Leonardo da Vinci in the Vatican
Three discreet years between the Belvedere Palace, the pontifical workshops and the Santo Spirito hospital. In Rome, Leonardo hardly paints anymore: he observes, measures, dissects, experiments and looks for a place in a courtyard already dominated by Raphael and Michelangelo.
What is Leonardo doing in Rome?
He transforms his workshop into a laboratory
In September 1513, Leonardo left Lombardy which had become unstable again and joined Rome with assistants, notably Francesco Melzi. He is welcomed by Julian de Medici, brother of Pope Leo X, who had him set up rooms in the Belvedere sector.
He continues research on anatomy, optics, mirrors, water, geometry and pictorial techniques. The archives, however, do not attest to any large Roman monumental commission completed by his hand. It is precisely this contrast that makes the stay fascinating: considerable intellectual activity, but very low public visibility.
An apartment and a workshop to the north of the pontifical palace, in the vast system designed by Bramante.
The Pope's brother provides him with housing, means and status without offering him the equivalent of a Raphael construction site.
Anatomy, concave mirrors, light, water, mechanics and varnishing processes occupy its leaves.
Rome retains its presence in documents, not in a chapel or painted room assigned to it.
Three years in four movements
The stay is not limited to an arrival date and departure. The death of his protector, in March 1516, cut the period in two and largely explained France's choice.
Arrival at the Belvedere
Leonardo returned to Rome in the fall, in the wake of Julian de Medici. A document from the Factory of Saint Peter attests to the layout of his accommodation at the Vatican.
Scientific workshop
His notes bear witness to work on optics, mirrors and pictorial mixtures. He also attempted to pursue anatomy at Santo Spirito.
A courtyard turned elsewhere
Raphael runs vast pontifical enterprises. Leonardo remains prestigious but peripheral, more advisor and experimenter than official painter.
Protection lost
Julien died on March 17. In August, Leonardo still measured the basilica of Saint-Paul-hors-les-Murs; then he accepted the invitation of François I and reached France.
The Belvedere: workshop, accommodation and observatory
The "Belvedere" of 1513 is not simply the museum that the visitor travels through today. It is a pleasure palace connected to the apostolic palace by the immense terraced courtyard designed by Bramante. The place combines gardens, architecture, ancient collections and open views of Rome.
Leonardo has several rooms there, specially designed. This location places it in the heart of a courtyard where Antiquity is constantly measured, designed and reinvented. The Apollo and the Laocoon are already exhibited in the courtyard of the statues. However, Leonardo's Roman leaves do not become a docile series of ancient studies: he continues above all to question natural phenomena and processes.
The garden also provides plants, water, animals and opportunities for experiments. Vasari's picturesque story even evokes lizards transformed into fantastic creatures. The anecdote is difficult to verify, but it reflects the reputation of a man who astonishes the court with his devices.
A pope and a protector
Leonardo's link with the Vatican passes less through Leo X himself than through Julian de Medici. Understanding this mediation avoids inventing a career as a "pope’s painter" which never really took shape.
Leo X
Giovanni de Medici became pope in March 1513. A great lover of arts and entertainment, he inherited the construction sites of Julius II and favored Raphael. Vasari says he allegedly offered Leonardo a painting before worrying when he saw him preparing varnishes before even painting. The episode is famous, but it remains a late biographical account, not a preserved contract.
Julian de Medici
Younger brother of the Pope and Duke of Nemours, Julien ensures the daily status of Leonardo. It is to him that the artist addresses complaints when his work is thwarted. His death in March 1516 deprived Leonardo of the intermediary capable of financing his research and defending it within the court.
Body, light and matter
The manuscripts give a more accurate image of the stay than just the list of paintings. They reveal an aging scientist, always capable of inventing very concrete experimental protocols.
Understand the heart
His most brilliant cardiac studies precede or border on departure for Rome. At Santo Spirito, he tries to resume dissections, but a denunciation seems to have put an end to access to human bodies.
Make mirrors
Leonardo studies concave surfaces, the concentration of rays and machines capable of polishing metal. This work is as interesting to the science of vision as to the technical uses of light.
Thinking about disaster
Studies of whirlwinds and floods developed in recent years, between Rome and France. Their dating sometimes crosses the border of 1516: they must be read as a late search, not as a Vatican commission.
But hundreds of problems studied
The living room is poor if we only count the frescoes and altarpieces. It becomes much richer as soon as we consider the notebooks: reflected light, atmospheric color, geometry, mechanics, hydrology, anatomy and preparation of paintings.
This disproportion explains the impression of failure. The pontifical court expects visible, rapid and monumental works. Leonardo favors investigation and slowness.
The Saint Jerome vatican is not a Roman painting
The current presence of Saint Jerome in the desert at the Vatican Pinacoteca produces natural confusion. The unfinished painting is a youthful work, generally dated around 1480 -1482, well before the stay of 1513.
