Talk:Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

[Untitled]

At least one of the editors for this article has an established Wikipedia history of adding unsubstantiated rumors of pederasty to biographies and then passing them off as "fact" (the editor apparently has made it his Wikipedia mission to insert the topic of pederasty to Wikipedia articles of all kinds). This link pretty much puts the lie to much of the article's current "information". This article should probably be nominated for deletion, as its sources are extremely suspect. J.R. Hercules 06:24, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for lowering the discourse to the level of "The People's Almanac." And for the personal compliments, of course. If you could bring some more serious materials to the discussion perhaps we could include them into the article. I will not speculate on your own motives, it should be clear why. Haiduc 06:50, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

I want to concur with user J.R. Hercules. I have pointed out that Haiduc added the Pederasty labels to Francesco Melzi. The evidence for this is based a line of text. I can assure you that if you look at the letters of Giuseppe Maria Crespi to his patron in Florence, and others trying to ingratiate themselves with patrons in that time, you would see the flourishes of words which Melzi addressed to Leonardo. There is no, I repeat, no evidence that Leonardo and Melzi had a pederastic relationship. This is not worth discussing. I happen to believe that there is contemporary evidence that Leonardo was accused of homosexuality as a young man. If someone feels this is of value to state with regards to Salaino, and can work out the difference in age, so be it. I doubt there is any conclusive dating to when the relationship between Salaino and Leonardo became carnal, thus I wouldn't jump to the notion that it was pederasty.

I vote this article for deletion. I strongly insist that the statements of pederasty be excised from the text of the entry for Leonardo. CARAVAGGISTI 23:13, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

Hanging blinking paragraph, again!

If you are going to remove the quotation from Leonardo concerning procreation then please remove the statement of Freud's opinion that is based on that quotation otherwise the latter makes no sense

This type of sloppy editting really annoys me!

What would be a really good and helpful idea would be if the person looks for the source instead of just deleting a quotation from the man himself and replacing it with an opinion.

The author's opinion is a valid one to quote. But it is not top line intro stuff.

--Amandajm 23:14, 28 February 2007 (UTC).

Can't do that!!

I have just discovered that a large amount of info re Salai and Melzi has been lifted directly from [1].

O damn! it's gunna hafta be entirely rewritten! Need coffee! --Amandajm 08:15, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

OK!

Having looked back through the history of Leonardo da Vinci I have concluded that the Coppens at [2] is quoting Wiki rather than the other way around, which is legitimate. --Amandajm 09:41, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Novel

Your structuring of interpretations of his love life seems to have little to do with either history or Leonardo. What led you to set it up that way? Haiduc 11:05, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Yes, your rearrangement is an improvement.

--Amandajm 07:25, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Ambidexterity?

While this finding is a traditional one, recent scholarship [3] raises questions. In any event, this alone suggests material for a more thorough investigation of the matter. JNW 08:50, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

Seems that the traditional designation is primarily that of southpaw. JNW 01:01, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

Contradicting reports in Wikipedia - to whom did Leonardo give or sell the Mona Lisa?

In http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci%27s_personal_life#Salaino it is reported that Leonardo bequeathed the Mona Lisa to il Salaino, his servant and companion, who listed the painting in his own will. However in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa#Artist_and_early_history it is reported that King Francois I bought the painting for 4,000 ecus.

Both can't be right, and I don't know which is. Anyone able to provide a definite reference?

Dermod (talk) 09:16, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

The association with Salai is recent

"Aside from the riddle of the smile, it's the mystery of Mona Lisa's identity that has inspired amateur art detectives all over the world. After centuries of uncertainty, a vitally important document has recently come to light in the Milan State Archive. It's a probate document listing the possessions of Leonardo's life-long companion, Salai, "the little devil", who was murdered in 1525. It includes a painting valued at 505 lire, which was a small fortune in those days. So it must have been a masterpiece, almost certainly left to Salai by Leonardo himself.

It's called La Gioconda, which means "the smiling one", but it's also a pun on the married name of a Florentine woman called Lisa Gherardini. She was the third wife of a prosperous silk merchant, Francesco del Gioconda, and they almost certainly met Leonardo through their patronage of Santa Annunziata, the local Servite monastery."

This article unfortunately does not name the person who did the detective work and made the discovery. An English art historian searched through a great many documents and then found Salai's will, and found the listing of a portrait value at an uncommonly high amount. Then she observed a jotting in the margin saying that the painting was of Mona or Donna (can't remember which but it was Mrs or Lady) Gioconda. This is the first time that it has been confirmed that her name actually was Madam Gioconda, even though the Italians have always referred to her as "La Gioconda" (the joking one). It's typical of Leonardo thhat in painting her he played with her nname by giving her a smile, very unusual in the painitng of the day. I saw the woman who made the discovery interviewed in a documentary. I think that she is the "Rona Goffen, professor of art history at Ruttgers University" referred to in the article, but not actually creditted with the discovery. The article was written by Nick Rossiter, who made the TV show.

And really, the woman who made the discovery was so humble about it that she never said "I did this and I did that..." She spoke all the time in the second person. What she said was something like "There you are, in the library spending days and days pouring through old documents in the hope that you might get a clue. And suddenly, there it is, right before your eyes.... " She was just so elated that her rather earnest studious spectacled face looked just about as radiant as the Mona Lisa herself.

Telegraph UK, Arts Amandajm (talk) 10:14, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

You can get a full version of the story at https://www.jstor.org/stable/1483789

Salai died in 1524 intestate. What you are referring to is the subsequent Court battle. There are two versions of the 1525 Court documents, one says, "La Honda", and this was corrected to "La Giaconda".

Janice Shell might be the woman you are talking about.

However, it is possible these records refer to a copy, or a different version. We know the King of France bought some paintings from Salai for 6250 lire. Dan88888 (talk) 11:09, 8 March 2022 (UTC)

Pederasty and Francesco Melzi

The issue rears its ugly head again. Unless someone has proof of a sexual relationship between Leonardo and Melzi, I would revert the paragraph to the way it was before Haiduc's modification. There is no such proof of a physical relationship between Leonardo and Melzi, although it remains plausible. I thought it had been resolved before, in February of 2007.CARAVAGGISTI (talk) 00:41, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

re edits by Maloseri

I have just looked at your edits to (this) website. Changing the word "relationship" to "friendship" is completely inappropriate. Leonardo had a "relationship" with the boy Salai. It was a "master/pupil" relationship. This much is certain. It may have been a "father/son" relationship. It may have been a pederast relationship. But one thing is absolutely certain. It was not a "friendship" in any normal sense of the word "friendship" which implies an equal and giving relationship.

