0:00:05 > 0:00:08500 years ago,
0:00:08 > 0:00:12the ruling families of Italy were being torn apart by bloody warfare,
0:00:12 > 0:00:14by the thirst for wealth and power.
0:00:16 > 0:00:20But there was another rivalry, just as extreme and cut-throat.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24It was to see who could host the biggest party...
0:00:26 > 0:00:28..and the Duke of Milan had a secret weapon.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34His parties were organised by Leonardo da Vinci.
0:00:38 > 0:00:43We know him as one of the greatest artists and engineers who ever lived, but in his own time,
0:00:43 > 0:00:47his life was shaped by the need to satisfy
0:00:47 > 0:00:50these rich and powerful patrons.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57APPLAUSE
0:01:03 > 0:01:05He lived in dangerous and difficult times,
0:01:05 > 0:01:09and set himself an almost impossible task -
0:01:09 > 0:01:12to discover everything there was to know.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18Don't pity the humble painter -
0:01:18 > 0:01:20he can be lord of all things.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23Whatever exists in the universe,
0:01:23 > 0:01:26he has first in his mind... and then in his hand.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32By his art he may be called the grandchild of God.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52Our journey of discovery to understand the mind
0:01:52 > 0:01:55of one of the most remarkable figures who ever lived
0:01:55 > 0:02:00begins not in Italy, but here, in Windsor Castle.
0:02:07 > 0:02:12Here, within the Royal Collection are hundreds of Leonardo's original notes and drawings.
0:02:12 > 0:02:17For centuries, these incredible papers were scattered and feared lost.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21But their miraculous rediscovery makes it possible
0:02:21 > 0:02:24to unravel the mystery of Leonardo da Vinci.
0:02:27 > 0:02:32They tell the story of one of the great geniuses of Western civilisation -
0:02:32 > 0:02:35a man way ahead of his time,
0:02:35 > 0:02:38who set out on a journey of discovery,
0:02:38 > 0:02:40to understand the laws of nature.
0:02:44 > 0:02:46"Everything must be laid bare,
0:02:46 > 0:02:49"all the dark and hidden secrets of the world.
0:02:49 > 0:02:54"I will do things that no-one in the past would have dared to do.
0:02:54 > 0:03:00"I will think new thoughts, bring new things into being."
0:03:00 > 0:03:04Hundreds of years before science or engineering caught up with him,
0:03:04 > 0:03:08Leonardo dreamed and planned how Man might fly in the skies
0:03:08 > 0:03:11or walk on the bottom of the ocean.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16His drawings reveal how he designed great machines for war.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20He made the first detailed studies of the human embryo.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24He investigated how our eyes see.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26And by studying fossils,
0:03:26 > 0:03:29he exploded the biblical myth of the Creation.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35And all this time,
0:03:35 > 0:03:38he was creating some of the most beautiful paintings
0:03:38 > 0:03:40the world has ever seen.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44CHORAL MUSIC
0:04:12 > 0:04:14But like the smile of his Mona Lisa,
0:04:14 > 0:04:18Leonardo the man has always seemed something of a mystery.
0:04:20 > 0:04:22His notes have an air of secrecy about them.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26His comments and thoughts in the margins are written backwards,
0:04:26 > 0:04:28and can only be read in a mirror.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32And the information he gives us is often fragmentary and oblique.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38I've spent my life working in the arts,
0:04:38 > 0:04:42but to sit here, surrounded by these drawings and notebooks,
0:04:42 > 0:04:46is extraordinary. When you immerse yourself in these astonishing pages
0:04:46 > 0:04:52you begin to realise the depth and scope of this man's imagination.
0:04:52 > 0:04:54His endless curiosity
0:04:54 > 0:04:59and the immediacy with which he captures the world around him is startling.
0:04:59 > 0:05:01It's as if you can see the workings of his mind,
0:05:01 > 0:05:04hear him thinking,
0:05:04 > 0:05:07and they are simply beautiful.
0:05:31 > 0:05:35We've gone to his own writings and to contemporary sources to dramatise his life.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41We've used his original drawings to build and test his machines,
0:05:41 > 0:05:44and some of the leading experts on Leonardo are going to help me
0:05:44 > 0:05:49find a way into the mind of this extraordinary Renaissance man.
0:05:52 > 0:05:54This is Leonardo's story.
0:05:58 > 0:06:03We begin here, in Florence, the city where Leonardo made his name.
0:06:05 > 0:06:07It was one of the largest cities in Europe,
0:06:07 > 0:06:09the centre of the civilised world
0:06:09 > 0:06:14and heart of that great revolution in culture called the Renaissance.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18It was a time of huge excitement,
0:06:18 > 0:06:21an explosion in knowledge, artistic growth and discovery.
0:06:21 > 0:06:24It was also a time of conflict and bloody violence.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29Life could be short and brutal.
0:06:29 > 0:06:33You can get a flavour of this heady mix every year on June 24th,
0:06:33 > 0:06:37when Florentines celebrate their patron saint.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45After all the glad-handing and the drumming,
0:06:45 > 0:06:48the parade eventually makes its way to this site,
0:06:48 > 0:06:51adjacent to the old Roman amphitheatre.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54Then all hell breaks loose.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57COMMAND SHOUTED IN ITALIAN
0:06:58 > 0:07:00The climax is an ancient ball game
0:07:00 > 0:07:04with no rules other than the survival of the fittest.
0:07:04 > 0:07:0930 men from each rival camp fight for the possession of the ball,
0:07:09 > 0:07:11originally a pig's bladder.
0:07:12 > 0:07:17500 years ago, the spectators would have contained some familiar names,
0:07:17 > 0:07:19for instance Botticelli and Raphael
0:07:19 > 0:07:22with their numerous mistresses,
0:07:22 > 0:07:26Machiavelli, the father of political intrigue,
0:07:26 > 0:07:30Michelangelo, the tortured genius always getting into fights,
0:07:30 > 0:07:33and two rival dynasties,
0:07:33 > 0:07:37the Medicis and the Borgias - the billionaires of their day.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41'Leonardo may well have joined the crowd for the ball game,
0:07:41 > 0:07:45'but he had an ambivalent attitude to violence
0:07:45 > 0:07:49'and the bloodthirstiness of the warring dynasties.'
0:07:49 > 0:07:52"Such men like to deal out affliction, terror, death.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56"Reflect how cruel it is to take a life.
0:07:56 > 0:08:01"I saw a man once in battle, who poured out sweat mixed with blood.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04"His heart had burst as he fled from his enemies."
