, about the time Leonardo painted Ginevra’s portrait. Just as Leonardo’s portrait was groundbreaking, so too was this sculpture. It was the first Italian portrait sculpture to extend below the shoulders and to convey movement, the figure appearing to have just gathered up flowers in the way Verrocchio carved and turned her shoulders. The good-natured teasing between the two men in Chapter Fifteen is culled from Leonardo’s notes about the superiority of painting over sculpture and poetry.
The face, dress, and hairstyles of the two art pieces are strikingly similar, and the figure in the statue cradles blossoms that may have been referenced in one of the poems written about Ginevra. Primroses were also part of Bembo’s family crest. Strengthening the hypothesis that Ginevra was the model for both works is the fact that Leonardo’s painted Ginevra appears to have originally held blossoms in a pose similar to Verrocchio’s statue. At some point, the bottom third of Ginevra’s portrait was cut off, probably because of damage. A study of hands with a sprig of flowers sketched by Leonardo is the basis for the assumption that the missing portion of the painting showed Ginevra holding a blossom.
Much of Leonardo’s dialogue comes from his own writings, and my depiction of his appearance and personality are taken from contemporary descriptions of him. In April 1476, Leonardo was indeed arrested, accused by a letter dropped into a tamburi—the box Florentines used to charge neighbors of breaking the city’s prejudicial “morality” laws. The term homosexual was not yet coined, so I use the words of Leonardo’s Florence—sodomy and Florenzer.
The city was known for its celebration of Plato’s ideals, including the Greek teacher’s lauding of love between men. Neoplatonic philosopher Marsilio Ficino interpreted that affection and mentoring to be chaste, like Platonic love. The legal issue for Florence during Leonardo’s time arose when men were believed to have physically acted on that love. Any intimacy that was not procreative—designed by nature to result in babies—was deemed taboo in the fifteenth century.
Leonardo’s arrest seemed to deeply affect him. He left Verrocchio’s studio and home. His exact whereabouts in Florence after that remain cloudy. He became zealously protective of his ideas. Historians also speculate that the arrest may have dampened Lorenzo de’ Medici’s interest in Leonardo. The Magnifico did not lavish the same kind of patronage on Leonardo that he did on other artists. In 1482, Leonardo sought a new home and fresh start, moving to Milan, initially as court musician and engineer.
You will find images of all artwork mentioned in this novel in a visual companion on my webpage, www.lmelliott.com. If you travel to Florence, you can walk streets little changed since Ginevra’s time and find her childhood palazzo. It still stands as a private home on what is now named via dei Benci, between the Ponte alle Grazie bridge and Santa Croce. Be sure to visit the Bargello museum to enjoy Verrocchio’s Lady with Primroses statue. See if you agree that it is Ginevra.
Also in the Bargello stands Verrocchio’s David, a beautiful, youthful depiction of the biblical hero. It is said a teenaged Leonardo was the model for the bronze statue. Its graceful figure and sweet-smiling face will give you an idea of the adult man Ginevra would have known.
Fewer than twenty paintings exist that Leonardo created either alone or with another artist like Verrocchio. We almost lost Ginevra de’ Benci. She resurfaced in the possession of the royal family of Liechtenstein about three hundred years after Leonardo painted her. During World War II, the aristocrats protected her from Hitler’s treasure hunters by hiding the portrait in a wine cellar in the family castle. In 1967, after much secret negotiation, the National Gallery of Art purchased Ginevra’s portrait for five million dollars, the largest sum ever paid for a work of art at that time.
I hope you view Ginevra in person. Look into her eyes and interpret for yourself the “motions” Leonardo saw in that eloquent mind of hers. Some think her melancholy, imposing even. I found an exquisite self-possession, strength of character, and inquisitive nature implied in that composure and steady gaze, in the skeletal details of her life, and in that one incredibly bold line of verse. But see what you find and imagine about her—that’s precisely what Leonardo wanted and Ginevra graciously and bravely granted us.