Do not change the word "relationship" to "friendship" because "relationship" is a very broad term in English, while the word "friendship" is more specific.

Please don't keep fiddle with these articles! It is a fact that the possibility of a sexual relationship between Leonardo and Salai has often been discussed.

It is completely inappropriate to delete sourced material.

Amandajm (talk) 07:15, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Well said, Amandajm. The material being deleted is well-sourced, and is the result of a history of discussion between editors. Broad reversions won't stick, especially if they are made without discussion, and are without explanation in the edit summary. JNW (talk) 07:21, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Per WP:UNDUE:

• If a viewpoint is in the majority, then it should be easy to substantiate it with reference to commonly accepted reference texts;
• If a viewpoint is held by a significant minority, then it should be easy to name prominent adherents;
• If a viewpoint is held by an extremely small (or vastly limited) minority, it does not belong in Wikipedia regardless of whether it is true or not and regardless of whether you can prove it or not, except perhaps in some ancillary article.

I think the changes in question were extremely poor for the following reasons: First, they cite Leonardo's works themselves as evidence. (The article practically makes the argument "Look! Leonardo painted nekkid pictures of boys! HE MUST HAVE WANTED TO HAVE HAD SEX WITH THEM.") This is original research in the extreme, in addition to being simply ignorant of the themes that permeated Renaissance art and showing a willingness to impose 21st century know-nothing sexual attitudes on a 15th century man. Second, where citations are made, they prefer less-scholarly, "single-issue" sources to more accepted da Vinci biographers (glbtq.com and Crompton. Crompton, at least, is a well-known scholar, but his work needs to be used in the context of the dog not barking: that is, of other major biographers without a political agenda not making such sweeping claims about da Vinci's sexuality.) In short, these additions egregiously violate several of Wikipedia's core philosophies: they are written to persuade and argue a point of view, that point of view is not supported by mainstream sources, and in places that point of view is presented as an entirely novel argument developed by Wikipedia editors. This in unacceptable, and this sort of nonsense must stop. Nandesuka (talk) 12:15, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Your disqualification of gay history experts as valid sources has been noted, and will be the subject of analysis. Haiduc (talk) 12:12, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Ummm! One of Leonardo's pictures of the nekkid boy shows him with a rather formidable erection. It does seem to hint at a certain sexual interest. Amandajm (talk) 16:31, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

How about you drop by Model (art) and make that argument? I'm sure everyone who has ever sketched a man with an erection in an art class will be fascinated to know that this means they have sexual interest in their models. Nandesuka (talk) 16:59, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Reversion of recent edits

I don't think that this "minority opinion" thing will wash. It goes against the facts.

• Fact Leonardo was arrested for sexual activity with a young male prostitute. That he was arrested is one of the very few undisputed dated biographical facts that we have for that part of his life. Not to state this would be remiss.
• Fact In the 16th century, Leonardo was characterised in literature as enjoying sex with a 15 year old boy. While the book itself is fantasy, it reveals how Leonardo was depicted by someone whose life overlapped those who knew him.
• Fact There are few erotic drawings still in existence by Leonardo. The few which are blatantly erotic are also of an unquestionably homoerotic nature. Penises chasing somebody's bottom?
• Fact Many authors comment upon the sexually-charge nature, or apparent androgeny of the John the Baptist figure.

Concerning the nature of Leonardo's sexuality- Two other opinions have been offered, with citation. Anyone who knows more about Freud's interpretation, (or any other interpretation) of Leonardo's sexuality is perfectly welcome to add it. This would redress the balance in a much more effective and meaningful way than removing that part which has been researched and written.

There are other gaps in this article which also need fixing. My recommendation is for someone to do a little more research and writing, instead of getting quite so uptight about what is already written. There is more than one way to balance a see-saw.

Amandajm (talk) 17:32, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Nandeska, your last argument is ridiculous. Go take a look at the drawing that is being referred to.

Moreover, I have worked as an art teacher and have drawn a large number of nude men in the last 50 years or so. And, to be perfectly frank, I have never seen a young male model with a full erection in a classroom situation. The only man that has ever got a full erection while I was drawing him was one who was planning on getting me into bed as soon as I had finished the drawing. ..... I find your attitude odd! Amandajm (talk) 17:32, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Good grief! I just looked at the reference to erections in the article to which you are referring- the case of an inexperienced young male model... What usually happens when a model starts to get an erection is that the young man simply says "Excuse me, I need a break" and goes to the bathroom in his wrap.

The situation in which Leonardo drew Salai is entirely different. Leonardo also drew anatomic studies of genitals, and of copulation. These drawings are in no way "erotic' drawings. They are scientific studies. There is no confusion at all about which of the pictures are erotic. Amandajm (talk) 17:44, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

If you can find reliable sources supporting your fascinating contention that artists only draw models with erections because they want to have sex with them, that might very well support your point. It may seem obvious to you that Leonardo's pictures of Salai were (a) erotic and (b) that this nature implies that Leonardo drew them because he had an erotic relationship. But your opinion (or, indeed, any of our opinions) is not a permissible source for this encyclopedia. Nandesuka (talk) 19:19, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Nandesuka, you have seriously and deliberately misinterpreted what I have said.

• I made no such "fascinating contention" (your words). I have commented specifically on the Wikipedia page (Model (art)) that you have cited as reference for your comment about art students depicting males with erections.
• I have informed you, from experience, that it would be a most uncommon thing for art students to draw a live model in a studio situation with a full erection. The article you cited supports what I have told you. On the other hand, the penis of some males tends to engorge slightly while they are posing naked. This is not the same thing as a full erection.
• I have not contended that artists only draw models with erections because they want to have sex with them. However, if an artist draws a model with a full erection, then it is much more likely to be done as an act expressing personal intimacy, or as a piece of erotica, or as a piece of pornography, or as a piece of humour or satire than in a studio situation. Because of the nature of erections, their depiction is almost always directly associated with sex in one of these ways. That must be quite obvious, surely!
• No statement has been made that Leonardo was homosexual/pederast. The statement has been made that these interpretations of his character have existed since his lifetime.
• An explanation has also been included in the article that, during the Renaissance period, homosexuality was commonly expressed as pederasty. The modern situation of two adult males living openly as a couple was not a social possiblity. However, an artist engaging in a sexual relationship with a teenage apprentice was a social possibility because apprentices lived in the Master's household for several years. The relationship might be long term, if the apprentice continued as the master's assistant, once out of indentures. Procuring a boy on the street for sexual purposes was illegal, and was policed.
• If we consider historic interpretations of Leonardo's sexuallity-

1. There is no evidence that, during his lifetime, his contemporaries interpreted him as sexually repressed, as Freud later did.
2. There is no evidence that, during his lifetime, his contemporaries interpreted him as heterosexual, as several authors who have linked him to "Mona Lisa" have later done.
3. There is finite evidence that, during his lifetime, he was interpreted as having had sex with a young male. This interpretation of his sexuality has not been proved true or false, but the fact is that the interpretation has existed since the man was in his early 20s. And the fact is that recent writers have cited a number of artworks to support the interpretation of his character. These facts are reported in this article.