0:08:05 > 0:08:07And yet he designed weapons and war machines
0:08:07 > 0:08:11for some of the worst tyrants of the age.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14Leonardo extolled the virtues of peace,
0:08:14 > 0:08:17but he would help promote the art of war.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30Leonardo was born in 1452 in the hills of Tuscany
0:08:30 > 0:08:33in the village of Vinci, which gave him his name.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37His grandfather made this entry in the civic records -
0:08:37 > 0:08:42"On Saturday at three o'clock at night, on April the 15th,
0:08:42 > 0:08:45"a grandson of mine was born.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49"Son of my son Piero, he was named Leonardo."
0:08:53 > 0:08:57Leonardo was born illegitimate. His father, Ser Piero,
0:08:57 > 0:09:01had a liaison with Caterina, a local peasant girl.
0:09:01 > 0:09:06She was then married off to a man in the next village.
0:09:06 > 0:09:11Ser Piero married a woman of his own class and kept the child.
0:09:12 > 0:09:17We'll never know how deeply the loss of his birth mother affected him,
0:09:17 > 0:09:20but his art would be filled with images of mother figures
0:09:20 > 0:09:23and tender childhood moments.
0:09:25 > 0:09:27His illegitimacy would shape his future.
0:09:27 > 0:09:33He wasn't given a formal education in the classical languages, Latin and Greek,
0:09:33 > 0:09:37and all his life he would be stung by criticism of his lack of book learning.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42His schooling stopped with the abacus school -
0:09:42 > 0:09:45adding and subtracting with an abacus.
0:09:45 > 0:09:50This turned out to his advantage as he was not bound by book learning.
0:09:50 > 0:09:55Knowing very little Latin and having to study it late in life,
0:09:55 > 0:09:58he didn't know what he was SUPPOSED to think,
0:09:58 > 0:10:02and could therefore able to look for himself.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06Always in his life, he privileged observation over received wisdom.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09"I cannot quote from eminent authors
0:10:09 > 0:10:13"as they can, these trumpeters and reciters of the works of others.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16"I do know that all knowledge is vain
0:10:16 > 0:10:20"and full of error when it is not born of experience,
0:10:20 > 0:10:23"and so experience will be my mistress."
0:10:23 > 0:10:28Unlike better-educated Florentines who wrote everything down in words,
0:10:28 > 0:10:31Leonardo had to draw his knowledge.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35He actually had to use the capacity of his hand
0:10:35 > 0:10:39to draw what he wanted to find out.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49His REAL school, from his earliest years,
0:10:49 > 0:10:52was the natural world around him.
0:10:54 > 0:11:00"I was never as happy as when exploring the Tuscan countryside as a child,
0:11:00 > 0:11:06"observing nature. She is the source of all true knowledge.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09"She has her own logic, her own laws.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12"She has no effect without cause.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15"She has no invention without necessity."
0:11:17 > 0:11:21He became obsessed by the movement of water,
0:11:21 > 0:11:24the cycles of growth in plants,
0:11:24 > 0:11:26the behaviour of living creatures,
0:11:26 > 0:11:29and most of all, the wonder of flight.
0:11:31 > 0:11:33"It comes to me almost like a dream -
0:11:33 > 0:11:37"the very first recollection of my infancy.
0:11:37 > 0:11:44"I was in my cradle, and a great hawk flew down to me.
0:11:44 > 0:11:46"It opened my mouth with its tail,
0:11:46 > 0:11:51"and its feathers struck me several times inside my lips.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57"That bird seems to me now to have pointed me to my destiny."
0:12:00 > 0:12:05Throughout his life, he watched and obsessively drew birds in flight,
0:12:05 > 0:12:09and he began to work out the principles of aerodynamics.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16The next step was dramatic and seemingly impossible -
0:12:16 > 0:12:19to devise a way for Man to take to the air.
0:12:24 > 0:12:29His notebooks are full of diagrams and drawings of flying machines.
0:12:29 > 0:12:34Sometimes apparent doodles in the margins point the way to astonishingly modern ideas,
0:12:34 > 0:12:37like this early concept for a parachute.
0:12:39 > 0:12:44I think it's rather charming - Leonardo says, "If you build this parachute just like I tell you,
0:12:44 > 0:12:50"I guarantee that it'll return a man safely to Earth from any altitude."
0:12:50 > 0:12:53If Leonardo had tested his parachute,
0:12:53 > 0:12:56he'd probably have done so from a tall building or cliff.
0:12:59 > 0:13:03The results with this model are far from encouraging.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08We found three Leonardo enthusiasts who for a long time
0:13:08 > 0:13:11had wanted to build and test the parachute.
0:13:15 > 0:13:20Most people thought it was one of da Vinci's fantastic ideas,
0:13:20 > 0:13:22but they didn't think it would work.
0:13:22 > 0:13:27Most people only saw this drawing with a man hanging under a pyramid.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31But we thought we wanted to do it the right way
0:13:31 > 0:13:34so the best person to go to was Professor Martin Kemp.
0:13:34 > 0:13:39In the course of my career I get contacted by a fair number
0:13:39 > 0:13:43of what I call the Leonardo loonies, who come with crazy ideas,
0:13:43 > 0:13:46and they said they were going to build this and test it.
0:13:46 > 0:13:52I thought, you know, "This is interesting, but slightly crazy."
0:13:53 > 0:13:57We wanted to try as faithfully and as closely as possible
0:13:57 > 0:14:01to build the parachute that da Vinci
0:14:01 > 0:14:05would have built had he had the time or the inclination.
0:14:07 > 0:14:13"If a man has a tent 12 braccia wide and 12 high covered with cloth
0:14:13 > 0:14:16"he can throw himself down from any great height
0:14:16 > 0:14:19"without hurting himself."
0:14:19 > 0:14:23Why should he design a parachute? Where could he use it?
0:14:23 > 0:14:27Getting down quickly from high places would be useful
0:14:27 > 0:14:30if you're besieged in a castle.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34There are other people who worked on parachutes,
0:14:34 > 0:14:38and one of them has streamers coming out behind it,
0:14:38 > 0:14:41- so you can imagine... - Remind me not to try that one!
0:14:41 > 0:14:45You can imagine in a festival, the crowds being amazed
0:14:45 > 0:14:49at people leaping off the ramparts with banners streaming out behind.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51We don't know.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55One aspect of the design is worrying -
0:14:55 > 0:14:58there appears not to be a hole in the top of the parachute,
0:14:58 > 0:15:00which could make it extremely dangerous.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06There must be all sorts of risks. It could lurch to the side
0:15:06 > 0:15:08and spill out its air.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12Most parachutes have holes in the top, so if it did that
0:15:12 > 0:15:17and you collapse inside it, it doesn't bear thinking about.