Acknowledgments
THIS NOVEL WOULD NOT EXIST WITHOUT THE PATIENCE, faith, and adroit editing, both sweeping and fine-tuned, of my amazing editor, Katherine Tegen.
It also would not have the humanity or the thematic and historical depth I hope it does without the influence and help of my adult daughter and son, Megan and Peter, themselves now accomplished creative artists. Both traveled to Florence to research. Both read the manuscript multiple times at various stages, lending me their own imagination, artistic eye, and interpretive talents. Their insights bolstered characters, cut fat, pushed dramatic moments to their fullest import, and honed the issues raised by Ginevra’s life and Leonardo’s portrait of her. They prodded me to be brave, to add bittersweet humor. Peter saved me from a tepid, unsatisfactory ending. Megan’s ability to research and make sense of information, minute or large, added dimension and pith to Ginevra’s personality. Her edits and comments kept the manuscript and its themes on track and a story about female choice and agency as well as art and love.
Zach Mott translated Landino’s poems from Latin to English for me. I also must thank Professor Monique O’Connell of Wake Forest University for helping me refine my characterization of Venetian ambassador Bernardo Bembo and WFU Professor Bernadine Barnes for helping me interpret conflicting scholarship around Ginevra de’ Benci and to highlight Verrocchio’s talents. My love of Renaissance thinking began many decades ago as an undergraduate student at Wake Forest. It was a special pleasure to “return home” for encouragement and mentoring of what I believe to be a beautifully complex and inspiring life that demanded exploration.
Bibliography
I USED ADDITIONAL RESOURCES TO GUIDE ME IN WRITING Da Vinci’s Tiger, but these proved the most comprehensive and helpful, and are excellent sources for your own exploration of fifteenth-century Florence, Leonardo, his peers, Ginevra, and other women of the Renaissance.
LEONARDO, VERROCCHIO, AND GINEVRA:
Atalay, Bulent, and Wamsley, Keith, Leonardo’s Universe: The Renaissance World of Leonardo da Vinci, National Geographic Books.
Bambach, Carmen C., editor, Leonardo da Vinci, Master Draftsman, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press.
Brown, David Alan, Leonardo da Vinci: Origins of a Genius, Yale University Press.
———, editor, Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo’s Ginevra de’ Benci and Renaissance Portraits of Women, National Gallery of Art and Princeton University Press.
Butterfield, Andrew, The Sculptures of Andrea del Verrocchio, Yale University Press.
Christiansen, Keith, and Weppelmann, Stefan, editors, The Renaissance Portrait: From Donatello to Bellini, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press.
Clark, Kenneth, Leonardo Da Vinci, Revised Edition, Penguin Books.
Kemp, Martin, Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man, Oxford University Press.
———, editor, Leonardo on Painting, Yale University Press.
Klein, Stefan, Leonardo’s Legacy: How Da Vinci Reimagined the World, Di Capo Press.
Nicholl, Charles, Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the Mind, Viking Penguin.
Richter, Irma A., compiler, Leonardo da Vinci: Notebooks, Oxford World’s Classics.
Vasari, Giorgio, The Lives of the Artists, Oxford World’s Classics.
ARTICLES ON GINEVRA:
Bull, David, “Two Portraits by Leonardo: Ginevra de’ Benci and the Lady with an Ermine,” Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 13, No. 25.
Fletcher, Jennife
r, “Bernardo Bembo and Leonardo’s Portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci,” The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 131, No. 1041.
Garrard, Mary D., “Who was Ginevra de’ Benci? Leonardo’s Portrait and Its Sitter Recontextualized,” Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 27, No. 53.
———, “Leonardo da Vinci: Female Portraits, Female Nature,” adapted from Brunelleschi’s Egg: Nature, Art, and Gender in Renaissance Italy.
Walker, John, “Ginevra de’ Benci by Leonardo da Vinci,” Report and Studies in the History of Art, National Gallery of Art, Vol. 1.
THE MEDICI:
Hibbert, Christopher, The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall, William Morrow.
Martines, Lauro, April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against the Medici, Oxford University Press.
