Leonardo's Angel Incarnate (Angelo Incarnato) shows his assistant and lover Giacomo Salaì with a prominent erection pointing in the same direction as the pointing finger, toward God. In the mainstream media the image is always cropped above the nipple. Incarnate Angel is a charcoal drawing that likely dates

In the medieval world, it was all about hierarchies. When it came to reading scripture, there was an initial literal or historical meaning and then three mystical levels built on top, like the layers of the Mount Purgatory wedding cake. Those three mystical layers on top were the allegorical (symbolic)

Niccolò Machiavelli met Leonardo da Vinci periodically between 1503 and 1506, when Cesare Borgia employed Leonardo as a military architect and engineer and Machiavelli was the envoy for the Florentine republic. For Leonardo (as for Shakespeare a century later), encounters like this were governed by Dame Fortune and we are

There are many things one could say about François Rabelais... Physician, lay priest, scourge of hypocrites, advocate for marriage, advocate for "Do as Thou Wilt"? The 5-part La vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel series, for which he is rightfully admired, received a hostile reception from the Sorbonne

Fra Girolamo Savonarola was one of the great reformers of the Catholic Church in the years before the Protestant Reformation. He counted many of Florence's intellectuals among his colleagues and friends and his charismatic preaching attracted large crowds of women admirers. He was widely read around Europe, including

During the 13th-15th centuries, health and hygiene books were collected by wealthy Italians. One of the most influential was the Tacuinum Sanitatis, essentially Latin translations from Arabic with illustrations added. Most are self-evident (eating properly, exercise, etc.) but among the activities of daily life is "amore" (up above)

In Leonardo's later drawings (around 1515-1517) there are fascinating images like the one below that show the Deluge sweeping down upon a town. I wouldn't be the first to say they foreshadow modern Abstract Expressionism. Water is the key destructive force in these drawings, cloudbursts and

Leonardo's frank drawings of female and male anatomy resemble his botanical drawings, for he was fascinated by the mirror patterns of the universe. But... The art of procreation and the members employed therein are so repulsive, that if it were not for the beauty of the faces and

Leonardo's painting St. John the Baptist, which may have been his last, is now in the Louvre. It is a small painting that has divided art critics. Martin Kemp chose it as the cover image of his biography and he calls it "androgynously seductive," which I

Sodom and Gomorrah - a fable for the ages Apocalyptic stories flourish when times are bad. In the 1490's, following plagues and wars, many believed the end of the world was nigh as the year 1500 approached. Preachers attributed it to society's depravity - sodomy alone

During his lifetime, Savonarola was highly critical of women mystics, suspicious of their "diabolical" illusions. His defenders argued then, as now, that this was done not just to protect himself against his enemies but to protect these mystics as well. Certainly he inspired many women to join religious

In 15th century Florence, humanist philosopher Marsilio Ficino and his students revived the notion of platonic love, integrating it into Renaissance Christianity. Beauty, he believed, both physical and moral, could inspire us with a glimpse of the divine. This glimpse could be stimulated best via the Four Furies, which were

Passion will not be denied. For Michelangelo the "fire that burned" got the better of him throughout his life and people noticed. It was key to his passion and his fire, which is why his writing is all about suffering and struggle and martyrdom: "I live to

Michelangelo and the older Leonardo did not like each other. There was a famous encounter in Florence in 1503 when Leonardo voted for Michelangelo's statue David to be placed inside, instead of outside, and this reportedly enraged Michelangelo. The statue did go on display outside in 1504 replete

Trompe l'œil means a trick of the eye - art that deceives the eye - and it became popular from the 15th century. Leonardo is not really associated with it in any formal sense, aside from The Last Supper, but how else can we debate the Mona Lisa

There are surprisingly few good paintings of old Florence but Fabio Borbottoni (1820-1901), produced the best of them. He was an accountant for a railway company and he painted Florence in his spare time as the old city was remodeled around him. His Romantic paintings are really set hundreds of

This small painting has been the subject of much debate: is it by Leonardo or not? It was restored and revealed in 2011 and it has many of his trademarks - the focusing gaze directly back at the painter and the viewer, the soft and gentle hues of the face,

The most famous Bonfire of the Vanities (Falò delle vanità) occurred in Florence in 1497 under the auspices of the controversial reformer Girolamo Savonarola. Books, paintings, mirrors, playing cards, dolls and other vanities perished in the flames. The irony, of course, is that he was burnt at the stake the

The ultimate fable of sexual temptation. Saint Anthony was a Christian saint in Egypt who may have died around CE 356 (his monastery is here). His claim to fame is his sojourn in the desert, fending off Satan and all manner of monsters and demons. But it is difficult to

This is my favorite Leonardo painting - mostly because of the way he has painted Saint Anne (the Virgin Mary's mother - at top). It may have been begun as early as 1500 and it remained unfinished at his death. It is now in the Louvre. This painting

With the revival of Plato's writings in the 15th century, Venus made a comeback, split of course, into naughty Venus Naturalis or Vulgaris - the extravagance of erotic visions seen above in Titian’s Venus of Urbino (1538) - and the demure Venus Coelestis (Heavenly Venus) like in

This famous drawing was completed around 1490 as an illustration for a book on the works of the Roman architect Vitruvius. It is now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice. It asserts an essential symmetry between the human body and the universe, the microcosm and the macrocosm. In