0:15:19 > 0:15:22The safest solution would be to introduce the modern concept
0:15:22 > 0:15:24of a hole in the apex of the parachute,
0:15:24 > 0:15:28but the team decided to put their faith in Leonardo.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32It's an experiment. You build da Vinci's parachute close as you can
0:15:32 > 0:15:37to his wonderful and very clear drawing.
0:15:40 > 0:15:46They would rely solely on the porous coffin material to let the air flow through.
0:15:48 > 0:15:53I wonder if he ever thought someone would actually be stupid enough to try it!
0:15:56 > 0:15:59To ensure that we have perfect weather conditions,
0:15:59 > 0:16:03Adrian decides to do the drop in Africa, and from a hot-air balloon
0:16:03 > 0:16:06at 10,000 feet -
0:16:06 > 0:16:09a little more ambitious than the castle ramparts
0:16:09 > 0:16:12that Leonardo might have intended 500 years ago.
0:16:12 > 0:16:17KEMP: He believed that Man MIGHT be able to fly.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20It's almost divine inspiration, if you like.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23But with the Earth 10,000 feet below,
0:16:23 > 0:16:26Adrian's putting his life in Leonardo's hands.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30Mr da Vinci, come fly with me.
0:16:32 > 0:16:34Here we go.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58Well, Mr da Vinci, so far, I'm flying.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04Mr da Vinci, maybe you were right!
0:17:07 > 0:17:10Mr da Vinci, you kept your promise.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13Thank you. Thank you very much.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19Leonardo drew this parachute in the 1480s,
0:17:19 > 0:17:25a staggering 300 years before the first successful parachute jump.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29His grasp of science and his understanding of the laws of nature
0:17:29 > 0:17:32enabled him to design many concepts that would not be realised
0:17:32 > 0:17:35until the 20th century.
0:17:35 > 0:17:41Nowadays we don't see artists as having an interest in pushing the boundaries of engineering,
0:17:41 > 0:17:46but in the Renaissance world, art and science went hand in hand.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54For a very long time it was fashionable to think of Leonardo
0:17:54 > 0:17:58as someone who popped into the 15th century like a bolt from the blue,
0:17:58 > 0:18:02but even an imagination as fertile and unusual as his
0:18:02 > 0:18:06was shaped by the people around him and by the times he lived in.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13A generation of architects, builders and craftsmen
0:18:13 > 0:18:17had worked on the great Cathedral of Santa Maria in Florence -
0:18:17 > 0:18:22the most technologically advanced structure of the Renaissance.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26The grand finale was the winching up of a great golden globe
0:18:26 > 0:18:31to top the Duomo, the largest unsupported dome ever built.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37It was a spectacular event. The entire population
0:18:37 > 0:18:41of Florence turned out to watch.
0:18:41 > 0:18:46To a young boy like Leonardo it was a constant proof that engineering -
0:18:46 > 0:18:48a combination of art and science -
0:18:48 > 0:18:53really could capture the imagination of the public in a most extraordinary way.
0:18:58 > 0:19:01Young Leonardo arrived here in the mid-1460s.
0:19:01 > 0:19:06To a boy from the Tuscan hills, it must have been a revelation.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11The city was a vast construction site, a hothouse of talent
0:19:11 > 0:19:15and the embodiment of a new age of discovery.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18There was no place on Earth more exciting to be.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26Leonardo's father brought him to the studio
0:19:26 > 0:19:30of one of the most successful artists of his day -
0:19:30 > 0:19:32Andrea del Verrocchio.
0:19:32 > 0:19:37This was the very workshop that had made the famous golden globe.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43When his father showed Verrocchio the drawings his son had been doing from an early age,
0:19:43 > 0:19:47Leonardo was taken on as an apprentice.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51In those days, an artist was an artisan -
0:19:51 > 0:19:54a practical salesman making things to order for clients.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58Verrocchio did a great line in gilded baskets.
0:19:58 > 0:20:04There was nothing precious about these studios or the work done.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12Painters are on the same scale,
0:20:12 > 0:20:15let's say, as tailors, saddle makers.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18Not so much a dime a dozen,
0:20:18 > 0:20:20but they're craftsmen in this period,
0:20:20 > 0:20:25not the high-status elite that Leonardo would aspire to be later.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32His apprenticeship lasted several years. He grew up in the studio.
0:20:32 > 0:20:37He was impatient from the start. He wanted to create masterpieces.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41In his early 20s, he finally got his big chance.
0:20:41 > 0:20:46Verrocchio had won a commission to paint the baptism of Christ.
0:20:46 > 0:20:51As usual, he painted the main figures and left background details and characters
0:20:51 > 0:20:54to his assistants.
0:20:54 > 0:20:59Leonardo was assigned the figure of an angel in the left-hand corner.
0:20:59 > 0:21:05What he would do with it would stun his fellow students AND the great master Verrocchio himself.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12The traditional method of painting at the time was to use egg tempera.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16This is how Leonardo would have been taught.
0:21:16 > 0:21:20Nearly all small-scale pictures were painted with tempera paint.
0:21:20 > 0:21:25- An egg...- A free-range egg? - A free-range egg, yes.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28There was a writer in the 15th century,
0:21:28 > 0:21:32called Cennini, who said the best eggs are country eggs,
0:21:32 > 0:21:37especially for painting country-type people with ruddy complexions.
0:21:37 > 0:21:39I just want the yolk.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42We don't want the yolk sac.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45We'll mix it with some distilled water,
0:21:45 > 0:21:48which in Leonardo's day would have been rainwater.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54Now we've got white wine vinegar.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56This will be enough for a day's painting.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59Add a bit of the ultramarine blue.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02That's your paint.
0:22:05 > 0:22:07This paint dries extremely quickly.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10That's why it has to be applied in a special way.
0:22:10 > 0:22:12It's a shading known as hatching.
0:22:12 > 0:22:15You build up tone gradually.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19You build up light and dark by crisscrossing these lines.
0:22:21 > 0:22:26So egg tempera is hard work and the results can look dull and lifeless.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29As he starts on his angel figure,
0:22:29 > 0:22:33the young Leonardo makes a momentous decision.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37The painting has so far been done the traditional way, with tempera.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40But he's going to paint HIS figure in oils.