Its material history is spectacular: the panel was found in several pieces and reconstructed. After various collections, he entered the Vatican in the 19th century. He therefore documents neither a pontifical sponsor of Leo X nor the Belvedere workshop.
However, it remains essential in an article on Leonardo in Rome, because today it is Leonardo's great autograph work visible in the Vatican Museums. The visitor must simply separate two stories: that of the Roman stay and that, much later, of the entry of the painting into the collection.
He arrives with works, he does not leave with a Roman collection
Modern sources and reconstructions generally admit that Leonardo kept several paintings near him that became his workshop companions: The Mona Lisa, The Virgin, the Child Jesus and Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist. They will still be reported to him in France.
These paintings were not all born in Rome. They have long stories, made up of covers, glazes and corrections. The Roman stay may have provided time for retouching, but it would be excessive to automatically attribute each final state to the years of the Vatican.
The case sums up Leonardo's method well: a work is never simply "finished" because it has left the main easel. It can stay for years in the workshop, serve as a reference for assistants and receive new, extremely thin layers.
Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo
They are in Rome at the same time, but not on an equal footing. The image of a daily competition between three neighboring workshops is attractive and greatly exaggerated.
| Artist | Situation around 1513 -1516 | Visible construction sites | Report to Leonardo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leonardo da Vinci | Famous master from around 61 to 64 years old, protected by Julien de Medici. | No large preserved Roman decoration; private research at the Belvedere. | Major intellectual reference, but fragile institutional position. |
| Raphael | Favorite painter of the papal court, surrounded by a vast workshop. | Vatican rooms, tapestry boxes, architecture and antiques. | He knows Leonardo's art deeply; certain lighting effects can extend his research. |
| Michelangelo | Already author of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, involved in several projects. | Tomb of Julius II, Christ of Minerva, Florentine and Roman projects. | Former Florentine rivalry, but little evidence of direct exchanges during these years. |
From Roman frustration to French invitation
Rome offers prestige, but not the stable freedom Leonardo seeks. His dependence on Julian de Medici, the difficulties encountered with anatomy and the absence of a large, clearly funded mission made his position precarious. Julien's death suppresses his main support.
On the contrary, Francis I proposed an honorary place as painter, engineer and architect to the king. Leonardo can take his paintings, his manuscripts and settle at Clos Lucé, near Amboise, with Francesco Melzi. The choice is not an improvised retreat: it is the passage from a court where he remains marginal to a court which wants to make his person a symbol.
The last known Roman trace, in August 1516, still shows him measuring the basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. Until the end, he looks at architecture with the gestures of an engineer: dimensions, proportions, structure. Then Italy disappears from his biography.
A realistic itinerary
There is no such thing as a perfectly preserved Roman "Leonardo’s house". The visit consists of connecting a painting, a historic area, a hospital and the large decorations of his contemporaries.
Four steps to connect
- Vatican PinacotecaSee Saint Jerome and distinguish its Florentine history from its current place of conservation.
- Belvedere courtyard and museumsUnderstand the architectural and ancient environment in which Leonardo lived.
- Raphael's roomsMeasure what a large organized pontifical enterprise meant, on the same date.
- Santo Spirito in SassiaTalk about the hospital where Leonardo allegedly tried to continue his anatomical research.
What you won't see
Neither intact workshop with its furniture, nor signed pontifical fresco, nor collection of original assembled machines. Museum inventions are modern reconstructions; authentic drawings are mainly preserved in Milan, Paris, London and Windsor.
The Roman visit is therefore documentary. It makes us understand the status of a famous but difficult to employ creator, installed in the center of power without managing to inscribe a monumental work.
Works and files from the store
Rome marks the end of a journey started in Florence and continued in Milan. These reproductions and articles allow us to place the years of the Vatican in his entire career.
Leonardo in Rome in six answers
When did Leonardo da Vinci live in Rome?
He arrived in the fall of 1513 and remained mainly in the Vatican until 1516. After the death of his protector Julian de Medici, he accepted the invitation of Francis I and joined France.
Where did he live in the Vatican?
A document from the Fabrique de Saint-Pierre attests to the arrangement of rooms for him in the Belvedere Palace area. The apartment is no longer preserved in its 16th century state.
What paintings did Leonardo paint in Rome?
No large painting can be attributed with certainty to the Roman stay alone. Leonardo had with him several late works, of which probably The Mona Lisa, Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist, which he was able to continue retouching.
Was the Vatican's Saint Jerome painted in Rome?
No. This is a youthful work, generally dated around 1480 -1482. The painting only entered the pontifical collection in the 19th century.
Did Leonardo work with Raphael and Michelangelo?
They were present in Rome at the same time, but no significant direct collaboration was documented. Raphael and Michelangelo had monumental commissions, while Leonardo worked mainly in his laboratory at the Belvedere.
Why did Leonardo leave Rome for France?
The death of Julien de Medici caused him to lose his main protector. Francis I offered him a more stable and prestigious position, with the freedom to continue his projects as painter, engineer and architect to the king.
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