• The facts that have been cited do not support a minority opinion. They support an informed opinion, which is a different matter entirely. The widely imagined popular opinion that Leonardo might have been in love with the Mona Lisa is a view based on ignorance of the facts, rather than knowledge of the facts. The majority of people who hold this opinion do not know that Leonardo was arrested for sodomy and have never seen Leonardo's drawings of penises chasing Salai's bottom. There are millions of people all over the world who are interested in Leonardo as a sort of cult figure and have opinions about him, just as they have opinions about Princess Di and Mahatma Ghandi. It doesn't mean that they know anything in any depth.

Nandesuka, I am bound to ask you why you are challenging only the part of the article which deals with Leonardo's sexuality. These are the best referenced parts of the entire article. There are whole sections in the article that have no reference whatsoever, and some of them may indeed fall into the POV category. Why have you not gone through and slapped "fact" tags on all the other uncited material? Why this obsession with supressing opinions concerning the man that have been held since he was arrested in the 1470s?

Amandajm (talk) 01:16, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

I don't mind your asking at all. Recently, I noticed a spate of activity on varied and sundry biographies with much material being added asserting or speculating that those figures were homosexuals or pederasts. Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with noting such discussion in a biography. The problem, however, is that when I followed up on the sources, in a distressingly large number of cases the claims were misinterpreted, mischaracterized or, to be blunt, completely fabricated, often involving cherry-picking of sources (by which I mean extensively quoting sources that supported the contention that Figure A was a pederast, and discounting any contradictory sources) and plain misreading (citing Source A as supporting the statement "Figure A was a homosexual" when Source A, in fact, said "We can not conclude that Figure A was a homosexual". As a result, I am simply inclined to require a much higher standard of proof about claims like this going forward. That means verifiable citations to impeccable sources, and it means a very careful and very balanced choice of words. I don't see that in the material you're reverting back into the article.

I have no particular subject matter interest in the homosexuality of historical figures. I'm just trying to clean up the absolutely despicable damage that has been done to the encyclopedia by a few dedicated POV warriors, who seem to have a standard as low as "if you can get a hit on a google search that asserts Fact A, that's good enough for a Wikipedia article!" It isn't. It never has been. It never will be.

Haiduc has implied that I'm trying to "disqualify gay history experts." Not at all. I'm trying to disqualify the misuse of them in a shotgun manner to provide indiscriminate support for ridiculous statements. (A good example of this happened recently on the Byron article, where an editor was misusing sources to assert, indisputably, that Byron had a sexual relationship with so-and-so, where in fact there is no such academic consensus that he did. Of course I'm not trying to extinguish discussion of Byron's homosexuality and pederasty -- he was Lord Freaking Byron, for crying out loud. I am, rather, demanding impeccable sources and impeccable use of sources, rather than copy-and-paste-to-support-a-point of view, which -- I'm sorry -- is how this material reads to me.

I hope that clarifies my interest. Nandesuka (talk) 02:50, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Why the continuing and partial, selective deletion of Vasari's description (a graceful and beautiful youth with fine curly hair, in which Leonardo greatly delighted.)? Unless there is reason to doubt the veracity of the full quote, its truncation looks like spin. Some of the deleted passages appear to be well sourced and cited; other statements would benefit from further sourcing. In short, is the literature certain about Leonardo's sexuality? If it remains speculative, then Wikipedia must reflect that. And if there is substantial scholarship supporting the interpretation that he was homosexual, then reversions of such content ought to be undertaken judiciously. JNW (talk) 03:22, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

You have explained your selective interest in removing different statements, but that does not explain your purposeful misinterpretation of things that I have written on this page. And since the writer, in this case is right here asking you to explain yourself, I think that it is a little biased, to say the least, for you to accuse other people of the misuse of facts and sources. At the risk of seeming unpleasant, I must state that I don't like to be misrepresented.Amandajm (talk) 03:51, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps I misunderstood your point. You said: "One of Leonardo's pictures of the nekkid boy shows him with a rather formidable erection. It does seem to hint at a certain sexual interest." I don't think that it does hint at that, particularly since if we infer that hint, we're making a twenty-first century inference about a renaissance mind. And certainly I don't think such hints are a reasonable basis for making claims in an article in Wikipedia. Nandesuka (talk) 04:11, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

JNW, I think the article makes it clear that these matters are specualtive. Will you just check it over? Amandajm (talk) 03:54, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

In reponse to the last by Nandesuka.

Your misinterpretion of what I wrote didn't concern that. You accused me of making a "fascinating contention". Please reread what I have written on that matter, and try to revise your thinking.

Concerning your last point, erect male organs have always been associated with sex. Ever since God put that funny little thingy on Adam. (See Michelangelo). This association is not a modern interpretation. If it were, I can't imagine what would have happened to the human race!

Are you trying to tell me that people are mistaken in thinking that the picture known as "Incarnate angel" (translates as "Angel in the flesh") [4] isn't about sex? Its just a perfectly innocent lad, drawn by a perfectly innocent Renaissance man as an anatomical study! ;-) Amandajm (talk) 04:54, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Can you provide a reliable source that supports your interpretation of this image? - brenneman 05:04, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

How can we be so sure that the Incarnate Angel's penis was really drawn by Leonardo itself? Maybe Leonardo drew the Angel's face and later someone put the penis as a joke or vandalism. What do you think?

It is a possibility. There are several Leonardo drawings that have bits added at a later date, including the famous bicycle which is obviously not by Leonardo because the drawing of it is a crude, amateurish scribble, consistent with a scribbly little face that is on the same page. However, if we eliminate the possibility that Leonardo himself was responsible for the quite well drawn penis on the Incarnate Angel, we are still left with the fact that the painted John the Baptist appears homo-erotic, penis or no penis. Amandajm (talk) 18:14, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

But then you are a gay, And so much to biased to be entrusted with history revisionism. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.82.210.186 (talk) 22:03, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Merge

I've looked over this article and its parent article and I suggest that this be merged back to Leonardo da Vinci. There are curretnly two paragraphs there, and the material that is currently here could easily be summarised to at most three paragraphs, particularly if extraneous material is removed.
brenneman 04:58, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Hi Aaron! Please, please please do not suggest a re-merge of the two Leonardo articles!