0:22:41 > 0:22:44Oil paint had been used before, in the Netherlands,
0:22:44 > 0:22:47but was virtually unknown in southern Europe.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54So, in contrast to working with tempera,
0:22:54 > 0:22:59you're able to have this range of colours or of tones all taken from ultramarine.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03- Yes.- That pigment. - Simply ultramarine blue and white.
0:23:03 > 0:23:05It's a lovely medium.
0:23:05 > 0:23:07It's just so gorgeous,
0:23:07 > 0:23:11so sort of rich and nice, sort of buttery paint.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15It was an astonishing gamble for the young Leonardo to take.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19But it paid off.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23The tempera version is on the right and on the left is the oil version.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26You took about the same time, a week or so, to do each of them.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29- But they are strikingly different. - Oh, yes.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32The whole effect of the paint is totally different.
0:23:32 > 0:23:34Much richer colours in the oil version,
0:23:34 > 0:23:39- much duller in the tempera. - And much more depth there.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43- There's the sense there's something going on under it.- Yes.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46And there's subtlety you can build into the lights and darks
0:23:46 > 0:23:49in the oils you can't do in the tempera.
0:23:52 > 0:23:58Here in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, we can see this first flowering of Leonardo's talent.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04And here it is - The Baptism of Christ.
0:24:04 > 0:24:09It's a conventional biblical theme, Christ being baptised by St John,
0:24:09 > 0:24:13but the picture has been transformed by the hand of the young Leonardo.
0:24:13 > 0:24:19Your eye doesn't naturally go to the centre of the picture,
0:24:19 > 0:24:23but to that impish, beautiful angel on the left of the picture.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27It was a defining moment in art.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31Tempera was the past, Leonardo had seen the future.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35In southern Europe, painting in oils would become the norm.
0:24:38 > 0:24:43Leonardo's first biographer, Vasari, adds a footnote to the story.
0:24:43 > 0:24:48He tells us that Verrocchio, having seen what had been done,
0:24:48 > 0:24:50told the apprentices that from now on,
0:24:50 > 0:24:52Leonardo would paint all the faces
0:24:52 > 0:24:58and that he, Verrocchio, having been surpassed, would not paint again.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11It was largely a male world that the young Leonardo had entered in Florence.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15Artists invariably explored the beauty of the male figure.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18The female nude was quite rare.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21The great master Verrocchio was homosexual.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24He and his students lived together in the workshops,
0:25:24 > 0:25:28under the same roof.
0:25:28 > 0:25:33Indeed, the city of Florence was famous for its culture of male companionship and sexuality.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40But it was a twilight world and it could be a dangerous one.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47Florence after dark could be rough and rowdy.
0:25:47 > 0:25:52Homosexuality among young, unmarried men was commonplace.
0:25:52 > 0:25:56And Leonardo didn't always choose his friends wisely.
0:25:56 > 0:25:58In a city of 40,000,
0:25:58 > 0:26:02there were 400 allegations of sodomy in one year.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05If you were caught, the punishment was severe.
0:26:13 > 0:26:19On the walls of the city, you could find the notorious boca de verite -
0:26:19 > 0:26:21the mouth of truth.
0:26:21 > 0:26:26Citizens who wanted to make anonymous accusations against their fellows could post them here.
0:26:26 > 0:26:31And one of these accusations, in April 1476,
0:26:31 > 0:26:32named Leonardo da Vinci.
0:26:32 > 0:26:36SHOUTS AND WHISTLING
0:26:40 > 0:26:43He was out on the town with three friends.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47They were arrested for consorting with a teenage prostitute.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50According to writings of the time,
0:26:50 > 0:26:54many people questioned their guilt.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00Sodomy was a crime in 15th-century Florence,
0:27:00 > 0:27:06and were you convicted, you could even be burnt at the stake.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13Leonardo endured weeks of anxiety
0:27:13 > 0:27:16whilst the evidence against him was being collected.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21We know just how desperate he felt
0:27:21 > 0:27:26because he wrote on a piece of paper, "I am without any friends."
0:27:26 > 0:27:30And on the other side of that same piece of paper, he writes...
0:27:31 > 0:27:34If there is no love...
0:27:37 > 0:27:38..what then?
0:27:41 > 0:27:45By sheer good fortune, one of Leonardo's companions
0:27:45 > 0:27:47happened to be the son of a powerful nobleman.
0:27:47 > 0:27:53And this probably helped a great deal in getting them off with a very light sentence,
0:27:53 > 0:27:59which is recorded in each case. They were absolved with the condition of a slight beating.
0:28:02 > 0:28:04After his trial and humiliation,
0:28:04 > 0:28:10Leonardo became more circumspect and careful, perhaps even afraid.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13Periodically there were religious revivals in Italy
0:28:13 > 0:28:16and homosexuals were indeed burnt at the stake.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21Being a genius gave you some latitude, but not immunity.
0:28:33 > 0:28:38In 1481, he got a major commission for the monastery of San Donato.
0:28:38 > 0:28:41It was to paint the Adoration of the Magi,
0:28:41 > 0:28:46the moment when the Wise Men first encounter the infant Jesus.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50Now, I know that "revolutionary" is an overused word,
0:28:50 > 0:28:54but with this picture, Leonardo has really earned it.
0:28:54 > 0:28:58Many of his contemporaries had tackled this subject,
0:28:58 > 0:29:03but no-one had ever brought to it this raw power and emotion.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09While others are painting stock figures with stock expressions,
0:29:09 > 0:29:11he's depicting real people.
0:29:11 > 0:29:13Just look at these faces.
0:29:13 > 0:29:17You can believe these people felt real joy and wonder and pain.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24To find them, he went into the streets of Florence.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27They're scattered throughout his notebooks -
0:29:27 > 0:29:30real, ordinary people, the good, the bad and the ugly.
0:29:30 > 0:29:36He transforms them into actors in this drama of wonderment.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39Even the animals show their own amazement.
0:29:43 > 0:29:47And there's another thing this painting tells you about Leonardo,
0:29:47 > 0:29:50it stares you in the face. It isn't finished.
0:29:51 > 0:29:53He spent seven months doing this picture.
0:29:53 > 0:29:58He was expected to deliver it in 20 months, but what did he do?
0:29:58 > 0:30:00He withdrew, he never completed the picture.
0:30:02 > 0:30:05This was to become a pattern
0:30:05 > 0:30:08that would shape his life and his reputation.
0:30:10 > 0:30:13We don't know for sure why he gave up on The Adoration.
0:30:13 > 0:30:19What we do know is that around this time he packed and left the city.
