So I Found This Caterpillar On My Way To Class

The Cult of the Crowned Raven

Detail of Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Caravaggio (1598-99). 

Why do you love Leonardo Da Vinci so much?

LET’S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

in order to get a better understanding of who leonardo was, it’s important to understand the people around him. in florence, his main influences were verrocchio (also michelangelo to a lesser extent) and the medici family, particularly lorenzo. and then in rome, he’s mostly around the borgia (cesare in particular) and machiavelli. the thing that most of these people have in common is the fact that they were all either pretty bitter, political figures, or they were literally homicidal (and then there’s michelangelo, who was just an asshole. and also verrocchio, who was alright i guess). the reason that this is important is because leonardo was the complete opposite of all of this. in fact, he was described as having: “outstanding physical beauty”, “infinite grace”, “great strength and generosity”, “regal spirit and tremendous breadth of mind” by this dude vasari. leonardo was incredibly gentle and kind, he was known to buy caged birds in order to set them free, and he also was reputed to be a vegetarian b/c he didn’t want to harm animals. the fact that leonardo was surrounded by some of the most vicious players during the renaissance, and still managed to stay soft and warm makes me so !!!!!!

it’s doubly incredible when u start to learn that leonardo’s life actually kinda sucked. he had it pretty good while he was growing up, apprenticed to verrocchio and living a pretty good life, up until he was arrested in his early twenties for sodomy. the charges were dropped, but leonardo drops off the map for a few years where there is no record of his works or whereabouts. he left (got kicked out of) verrocchio’s workshop and was no longer a resident at his father’s house. he shows up again in a few years working for the medici, but his name would have been pretty tarnished in florence. he then went to milan, which were said to be the ‘happiest years of his life’ where his occupation was more or less a professional shit stirrer. he never finished any commissions and was distracted easily by other inventions. he was a talented artist, but his genius obviously lay in science. a lot of people lost their patience with him because of this but he basically ‘one-linered’ his way out of everything and people ?? still ?? loved ??? him ???? so ?? much ????? this was basically b/c he was such a nice guy!!!! he was also like, super intelligent, like unparalleled. but his issues with focusing and finishing tasks means none of his stuff got finished (a semi popular theory is that my guy had autism which is probably quite likely). another thing that kept him from finishing anything was literal human garbage: cesare borgia

leonardo was more or less enslaved to the borgia, he wasn’t paid much and he was forced to create weapons for destroying his hometown. not to mention it directly went against his pacifict nature to make shit like this. he hated war:  "and thou, man, who by these labours dost look upon the marvelous works of nature, if thou judgest it to be an atrocious act to destroy the same, reflect that it is an infinitely atrocious act to take away the life of man.” and once the borgia got rekt, leonardo couldn’t find patronship in italy, and ended up in france, missing home :):):):):):)

see, i find that ppl love to talk abt the edgy and politically badass people of history, which i am definitely not exempt from!!! (see cleopatra, akhenaten/nefertiti/tiye, machiavelli, livia) but there needs to be love for the good, the unquestionably lovely and kind people of history, who stayed gentle against all odds. leonardo had every reason to be bitter and angry about his lot in life but he wasn’t!!!! he was just wonderful and i love him A Lot.

my patronus is

roomba w/ knives

shout out to me in 5 years…hope shes doing something cool i’m rooting for her

This close 🤏 to walking into a mysterious fog and never coming back