tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/pope-leo-x-38742/articles
Pope Leo X – The Conversation
2021-11-30T19:10:01Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/171499
2021-11-30T19:10:01Z
2021-11-30T19:10:01Z
The ostentatious story of the ‘young pope’ Leo X: his pet elephant, the cardinal he killed and his anal fistula
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433646/original/file-20211124-25-9afst9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C11%2C1904%2C2536&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Portrait of Pope Leo X with Cardinals Giulio de' Medici and Luigi de' Rossi, circa 1518</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Capodimonte Museum/Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici, who died 500 years ago today, has a claim to be one of the most miscast popes of all time. </p>
<p>Perhaps <a href="https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/news/a52224/all-the-young-popes/">the youngest pontiff</a> of the last thousand years, he was the last non-priest to be elected as pope – and he remains the only pope to have kept a pet elephant. </p>
<p>Giovanni’s reign as Leo X (1513-21) marked the highest point of the Renaissance’s flowering in Rome. However, it also saw the birth of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformation">Reformation</a>, the greatest rupture in Christianity since the East-West Schism of 1054.</p>
<p>History has not always been kind to Leo. Protestant divines <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=ttA4AAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">railed</a> against his decadence and corruption. Catholic scholars <a href="https://archive.org/details/TheHistoryOfThePopesV8/page/n21/mode/2up">drew attention</a> to his patronage of supreme artistic accomplishments yet still lamented his fecklessness in not anticipating the import of what was going on around him.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-promiscuous-she-pope-with-a-dilated-cervix-the-legend-of-pope-joan-who-gave-birth-on-a-horse-155378">'A promiscuous she-pope with a dilated cervix': the legend of Pope Joan, who gave birth on a horse</a>
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<h2>The young pope</h2>
<p>Born on December 11 1475, like many second sons of the elite, Giovanni was destined for a career in the Church. And they made clerics young in Renaissance Italy: he went to Rome to be a cardinal aged just 13. </p>
<p>Yet Giovanni’s first decades at the papal court were quiet ones. His family lost power in Florence at the start of <a href="http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_italian_wars.html">the Italian Wars</a> in 1494, which diminished his clout. Only in 1512, when the Medici regime was restored, did his star rise. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433649/original/file-20211124-15-rf9est.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433649/original/file-20211124-15-rf9est.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433649/original/file-20211124-15-rf9est.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433649/original/file-20211124-15-rf9est.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433649/original/file-20211124-15-rf9est.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433649/original/file-20211124-15-rf9est.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433649/original/file-20211124-15-rf9est.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433649/original/file-20211124-15-rf9est.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">An engraved portrait of Pope Leo X, from between 1615–75.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Metropolitan Museum of Art</span></span>
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<p>A valued lieutenant to <a href="https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/raphael-pope-julius-ii">Julius II</a> – the Warrior Pope who drove French armies out of Italy – Giovanni was rewarded in the papal election that followed Julius’ death in 1513. </p>
<p>In agony with an <a href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/14466-anal-fistula">anal fistula</a>, he needed to be carried into the Vatican on a sedan chair and was operated on during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_conclave">conclave</a>. </p>
<p>Maybe out of sympathy for his discomfort, or perhaps because they thought his ailments precluded a long pontificate, the other cardinals surprised many by voting for him. </p>
<p>His unlikely candidacy carried the day.</p>
<h2>Vain, capricious and cruel</h2>
<p>As pope, Leo X was an enigmatic figure. Full of outward generosity and congenial friendliness, he loved music and is notable for his role in building up the papal choir. But Leo could also be vain, capricious and cruel. </p>
<p>In 1517, he sentenced a 26-year-old cardinal, <a href="https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios1511.htm#Petrucci">Alfonso Petrucci</a>, to death on spurious charges. The case shocked because it had no real precedent and the Petrucci were Medici rivals in Tuscan politics, not Catholicism’s religious opponents.</p>
<p>Leo read voraciously and could take a joke about himself. When the satirist <a href="https://www.frick.org/exhibitions/parmigianino/aretino">Pietro Aretino</a> mocked him mercilessly, both for his excessive love of luxury and for his improper sexual tastes, Leo rewarded him. </p>
<p>Leo <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=giM73n_lca4C&q=Leo+X#v=snippet&q=Leo%20X&f=false">took a particular interest</a> in a 16-year-old boy, <a href="https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.70394.html">Marcantonio Flaminio</a>, whom he tried to shower with gifts (the boy’s father would have none of it). But Leo was not so diligent with his liturgical duties. Why should he have been, when he had not yet been consecrated as a priest, let alone bishop, when he became pope? </p>
<p>His rise through the Church’s ranks – rushed through in just a few days in the lead up to his coronation – remains one of the fastest in history and attests to the very different mores of the age. </p>
