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5th May 2019

With “Leonardo-mania” sweeping the world in commemoration marking 500 years since the Renaissance master’s death (GoogleTube) and a timely discovery at the Royal Collection Trust of a sketch of a bearded man lost in thought believed to be only the second known contemporary depiction of him in his lifetime (theartnewspaper.com), likely executed by one of his assistants shortly before his death in 1519:

Leonardo’s ‘claw hand’ stopped him painting (bbc.co.uk).

16th-century sketch by Giovanni Ambrogio Figino of Leonardo da Vinci, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
16th-century sketch by Giovanni Ambrogio Figino of Leonardo da Vinci, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

With Italian doctors suspecting he may have experienced nerve damage perhaps in a fall which impeding his ability to paint in later life.

They diagnosed ulnar palsy, or “claw hand”, by analysing the depiction of his right hand in two artworks.

With it previously though his impairment was due to a stroke but now said doctors suggesting in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine that it was nerve damage that meant he could no longer hold a palette and brush.

For this research, two artworks—showing Leonardo da Vinci in the latter stages of his life—were analysed. One is a portrait of the artist, drawn with red chalk, attributed to the 16th-century Lombard artist Giovanni Ambrogio Figino.

Being that by Giovanni Ambrogio Figino depicting him with his right arm assuaged by cloth, the only which shows anything more than a headshot, the other being by assistant Count Francesco Melzi and perhaps leading some question the math of that timely find of only the “second” known contemporary depiction of him in his lifetime with the recently discovered sketch by an unknown assistant on the back of one of the masters studies seeming to make three: portraiture of Leonardo, Old age and death, 1513–1519 (Wikipedia).

Dr Davide Lazzeri, a specialist in plastic reconstructive and aesthetic surgery at the Villa Salaria Clinic in Rome, who led the analysis, said: “Rather than depicting the typical clenched hand seen in post-stroke muscular spasticity, the picture suggests an alternative diagnosis such as ulnar palsy, commonly known as ‘claw hand’.”

With it surmised a fall may have caused trauma to his upper arm, leading to palsy or other weakness with no reports of cognitive decline or other motor impairment suggesting a stroke is unlikely but still explaining why he left so numerous works unfinished, including the Mona Lisa.

But wait, the depiction count of the master was already upped from two to three, why stop there?

A further image, an engraving of a man playing a lira da braccio—a Renaissance string instrument—was examined. The man in the engraving was recently identified as Leonardo da Vinci. Further evidence was obtained from a diary entry by a Cardinal’s assistant about a visit to the artist’s house in 1517.

Could it be there are still a stack of sketches of the master by everyone from his gardener to the local butcher boy that will turn up at some point?

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Illustrations, paintings, and cartoons featuring caricatured celebrities are intended purely as parody and fantasised depictions often relating to a particular news story, and often parodying said story and the media and pop cultural representation of said celebrity as much as anything else. Who am I really satirising? Read more.

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