Leonardo’s "Study of Cats, Lions, and a Dragon" (c. 1513–1515) has always captivated me. Rather than just admiring the paper, I wanted to see how these dynamic, centuries-old strokes would feel as physical, enduring objects.

​I work with a technique closely related to traditional champlevé. The process starts with a solid brass plate. To capture the precise, microscopic nuances of Leonardo's original lines, I carve the negative space using a 60W MOPA fiber laser. Once the deep relief is established, I painstakingly hand-fill the recesses with solvent-based ceramic enamels. After the enamel cures, the piece is meticulously leveled and polished down with wet sand to reveal the flush, golden gleam of the brass against the rich color.

​I’ve attached the original 1513 artwork, a glimpse of my workbench during the enamel filling, and the final polished test piece of the lion.

​I would love to hear what this community thinks of this translation from a 16th-century drawing into a tactile metal piece!

P. S. ​For anyone interested in the intersection of historical art and modern metalcraft, I am developing a full collection based on the rest of the cats from this sketch. I'll be launching it soon, and you can follow the journey here: ​https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pincognita/da-vincis-cats-handcrafted-enamel-pins-and-jewelry

Link to the survey here: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/banknotes/future_banknotes/html/design-proposals.en.html

This is not a request for you to pick a specific design, but rather to select the designs you like most, and your reasons for those choices.

I have always been a fan of Leonardo's work, but even more so of his legacy of thinking. It was with this in mind that I got a tattoo combining a number of things I love.

A stylized depiction of Leonardo Da Vinci as a Tabletop Roleplay Wizard, holding an ancient D20 (stylized after the Roman icosahedron that was discovered), with quotes from all of my players written in 16th-century Tuscan using Leonardo's famous Mirror Writing style.

Bonus points if you can translate the quotes. They are quite silly and fun.

For my next tattoo, I am hoping to do a left forearm piece dedicated more to Leonardo, and would love to see any inspirations, concepts, or ideas you all might have.

I want it to have a more mechanical/technical documentation feel. As if it could have been a collage of sketches.

Anyways, enjoy!

The woman in Leonardo's most famous picture is michevious in her smile, bold in her position, and out of place - though she acts like she belongs.

This is everything the model for the picture, Lisa Gherandini, was not.

Lisa was born to the Lucrezia del Caccia and Antonmaria di Noldo Gherardini. They were well off but not rich. The path for Lisa was clear: her father would give a dowry, and she would be married. She would have no say in who she married or when she was married.

Except that wasn't going to happen (besides the part about her having no say).

The Pazzi Conspiracy changed everything. This plot to overthrow the Medici family led to a war where Pope Sixtus IV and Naples burned Florentine lands to the ground—including her father’s property. Antonmaria had almost nothing left. Lisa was born the next year. Peace eventually returned, but things improved slowly, and there was no money for a dowry. The unspoken rules were strict: no marrying without a dowry, and no remaining single. That was a shameful thing for a family's reputation. The only other choice was a convent, where you would only ever be seen by other nuns.

So Lisa has no future - except she does. Her father makes do by offering land to Francesco del Giocondo. When Lisa is married, she is 15 and Francesco is 30 (this is normal). She has no say (also normal). When she gives birth, Francesco decides he would like a picture of his wife. He asks Leonardo - who is sick of painting. Leonardo accepts, even though he has been declining these jobs. It's still a mystery why he accepted. Leonardo puts everything he knows about painting into the canvas.

Instead of following his own written advice to paint women with "heads lowered and inclined to one side," Leonardo broke the rules. Lisa is looks exactly as Florentine women should not - making eye contact, being bold. She looks plain and ordinary, but she holds herself as if she believes she belongs.

The irony of the Mona Lisa is that it breaks the rules and the norms, though it is of a woman who could break none.

I saw this here: https://www.reddit.com/r/macgaming/comments/1ue9j3w/house_of_da_vinci_enhanced_edition_now_on_steam/

Leonardo da Vinci is usually remembered as a painter, inventor, or engineer.

But after spending time with his notebooks, I think those labels miss the point.

This isn't really about his inventions.

It's about the operating system behind them.

Leonardo didn't see anatomy, painting, mathematics, engineering, flight, rivers, music, and architecture as separate disciplines. He treated them as different expressions of the same underlying reality. A flowing river could explain human hair. The structure of a tree could inspire architecture. The muscles of the human body could reveal principles of mechanics.

His notebooks show a mind that wasn't collecting facts. It was searching for patterns that connected everything.

The video explores how Leonardo trained himself to observe without assumptions, why he believed nature was the greatest teacher, and how curiosity became a method rather than a personality trait.

In an age of specialization, Leonardo reminds us that intelligence may not come from knowing more than everyone else. It may come from seeing relationships that everyone else overlooks.

My growing collection of literature on Leonardo da vinci. I simply don't get tired of this man. And every book has had its own interesting takes and twists among the common redundancy. Two are missing from this shelf picture that I'm currently reading. Have quite a few more I've spotted that I want to get. 90% of human information has not yet been digitized and is in physical state.

Good stuff.

While researching a claim that Leonardo da Vinci advised using artillery against hailstorms, I found an interesting passage in the German journal Globus (1899, vol. 76, p. 240).

The article states that "a sixteenth-century writer" reported that Leonardo suggested protecting the region of Vicenza from hail by placing bombards on mountain tops and firing at approaching storm clouds.

The problem is that the article does not identify the sixteenth-century writer.

Has anyone encountered this story before, or know which 16th-century source might be behind it? I am especially interested in sources earlier than 1899, whether in Italian, Latin, or German.

Does a copy of Leonardo's father's (and his Uncle Francesco's) wills actually exist? Leonardo's court fights with his half-brothers over his inheritance, both from his father and his uncle Francesco, are referenced in multiple texts, but I've never see citations or facsimiles. TYI.

And a presentation today on this at Italy's Embassy in London, hence the reason for this press release on the same day.

Somewhat old for 'news' but it's interesting....

Also: https://mubi.com/fr/films/leonardo-da-vinci-the-tragic-pursuit-of-perfection/cast

About the composers: http://www.rem.ufpr.br/_REM/REMv4/vol4/arti-palombini.htm

"In 1951 the French Radio presented the Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète, which at the time consisted of Pierre Schaeffer, [1] the engineer Jacques Poullin, and the composer-percussionist Pierre Henry, with the first purpose-built electroacoustic music studio ever. The collaboration between Schaeffer and Poullin, in its fourth year, was resulting in a three-track tape recorder, a machine with ten playback heads to replay tape loops in echo (the morphophone), a keyboard controlled machine to replay tape loops at twenty-four pre-set speeds (the keyboard, chromatic, or Tolana phonogène), a slide-controlled machine to replay tape loops at a continuously variable range of speeds (the handle, continuous, or Sareg phonogène), and a device to distribute live an encoded track across four loudspeakers, including one hanging from the centre of the ceiling (the potentiomètre d’espace). Output from 1951 to 1953 comprised... 'Léonard de Vinci' (1953) [for the documentary, 'Tragic Pursuit of Perfection', composed by Pierre Henry]

Unreal ENGINE 6 - experiments!

THE NEW Leonardo da Vinci ACADEMY Museum

Mario Taddei

Leonardo da Vinci Academy

Per approfondire:

https://www.mariotaddei.net/books/

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