<h2>Giovanni’s elephant</h2>
<p>Besides being the first pope to kill a cardinal, Leo is also renowned for his pet elephant Hanno. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433645/original/file-20211124-27-iuf1ti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C786%2C777&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433645/original/file-20211124-27-iuf1ti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433645/original/file-20211124-27-iuf1ti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433645/original/file-20211124-27-iuf1ti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433645/original/file-20211124-27-iuf1ti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=739&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433645/original/file-20211124-27-iuf1ti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=739&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433645/original/file-20211124-27-iuf1ti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=739&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Hanno the elephant, drawn around 1516.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© bpk - Photo Agency / Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz / Dietmar Katz</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<p>A gift from <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1878-0112-154">King Manuel I of Portugal</a>, Hanno lived in an enclosure in the Vatican’s Belvedere courtyard from 1514. Leo commissioned art and <a href="https://www.roma.com/quando-un-re-regalo-un-elefante-al-papa-la-storia-di-annone/">poems</a> to celebrate their friendship:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the Belvedere before the great Pastor<br>
Was conducted the trained elephant<br>
Dancing with such grace and such love<br>
That hardly better would a man have danced:<br>
And then with its trunk such a great noise<br>
It made, that the entire place was deafened:<br>
And stretching itself on the ground to kneel<br>
It then straightened up in reverence to the Pope,<br>
And to his entourage.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hanno died aged seven, after being fed a laxative mixed with gold. Leo was distraught. He buried Hanno in the Vatican and personally composed an epitaph for his tomb.</p>
<p>Hanno did not live to see what historians now see as the most significant event of Leo’s papal reign: the day in October 1517 when an obscure German friar called Martin Luther appended his <a href="https://lutheranreformation.org/history/ninety-five-theses/">Ninety-Five Theses</a> to a church door in Wittenberg. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433652/original/file-20211124-27-11xw1bb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433652/original/file-20211124-27-11xw1bb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433652/original/file-20211124-27-11xw1bb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433652/original/file-20211124-27-11xw1bb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433652/original/file-20211124-27-11xw1bb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433652/original/file-20211124-27-11xw1bb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433652/original/file-20211124-27-11xw1bb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433652/original/file-20211124-27-11xw1bb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">This woodcut shows Luther writing his theses on the door of the church. His quill pierces the head of the lion, here representing Leo X.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett</span></span>
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<p>Leo was an early target of Luther’s criticisms. He was the one who had given permission for the sale of so-called “indulgences” which Luther targeted. These financial instruments were claimed to give those who purchased them remission from doing time in Purgatory to atone for their sins.</p>
<p>Luther found that proposition theologically suspect and morally obscene.</p>
<p>Leo responded cautiously to Luther at first, encouraging debate. Yet he lost patience and <a href="https://www.papalencyclicals.net/leo10/l10decet.htm">excommunicated Luther</a> on January 3 1521. By then, Luther had branded Leo as <a href="https://universityofglasgowlibrary.wordpress.com/2017/03/17/the-antichrist-in-printed-art-1500-1600/">the Antichrist</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/revisiting-the-reformation-how-passions-sparked-a-religious-revolution-500-years-ago-86048">Revisiting the Reformation: how passions sparked a religious revolution 500 years ago</a>
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<h2>Leo’s legacy</h2>
<p>Luther never succeeded in persuading all Christian Europe to abandon its support for the papacy, but nor did Leo’s successors contain the movement he created. For many, Luther’s teachings became a spiritual equivalent to the laxative which Leo had so unwisely fed to Hanno. They purged the Church of adulterations which they came to feel Leo himself embodied. </p>
<p>For Catholics, Leo’s reign has come to be understood as a turning point when the papacy’s worldly predicaments reached their unfortunate crescendo.</p>
<p>Half a millennium on, Leo’s story, a giddy tale of ostentation, hubris, intrigue, and superfluous vice, still entertains – not least because it reminds us ecclesiastical oddities and papal scandals are nothing new. </p>
<p>We should remember Leo as a man who bore witness to, and helped shape, key developments in European History. He was also an unusually emblematic figure for a rich Renaissance culture whose legacies still resonate around us today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171499/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Miles Pattenden has previously received research funding from the British Academy, the European Commission, and the Government of Spain.</span></em></p>
500 years after his death, we’re reflecting on the man who became a cardinal at just 13 – but he had made neither priest nor bishop before he was elected pope.