0:30:19 > 0:30:23In 1481, he left Florence and headed for Milan.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26It was a quantum leap from culture to commerce -
0:30:26 > 0:30:32a city of new money, a boom town, run by a family of mercenaries.
0:30:33 > 0:30:38They were called the Sforzas. The new head of the clan was Lodovico
0:30:38 > 0:30:44and they were among the most feared and hated dynasties in Milan.
0:30:45 > 0:30:50Milan's the wannabe nouveau riche version of Florence.
0:30:50 > 0:30:53It doesn't have the same cultural and civic tradition.
0:30:53 > 0:30:57The Sforza are a very new team of mercenaries -
0:30:57 > 0:31:03a family who are basically trying to drag the city into the Renaissance.
0:31:03 > 0:31:09The previous duke has been stabbed 37 times by his own courtiers.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13This is NOT a city which loves its rulers.
0:31:13 > 0:31:19The Sforza were regarded as jumped-up sons of shoemakers,
0:31:19 > 0:31:24so when Lodovico comes in, he's looking to boost his image.
0:31:24 > 0:31:28Lodovico was an even bigger snob than the rest of his family.
0:31:28 > 0:31:31He surrounded himself with genealogists and astrologers
0:31:31 > 0:31:34as well as artists and engineers.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37He was both dangerous AND deluded.
0:31:37 > 0:31:41He commissioned a family tree which he insisted showed his lineage
0:31:41 > 0:31:45going back not to royalty, but to the gods.
0:31:45 > 0:31:47Splendid news, Your Excellency.
0:31:47 > 0:31:55The astrologer confirms that on your mother's side, your great-uncle was related to a prince of Sicily.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58Don't be ridiculous. Look again.
0:31:58 > 0:32:00Yes, Your Excellency.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03This is da Vinci, the Florentine.
0:32:03 > 0:32:07So now Leonardo had to sell himself to the duke.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10He had to appeal both to his enormous vanity
0:32:10 > 0:32:13and to his military and strategic needs.
0:32:13 > 0:32:17His future would depend on the outcome.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20Excuse me, my Lord, I am not only a musician,
0:32:20 > 0:32:24but I've studied the works of those claiming to be engineers of warfare
0:32:24 > 0:32:26and I believe I can surpass the best of them.
0:32:26 > 0:32:31I can match any man in designing buildings, both public and private.
0:32:31 > 0:32:35I can create aqueducts to transport water throughout your land.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38- Do the Medici have aqueducts? - Yes, Your Excellency.
0:32:38 > 0:32:41Good. I'll have aqueducts.
0:32:41 > 0:32:47And a covered vehicle of iron where soldiers can penetrate through enemy lines and destroy them,
0:32:47 > 0:32:52- replacing the need for elephants. - Your excellency...
0:32:52 > 0:32:54there's a line to the brother-in-law of the King of Spain.
0:32:54 > 0:32:58Not good enough. Keep looking. ..Go on.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02I can make bridges that are light and strong,
0:33:02 > 0:33:06that are easily transported when you are pursuing an enemy.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09Also, I have devised a means for besieging a castle
0:33:09 > 0:33:12by first of all drying up the water in the moat...
0:33:14 > 0:33:18Leonardo was put to work, but not as a military engineer.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21He was paid a low wage, less than the court dwarf,
0:33:21 > 0:33:26to design the drainage for the duchess's bathroom and to install a form of central heating.
0:33:28 > 0:33:32"Draw up a plan to show the bath of the duchess.
0:33:32 > 0:33:37"To warm the water, add three parts of warm to four parts of cold.
0:33:37 > 0:33:39"How to release the water flow
0:33:39 > 0:33:42"and remember the commission to paint the rooms."
0:33:45 > 0:33:49'So from plumbing, he moves to interior decoration.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53'He has to paint the walls of a magnificent reception room.
0:33:53 > 0:33:57'The result is, of course, spectacular.'
0:34:02 > 0:34:05In this room, he's brought together his twin passions
0:34:05 > 0:34:08of nature and architecture
0:34:08 > 0:34:10and created a canopy of trees.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15He's painted the illusion of a whole forest above our heads -
0:34:15 > 0:34:19tree trunks on the walls, intricate leaf patterns.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23It must have enthralled Lodovico's guests.
0:34:23 > 0:34:28This is Leonardo, the court magician - a master of spectacle.
0:34:32 > 0:34:34For the duke's famous parties,
0:34:34 > 0:34:40Leonardo was impresario, stage manager and producer all in one.
0:34:40 > 0:34:45He designed the elaborate costumes and masks and mechanical novelties to delight the guests.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55These events were about prestige and power.
0:34:55 > 0:35:00The more lavish the spectacle, the more they enhanced Lodovico's glory.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03That's a great spectacle the duke has promised.
0:35:29 > 0:35:35All this time and throughout his whole life, Leonardo was also working for himself,
0:35:35 > 0:35:39pushing the boundaries of science and discovery with astonishing diversity,
0:35:39 > 0:35:43more than any single person before or since.
0:35:44 > 0:35:48In his notebooks, he makes daily lists of things to do.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51"Construct glasses to see the moon magnified,
0:35:51 > 0:35:56"find out how to install bombards and ramparts by day and night,
0:35:56 > 0:36:03"how to square the triangle, analyse the movement of the tongue of the woodpecker
0:36:03 > 0:36:05"and describe the jaw of the crocodile,
0:36:05 > 0:36:11"the Frenchman has promised to tell me the dimensions of the sun,
0:36:11 > 0:36:14"and how do they run on ice in Flanders?"
0:36:14 > 0:36:19The versatility he showed in his years in Milan was amazing.
0:36:19 > 0:36:25He allowed nothing to limit the scope of his imagination - no horizon, no boundaries.
0:36:26 > 0:36:31"Do you see how the eye embraces the beauty of the whole world?
0:36:31 > 0:36:33"It is the window of the soul.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36"It informs the arts.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39"It is the foundation of science.
0:36:39 > 0:36:44"It measures the distance of the stars. It discovers the elements.
0:36:44 > 0:36:50"It is the inventor of architecture AND the divine art of painting."
0:36:50 > 0:36:54Leonardo was one of the first to investigate how our eyes see,
0:36:54 > 0:36:58but to do this, he had to invent a method for dissecting them.
0:36:58 > 0:37:02His notes read like a recipe.
