The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci by Dmitry Merezhkovsky

First published:Voskresshiye bogi: Leonardo da Vinci, 1901 (English translation, 1902)

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Historical

Time of plot: 1494-1519

Locale: Italy and France

Principal characters

• Leonardo da Vinci, a Renaissance artist
• Giovanni Beltraffio, his pupil
• Cesare Borgia, Leonardo’s patron
• Monna Cassandra, a sorceress
• Francesco Melzi, another pupil of Leonardo
• Monna Lisa Gioconda, a model for a portrait by Leonardo

The Story:

In 1494 the fear of the coming of the Antichrist prophesied in the New Testament begins to make itself felt in Italy. Greek and Roman statues, which were recently excavated and accepted as supreme works of art by such men as Leonardo da Vinci, are considered by the common people to be pagan deities returning to prepare the world for the reign of the Antichrist.

Leonardo is a member of the court of Duke Moro in Milan. Besides acting as chief architect for the duke, he interests himself in teaching his pupils, Giovanni Beltraffio and Andrea Salaino, and in working on whatever catches his fancy. Most of the money he receives from the duke’s treasury goes to buy pieces of amber with insects embedded in them, old shells, live birds that he studies and then frees, and other curious objects that distract his attention and keep him from completing his painting, The Last Supper.

The student Giovanni is attracted to Monna Cassandra, a beautiful girl who lives in the neighborhood. Unknown to him, she practices the black arts and is a favorite of suspected witches. The duke of Milan calls upon the king of France to help protect and support his dukedom. Louis XII of France, however, soon proves false to his friendship with the duke and overruns the duchy. The French forces use a clay statue of a mounted warrior, which Leonardo did not yet cast in bronze, as a target for a shooting contest, and a flood causes the walls on which The Last Supper is painted to bulge and crack. Realizing that these two works of art can never be finished, Leonardo decides to leave Milan and go to the court of Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI.

As Borgia’s adviser, Leonardo designs many pieces of war equipment and machinery, which Borgia uses in his attempt to seize all of Italy for the pope. None of Leonardo’s pupils approves of his working for Borgia, whose cruelties and vices make him hated throughout Italy.

One day one of Leonardo’s students, a blacksmith named Zoroastro da Peretola, goes against his orders and tries to fly in Leonardo’s only partly completed airplane. Falling from a considerable height, he receives such a jolt that his mind is never again sound. Leonardo leaves Borgia’s services and, with the help of his friend, Niccolò Machiavelli, receives a commission from the city of Florence to plan a system of waterways that would divert the course of the Arno River. Machiavelli underestimates the expense of the work, and Leonardo is soon in trouble with the authorities. The canal project is abandoned, and Leonardo is asked instead to paint a large picture depicting the battle of Anghiari. At that time Michelangelo is also working in Florence, and a great jealousy grows up between admirers of the two artists. Leonardo tries to make friends with Michelangelo, but the passionate artist will have nothing to do with the mild Leonardo. Raphael, at that time only a young man, is friendly with both artists. His works are more popular with artistically minded Pope Leo X than those of either of the older men.

During his stay in Florence, Leonardo begins the portrait of a young married woman of the town named Monna Lisa Gioconda. As she sits for him, day after day, he amuses her by telling her stories as he works or converses with her on any subject in order to keep her interested in the dull task of posing. As the months pass, Monna Lisa and Leonardo are more and more drawn to each other. Both are essentially secretive persons who seem to understand each other intuitively. Months pass into years, and still Monna Lisa comes to the studio to pose. No one suspects anything improper of the meetings, but it becomes a source of amusement in Florence that the gentle artist, who never before took an interest in women, seems to be in love. Monna Lisa’s sudden death shocks Leonardo to the bottom of his soul. He hoped to finish her portrait, to finish this one work at least, but with Monna Lisa’s death his hopes fall. He tried to show in her face the mystery of the universe, for he found that the mystery of Monna Lisa and the mystery of the universe are one.

As a result of the trouble over the canal and the unfinished picture of the battle of Anghiari, Leonardo is dismissed from the service of the city of Florence. He returns to Milan to serve under the new ruler of that city, Louis XII of France. There Giovanni Beltraffio again meets Monna Cassandra. One day, she promises to show him the answers to his deepest questions. He is to meet her late that same night. As Giovanni leaves her, he is shocked to see in her face the expression of the White She-Demon, a specter that haunted him since childhood.