Firstly, the main article is very long and I am being hassled to shorten it.

When I first commenced work on the main article, it included a lengthy passage on the topic of Leonardo's speculated pederasty, and not much else. There was no discussion of his paintings whatsoever. One of my concerns was that there was extreme overload on the sexual side (about which we in fact know almost nothing).

The article is used by every English-speaking child on the planet with access to a computer, in order to do their school assignment on Leonardo. (They all do one, sooner or later). Although I am not by nature prudish, the emphasis on the pederast side of things, and the discussion of pics of Salia's bottom was out of hand. Censorship is not permitted on Wikipedia, but on the other hand, a balance of opinions is expected. Since balancing the opinions was so difficult, I split the article, and encouraged people to write about other matters as well, including lefthandedness, love of nature, vegetarianism and so on.

I want to see the two articles kept separate. So I would prefer that you didn't recommmend a merge.

Amandajm (talk) 05:21, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

I understand your concerns about there being inappropiate weight placed on any one aspect, and in particular your comments about "determined editor[s being] capable of finding a lot of quotes." However, to fix the problem in the parent article by moving it here is almost the definition of content forking.

By having this article here is gets less attention, which makes it more difficult to ensure proper encyclopedic content. Unless there is signifigant objection, I'll be re-merging any material that's appropiate and redirecting this article.

brenneman

• Strong Keep This amounts to a proposal to delete about 7/8s of this article:"material that is currently here could easily be summarised to at most three paragraphs, particularly if extraneous material is removed" - which seems bizarre. The main Leonardo article is already near the maximum desirable length, and would certainly go over it if this were merged back, not to mention the "Science and inventions" "content fork", to which exactly the same arguments would apply. The article meets the Wikipedia:Content forking guideline perfectly well:

  Sometimes, when an article gets long (see Wikipedia:Article size), a section of the article is made into its own article, and the handling of the subject in the main article is condensed to a brief summary. This is completely normal Wikipedia procedure; the new article is sometimes called a "spinout" or "spinoff" of the main article, see for example wikipedia:summary style, which explains the technique. Even if the subject of the new article is controversial, this does not automatically make the new article a POV fork. However, the moved material must be replaced with an NPOV summary of that material. If it is not, then the "spinning out" is really a clear act of POV forking: a new article has been created so that the main article can favor some viewpoints over others.

Johnbod (talk) 03:36, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Brenneman, you don't seem to have found any agreement that this article should be merged.

• The fact is that every single aspect of Leonardo's life is interesting to the punters in one way or another. For that reason, if all that is known or specualate is to be written about the fascinating character, then a number of articles is required to cover it.
• The Parent article is already extremely long. For that reason it has been divided. There is a separate article on Leonardo as a scientist. and article on cultural depictions of Leonardo, in line with other such articles, and this present article, which contains much interesting info, and would be much longer if the proposed sections were finished.
• Because of the present length of the parent article, it is slow to load, and as the main editor of it, I am being urged to split it once again. There is really no need for you to make it any longer.

Amandajm (talk) 06:55, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

(undent) Let's upack just one section, to compare what's there in this article vs what's in that article. There is mention above of problems with material related to "the topic of Leonardo's speculated pederasty" so that's probably a natural first examination:

• The current parent article has, under Leonardo_da_Vinci#Personal_life has two paragraphs covering this, roughly 1000 characters.
• Under Leonardo_da_Vinci's_personal_life#Leonardo.27s_sexual_orientation this article has four paragraphs, roughly 1700 characters. But 600 of those are a single quoted hunk of text, another 170 are another quote, and the 263 characters in the "intro" to this section are straightforward POV empty/peacock, "some have speculated on the possibility of an erotic element." Who are "some" and to what degree have they speculated?

Soooo that leaves 1700 - 870 - 260 < 1000. The section here is actually shorter in terms or real encyclopedic content than that section in the parent article.
brenneman 07:43, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

I don't object to a merge in principle, provided that the following conditions are met:

• The Leonardo da Vinci article does not increase in length at all
• No valuable encyclopedic content is lost.

If you think this is possible, why not draft a version of it here, so we can take a look? Papa November (talk) 10:07, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

• Keep per Amandajm and Johnbod. Although in principle I like neither spin-off articles nor excessive trivia, this is an exceptional case. There is content here that is not without interest, elaborates on material in the main article, but is too specific for inclusion there and would result in unwanted expansion. It is possible that some of this information could be folded into footnotes in the main article, but that would be extremely unwieldy, too. Given the subject's fame and import, a separate article has merit. JNW (talk) 16:58, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

• • In response to the statement that the artcile has less info on the topic of his specualted perderasty, this situation is the immediate result of recent deletions by one editor. I have reverted the edits several times, but need to just make sure that everything is properly referenced before reverting again, as per discussion. Amandajm (talk) 01:15, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

• What, no Haiduc? Poor chap must be unwell. I'll go with a KEEP on this article, and delete the personal relationships sectionette from the main article. Entirely. It's trivia. It's does-the-poet-pick-his-nose - a phrase from a letter of Lawrence Durrell, dear Amanda, who was writing to his friend Henry to complain about exactly this kind of popular preoccupation with salacious details. But since Wikipedia is the vox populi, it's gotta go somewhere, and it might as well go here. (And anyway, who am I kidding - I enjoy reading salacious titbits as much as the snooty highbrow intellectual). PiCo (talk) 10:58, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

A message from "my talk" by Amandajm:

"Maloseri, I notice that you have been removing stuff from that article. So I'll explain myself.

When I started editting the main article on Leonardo da Vinci, there was a very strong emphasis on his relationship with his two pupils, backed up by numerous references etc etc. The same article had nothing about his paintings. When I editted out some details of his private life, and placed much greater emphasis on his works, there was uproar from an individual who claimed I was censoring an article and supressing the true nature of the man.

The row went on and on with numerous outraged people joining the fray on either side. Like the private life of James VI/I, it threatened to swamp the other aspects of the man, and overtake the entire page, let alone the discussion page. So I began the article on his private life, in the hopes that all the speculations about his sexuality would argue themselves out on that page, not on the main page that all the little kiddiwinks use to do their homework.

