Crime and Punishment

  On April 24th 1478 Giuliano de' Medici was stabbed to death by Francesco de' Pazzi during high mass in the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence.  The main target of the assassination, however, was Giuliano's brother, Lorenzo, who was stabbed in the neck but saved from a mortal wound by a friend who threw himself in front of Lorenzo and was himself killed.

  Pazzi and his accomplices were caught and hanged but one man, Bernado di Bandino, escaped to Turkey.  On the request of the Signoria of Florence he was extradicted and he and his wife were hanged on December 29th 1479.

  Leonardo witnessed the hanging and made a pen and ink drawing with notes for the compostion of a painting:
"A tan-coloured small cap. A doublet of black serge. A black jerkin, lined, and the collar covered with black and red-stippled velvet. A blue coat lined with fur of foxes breasts. Black hose, Bernado di Bandino Baroncelli."

An Erotic Pin Up?

  The sketch which has become known as The Angel in the Flesh is a study for the lost painting The Annunciation.  It shows an androgynous, seductive youth.  The left hand is holding a flimsy veil to his chest exposing a rounded, feminine right breast.  The right hand is pointing upwards echoing the large, erect penis.  From pinholes in the paper it can be assumed that it may have been used as a pin up.

  The drawing shows a couple of recurring themes in Leonardo's work - the pointing finger, an effeminate youth with long curly hair - combined with an overt sexuality.