Before the time for their meeting, however, Monna Cassandra is taken prisoner by the Most Holy Inquisition. Thinking her completely innocent, Giovanni visits all of his old friends in an effort to secure her release. The more he tries to help her, however, the more convinced he becomes that there are indeed evil spirits who inhabit the forms of human beings and that the White She-Demon is one of them. Unable to prevent Monna’s death, Giovanni walks about the streets disconsolately. Suddenly he realizes that the strange odor he was smelling is the scent of burning flesh. Monna and 129 others accused as witches are being burned at the stake. Terror-stricken, he almost loses his mind. Later, still haunted by the White She-Demon, Giovanni commits suicide.

The loss of his favorite pupil would be a more terrible blow to Leonardo if Francesco Melzi did not recently join his group of students. Melzi, who is to be the true and faithful friend of the old artist, helps him through the final years of his life, especially in that trying period when the death of Louis XII leaves Leonardo without a patron, but the new French king, Francis I, soon afterward calls Leonardo to Paris. In 1516 Leonardo and his small group leave Italy for France, and the artist is never to see his home country again.

In France he is well treated despite his inability to finish anything he begins. He takes up the Monna Lisa portrait again and almost finishes it to his satisfaction from memory. One day King Francis visits him in his studio. Seeing the portrait, the king purchases it but agrees that Leonardo can keep his beloved portrait until he dies.

King Francis does not have long to wait. A few years later Leonardo, old and weak, grows sick and dies. His faithful pupil, Melzi, sees to it that Leonardo receives the rites of the Church before his death. He also arranges to have the artist buried in a style which, he hopes, will forever still the whispering tongues that called Leonardo a disciple of the Antichrist to come.

Bibliography

Bedford, Charles. The Seeker: D. S. Merezhkovsky. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1975. Explores Merezhkovsky’s religion and ethics. Examines the synthesis of Christianity and paganism attempted in Merezhkovsky’s trilogy of historical novels and finds that The Romance of Leonardo Da Vinci most successfully combines the two.

Fedotov, Georgy. The Russian Religious Mind. 2 vols. Belmont, Mass.: Norland, 1975. Surveys Russian religious thought and practice. Provides valuable background to Merezhkovsky’s literary efforts by summarizing contemporary religious beliefs.

Frajlich, Anna. “The Contradictions of the Northern Pilgrim: Dmitry Merezhkovsky.” In The Legacy of Ancient Rome in the Russian Silver Age. New York: Rodopi, 2007. Frajlich describes how the renewal of classical scholarship in nineteenth century Russia led Merezhkovsky and other Russian Symbolists to find inspiration in ancient Rome. Includes discussion of some of Merezhkovsky’s novels and poems.

Hellman, Ben. Poets of Hope and Despair: The Russian Symbolists in War and Revolution, 1914-1918. Helsinki: Institute for Russian and East European Studies, 1995. This study of Russian Symbolism includes a chapter on Merezhkovsky. The book describes how he and other symbolists interpreted the deeper meaning of the events of World War I and the Russian Revolution.

Hippius, Zinaida. Between Paris and St. Petersburg: Selected Diaries of Zinaida Hippius. Translated by Temira Pachmuss. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1975. Merezhkovsky’s wife outlines literary events in the lives of both authors and gives valuable insight into their religious and social ideas.

Pachmuss, Temira. D. S. Merezhkovsky in Exile: The Master of the Genre of Biographie Romancée. New York: Peter Lang, 1990. One of the few works on Merezhkovsky in English to devote attention primarily to his prose. Defines the genre of biographical romance and considers Merezhkovsky’s historical novels as an example of the genre. Includes analysis of narrative structure, point of view, and characterization.

Rosenthal, Bernice G. Dmitri Sergeevich Merezhkovsky and the Silver Age: The Development of a Revolutionary Mentality. The Hague, the Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, 1975. Offers an overview of the historical novels within the context of Merezhkovsky’s philosophical thinking. Elaborates upon Friedrich Nietzsche’s direct and indirect influence on Merezhkovsky. Provides an analysis of narrative structure, important themes, and characters.