Unger, Miles J., Magnifico: The Brilliant Life and Violent Times of Lorenzo de’ Medici, Simon & Schuster.
THE RENAISSANCE:
Aston, Margaret, editor, The Renaissance Complete, Thames & Hudson.
Brucker, Gene, Florence: The Golden Age, 1138–1737, University of California Press.
Cahill, Thomas, Heretics and Heroes: How Renaissance Artists and Reformation Priests Created Our World, Nan A. Talese, Doubleday.
FitzRoy, Charles, Renaissance Florence on Five Florins a Day, Thames & Hudson.
Frick, Carole Collier, Dressing Renaissance Florence: Families, Fortunes and Fine Clothing, Johns Hopkins University Press.
King, Ross, Brunelleschi’s Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture, Penguin Books.
Randolph, Adrian W. B., Engaging Symbols: Gender, Politics, and Public Art in Fifteenth-Century Florence, Yale University Press.
Trexler, Richard C., Public Life in Renaissance Florence, Cornell University Press.
LE MURATE:
Ciapelli, Giovanni, and Rubin, Patricia Lee, editors, Art, Memory, and Family in Renaissance Florence, Cambridge University Press.
Strocchia, Sharon T., Nuns and Nunneries in Renaissance Florence, Johns Hopkins University Press.
Weddle, Saundra, editor, The Chronicle of Le Murate, by Sister Giustina Niccolini, Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies.
POEMS:
Chatfield, Mary P., translator, Cristoforo Landino Poems, Harvard University Press.
Thiem, Jon, editor, Lorenzo de’ Medici: Selected Poems and Prose, Penn State University Press.
VIDEOS:
Ginevra’s Story: Solving the Mysteries of Leonardo da Vinci’s First Known Portrait, National Gallery of Art.
Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance, PBS.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo by Mary Noble Ours
L. M. ELLIOTT is the author of Under a War-Torn Sky, an NCSS/CBC Notable Book in Social Studies, a Jefferson Cup Honor Book, and the winner of the Borders Original Voices Award, and its sequel, A Troubled Peace, also an NCSS/CBC Notable; Annie, Between the States, an IRA Teachers’ Choice and NYPL Book for the Teen Age; Give Me Liberty; and Flying South, a Bank Street College Best Children’s Book. She lives in Virginia with her family.
You can visit her online at
www.lmelliott.com
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BOOKS BY L. M. ELLIOTT
Give Me Liberty
A Troubled Peace
Annie, Between the States
Da Vinci's Tiger
CREDITS
Cover photo © Ivan Bliznetsov/iStockphoto
Cover design by Katie Fitch
COPYRIGHT
Jon Thiem (editor and translator), “Song of the Village Lasses, lines 29-33,” in Lorenzo de’ Medici: Selected Poems and Prose, page 155, Copyright © 1991 by The Pennsylvania State University Press.
Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
DA VINCI’S TIGER. Copyright © 2015 by L. M. Elliott. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Elliott, Laura, date
Da Vinci’s tiger / L. M. Elliott. — First edition.
pages cm
Summary: In fifteenth-century Florence, the dashing Venetian ambassador commissions young Leonardo da Vinci to paint a portrait of his Platonic love, Ginevra de’ Benci, a well-educated, teenaged poet in a passionless marriage, propelling her into the world of art, politics, and romance, with all of its complications.
ISBN 978-0-06-074424-3 (hardcover)
EPub Edition © October 2015 ISBN 9780062231710
1. Benci, Ginevra de’, 1457–1521—Fiction. [1. Benci, Ginevra de’, 1457–1521—Fiction. 2. Courts and courtiers—Fiction. 3. Leonardo, da Vinci, 1452–1519—Fiction. 4. Bembo, Bernardo, 1433–1519—Fiction. 5. Medici, Lorenzo de’, 1449–1492—Fiction. 6. Milan (Italy)—History—To 1535—Fiction. 7. Italy—History—1268–1492—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.E453Dav 2015
[Fic]—dc23 2014047920
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15 16 17 18 19 CG/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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