Miles Pattenden, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry/Gender and Women's History Research Centre, Australian Catholic University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/111011
2019-02-01T16:46:50Z
2019-02-01T16:46:50Z
Leonardo da Vinci: 500 years after his death his genius shines as bright as ever
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256856/original/file-20190201-75085-1mor4cs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C23%2C477%2C533&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is there no end to his talent? A self-portrait of Leoardo da Vinci.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Old masters rarely come more venerable (and venerated) and instantly recognisable than <a href="https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/learn-about-art/explore-leonardo-da-vinci">Leonardo da Vinci</a>. But to think of Leonardo as an Old Master – with all its connotations of being staid, traditional, somehow old-fashioned and boring – is to do this extraordinary man a grave injustice. There is nothing stale or predictable about a man whose personal foibles irritated and frustrated contemporaries as much as his brilliance and creativity dazzled and awed them. One thing is for sure: whatever Leonardo was, old and boring he was not.</p>
<p>May 2 2019 marks the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death in Amboise in France, and this milestone is celebrated in flurry of activity including – in the UK – a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/jan/31/leonardo-da-vinci-a-life-in-drawing-review-royal-collection-uk-museums">brilliant and imaginative series</a> of <a href="https://www.rct.uk/collection/themes/exhibitions/leonardo-da-vinci-a-life-in-drawing-0">12 simultaneous exhibitions</a> around the country, each comprising 12 drawings by Leonardo da Vinci drawn from the Royal Collection at Windsor.</p>
<p>Drawing provides an insight into how this pioneer, who defied all expectations, saw the world around him – so there is no more fitting celebration of his life than putting 144 of Leonardos’s images on display. </p>
<p>It would be fun to engage in a bit of Leonardo exhibition tourism as each of the 12 exhibitions focuses on a specific theme.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256837/original/file-20190201-108334-6ornsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256837/original/file-20190201-108334-6ornsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256837/original/file-20190201-108334-6ornsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256837/original/file-20190201-108334-6ornsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256837/original/file-20190201-108334-6ornsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256837/original/file-20190201-108334-6ornsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256837/original/file-20190201-108334-6ornsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256837/original/file-20190201-108334-6ornsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Cats, lions and a dragon, c.1517-18, black chalk, pen and ink, wash.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Royal Collection Trust / (c) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018 </span></span>
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<p>Bristol <a href="https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/bristol-museum-and-art-gallery/whats-on/leonardo-da-vinci/">Museum and Art Gallery</a>, for example, houses the drawings relating to animals and their movements including the truly beguiling <a href="https://www.rct.uk/collection/themes/exhibitions/leonardo-da-vinci-a-life-in-drawing/bristol-museum-art-gallery-bristol/cats-lions-and-a-dragon">Cats, lions and a dragon</a> (ca 1513-18) which should finally put any suggestions to rest about Leonardo’s status as a staid old master. </p>
<p>Leonardo is watching a cat grooming – but eventually, what he records is no longer a cat but the most enchanting little dragon whose sinous curves mirror those of the cats on the same sheet of paper. Leonardo’s mind never stood still and it is through his drawings that you can see the mind of an artist at work who could paint the majestic Last Supper and derive <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-leonardo-da-vinci-would-have-aced-the-internet-cat-craze-54306">as much fun from doodling cats</a>.</p>
<h2>Workshop apprentice</h2>