For this reason, it's best not to delete the stuff, even if it appears speculative. Because for every action there is an opposite reaction, and in the case of your deletion, the reaction may be far greater than equal. Frankly, I don't care how much they speculate about his private life, as long as it is made clear that it is speculation. I just want to avoid a great pile of speculative shit on the main page, and for that reason, I'm prepared to compromise. Amandajm (talk) 14:37, 31 July 2008 (UTC)"

First, way to show your true colors. It's now clear the real reason you want that stuff in. Second, this has got to be the flimsiest argument for anything I've seen in a while. Keep baseless speculation in an encyclopedia to "prevent" even more baseless speculation? First speculation of any kind has no place in encyclopedias and how does prevent more speculation? If anything it encourages it as acceptable.

Apart from that I agree with the decision to merge and delete because this contains a lot of non-essentials. Remove all the feathery display and all you get left is a very skinny naked chicken. The crucial details can easily be put into the main article in a couple short paragraphs. ---Maloseri (talk) 01:33, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Keep It is interesting to see what ammunition those who would like to eliminate this information from Wikipedia are using. "Fringe" and "speculative" are good examples. But we see that the "deleters" use the "fringe" label for homosexual history and queer studies works, and that the use of "speculative" is itself speculation, and not by authorities in the field (such as wrote the contested and properly cited material) but by anonymous internet characters with a louche agenda posing as defenders of intellectual integrity. Then of course there is the demand for "impeccable references" selectively applied, of course, to the topics that exercise the said characters, and enforced by capricious standards imposed by them by fiat, as if they knew what they were talking about. The net result, of course is "it goes because I say so." This is a particularly pernicious process when these individuals work in cahoots with each other, and even more so when they work under the cover of administrator credentials, which have been amply abused by both of these fellows. Nandesuka I have caught in two barefaced lies on important matters. Brenneman has a history of being verbally abusive and threatening, which he then follows by less-than-credible apologies. Watch out for both of them. Haiduc (talk) 11:47, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

• Merge and cleanup. I absolutely appreciate Amandajm's angst about flooding the main Leonardo with ludicrous speculation, and I'm not trying to ruin his life. However, the key to the conundrum lies in his initial observation: this article only exists because the material in it was ruining the main article. I don't think we have to settle for sloppy scholarship, and I think the correct solution is to merge the verifiable, non-fringe arguments back into the main article, and to toss the Mary Sue style speculation where it belongs: on the midden heap. Part of the reason this article got so bad was that it was shielded from the light of vigorous editing by the larger number of editors who work on the main LdV article, which allowed many fringe, cockroach-like "facts" (read: speculations) to scurry around, feasting on entire paragraphs. By merging it back in, we'll shine the light of day on the material, and the cockroaches will, we can hope, scurry away. Nandesuka (talk) 11:59, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

• Keep. Per Amandajm, Johnbod and Haiduc. I share similar concerns as what Haiduc points out that certainly suggests that an ongoing campaign to rid wikipedia of material that is uncomfortable seems to be happening. If one really were interested in making this encyclopedia safe "for the children" they likely would want it to be ... encyclopedic so those same children could make up their own minds about what to read. Banjeboi 04:35, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

response to Malerosi This is not a case of me "showing my true colours", as you put it. I have been upfront about my reasons from the start. I discussed this at length with Haiduc and a number of other editors at the time that this page was created. The parent article probably has the discussion in its archived pages.

Secondly, many aspects of Leonardo's life are interesting to many people. I think that there is certainly enough info about his private lief to reatain it as a separate article. I think that some of the other aspects like his left-handedness need to be dealt with more fully as it has been the subject of some research. I think that Freud's study of Leonardo needs to be dealt with in much greater detail than it is. I think that the awful wordy passage that PiCo removed possibly needs looking at to see if anyone can make sense of it. Personally, I think that the subject himself is of sufficient interest and has provoked so much thought, writing and speculation that this article is entiirely warranted.

In my own defense I want to make it clear that I do not want to see referenced statement like "Leonardo was accused of sodomy...." and "it has been speculated since the 16th century that Leonardo's relationship with his pupils was homoerotic in nature..." and "Melzi described Leonardo's feelings for him as passionate...." and "...the boy had fine golden hair in which Leonardo delighted..." removed from the main article.

This content is entirely appropriate to an account of the man Leonardo. It is written in the sort of terms which any adult will immediately comprehend, but most younger children will pass over.

However, if these statements are accompanied by an excerpt of a purely ficticious account of Leonardo talking about sex with a 15 yr old boy, (rather than simply citing the book), and a description of a rather lewd drawing of persuing penises (which is generally reckoned to be by a student's hand rather than Leonardo's) rather than just a supporting statement that Leonardo's drawings contained a number of homoerotic works, then I think that the article is becoming unbalanced in its emphasis.

And is undoubtedly too explicit for most parents or teachers to be happy about children using it.

Amandajm (talk) 13:07, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

• Delete or Merge-- no encyclopedia in its right mind would have an article speculating about the sexual proclivities, or, euphemistically, "personal life" of a guy who has been dead for centuries. If someone needs to speculate, or fantasize, about such matters, he should find another venue, perhaps [www.londonfetishscene.com/wipi/index.php/Main_Page Wipipedia]. --Marvin Diode (talk) 21:24, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Paragraph I deleted

I deleted this:

"[Leonardo] had a great tenderness for the mystery of birth. As a Renaissance pagan he is nympholept, ravished by a vision of immortal beauty; like any mediæval monk and schoolman he is charmed by the mystical vision of virginity. He hates the act of procreation, but he loves the child. As an artist he solved his problem by a dream of parthenogenesis, or by bridal with a god, which, while remote and miraculous, yet casually admitted to the imagination the haunting sensuousness that could not be entirely laid, in a subtle and etherealized and perhaps perverted way that pleased him."ref: Annand Taylor, Rachel, Leonardo the Florentine: A Study in Personality, pp.493, Richards Press, 1927.

