HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Leonardo da Vinci and A Memory of His Childhood'' () is a 1910 essay by
Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...
about
Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...
. It consists of a
psychoanalytic PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on dream interpretation, psychoanalysis is also a talk the ...
study of Leonardo's life based on his paintings.


The vulture fantasy

In the Codex Atlanticus Leonardo recounts being attacked as an infant in his crib by a bird. Freud cites the passage as: According to Freud, this was a childhood fantasy based on the memory of sucking his mother's nipple. He backed up his claim with the fact that
Egyptian hieroglyphs Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined Ideogram, ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct char ...
represent the mother as a vulture, because the Egyptians believed that there are no male vultures and that the females of the species are impregnated by the wind. In most representations the vulture-headed maternal deity was formed by the Egyptians in a phallic manner, her body which was distinguished as feminine by its breasts also bore the penis in a state of erection. However, the translation "Geier" (
vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to Nort ...
), which Maria Herzfeld had used for "nibbio" in 1904 in the first edition of her book ''Leonardo da Vinci, der Denker, Forscher und Poet'', was not exactly the
kite A kite is a tethered heavier than air flight, heavier-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create Lift (force), lift and Drag (physics), drag forces. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. Kites often have ...
Leonardo da Vinci had meant: a small hawk-like bird of prey, common in the Vinci area, which is occasionally a
scavenger Scavengers are animals that consume Corpse decomposition, dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators. While scavenging generally refers to carnivores feeding on carrion, it is also a he ...
. This disappointed Freud because, as he confessed to
Lou Andreas-Salomé Lou Andreas-Salomé (born either Louise von Salomé or Luíza Gustavovna Salomé or Lioulia von Salomé, ; 12 February 1861 – 5 February 1937) was a Russian-born psychoanalyst and a well-traveled author, narrator, and essayist from a French Hu ...
in a letter of 9 February 1919, he regarded the Leonardo essay as "the only beautiful thing I have ever written". The psychologist Erich Neumann, writing in ''Art and the Creative Unconscious'', attempted to repair the theory by incorporating the kite. Erich Neumann rebutted this essay in the first essay in '' Art and the Creative Unconscious'' (1959), '' Leonardo da Vinci and the Mother Archetype.'' Neumann disagreed with Freud’s psychoanalytic interpretation of Leonardo’s childhood memory and artistic motivations, which viewed Leonardo’s creativity as the result of repressed sexuality and sublimation. Neumann counter-argued that Leonardo’s themes should be understood through the Jungian framework of archetypes, particularly the Great Mother, and the Great Individual archetypes. Neumann further argued that art serves as a bridge between the conscious and unconscious mind, playing a crucial role in the development of individual and collective consciousness. The book analyzes the creative process in mythological and artistic traditions, viewing it as a key mechanism for psychological integration.


Interpretation of ''The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne''

Another theory proposed by Freud attempts to explain Leonardo's fondness of depicting the
Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...
with
Saint Anne According to apocrypha, as well as Christianity, Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's Gosp ...
in the picture '' The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne''. Leonardo, who was illegitimate, was raised by his blood mother initially before being "adopted" by the wife of his father Ser Piero. The idea of depicting the Mother of God with her own mother was therefore particularly close to Leonardo's heart, because he, in a sense, had 'two mothers' himself. In both versions of the composition (the Louvre painting and the London cartoon) it is hard to discern whether Saint Anne is a full generation older than Mary. Freud also points out that, in the painting, the outline of a vulture can be seen. This is connected to the original fantasy involving the vulture in Leonardo da Vinci's crib.


Sources cited


See also

* Psychobiography


Further reading

* Wayne Andersen. "Leonardo da Vinci and the Slip of Fools". '' History of European Ideas'', vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 61–78, 1994. * Wayne Andersen. ''Freud, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Vulture's Tail, A Refreshing Look at Leonardo's Sexuality''. Other Press, New York. 2001. * * Sigmund Freud. "Eine Kindheitserinnerung des Leonardo da Vinci (1910)." Studienausgabe. Vol. 10: Bildende Kunst und Literatur. pp. 87–160, Frankfurt/Main 1969. * * {{Authority control Essays by Sigmund Freud 1910 essays Works about Leonardo da Vinci