<p>Leonardo’s beginnings as an artist followed the traditional route of indenture in an established master’s workshop, in this case, the studio of <a href="https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/andrea-del-verrocchio">Andrea del Verrochio</a>, a very successful artist in the orbit of the Medici family who was as accomplished a business man as he was an artist. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256846/original/file-20190201-127151-qfw470.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256846/original/file-20190201-127151-qfw470.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256846/original/file-20190201-127151-qfw470.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=734&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256846/original/file-20190201-127151-qfw470.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=734&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256846/original/file-20190201-127151-qfw470.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=734&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256846/original/file-20190201-127151-qfw470.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256846/original/file-20190201-127151-qfw470.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256846/original/file-20190201-127151-qfw470.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The head of Leda, c.1505-8, black chalk, pen and ink.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018</span></span>
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<p>The Renaissance workshop fostered a multitude of talents – at any one time a workshop might be executing bespoke images for a wealthy patron while at the same time collaborating with another workshop on large-scale fresco decorations or structural work or designing and producing ephemeral, gilded papier-mâché decorations for a banquet. Artists were expected to be able to produce exquisite designs for jewellery, clothing and animal livery for the well-heeled merchants of Renaissance Florence. Meanwhile they would also churn out the popular birth trays presented to mothers in celebration of the delivery of a child and panel paintings for a cheaper market, copy heraldic designs and sketch maps. </p>
<p>Renaissance workshops thrived because of the variety of skills brought together under one roof by a master such as Verrochio – the team was stronger than the sum of its individual parts, and it sustained itself through its apprentices. Leonardo though stood out as a master of all trades, as the artist who excelled not at one art but all of them.</p>
<h2>Court artist</h2>
<p>Leonardo was quite aware of his extraordinary talents and value to patrons and spelled this out in a <a href="http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/03/skills-of-da-vinci.html">letter seeking employment</a> at one of Europe’s most lavishly spending Court, that of Ludovico il Moro Sforza, Duke of Milan.</p>
<p>He speaks of expertise in the design and construction of effectively field artillery and bailey bridges; outlines his skills in sapping walls and landscaping; his expertise as an architect and sculptor and also promises that he can do “in painting whatever may be done as well as any other, be he who he may”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256862/original/file-20190201-75085-q29vu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256862/original/file-20190201-75085-q29vu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256862/original/file-20190201-75085-q29vu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256862/original/file-20190201-75085-q29vu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256862/original/file-20190201-75085-q29vu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256862/original/file-20190201-75085-q29vu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256862/original/file-20190201-75085-q29vu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mortars firing into a fortress, c.1503-4, black chalk, pen and ink, wash.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Royal Collection Trust / (c) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Duke of Milan duly appointed Leonardo to his court and it was at Sforza’s court that Leonardo, at the age of almost 30, was to spend the next two decades painting his best-known works (the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, The Madonna of the Rocks, the enchanting Lady with the Ermine). All the while he was working towards the one commission closest to his patron’s heart – the casting of a life-sized equestrian statue celebrating Sforza’s father.</p>
<p>Leonardo as an artist did not measure himself against his contemporaries alone, but his true competition were the great masters of classical antiquity. And the only way in which he could achieve lasting fame through his work, was to ensure that his works – especially the Sforza monument – became exemplars. These were intended as unsurpassable demonstrations of his skills and knowledge. </p>
<p>The greatest legacy Leonardo left from his Milanese years are his notebooks and drawings (including some of the ones now on show), and one of the reasons behind these drawings was his quest to master everything he might need in order to best execute that monument. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256850/original/file-20190201-108338-1y72ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256850/original/file-20190201-108338-1y72ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256850/original/file-20190201-108338-1y72ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256850/original/file-20190201-108338-1y72ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256850/original/file-20190201-108338-1y72ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256850/original/file-20190201-108338-1y72ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256850/original/file-20190201-108338-1y72ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256850/original/file-20190201-108338-1y72ov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A design for an equestrian monument, c.1485-8, metalpoint on blue prepared paper.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Royal Collection Trust / (c) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>He needed to understand the anatomy of the animal and its rider – his notebooks show the most extraordinary studies of human and animal anatomy, movement and expression, with Leonardo returning again and again to the same motif, endlessly working on minute variations. </p>