What does it mean? A "tenderness for the mystery of birth"? A nympho-what? "Ravished by a vision of immortal beauty" (pure gush). "Charmed by the mystical vision of virginity" - meaning he painted some Virgins? - but he was paid to. And what on earth does "bridal with a god" mean? And it seems he "casually" (as opposed to purposefully?) imagined (how do you casually imagine something?) a "sensuousness" that was somehow "subtle," "etherealised," and "perhaps perverted" (thank God for the "perhaps"!). If I'm just too thick to understand this etherialised prose, please explain it to me, but I strongly suspect that the author is trying to cover up half-formed thoughts with exalted language. (Sorry Amanda dear, but one must be cruel to be kind - Rachel seems to me to be talking through her fundament).PiCo (talk) 04:51, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Don't you imply by your apology that it was me who was responsible for finding and including this extraordinary waffle! I merely transferred it from the other page, along with with Freud and .... I've forgotten the name of the other guy who made the lewd specualtions.... Anyway, it weren't me wot dunnit and don't you dare imply it was! Amandajm (talk) 08:38, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

I can't tell: Is this friendly banter betwixt the two of you? - brenneman 08:48, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

I's friendly banter - I know Amanda in real life. :). PiCo (talk) 07:27, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, that's right! Mutually beneficial bad prose is it now?! :b Amandajm (talk) 11:21, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

LGBT project

I think it's not neutral to make this article a part of LGBT project. We can't say for sure whether Leonardo was homosexual or not, so this theory shouldn't be promoted as the only right one. --Dr. Bobbie Fox (talk) 13:54, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

The article is part of the project because it falls within the interests of that particular wikigroup. There is no presumption of alternate sexuality made; it simply means that the topic/subject is of interest or is related directly or indirectly to the subjects of interest of the LGBT project. Whether or not da Vinci was homosexual is not the reason for the tag; the longstanding discussion and analysis of da Vinci's personal relationships, including suggestions of homosexuality, is the reason for the project's interest. The wikiproject likely also has interest in articles about heterosexuals who have strongly supported or advocated on behalf of (or in opposition to) "gay rights" (to use a general term). That's an assumption on my part; I'm not a member of the LGBT wikiproject.

To summarise, the addition of a talk page notice indicating that a particular article is of interest to the LGBT wikiproject means that some aspect of the article relates to the general umbrella of LGBT interests, not that the subject of the article is (or was) a practicing lesbian, gay, bisexual or transsexual. Risker (talk) 14:35, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

I agree. Am I wrong to assume that the same logic applies to the categorization of an article? And if not, why not? Haiduc (talk) 23:55, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

Categorization has nothing to do with Wikiprojects. Categories are about articles, normally include a definition their inclusion and exclusion criteria in keeping with other categories, and are nested within a hierarchy of categories; they are creatures of the encyclopedia as a whole, and all editors can discuss them. Wikiprojects are about editors with common interests, who can define their area of interests quite differently from a similarly named category, and participation in decisions of wikiprojects is generally no more than an agreement amongst a small group of editors with common interests. Risker (talk) 00:04, 23 October 2008 (UTC)

I concur with Risker. There's nothing inappropriate in a wikiproject taking an interest in an article. Nandesuka (talk)

• Comment. To clarify, a wikiproject is not article content and only serves to provide the article with an interested group of editors in a specialized area. Categorizations, however, when dealing with religion and sexuality minorities are under a strict sourced content basis on BLP's and similar effort on Biographies that are not BLP. To add a category that someone is Religion X or any one of a sexuality minority - sourced content needs to be in the article so readers can verify the category is correct. I think this was developed to deal with ongoing category abuse but serves articles well - in general. Sourcing is a good thing. -- Banjeboi 15:00, 27 October 2008 (UTC

Checking with reference (8) it is seen that only the contribution from Muntz was the sentence about the quote about Corsali's letter, so (8) should be moved to the end of that quote. Additionally the part about refusal to drink milk is not substantiated anywhere in the IVU (International Vegetarian Union) article referenced in (8). [note: There is a bit of confusion because (8) refers to both the Muntz book and the IVU article which references it.] The quote about the cheese and milk should be removed entirely. This quote was taken from his Prophesies. Quoting from (8): "According to Kenneth Clark, in his book, Leonardo da Vinci (1993 revised edition, first published 1939):

"…These are in a form which seems to have been popular among the wits of Milan, and we read that Leonardo’s prophecies were written in competition with those of Bramante. They consist of descriptions of ordinary happenings, so worded as to sound like appalling catastrophes..."

Clark concludes the passage with, "Knowing from contemporary sources Leonardo’s love of animals, we can be sure that such ‘prophecies’ as these are not mere jokes, but represent his refusal to take as a matter of course the suffering which man’s technical skill has allowed him to inflict on the other animals."

Thus, we think the prophecies give us clues to Leonardo's thinking, but it is inaccurate to use the prophecies as if they were actual quotes, and certainly not without explaining the context and explanation of what the Prophesies were.

Additionally, I would prefer to replace the Muntz quote altogether with the following (again from ref. 8): In The Mind of Leonardo da Vinci (1928), Edward MacCurdy (one of the two translators and compilers of Leonardo's Notebooks into English) wrote:

"…The mere idea of permitting the existence of unnecessary suffering, still more that of taking life, was abhorrent to him. Vasari tells, as an instance of his love of animals, how when in Florence he passed places where birds were sold he would frequently take them from their cages with his own hand, and having paid the sellers the price that was asked would let them fly away in the air, thus giving them back their liberty.

That this horror of inflicting pain was such as to lead him to be a vegetarian is to be inferred from a reference which occurs in a letter sent by Andrea Corsali to Giuliano de’Medici, in which, after telling him of an Indian race called Gujerats, who neither eat anything that contains blood nor permit any injury to any living creature, he adds ‘like our Leonardo da Vinci.’ "

From MacCurdy, it seems the term Gujerats, or Guzzarati as referred to in the quoted Corsali letter, does not apply to Hindus in general, as one translator apparently suggested, so I would remove [Hindus] as an explanation of Guzzarati in the quote. Today, Gujarat is a state along the Arabian Sea in India.

Any objections to me making these changes? ExplorerMMVIII (talk) 16:35, 2 November 2008 (UTC)ExplorerMMVIII

This should have been in the next section. Hopefully it can be removed here. Sorry, I'm new to this. ExplorerMMVIII (talk) 16:49, 2 November 2008 (UTC)ExplorerMMXIII

Corrections and Additions to Leonardo's Vegetarianism

Checking with reference (8) it is seen that [the only]ExplorerMMVIII (talk) 16:52, 2 November 2008 (UTC)ExplorerMMVIII contribution from Muntz was the sentence about the quote about Corsali's letter, so (8) should be moved to the end of that quote. Additionally the part about refusal to drink milk is not substantiated anywhere in the IVU (International Vegetarian Union) article referenced in (8). [note: There is a bit of confusion because (8) refers to both the Muntz book and the IVU article which references it.] The quote about the cheese and milk should be removed entirely. This quote was taken from his Prophesies. Quoting from (8): "According to Kenneth Clark, in his book, Leonardo da Vinci (1993 revised edition, first published 1939):

"…These are in a form which seems to have been popular among the wits of Milan, and we read that Leonardo’s prophecies were written in competition with those of Bramante. They consist of descriptions of ordinary happenings, so worded as to sound like appalling catastrophes..."

