Page 285 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

i8 5 inventions to his patron, and instead exudes an 186

Leonardo da Vinci almost satirical air, as the desperate gangs of Leonardo da Vinci
Florentine, 1452-1519 naked men struggle with the monster to which Florentine, 1452-1519
they have given birth. The scene can best be
AN ARTILLERY YARD WITH MEN related to the visions of the malignity of men's SCYTHED CHARIOTS
STRUGGLING TO LIFT THE BARREL creations in Leonardo's mock-serious "prophe-
OF A HUGE GUN OR MORTAR cies" : "(Of great guns that emerge from the pit c. 1487-1488
and the mould) It will emerge from under the pen, brown ink, and wash on paper
c. 1488 ground, and with terrific noise will stun those in 20 x 28 (7% x 11)
pen and brown ink on paper the surroundings nearby, and with its breath it inscribed with notes on military engineering
7
2
25 x 18.3 (9 /s x 7 /s) will kill men and destroy the city and the castle" references: Popham 1946, 310; Pedretti 1975, 14;
references: Clark and Pedretti 1968-1969, 12647; Kemp 1989, 612; London 1989, 68
Richter 1970/1977, 1309; London 1989, 113 (Richter 1970/1977,1309). As in the later Deluge Biblioteca Reale, Turin
drawings (cat. 188), there is a tense and ironic
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth n, Royal Library, blending of analytical observation — in the sys-
Windsor Castle tems of windlasses, pulley, stays, and rollers — This study (Turin 15583) belongs to a series that
with an expressive feeling for the human condi- includes Windsor 12653; British Museum 1860-
There is nothing quite comparable in Leonardo's tion in the face of immense power. The uneasy 6-16-99 (London 1989, 68); Codex Atlanticus
other work to this scene of frenetic activity in a combination in Leonardo's mind of fascination ii3v; Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris; and MS B lor
defined military setting (Windsor 12647), but the with the technology of war and revulsion in the (Institut de France). By reference to MS B, they
representation of the weapons recalls those in MS face of its inhuman destructiveness is one of the may be dated to around 1487-1488, although in
B (Institut de France) and suggests a date of about earliest expressions of what has become a central terms of content they might almost be illustra-
1488, when he was in Milan in the employ of dilemma for scientists involved in the design of tions to the well-known letter about his military
Duke Ludovico Sforza, whom he was trying to weaponry. The technology of casting involved in inventions that Leonardo wrote to Ludovico
impress with his military inventions. It is difficult the making of cannons and mortars was to be Sforza in or shortly after 1482 (Kemp 1989, 612).
to suggest a function for the drawing. It could adapted for his scheme to cast the huge equestrian The chariots are characteristic of a certain type
hardly have been designed to demonstrate his monument to Francesco Sforza. M.K. of design popular among the military virtuosi of
the Renaissance, in which they demonstrated their
inventiveness and their knowledge of the prin-
ciples of ancient weaponry. The scythed chariots
draw their main inspiration from written accounts
of systems used in classical antiquity, particularly
as transmitted in the compendium De I'arte mill-
tare published by Roberto Valturio in 1483. In
MS B Leonardo notes that "these scythed chariots
were of various kinds, and often did no less injury
to friends than they did to the enemies, and the
captains of the armies, thinking by use of these to
throw confusion into the ranks of the enemy, cre-
ated fear and destruction among their own men/'
On the British Museum drawing he accordingly
cautions that "when this travels through your
men, you will wish to raise the shafts of the
scythes, so that you will not injure anyone on
your side/' The Turin drawing contains the most
vivid if improbable illustrations of the efficacy of
the whirling scythes, and we may presume that
the chopped-up limbs are intended to belong to
"the enemy" rather than to "friends/' On this
sheet Leonardo notes that "this chariot will be
drawn by six chargers with three horsemen. And
one of the two wheels of the chariot is to turn the
gear, which possesses 25 spindles, and the said
wheel will have 100 teeth, and each point at the
tip the scythes will extend by 12 braccia!' Below,
he notes, "This chariot will be drawn by 4
chargers, and the distance that each point extends
at the tips of the scythes will be 8 braccia, and 2
horsemen who are placed in the middle do not
have personal weapons of assault so that they are
better able to support the scythes between them/'
It is likely that such images were conceived
more to convince patrons of the engineer's stylish

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