<p>In order to cast the great monument, he would need to understand the behaviour of metals, fire and minerals – as well as the mechanical processes of casting and hoisting the monument. So he studied machines, drew existing ones, improved on old designs and invented new ones. Leonardo wanted to know about the minutiae of textures but also needed to understand a landscape holistically. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256863/original/file-20190201-124043-mua440.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256863/original/file-20190201-124043-mua440.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256863/original/file-20190201-124043-mua440.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256863/original/file-20190201-124043-mua440.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256863/original/file-20190201-124043-mua440.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256863/original/file-20190201-124043-mua440.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256863/original/file-20190201-124043-mua440.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256863/original/file-20190201-124043-mua440.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Designs for gun-barrels and mortars, c.1485, pen and ink.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Royal Collection Trust / (c) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The notebooks are encyclopaedic in their topics, and breathtaking in their intricacy and beauty. It is the ceaselessness of his drawing that provides the key to understanding the timeless appeal of this greatest of artists.</p>
<p>Leonardo died 500 years ago at Amboise, at the Court of Francis I, where he retired after working for some of the greatest patrons of the early 16th century. He travelled with Cesare Borgia’s army and drew some very early bird’s-eye-view maps. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256864/original/file-20190201-124043-wldmvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256864/original/file-20190201-124043-wldmvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256864/original/file-20190201-124043-wldmvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256864/original/file-20190201-124043-wldmvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256864/original/file-20190201-124043-wldmvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256864/original/file-20190201-124043-wldmvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256864/original/file-20190201-124043-wldmvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256864/original/file-20190201-124043-wldmvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Map of the Valdichiana, c.1503-4, watercolour, pen and ink, ink wash over black chalk.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Royal Collection Trust / (c) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>He stayed at the <a href="http://www.themedicifamily.com/Pope-Leo-X.html">Papal Court of Leo X</a> (Giovanni de’ Medici) experimenting with mechanical clockwork devices and increasingly focused on his study of meteorological phenomena such as clouds and deluges, yet the one constant was drawing.</p>
<p>So enjoy these drawings that have come down through 500 years of art history and appreciate that you are looking inside the mind of the greatest “Renaissance Man” of them all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111011/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabriele Neher does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Painter, sculptor, inventor, engineer, mathematician, anatomist: has anyone ever surpassed the genius of Leonardo?
Gabriele Neher, Associate Professor in History of Art, University of Nottingham
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/77540
2017-05-16T00:53:47Z
2017-05-16T00:53:47Z
On the Reformation’s 500th anniversary, remembering Martin Luther’s contribution to literacy
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169392/original/file-20170515-7005-58odc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An exhibition for the Luther monument in Worms.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Jens Meyer</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This year marks the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s famous <a href="http://www.luther.de/en/95thesen.html">95 Theses</a>, which helped spark the founding of the Reformation and the division of Christianity into Protestantism and Catholicism. </p>