Clark concludes the passage with, "Knowing from contemporary sources Leonardo’s love of animals, we can be sure that such ‘prophecies’ as these are not mere jokes, but represent his refusal to take as a matter of course the suffering which man’s technical skill has allowed him to inflict on the other animals."

Thus, we think the prophecies give us clues to Leonardo's thinking, but it is inaccurate to use the prophecies as if they were actual quotes, and certainly not without explaining the context and explanation of what the Prophesies were.

Additionally, I would prefer to replace the Muntz quote altogether with the following (again from ref. 8): In The Mind of Leonardo da Vinci (1928), Edward MacCurdy (one of the two translators and compilers of Leonardo's Notebooks into English) wrote:

"…The mere idea of permitting the existence of unnecessary suffering, still more that of taking life, was abhorrent to him. Vasari tells, as an instance of his love of animals, how when in Florence he passed places where birds were sold he would frequently take them from their cages with his own hand, and having paid the sellers the price that was asked would let them fly away in the air, thus giving them back their liberty.

That this horror of inflicting pain was such as to lead him to be a vegetarian is to be inferred from a reference which occurs in a letter sent by Andrea Corsali to Giuliano de’Medici, in which, after telling him of an Indian race called Gujerats, who neither eat anything that contains blood nor permit any injury to any living creature, he adds ‘like our Leonardo da Vinci.’ "

From MacCurdy, it seems the term Gujerats, or Guzzarati as referred to in the quoted Corsali letter, does not apply to Hindus in general, as one translator apparently suggested, so I would remove [Hindus] as an explanation of Guzzarati in the quote. Today, Gujarat is a state along the Arabian Sea in India.

Any objections to me making these changes? ExplorerMMVIII (talk) 16:35, 2 November 2008 (UTC)ExplorerMMVIII

Please expand and improve the article in whatever way you can. There might be a nice Leo drawing of an animal that would fit in appropriately at that point. ... had a look, there's only the bear. I wonder if the poor thing was a dancing bear? Amandajm (talk) 01:47, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Hopefully my additions are okay. I'm concerned their might be copyright issues with the quotations, but I think it is covered under fair use. I couldn't get one of the links right. There is an article entitled Giuliano di Lorenzo de'Medici. The think the problem is the apostrophe I am using doesn't code properly. Amanda, I found a nice horse picture, but I am concerned I can't just import it from a web site because of copyright issues. ExplorerMMVIII (talk) 02:31, 5 November 2008 (UTC)ExplorerMMVIII

Medici link problem solved with right type of apostrophe and right spacing. ExplorerMMVIII (talk) 03:48, 5 November 2008 (UTC)ExplorerMMVIII

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci is awsome!!! I guess —Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.26.20.29 (talk) 17:38, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Deletion of pic

I am really annoyed about this one. It's a little hard to give benefit of the doubt to some editors.

An editor uploaded to Commons a pic that came from a blog about Leonardo's suspected/presumed homosexuality. The pic of was the Incarnate Angel, which I have just deleted. My reason for deletion is this:

• The blog from which the wiki editor took it states clearly that the picture is called the Incarnate Angel and is believed to date from about 1515. (It's similarity to the John the Baptist, believed to date from Leonardo's last years, is apparent to anyone/everyone who looks at it.)
• The blog mentions Jacopo Saltarelli... not a name of great importance. He was the young male prostitute with whom Leonardo was accused of having relations.
• The enterprising editor who uploaded the picture has uploaded it as "Leonardo da Vinci - Jacopo Saltarelli" and stated in the description that it is Jacopo Saltarelli by Leonardo da Vinci and dated it 1475, forty years before it is believed to have been drawn.
• So now it has been put into this page by a nameless editor, as a picture of Jacopo.
• Moreover, a page has now been created called Jacopo Saltarelli, just so that this pic can be displayed, and a whole article devoted to a young man about which we know absolutely nothing, except that he was allegedly a prostitute.

This is getting beyond a joke. I left a message on the original uploader's talk page requesting that the picture be uploaded again under the name of "Incarnate Angel" and its date corrected from 1475 to 1515.

Amandajm (talk) 10:14, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

I too thought it was Salai. It is a very important work for this article, please restore it properly labeled. Haiduc (talk) 11:49, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Leonardo's sexuality

There are people out there that contend that he was straight- in love with Mona Lisa, etc etc . It probably ought to be mentioned, simply to acknowledge that there are such theories.

Also, a number of statements have been twisted to support a case. e.g. "There are only two detailed pictures of female reproductive organs and one is uncharacteristically distorted." This is referenced, but nonsense. I can think of four pictures of female reproductive organs. So the notion of ONLY two, rather than a plain statement "There are two drawings of female reproductive organs........." Well, I mean, really! How many detailed drawings of female reproductive organs does a person need to do, to prove a case? A man like Leonardo would be perfectly able to have a consuming interest in female reproductive organs, (or any other organs for that matter) without it being any indication of his sexuality whatsoever!

The interesting thing is that there is no mention here of how many detailed picture Leonardo did of male reproductive organs. I can only think of two detailed studies. And one shows both male and female. Does it mean something? Is four better than two? Or is it simply that females grow babies? NOTE: I am discounting non-detailed pics of male genitals, like those on the Vitruvian man. His bits and pieces are visible simply because a males' generally are rather more visible than a females'. But perhaps the writer of this nonsense hadn't noticed that.

Anyway, there is no need for the insertion of words like "only two" to prove a point. There are enough referenced opinions that are valid.

Amandajm (talk) 10:36, 1 December 2011 (UTC) Amandajm (talk) 10:36, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

Adding sexual orientation category to this biography may be a WP:CAT/R#Sexuality violation

WP:CAT/R#Sexuality For a dead person, there must be a verified consensus of reliable published sources that the description is appropriate. For example, while some sources have claimed that William Shakespeare was gay or bisexual, there is not a sufficient consensus among scholars to support categorizing him as such. Similarly, a living person who is caught in a gay prostitution scandal, but continues to assert their heterosexuality, can not be categorized as gay. Categories that make allegations about sexuality – such as "closeted homosexuals" or "people suspected to be gay" – are not acceptable under any circumstances. If such a category is created, it should be immediately depopulated and deleted. Note that as similar categories of this type have actually been attempted in the past, they may be speedily deleted (as a G4) and do not require another debate at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion. User: Pgarret (talk) 06:36, 12 November 2012 (UTC).