0:37:02 > 0:37:06"To study the interior without spilling its watery humour,
0:37:06 > 0:37:11"place the whole eye in the white of an egg and boil until solid,
0:37:11 > 0:37:15"then slice both the egg and the eye transversely
0:37:15 > 0:37:19"and you will find that no part of it will drain away."
0:37:19 > 0:37:26At this time, it was thought that the eye sent out rays of light to illuminate what was in front of it.
0:37:26 > 0:37:31Leonardo realised that it was the other way around.
0:37:31 > 0:37:35We see because light penetrates the eye and informs the brain.
0:37:36 > 0:37:42He tested his own ingenuity against the method and materials of his age.
0:37:42 > 0:37:48He invented epic schemes of engineering and mechanics -
0:37:48 > 0:37:51machines to dredge and excavate huge tracts of land.
0:37:51 > 0:37:56He investigated new methods of agriculture and irrigation.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00He designed machines for transportation and warfare.
0:38:00 > 0:38:04This is an early idea for a gunboat.
0:38:04 > 0:38:10He even planned an early form of automobile, powered by a spring motor,
0:38:10 > 0:38:14but he still hadn't managed to get any of his grand designs off the ground.
0:38:15 > 0:38:19There was one project that appealed to Sforza's vanity
0:38:19 > 0:38:22and Leonardo's artistic ambitions -
0:38:22 > 0:38:28a proposal for an immense statue for a horse to be cast in bronze.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32It would haunt Leonardo for the next 16 years.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38Meanwhile, his constant researches go on.
0:38:40 > 0:38:45He studies the effect of sunlight and shade.
0:38:45 > 0:38:47"Light is the chaser-away of darkness.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50"Shade is the obstruction of light.
0:38:50 > 0:38:54"Everything in nature is shaped by them."
0:38:56 > 0:39:02His understanding of shadow and light would transform European painting forever.
0:39:03 > 0:39:08Here, in The Virgin Of The Rocks, in these luminous faces,
0:39:08 > 0:39:12he achieves an emotional intensity which takes the breath away.
0:39:22 > 0:39:24During this time in Milan,
0:39:24 > 0:39:27Leonardo took on a young boy as apprentice, Giacomo Caprotti.
0:39:32 > 0:39:36"Giacomo had come to live with me on St Mary Magdalene's Day,
0:39:36 > 0:39:39"the 22nd July 1490.
0:39:40 > 0:39:44"The second day he was here I'd had some clothes made for him
0:39:44 > 0:39:48"and when I put aside the money I had to pay for them, he stole the money.
0:39:50 > 0:39:52"The first night, he'd eaten enough for two,
0:39:52 > 0:39:57"broken his glass, spilt the wine and smashed a cruet."
0:39:57 > 0:39:59You'll be the cause of my early death.
0:39:59 > 0:40:05"I decided from that day to call him Salai, 'the demon'."
0:40:05 > 0:40:07He was completely indulgent of the boy.
0:40:07 > 0:40:13That's how the relationship works. They have huge fights.
0:40:13 > 0:40:17Leonardo forgives him. He loves his fecklessness.
0:40:17 > 0:40:24That's part of the attraction, that he is a disreputable, but eminently forgivable, loveable young man.
0:40:24 > 0:40:28Salai, I want to make peace with you. No more war.
0:40:30 > 0:40:31I give in.
0:40:33 > 0:40:38That relationship is the most constant one in Leonardo's life,
0:40:38 > 0:40:40culminating in Salai's inheritance
0:40:40 > 0:40:43of many of Leonardo's pictures.
0:40:43 > 0:40:48Salai seems to occupy this critical emotional space in Leonardo's life.
0:40:48 > 0:40:53He doesn't have a wife, doesn't have children, doesn't want them.
0:40:53 > 0:40:55He has to put his emotions somewhere
0:40:55 > 0:40:59and this curly-haired, mischievous little boy is where they end up.
0:41:02 > 0:41:07Leonardo's household was increasing. Salai was an expensive addition.
0:41:07 > 0:41:09The duke was still paying the bills,
0:41:09 > 0:41:12but he must have seen his Florentine genius
0:41:12 > 0:41:14as something of a liability.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21Leonardo has managed to complete one major commission for Sforza -
0:41:21 > 0:41:26a painting of his mistress, Cecilia Gallerani.
0:41:26 > 0:41:29It's one of the great portraits of the Renaissance.
0:41:53 > 0:41:57It's as if she lives and breathes. You've done well, da Vinci.
0:41:57 > 0:42:03To other matters. You wrote this six years ago.
0:42:03 > 0:42:08"A great horse of bronze to the immortal glory of the house of Sforza." Six years.
0:42:08 > 0:42:15Yes, Your Excellency. The work is underway. I have here the plans for the horse.
0:42:15 > 0:42:1923 feet from the height of the horse's head to the base.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22- The drawings are impressive. - It cannot be done.
0:42:22 > 0:42:29- Even the master crafters of antiquity never managed it.- It can.
0:42:31 > 0:42:37The great horse was a project which had captured the imagination of the whole Renaissance world.
0:42:37 > 0:42:41Many aspired to it. Only Leonardo was mad enough to take it on.
0:42:41 > 0:42:48It would bring fame and glory, but this was no ordinary commission.
0:42:48 > 0:42:53It was to be a monument 24 feet high - a huge, prancing horse -
0:42:53 > 0:42:56to be cast from 60 tons of bronze.
0:42:56 > 0:43:00A metal rod will pass through the arm...
0:43:00 > 0:43:05- It's impossible to cast on such a scale.- I will devise a new method.
0:43:05 > 0:43:11I will create one huge cast buried deep beneath the earth, but first I will make a clay cast, your...
0:43:11 > 0:43:15We will see the clay model, but no more delays.
0:43:19 > 0:43:24As more time went by, Leonardo's grand design still hadn't happened,
0:43:24 > 0:43:26in spite of his confidence.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29And again the months turned into years.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35He's studying like crazy. He's talking to bronze casters,
0:43:35 > 0:43:40he's talking to bell makers and to cannon makers.
0:43:40 > 0:43:45Those are the people who are familiar with large-scale pourings.
0:43:47 > 0:43:51It dovetails perfectly with Leonardo's ambitions.
0:43:51 > 0:43:56It's an extraordinary civic project to work on something
0:43:56 > 0:43:59which has fascinated him - the figure of a horse,
0:43:59 > 0:44:02how to represent a realistic horse.
0:44:08 > 0:44:12In his notebooks, he made hundreds of beautiful studies of wild horses
0:44:12 > 0:44:15and of those in the duke's stables,
0:44:15 > 0:44:20but still the technical problems of the monument itself hadn't been resolved.