<p>The 95 Theses critiqued the church’s sale of indulgences, which Luther regarded as a <a href="http://www.lutherdansk.dk/Web-babylonian%20Captivitate/Martin%20Luther.htm">form of corruption</a>. By Luther’s time, indulgences had evolved into payments that were said to reduce punishment for sins. Luther believed that such practices only interfered with genuine repentance and discouraged people from giving to the poor. One of Luther’s most important theological contributions was the “<a href="https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2016/10/the-priesthood-of-all-believers">priesthood of all believers</a>,” which implied that clerics possessed no more dignity than ordinary people. </p>
<p>Less known is the crucial role Luther played in making the case for ordinary people to read often and well. Unlike the papacy and its defenders, who were producing their writings in Latin, Luther reached out to Germans in their mother tongue, substantially enhancing the accessibility of his written ideas.</p>
<p>In my teaching of philanthropy, Luther’s promotion of literacy is one of the historic events I often discuss with my students.</p>
<h2>Early years</h2>
<p>Born in Germany in 1483, Luther followed the wishes of his <a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/236142/martin-luther-by-lyndal-roper/9780812996197/">father</a> to study law. Once, while caught in a terrible thunderstorm, he vowed that if he were saved, he would become a monk.</p>
<p>Indeed, Luther later joined the austere <a href="http://augustinians.net/">Augustinian</a> order, and became both a priest and a doctor of theology. Later he developed objections to many church practices. He <a href="http://martinluther.ccws.org/treatises/index.html">protested</a> the promotion of indulgences, the buying and selling of clerical privileges, and the accumulation of substantial wealth by the church while peasants barely survived. Legend has it that on Oct. 31, 1517, Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg, the <a href="http://www.visit-luther.com/luthercities/lutherstadt-wittenberg/the-luther-connection/">town</a> where he was based.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169394/original/file-20170515-7005-fdxaq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169394/original/file-20170515-7005-fdxaq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169394/original/file-20170515-7005-fdxaq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169394/original/file-20170515-7005-fdxaq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169394/original/file-20170515-7005-fdxaq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169394/original/file-20170515-7005-fdxaq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169394/original/file-20170515-7005-fdxaq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Luther’s 95 Theses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/keren/2989215726/in/photolist-5y9vGb-ij6QZ2-947VLg-97Fvbp-4xpjR8-98p6jJ-5rNEt8-auJkMV-dmkNTG-aCsCfD-dwGi3a-9ooLyE-gVREC-qb33n-6YYCrn-apkkuE-drPTNL-fz65JT-8VFNaz-98kWei-98kVGH-8nqFTX-8pgH81-8RzGw-dwKbnL-dwDFCF-4JYgaw-dmkLjP-ayjny6-AwmGsB-dwG5PM-5zZGoA-6qoSrP-8nqFZ8-947Vvk-bnbw3B-8nqFEx-6Z3SRf-8U8PF3-9dHQGR-8nqG6T-98p5MU-6Z3SR3-9a6RRV-97FvBV-6YYCs6-6YYCre-6gthVc-8ntPJs-4xtw4h">Keren Tan</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>He was branded an outlaw for refusing to recant his teachings. In 1521, Pope Leo X <a href="http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Leo10/l10decet.htm">excommunicated</a> Luther from the Roman Church. His patron, <a href="http://reformation500.csl.edu/bio/frederick-the-wise/">Frederick of Saxony</a>, saved Luther from further reprisal and had him taken in secret to a castle, where he remained for two years. </p>
<p>It was during that time that Luther produced an immensely influential translation of the New Testament into German. </p>
<h2>Impact of Luther’s writing</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/educator/modules/gutenberg/johann/">Gutenberg’s</a> earlier introduction of the printing press in 1439 made possible the rapid dissemination of Luther’s works throughout much of Europe, and their impact was staggering. </p>
<p>Luther’s collected works run to <a href="http://fortresspress.com/product/luthers-works-volume-55-index">55 volumes</a>. It is <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/21541719">estimated</a> that between 1520 and 1526, some 1,700 editions of Luther’s works were printed. Of the six to seven million pamphlets printed during this time, more than a quarter were Luther’s works, many of which played a vital role in propelling the reformation forward.</p>
<p>Thanks to Luther’s translation of the Bible, it became possible for German-speaking people to stop relying on church authorities and instead read the Bible for themselves. </p>