We need reliable sources for category claims. It may well be that such sources are indeed available and you can list them in the article - but if not, then who is saying that these people fit the bill? Just deciding that you think they fit the description is Original Research - and that's not allowed here. I need to see a few reliable little blue number in each categorization that links to a reference document that can be examined to confirm Basic Academic rigour

Most people that are listed in the misleading LGBT categorization can also be connected with the following:

-Heteroflexibility -is a form of a sexual orientation or situational sexual behavior characterized by minimal homosexual activity despite a primarily heterosexual sexual :orientation that is considered to distinguish it from bisexuality.

-Pansexual- A person who is fluid in sexual orientation and/or gender or sex identity.

-Polyamory- is the practice of having multiple open, honest love relationships.

-Affectional orientation - To holders of this view, one's orientation is defined by whom one is predisposed to fall in love with, whether or not one desires that person sexually

-MSM- are male persons who engage in sexual activity with members of the same sex, regardless of how they identify themselves; many men choose not to (or cannot for other reasons) accept sexual identities of homosexual or bisexual.

-Situational sexual behaviour is sexual behavior of a kind that is different from that which the person normally exhibits, due to a social environment that in :some way permits, encourages, or compels those acts.

Many people change their sexual behavior depending on the situation or at different points in their life. For example, men and women in a university may engage in bisexual activities, but only in that environment. Experimentation of this sort is more common among adolescents (or just after), both male and female. Some colloquialisms for this trend include "heteroflexible", "BUG" (Bisexual Until Graduation), or "LUG" (Lesbian Until Graduation).

Sexual orientation

A report from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health states, "For some people, sexual orientation is continuous and fixed throughout their lives. For others, sexual orientation may be fluid and change over time". "There . . . [was, as of 1995,] essentially no research on the longitudinal stability of sexual orientation over the adult life span. . . . [I]t [was] . . . still an unanswered question whether . . . [the] measure [of "the complex components of sexual orientation as differentiated from other aspects of sexual identity at one point in time"] will predict future behavior or orientation. Certainly, it [was] . . . not a good predictor of past behavior and self-identity, given the developmental process common to most gay men and lesbians (i.e., denial of homosexual interests and heterosexual experimentation prior to the coming-out process)."

Kinsey scale

Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating Scale, attempts to describe a person's sexual history or episodes of his or her sexual activity at a given time. Ituses a scale from 0, meaning exclusively heterosexual, to 6, meaning exclusively homosexual.

References

User: Pgarret (talk) 09:04, 10 November 2012 (UTC).

Not again! Read the actual category before removing it. It doesn't say he was gay, it says part of his personal life was important to that history. He was accused of sodomy and there are a number of sources that discuss his sexuality in detail. He was an important historical figure. Obviously an important historical figure being accused of sexual crimes would be important to that history. You need to actually make some arguments about this article, rather than just pasting the same 7,000+ character argument which has nothing to do with this subject. Stalwart111 23:38, 10 November 2012 (UTC)

Seconded. The category is there to help people to find information relevant to a topic. It is not to make assertions about whether a person is or is not "gay" (or anything else). Removing it just elimates a helpful resource for people wanting to use the encyclopedia. Paul B (talk) 15:01, 11 November 2012 (UTC)

Support The "Category:LGBT history prior to the 19th century" is essential to this article on Leonardo's personal life. The fact that he was charged with sodomy is on record. It is, in fact, the only certain fact from that part of his life. Historically, the charge gives us a picture of the life of young artists in Florence at a critical period in the history of art and of the city itself. The category does not categorise Leonardo as being homosexual, (since he was cleared of the charge, as stated in the article). But it does indicate that an event in his life is part of LGBT History. The detailed investigation of his sexuality by Sigmund Freud and others is also part of LGBT History.Amandajm (talk) 16:15, 11 November 2012 (UTC)

Leonardo da Vinci fingerprint reconstructed

Copypaste or legit tweaking. I tagged it but I leave it upto others to decide. Mtpaley (talk) 21:21, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Veganism

De Vinchi was not a vegetarian . you can find a valid source here : http://arthistory.about.com/od/leonardo/a/Was-Leonardo-A-Vegetarian.htm — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dorpwnz (talk • contribs) 17:01, 26 October 2013 (UTC)

• Your source doesn't say that he was not vegetarian. Your source says that one of the quotes that gives people that idea is from a novel. That quote isn't used in this article.
• Your source says that she really doesn't know. So you cannot possibly say that you know, either.
• Veganism and vegetarianism are not the same thing.
• I am getting rather sick of telling you here and at other places where you make comments that:

1. "De Vinchi" is spelled wrongly. Write "da" with a small d and "Vinci" with no H.
2. Secondly, Leonardo scholars call him Leonardo. They don't call him "da Vinci.

Now go back to that other page and actually READ what is written. Then look at the page that the same author has written about Leonardo's name.

Amandajm (talk) 08:21, 28 October 2013 (UTC)

Religion

Considering that DaVinci's paintings were mostly on the subject of religion and that he received last rites, I think this would be an interesting addition. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nguirado (talk • contribs) 19:51, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

External links modified

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God of Sandwiches? Not any more!

All right, now it's just getting weird. Yesterday, I noticed Leonardo's

nickname being attributed to "God of Sandwiches." Promptly today, I changed it to "Renaissance Man". Of course, within 30 seconds, someone added a word on to the front. Either way, now it should be accurate. 

If his regarded nickname is no longer "Renaissance Man", please change it back. Thanks for helping Wikipedia!

Red hair

A article in the Guardian quotes the author Simon Hewitt as saying that Leonardo had "ginger" hair. And goes on to say that this was highly unusual, made him a laughing stock in Milan, and that he is lampooned in the illustrations of the Sforzida Illuminated manuscript. It also describes him in a portrait as being depicted as homosexual because he is looking at a young man.

What are the facts?

1. The hair on the figure is a reddish-brown colour, but not the colour usually described as "ginger" which is an orange colour. So the description itself is facile.

2. The article (and I suppose the Book it is based on) describes the colour as "rare". In fact half the figures in the book seem to have the same coloured hair. Even in the illustration shown. The author (and the writer of the Guardian artile) might fail to grasp the fact that the artist was always limited by the colours that were available to them. e.g. Jesus in a German printed Bible of the 19th century nearly always has bright yellow hair. The choices were yellow, magenta or Cyan.

It can't be expressed with any certainty that the figure depicted in the manuscript is a sure indication that Leonardo had red hair.

Amandajm (talk) 13:12, 9 March 2020 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• The Baptism of Christ (Verrocchio & Leonardo).jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 01:52, 18 February 2023 (UTC)

Cecilia Gallerani

Is it possible to have more precise references regarding Stites' thesis on an alleged love affair between Leonardo and Cecilia Gallerani? Are there other sources on this subject? Kepleriwi (talk) 17:24, 6 September 2023 (UTC)