Leonardo faceto e grottesco: uno sguardo tragico e comico sulla vita del Rinascimento, negli scritti e disegni del genio.

Résumé En

On the specific expertises provided by the two authors, this essay intends to propose an account of conceptual and figurative issues bearing witness to the interest of Leonardo da Vinci in the areas of the tragic and the comic. In fact, both some of the dramatic genres in his writings – mainly his compositions revealing literary ambitions (fairy tales, jokes, riddles as 'prophecies', witty sayings) – and a substantial part of his graphic production – particularly that focused on the representation of the abnormal and monstrous (as existing either in nature, or in the artist's mind, in the form of 'fantastic' inventions) and the physiognomic types or grotesque caricatures – reveal Leonardo's subtle criticism of contemporary times. The aporetic yet indispensable opposition and ambivalence of beauty and ugliness, youth and old age, smile and tears, permeates his figurative language, both in his writings and drawings, giving his reflections on the ethical and political problems and contradictions of Renaissance society a mocking and bitter outcome.