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Arts & Communication Leonardo from Caffa in Crimea

Yet, experts persist with the claim that there was another the artist’s father, Ser Piero, as if the artist was unavailable
“Leonardo da Vinci” in Florence at the same time as the (or illiterate). If it is true that the Tuscan painter Leonardo
painter Leonardo da Vinci. However, until 1992, there da Vinci was Paulo di Leonardo and, therefore, died in 1499,
was never any talk of another family with the patronymic then he cannot have written the Notebooks nor painted the
“Da Vinci.” Indeed, despite decades of searching hundreds Mona Lisa. A close reading of the four documents cited
of genealogical records, Vezzosi and Sabato did not find above suggests that the man who wrote the Notebooks was
a “Paulo di Leonardo da Vinci” in Vinci or in Florence. Eastern and can be identified as Leonardo the Genoese
They also did not find any birth records for a “missing” Caffan. However, as I point to in More Than (2) Leonardo
Leonardo da Vinci, who could have been Paulo’s father. in Anti-Theory, it is unlikely that this Leonardo painted
There is also the issue of the brothers who made the plea the Mona Lisa. I identify the possible artist as a gentleman
to Bentivoligio, who would also have been Da Vinci if they painter from Milan, Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio (Milan,
were brothers on the father’s side. In 2021, Perazzini caused c.1466 – 1516).
a further stir when he uncovered another document in the 4. Conclusion
archives in Bologna relating to Paulo di Leonardo. This
document referred to the death of Paulo di Leonardo da I do not argue with the Western historical perspective that
Vinci sometime during the year 1499. a Tuscan painter could have become the world’s greatest
genius. This research does not denounce the possibilities of
Vezzosi and Sabato report that on June 15, 1499,
“‘Giovanni son of Antonio from Florence’ purchased a a single great genius, only the practicalities. The man who
drew the small landscape with the enigmatic date August
house with land at the ‘Spedalazzo’ in Roncrio [Bologna],
in the name of the daughter and wife of … ‘quondam Pauli 5, 1473, was not concerned with Tuscany. Given this is the
olim Leonardi de Vincio de Florentia’ [the deceased Paulo first drawing associated with the Notebooks, this indicates
a need to reassess the claim of Tuscan painter Leonardo
formerly Leonardo da Vinci of Florence].” They claim that da Vinci’s authorship of many documents, including the
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because Leonardo da Vinci appeared to return to Florence collective Notebooks. Slave mother theorists might attempt
in 1500, then Paulo di Leonardo could not have been the to rescue the Western narrative, perhaps suggesting Tuscan
same man because he died in Bologna sometime in 1499. Leonardo da Vinci traveled to the East and drew Sudak but
However, how do we know for sure it was the Tuscan would struggle to link a Tuscan Leonardo to meaningful
painter Leonardo di Ser Piero da Vinci who returned from engagement with events in the Ottoman arena. The
Milan and not Leonardo the Genoese Caffan, returning to Turkish letter dating to c.1502 poses further difficulties
Florence using the patronymic “Da Vinci”? This would be to the Western narrative. This letter identifies a Genoese
a simple switch if he knew the painter Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo. The attribution of the four documents relies on
had passed away, and that he had not been in the city for the attribution of the Notebooks, not on the attribution
over 20 years. Many other factors play into this possibility, of paintings from around the same period. I note that
including the brothers on the father’s side who were either drawings in the Notebooks that reference the paintings
not born or small children in 1477. By 1500, the father, Ser of Tuscan Leonardo da Vinci are sparse. References to
Piero, was an old man. the concerns of the Notebooks in the paintings of the
There is a possibility that Paulo di Leonardo and the period are non-existent. The research also highlights that
painter Leonardo were the same person. If they were, then the many remaining anomalies are better explained by a
it is likely that the brothers who helped him intercede correct interpretation of the Bolognese letter dated 1478.
with Bentivoglio were related to his mother, as his father Ultimately, the Bolognese letter links to another document
never legally recognized him. I point to “Giovanni son suggesting the Tuscan painter Leonardo died around 1499.
of Antonio,” quoted above, noting that Antonio was the Considering future research, I point to several people
name of painter Leonardo da Vinci’s stepfather. However, who could have worked on the Notebooks despite it being
the painter Leonardo did not have a brother, Giovanni, thought of as a unique production of a single individual.
only a half-brother, Francesco, on his mother’s side. He These other creators also wait to be recovered, one being
also had at least one sister his age, Piera, who could have Zoroastro Masino, whose marginalization I have studied
been married to a Giovanni. With their half-brother’s at length elsewhere. I propose that when the art world
estate settled in Bologna in 1499, the painter Leonardo’s organized one of the largest international centennials
maternal family would have been less interested in the in 2019, they ironically memorialized the passing of a
arrival of another Leonardo da Vinci in Florence in 1500. man who had not been a painter. This article points to
It is also significant that it was not the artist who signed the a military engineer who died in France in 2019, a man
contracts for altarpieces in 1478 and again in 1481; it was who seemed unsure whether he was Italian or Turkish,

Volume 2 Issue 3 (2024) 12 doi: 10.36922/ac.2642