The Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) left thousands of pages of writings and drawings, but rarely made any references to his personal life.[1] The resulting uncertainty, combined with mythologized anecdotes from his lifetime, has resulted in much speculation and interest in Leonardo's personal life. Particularly, personal relationships, philosophy, religion, vegetarianism, left-handedness and appearance.
Leonardo has long been regarded as the archetypal Renaissance man, described by the Renaissance biographer Giorgio Vasari as having qualities that "transcended nature" and being "marvellously endowed with beauty, grace and talent in abundance".[2] Interest in and curiosity about Leonardo has continued unabated for five hundred years.[3] Modern descriptions and analysis of Leonardo's character, personal desires and intimate behaviour have been based upon various sources: records concerning him, his biographies, his own written journals, his paintings, his drawings, his associates, and commentaries that were made concerning him by contemporaries.
- ^ Zöllner 2019, p. 20.
- ^ Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists p. 254
- ^ Bortolon, Liana (1967). The Life and Times of Leonardo. London: Paul Hamlyn.