0:44:22 > 0:44:27- We will make a clay cast...- We will see the clay model. No more delays.
0:44:27 > 0:44:31Your excellency will not be dissatisfied.
0:44:36 > 0:44:41Leonardo finally produced the full-size clay model for Lodovico.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44It was regarded as a masterpiece in its own right
0:44:44 > 0:44:47and a technical miracle,
0:44:47 > 0:44:49but it would never be cast in bronze.
0:44:55 > 0:45:00In his notes, Leonardo writes again and again of his hatred of violence,
0:45:00 > 0:45:03but still, alongside his drawings from nature,
0:45:03 > 0:45:09there are plans for some of the most inventive and fearsome of war machines.
0:45:09 > 0:45:15Here's what he writes about man's inhumanity to man.
0:45:15 > 0:45:19"If you think destroying wonderful works of nature is criminal,
0:45:19 > 0:45:23"consider how much worse it is to kill a man.
0:45:23 > 0:45:27"Let not your rage and malice destroy a single life."
0:45:27 > 0:45:33There's an ambiguity in his view. He calls war "beastly madness".
0:45:33 > 0:45:39He's a humane man, but is fascinated by the application of force,
0:45:39 > 0:45:43that if he can channel the forces of nature into these amazing machines,
0:45:43 > 0:45:46he will create something amazing.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50Perhaps the most intriguing of all his designs
0:45:50 > 0:45:53was what appears to be a forerunner of the tank,
0:45:53 > 0:45:57which wasn't invented until the First World War, 400 years later.
0:46:02 > 0:46:10We asked the Royal Armoured Corps to build and test Leonardo's tank.
0:46:10 > 0:46:14This is an initial drawing and, of course, when he had designed and developed it,
0:46:14 > 0:46:20it would have evolved, because you have to develop it. This is an initial design!
0:46:20 > 0:46:26We've given the Army a flat-pack kit of the tank to assemble.
0:46:26 > 0:46:28It'll be made of wood and steel.
0:46:28 > 0:46:32The first big challenge is to build Leonardo's gears.
0:46:40 > 0:46:44What is, basically, the technology which is going to drive this tank?
0:46:44 > 0:46:49The technology is just sheer arm power.
0:46:49 > 0:46:55You've got these sweating men inside this infernal machine,
0:46:55 > 0:46:59doing this with lantern gearing systems, to get it to move.
0:46:59 > 0:47:02One, two, three, go! >
0:47:02 > 0:47:05Keep it going! Keep it going!
0:47:05 > 0:47:08Keep it going! Keep it going! >
0:47:08 > 0:47:12You're NOT going fast enough! Keep it going! Come on! Come on! ..Hold it there! Hold it there!
0:47:16 > 0:47:20Despite the brute force of half a dozen men, the prototype is not moving.
0:47:20 > 0:47:26It appears that Leonardo's design had one fundamental error.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29- We've sussed out the problem. - Where did he go wrong?
0:47:29 > 0:47:33He's got the gears in the wrong place on the wheels.
0:47:33 > 0:47:38If this is the rear of the vehicle, he has the gears on the front.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42- If we take that as the front, he's got them on the rear.- Right.
0:47:42 > 0:47:44So, as you turn the crank,
0:47:44 > 0:47:50- both wheels go opposite ways. - So the front wheel goes backwards, and the back wheel frontwards?- Yes.
0:47:50 > 0:47:54- How do we solve it?- We'll need to move one of the gears.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57So both wheels go in the same direction?
0:47:57 > 0:48:02That sounds like a pretty good idea to me! Let's get the welder on that!
0:48:06 > 0:48:10With Leonardo's grasp of mechanics, he would surely have known this.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13But maybe he'd overlooked it, or not addressed it.
0:48:13 > 0:48:15This is only a preliminary sketch.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27And, with the gears moved to the other side of the wheel,
0:48:27 > 0:48:29the tank is ready to go.
0:48:29 > 0:48:33The design itself is ingenious. Again, Leonardo seems to have taken
0:48:33 > 0:48:36his inspiration from nature.
0:48:36 > 0:48:40One thing's for sure - the shell shape provides perfect protection.
0:48:42 > 0:48:45That causes enemy projectiles to glance off...
0:48:47 > 0:48:53Leonardo designed the tank to carry 20 cannon, which would have created havoc at close range.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08He even suggested cannon which could be loaded from within the tank,
0:49:08 > 0:49:12rather than outside, but this would depend on the tank actually moving!
0:49:13 > 0:49:16- Listen up!- Get going!
0:49:22 > 0:49:26With the Army's application and practical knowledge of engineering,
0:49:26 > 0:49:28the tank is a success!
0:49:32 > 0:49:36Once you've broken the ranks and they're breached, you can get other people through.
0:49:36 > 0:49:43I think he envisaged literally that. They break a hole in the ranks of the enemy, and create mayhem
0:49:43 > 0:49:45within their own space.
0:49:48 > 0:49:52Leonardo had again designed something hundreds of years before its time.
0:49:52 > 0:49:58His invention would have been an astonishing achievement, bringing him the recognition and the status
0:49:58 > 0:50:04he yearned for, but, like so many of his ideas, he was never given the chance to try it out.
0:50:09 > 0:50:16By 1495, Leonardo had been working for Lodovico Sforza for 13 years.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19Despite Leonardo's unreliability,
0:50:19 > 0:50:24the duke now decided to entrust him with a commission which was both precious and personal.
0:50:24 > 0:50:29The monastery of Santa Maria della Grazie was a place Lodovico loved.
0:50:29 > 0:50:32He sought consolation here after his wife's death.
0:50:32 > 0:50:36He even ate with the monks in the refectory.
0:50:36 > 0:50:43And it was in their dining room that he asked Leonardo to paint the scene of the Last Supper.
0:50:46 > 0:50:50The subject had been painted many times -
0:50:50 > 0:50:53Christ's last meal with his disciples -
0:50:53 > 0:50:56and invariably with formality and respect,
0:50:56 > 0:51:00a line of pious faces surrounding the figure of Christ.
0:51:00 > 0:51:05But Leonardo wanted to do something quite different.
0:51:05 > 0:51:08His idea was to capture one moment in time -
0:51:08 > 0:51:11the most alive, the most dramatic of all -
0:51:11 > 0:51:14when Jesus announces to his disciples that one of them
0:51:14 > 0:51:16will be his betrayer.
