Leonardo’s Hidden Faces (2025)

"Leonardo and Allegory," Oxford Art Journal 35 (2012): 433-55.

Leonardo Da Vinci and Aesthetics in his work

LEONARDO DA VINCI: Nature’s Specimen-proof of the Mathematics of Life’s Design: GOD is ….

LEONARDO DA VINCI : Nature’s Specimen-proof of the Mathematics of Life’s Design: GOD is …, 2020

LEONARDO DA VINCI : Nature’s Specimen-proof of the Mathematics of Life’s Design: GOD is … “The greatest deception men suffer the most is from their own opinions” – LEONARDO DA VINCI (1452-1519 AD.). The True Greatest Renaissance Genius w/ no equal who communicates w/ GOD (of All Nature) before he creates his masterpieces to perfection for humanity to appreciate truths in life. – To all Theists, all Religionists, to all who truly believe in GOD: Pls & kindly, let’s RESPECT all Atheists; be kind & listen to them; understand them all Atheists; they are human beings, too. GOD whispered to me in my ‘dream’: “… the more so, Gpw Bernard, that you must love them – all Atheists …” – Gpw Bernard Bautista Rementilla Sept.16, 2020

The Signs of Faces: Leonardo on Physiognomic Science and the 'Four Universal States of Man

Renaissance Studies, 2002

Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar: a Psychobiographic Study on Leonardo's Religious Identity

Dan Brown's bestseller book, The Da Vinci Code, already a motion picture, has captured popular interest all over the world; and has generated controversies about the identity of Jesus and the authenticity of Christian teachings. While the religious implications of this " fact-mixed fiction " has been widely debated, the identity of Leonardo, whose shadow hovers over the entire controversy, still seems to remain elusive. Leonardo da Vinci is a mysterious figure whose name arouses curiosity and stirs controversy. His religious identity in particular has been a matter of an ongoing debate. This study aims to shed some light on Leonardo's puzzling personality. I will introduce an overlooked archival record about Leonardo's travel to the East with the implication of his conversion to the " Mohammedan " faith that puts a new spin on the controversy developed around the name of Leonardo and stimulates our curiosity further. The details of this largely unknown (and somewhat ignored) journey are so rich that they compel us to reconsider some claims of The Da Vinci Code, especially in relation to Leonardo's religious identity. Thus, guided by an Eriksonian insight, this study reexamines the life of Leonardo by analyzing some psycho-social issues in his young adult years. Following his lead on identity, I came across an image of Leonardo quite different from what has been traditionally presented to us, including Sigmund Freud's well-known study. This essay brings forth various biographical data that points to a tragic life of a young outcast who was estranged from his community; a talented artist who was unappreciated and unemployed; and an eccentric free spirit in total crisis of identity.

Meaning and Appearance - A Merleau-Pontian account of Leonardo's studies from life

Art History, 1999

LEONARDO AND THE FACE OF JUDAS

The face of Judas in the Cenacle has very uncommon facial traits. Leonardo never finished the work looking for an appropriate physiognomy. The thesis is that, at the end, he was inspired by Signorelli.

Appearance and Truth: the Function of «Pyramidal Powers» in Leonardo’s Research during the last Decade of the XV Century

I shall show first, through the examination of texts dating from 1490-1492, that when Leonardo begins to ‘make science’ he adopts an explanatory model of a mechanical-percussive kind that he will substitute in a few years’ time with another of an optical-perspective kind. The result of this substitution is a peculiar mixture, based on a metaphysical conception of the «point» as a very real «spiritual power» similar to the soul, invisible and incorporeal because infinitely small, that by moving brings about space and the visible world and all natural effects and that can be worked out mathematically with the tools of perspective. The adoption of this model causes the level of appearances to lose its original and stable character and become derivative and uncertain. I shall then show the tension that arises when the model of «pyramidal power» as «spiritual power» is concretely extended to the explanation of appearances. On the one hand, Leonardo tends to think of the «pyramid» as a real expansion of the metaphysical «point» and thus as an entity really existing in nature; on the other hand, the difficulties he encounters push him to consider it, in line with the perspective tradition, as a mere proportion between two measures (for example, weight and speed,or volume and distance), and thus as an abstract measure.

Leonardo's unbearded face

Leonardo's unbearded face, 2019

Among the various portraits considered to represent Leonardo, two less mentioned drawings (fig. 1) have been related to the painter as examples of auto-mimesis, in the sense that, still unconsciously, the painter was representing himself. 1 Figure 1 LEONARDO DA VINCI. The two heads of old bearded men analysed by Martin Clayton. The Royal Library at Windsor Castle. Martin Clayton, dating the drawings to the last decade of Leonardo's life, with reference to the head on the left writes: "We know that Leonardo himself had a full beard at this time, and an old bearded man drawing an old bearded man cannot have been oblivious to an element of self-portraiture", and with reference to the head on the right writes: "Leonardo must have been conscious here of some element of a self-portraiture.....A drawing such as this, with no preparatory purpose and retained by the artist, surely expresses some of Leonardo's feelings about his own physical decay". 2 The words that have been reported in italics show clearly what the Author's reasoning guesses, as to say that Leonardo is representing himself. The aged person represented in the drawings with long hear and beard does not have the traits of distinguished dignity in comparison with the most known representation of Leonardo's face, but some consequences emerge if, on the contrary, the drawings are considered as true Leonardo's self-portraits according to the suggestion by Clayton with reference to Leonardo's physical decay. Let the hypothesis of work be then that the two drawings in the figure 1 3 represent the real aspect of old Leonardo's face. If this is so and we look at it carefully we will discover a peculiar anatomical trait that can be observed because, on one hand the ear is not covered by hair, and on the other the ear can be seen even if the hair (strange peculiarity) should cover it. It is clear that in both cases the upper border of the auricle is bent forward. This is a very uncommon anatomical peculiarity and the two drawings represent consequently the same person. The short ear lobe, the form of the mouth, the long fleshy nose ending at the level of the mouth, the thin lips, the prominent cheekbones, the shape of the eyes, the baldness at the top of the head and the

Leonardo da Vinci's Recurrent Use of Patterns of Individual Limbs, Stock Poses and Facial Stereotypes