10.00 am

The Metamorphosis of Anger

In his preliminary studies for the 54th Vinci Lecture, which he conceived with the title Between the Adoration of the Magi and thedownfall of "terrestrial nature", Romano Nanni focuses on war as a theme, prefiguring it as a fight among horse-riders,where bellicose anger is common to humans and animals alike. Leonardo's interest for "modern" warfare calls for a broader investigation into the multiple registers and levels of his globally acknowledged work: Leonardo can be seen as an acute observerof state-of-the-art technology or as a man who considered war as a natural, physiological event, a consequence and manifestation of thecycle of life and death, and finally as an artist whose rhetoric shaped his public image and the relationship with his patrons.

Carlo Vecce reads Romano Nanni

11.00 am

Book presentation: Leonardo and the 'artes mechanicae'

The book capturesthe historical sense of Leonardo's work as a "mechanic", byretracing its involvement in a series of dynamics – played outbetween Piero della Francesca and the early Galileo Galilei – ofthe knowledge and practices of the artes mechanicae. Withinthis perspective the author analyses the changes wrought by Leonardoon the main body of knowledge of the technicians, the "practiceof geometry".

Chaired by:Carlo Maccagni