"La piccola certezza e la gran bugia": l'uomo e la bestia secondo Leonardo e Machiavelli, tra dualismo e dissimulazione

Marco Versiero (1)

1 SNS - Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa

This paper focuses on Leonardo's and Machiavelli's common interest in the conceptual exchange between human and animal identities, as testified by writings of both authors and particularly by the famous chapter XXV of "The Prince", whose metaphor of the "centaur-like" ruler seems to have been preceded by a singular drawing produced in Leonardo's workshop (possibly reproducing an autograph sketch by the master), only recently rediscovered in the Codex Atlanticus, apparently representing a centaur. The discussion is then brought on Leonardo's and Machiavelli's involvement in the enterprise of the mural pictorial decoration of the Great Council Hall in Palazzo Vecchio at Florence (c. 1503-06), with the allegorical episode of the "Battle of Anghiari" (left unfinished by Leonardo and now lost), whose copies show the presence of a "centaur-like" warrior possibly inspired by (and/or inspiring) Machiavelli's imagery.

Mots clés: Leonardo da Vinci; Machiavelli; Political philosophy; Allegory; Renaissance Florence

Domaines: Histoire; Littératures; Science politique; Philosophie; Art et histoire de l'art

Marco Versiero. "La piccola certezza e la gran bugia": l'uomo e la bestia secondo Leonardo e Machiavelli, tra dualismo e dissimulazione. Feritas, Humanitas et Divinitas come aspetti del vivere nel Rinascimento, Jul 2010, Pienza, Italy. ⟨halshs-01383016⟩