<p>Luther argued that ordinary people were not only capable of interpreting the scriptures for themselves, but that in doing so they stood the best chance of hearing God’s word. He <a href="https://www.cph.org/p-667-What-Luther-Says.aspx">wrote,</a> </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Let the man who would hear God speak read Holy Scripture.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Luther’s Bible helped form a common German dialect. Prior to Luther, people from different regions of present-day Germany often experienced great difficulty understanding one another. Luther’s Bible translation promoted a single <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-04-02/martin-luther-didnt-just-reform-church-he-reformed-german-language">German vernacular</a>, helping to bring people together around a common tongue.</p>
<h2>Expanding literacy</h2>
<p>This view, combined with the wide availability of scripture, shifted responsibility for scriptural interpretation from clerics to the laity. Luther wanted ordinary people to assume more responsibility for <a href="http://www.bible.ca/history/philip-schaff/7_ch04.htm">reading</a> the Bible.</p>
<p>In promoting his point of view, Luther helped to provide one of the most effective arguments for universal literacy in the history of Western civilization. </p>
<p>At a time when most people worked in farming, reading was not necessary to maintain a livelihood. But Luther wanted to remove the language barrier so that everyone could read the Bible “<a href="https://www.cph.org/p-667-What-Luther-Says.aspx">without hindrance</a>.” His rationale for wanting people both to learn to read and to read regularly was, from his point of view, among the most powerful imaginable – that reading it for themselves would bring them closer to God.</p>
<p>For much of Luther’s life, his remarkable output in theological treatises was exceeded only by his <a href="http://fortresspress.com/product/luthers-works-volume-55-index">Bible commentaries</a>. He believed that nothing could substitute for direct and ongoing encounters with scripture, which he both advocated for and helped to shape through his detailed commentaries. </p>
<h2>Reading to interpret truth</h2>
<p>Luther had <a href="https://www.luther2017.de/en/news/universitaet-und-reformation/">many reasons</a> to favor the dissemination of learning. He was a university professor. His 95 Theses were intended as an academic disputation. His teaching and scholarship played a crucial role in the development of his theology. Finally, he recognized the crucial role students would play in carrying his movement forward. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169395/original/file-20170515-7009-18dzhqn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169395/original/file-20170515-7009-18dzhqn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169395/original/file-20170515-7009-18dzhqn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169395/original/file-20170515-7009-18dzhqn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169395/original/file-20170515-7009-18dzhqn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169395/original/file-20170515-7009-18dzhqn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169395/original/file-20170515-7009-18dzhqn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Martin Luther King Jr., namesake of the German reformer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanophile/358943676/in/photolist-xHFs5-89WNBx-9rFRF6-PTQmb-fXXLTi-dehuuY-5Z1m4V-98anXx-6bRV3E-ndXHEJ-RRkZqw-98anXB-8xZpaN-dS2tZF-d7KkyY-ahKWSm-ahHaBZ-e324eh-b7US9c-dxqbkx-9btSq7-bcZHc2-FQvNN4-8w8ngR-a5Y8Wm-dNFm7h-jj366Z-7gzbUw-nQMZ7S-3JANq-4mQKbd-RbxqoW-qFFNcC-4ZuKCQ-9ipZfF-fbZCVX-nR6VJZ-89Euxq-4EX6zK-asU1VW-8ateDG-qzEsvQ-dQjVGs-pQF1vn-qSdRk2-68kz5-RwqMJh-RbwjJ1-nvxtr-ahH9Gt">the.urbanophile</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So powerfully did Luther’s influence reverberate down through the ages that, during a visit to Germany in 1934, Rev. Michael King Sr. chose to change both his and his son’s <a href="http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_king_martin_luther_michael_sr_1897_1984/">name</a> to Martin Luther King. MLK Jr., namesake of the great German reformer, would make full use of the power of <a href="https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html">free speech</a> in catalyzing the American civil rights movement.</p>
<p>In posting his 95 Theses, Luther was encouraging a vigorous exchange of ideas. The best community is not the one that suppresses dissent but one that challenges ideas it finds objectionable through rigorous argumentation. It is largely for this reason that the founders of the <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-i">United States</a> took so seriously freedom of religion, free association and the protection of a free press.</p>
<p>Luther trusted ordinary people to discern the truth. All they needed was the opportunity to interpret what they read for themselves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77540/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Gunderman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Luther translated the Greek New Testament into a common German dialect that ordinary people could read, without help from clergy.
Richard Gunderman, Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.