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Arts & Communication Leonardo from Caffa in Crimea

Notebooks. Indeed, Leonardo the Genoese Caffan brings previously unknown son. However, this proposal was
one crucial piece of the puzzle no Tuscan Leonardo rejected by academics. Suggestions that the letter referred
scholar has been able to explain—military training. The directly to the painter Leonardo da Vinci were also
Janissary was a renowned standing army and an elite rejected. First, the painter Leonardo da Vinci had never
infantry attached to the Ottoman Sultan’s household been recorded using the name Paulo. Second, the painter
troops. It is logical to draw the conclusion that Genoese Leonardo da Vinci was indeed a painter and had never
Leonardo spent 2 – 3 years in Mehmed’s Janissary, having been a trainee in wood inlay. Until this moment, the art
been captured in 1475, where he was also converted to historical community had rested sure there had only ever
Islam. The elaborate way he first wrote Italian is a further been one Leonardo da Vinci. Now, they began to claim that
clue, pointing to the reality that his mother tongue was there was another Leonardo da Vinci and that this was a
probably Tartar or a related Cyrillic, which uses different simple case of homonymy.
alphabets. This Genoese Leonardo only arrived in However, the rejections are somewhat inaccurate.
Tuscany in 1478, when his employer was undoubtedly Regarding the use of Paolo, I note that Ser Piero da Vinci,
still the Turkish military. His job was spying for the the painter’s father, always gave his sons two names,
Turks, as I have suggested elsewhere. Significantly, the including Antonio Matteo, Giuliano Silvestro, Lorenzo
landscape drawing 8P, depicting a view from the fortress Miniato, and so on. He also used the name Paolo. A son
of Sudak, is at the beginning of the recovery of the true was baptized Bartolomeo Paolo on the July 1, 1485. This
identity of the man who wrote the Notebooks. It seems seemingly also illegitimate child passed away at 6 months.
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more plausible to take the letter at face value, and to Although the painter Leonardo da Vinci was cited as
accept it was written by a Genoese, as it states. The link to simply Leonardo, this does not prove he never had two first
the Tuscan Leonardo is again tenuous, through a design
discovered in the Notebooks, not through considerations names, one being Paulo. There is also the confusion in the
early biographies of the painter to consider. Giorgio Vasari
of his artworks to this point, well-documented works like (Arezzo, 1511 – Florence, 1574), in his book The Lives of
The Last Supper and the Madonna of the Rocks. It remains, the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, mixed
however, to explain how the two men’s biographies got so
mixed up. What happened to the memory of the Genoese up the painter Leonardo’s relationship to Ser Piero. In his
Caffan Leonardo that, in the later centuries, the Tuscan first press (1550), Vasari claimed Ser Piero was Leonardo’s
painter Leonardo da Vinci took his place as the author of uncle. He then corrected this in a second edition (1568),
where he changed uncle to father.
these documents? Some of the answers to this question
are to be found in documents recovered in more recent The second objection to identifying Paolo di Leonardo
times—a letter that suggests Leonardo da Vinci was as the painter Leonardo is that he was not a carver, and
banished from Florence around 1477, never to return, neither did he work wood inlay. This objection also is
and a further document that suggests he passed away not entirely valid. The painter Leonardo da Vinci was
around 1499. associated in Milan with trying to sculpt a massive horse,
which might have included making wooden models.
3.5. A letter about a man banished from Florence A record from 1487 claimed Leonardo da Vinci presented a
There are two final documents to consider. One is a letter wooden model for an architectural setting in Milan, which
(Archivio Statale Firenze, Mediceo Avanti il Principato, would have required a carpenter. Villata postulates that
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37) written by Giovanni Bentivoglio to Lorenzo de’ Medici although the painter Leonardo da Vinci was not known to
in February 1479 (presumed 1478 as per the old Florentine work in wood inlay, he would have been in the company
calendar). Gino Corti recovered this document from the of many artists training with Verrocchio who were. This
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Florentine archives. It was edited and published by Pedretti included Sandro Botticelli (Florence, c.1445 – 1510). In
in 1992. In the letter, Bentivoglio requested that Paulo di other words, it cannot be ruled out that the Tuscan painter
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Leonardo da Vinci, a young trainee carver in wood inlay, Leonardo da Vinci would have been able to carve or work
be allowed to return to Florence. This Paulo di Leonardo in wood inlay. As I point out elsewhere, having been
had been banished from the city around 1 year previously, banished from Florence, a Tuscan painter’s subscription
that is, for the crime of keeping the wrong company. with the painter’s Guild of St Luke in Florence would be
He subsequently spent 6 months in jail in Bologna. His automatically invalidated. It might have been Paulo di
brothers in Florence asked Bentivoglio to intervene and Leonardo was forced to work in inlay in Bologna rather
plead for his pardon. The Italian media became interested than he chose to. It also seems plausible that this Paulo di
in the story. Editorials jumped to the conclusion that the Leonardo da Vinci was the painter now known simply as
letter proved Tuscan painter Leonardo da Vinci had a Leonardo da Vinci.

Volume 2 Issue 3 (2024) 11 doi: 10.36922/ac.2642