0:51:16 > 0:51:24It's a hugely ambitious scheme and, though Leonardo has the vision for it, it requires practical expertise
0:51:24 > 0:51:27in fresco painting that he doesn't have.
0:51:27 > 0:51:33- There doesn't seem to be any evidence that Leonardo did fresco work before this?- No, there's none.
0:51:33 > 0:51:39Basically, it's a kind of high-class decorating.
0:51:39 > 0:51:42I mean, there's a very complicated process.
0:51:42 > 0:51:47You have several layers of plaster, built up over a few weeks.
0:51:47 > 0:51:54The last one, the intonaco, is the wet surface of the plaster that you paint into.
0:51:54 > 0:51:58How long would it have taken him to prepare a huge surface like this
0:51:58 > 0:52:02- for the Last Supper?- I would say a confident and experienced fresco
0:52:02 > 0:52:08painter would be able to do it in two or three months, maybe less,
0:52:08 > 0:52:12but Leonardo was (a) not experienced, and (b)
0:52:12 > 0:52:16not very prone to doing anything quickly!
0:52:19 > 0:52:23The normal approach would have been to copy preparatory drawings onto the damp plaster,
0:52:23 > 0:52:26using a technique called pricking -
0:52:26 > 0:52:29tracing the sketch onto the plaster.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34You have to be careful with it, as you have to move and work quickly,
0:52:34 > 0:52:36but that doesn't suit him, does it?
0:52:36 > 0:52:43It's wrong for what we understand of Leonardo's psychology. This technique must have maddened him.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46The idea of a fresco is to plan it in advance.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49You don't mess around once you've started - you carry on.
0:52:49 > 0:52:53You had to lay enough plaster for one day's work,
0:52:53 > 0:52:56and then the clock starts ticking.
0:52:56 > 0:53:02You had to paint wet pigment into the plaster while it's still active.
0:53:02 > 0:53:08So you can understand why he'd just stand and look at the picture and not dare go for it
0:53:08 > 0:53:10until he'd decided what to do?
0:53:10 > 0:53:15Yeah. You can't fuss with this stuff. You just get on with it.
0:53:17 > 0:53:21As we know, "getting on with it" was not Leonardo's forte
0:53:21 > 0:53:24at the best of times. But he found a solution.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27He decided not to do the fresco the usual way.
0:53:27 > 0:53:31Instead, he invented a plaster he could paint on when dry.
0:53:31 > 0:53:33This allowed him to take his time.
0:53:36 > 0:53:41Unfortunately, the duke insisted on regular progress reports.
0:53:42 > 0:53:44Many a time, Your Excellency,
0:53:44 > 0:53:48I've seen him arrive early and spend the entire day on the platform,
0:53:48 > 0:53:54until sunset, never laying down his brush, without eating or drinking.
0:53:54 > 0:53:57Then, three or four days would pass without him even touching the work.
0:53:57 > 0:54:02Yet, every day, he'd spend several hours just...looking...
0:54:02 > 0:54:06considering...then suddenly leave and go elsewhere.
0:54:08 > 0:54:10It is as the fancy takes him!
0:54:12 > 0:54:17But Leonardo WAS hard at work. He was out in the streets, sketching,
0:54:17 > 0:54:20seeking out the right faces, the right gestures,
0:54:20 > 0:54:22to bring alive each disciple.
0:54:22 > 0:54:27One twists the finger of his hands. Another, with his hands spread,
0:54:27 > 0:54:33shows his palms. Another turns with stern brows to his friend.
0:54:33 > 0:54:38- How can you be so slow?- I devote two, three hours a day to the work.
0:54:38 > 0:54:42How can that be if you never go there?
0:54:42 > 0:54:45For one whole year, I have gone every day,
0:54:45 > 0:54:51morning, noon and night, to the Borghetto, to try to find a face to express the villainy of Judas.
0:54:51 > 0:54:56If all else fails, I could use as a model the face of the Abbot,
0:54:56 > 0:54:59who complains about me to Your Excellency!
0:54:59 > 0:55:04For 36 months, I have had six mouths to feed - my pupils, my serving girl...
0:55:04 > 0:55:07I've earned 50 ducats for a sketch.
0:55:07 > 0:55:11We will see you receive money, but the painting must be finished!
0:55:18 > 0:55:23In spite of Lodovico's warnings, the Last Supper was to take another year of work,
0:55:23 > 0:55:28and of constant complaints from Leonardo, begging for back salary.
0:55:28 > 0:55:33But he HAD found his Judas and, at last, early in 1498,
0:55:33 > 0:55:35the Last Supper was finished.
0:55:53 > 0:55:58You obey nothing, da Vinci, but the demands of your own imagination.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01And you're right.
0:56:01 > 0:56:04You have surpassed yourself.
0:56:04 > 0:56:08I always said it would be a great success!
0:56:54 > 0:56:56Tragically, the experimental technique
0:56:56 > 0:56:58of painting on dry plaster,
0:56:58 > 0:57:02which allowed him time to capture the living moment,
0:57:02 > 0:57:05almost led to his masterpiece being lost forever.
0:57:05 > 0:57:08A few years after it was finished,
0:57:08 > 0:57:13tiny, almost imperceptible cracks appeared under the paint's surface.
0:57:13 > 0:57:18Deep in the plaster, moisture was rising and doing damage.
0:57:18 > 0:57:21There have since been numerous attempts at restoration,
0:57:21 > 0:57:24some of which did more harm than good.
0:57:24 > 0:57:30But something of the power of the original remains. It IS a ghost,
0:57:30 > 0:57:33but it's a magnificent ghost.
0:57:43 > 0:57:48But, as they gazed at the work in 1498, they could have not have guessed its fate, or their own.
0:57:52 > 0:57:58Massing nearby were the thousands of French troops dedicated to the overthrow of Sforza.
0:58:01 > 0:58:04And, as for the dream of that fabulous bronze horse,
0:58:04 > 0:58:11the 60 tons of bronze that Sforza had set aside for it was melted down and forged into cannon.
0:58:13 > 0:58:16And the great clay model was used
0:58:16 > 0:58:20as target practice by the invading French troops.
0:58:27 > 0:58:31Within months, Leonardo would flee Milan. He would be forced to work for patrons
0:58:31 > 0:58:35who made Sforza look like an angel.
0:58:36 > 0:58:40There would be conflict, too, with a new Pope in Rome,
0:58:40 > 0:58:44and he would find his position as the most famous painter in Italy
0:58:44 > 0:58:48challenged by a rival who hated and despised him -
0:58:48 > 0:58:51a rival called Michelangelo.
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