Leonardo da Vinci

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Leonardo da Vinci

1452-1519

Two Designs for Machines: A Maritime Assault Mechanism and a Device for Bending Beams

ca. 1487-1490

Pen and brown ink, over black chalk on paper.

11 1/8 x 7 7/8 inches (284 x 201 mm)

Gift of Otto Manley.

1986.50

Notes:

Watermark: none.
The catapult-like machine at the top of the page is for scaling towers while the machine below is designed to turn heavy beams during the construction of scaffolding.

Inscription:

Inscribed in pen and brown ink by the artist, in mirror writing, above upper design, "pie[na] dj fieno bagniato. / Strume[n]to dj urno / e da mare per i[s]calare una tore dj sopra esselle / fussino due torri va per tale linia chelluna facci scudo . allaltra ma / fa chel mare . sia cho[]tu / tj . i segnj dj tranqujlita"; for the device below, "questi buchi . voliano . essere dj pari alteza . a2. a2. / sotterra / Modo dj torciere vna trave per fare i chavalettj"; on verso, in pen and dark brown ink, by the Paris bookdealer Lefebvre, "Vendu par moi pour la somme de cent francs a Monsieur Picchioni ce dessin autogra/-phe de Leonard de Vinci, provenant de La Collection de M.r[superscript r] Garnier President du tribunal / de la Rochelle, et qui m'a été saisi par ordre de M.r[superscript r] hallon, juge d'instruction, il y a / environ un mois et rendu au bout de quelques jours / Paris ce 11 Juin 1849 Lefebvre / Libraire 9 rue rameau"; in another hand, possibly that of Stefan Zweig, "gut"; along right edge, in pen and brown ink, in a fifteenth century hand, "[...]".

Provenance:

Possibly Francesco Melzi (1491/93-ca. 1570; heir to Leonardo's drawings), Milan and Rome; Jacques Garnier (1755-1818; according to inscription); Lefebvre, Paris; Luigi(?) Picchioni (1784-1869), Basel (according to Lefebvre's inscription which refers only to "Picchioni"); Count Guglielmo Libri (1803-1869), Paris and London; his sale, London, Sotheby's, 1 June 1864, part 4 of lot 142, as "A Leaf with Designs and Writing, from right to left, by Leonardo da Vinci, very rare"; Alfred Morrison (1821-1897), London (no mark; see Lugt 151); his sale, London, Sotheby's, 17 April 1918, lot 1174; Henri Fatio (1863-1930), Geneva; Simon Kra, Paris; Stefan Zweig (1881-1942), Salzburg; private collection, Germany; Edmund Schilling (1888-1974), London; private collection, Switzerland; Otto Manley (1904-1989), Vienna and Scarsdale.

Associated names:

Melzi, Francesco, 1491 or 1493-approximately 1570, former owner.
Garnier, Jacques, 1755-1818, former owner.
Lefebvre, former owner.
Picchioni, Luigi, former owner.
Libri, Guillaume, 1803-1869, former owner.
Morrison, Alfred, 1821-1897, former owner.
Fatio, Henry, former owner.
Kra, Simon, former owner.
Zweig, Stefan, 1881-1942, former owner.
Schilling, Edmund, 1888-1974, former owner.
Manley, Otto, -1989, former owner.

Bibliography:

Rhoda Eitel-Porter and and John Marciari, Italian Renaissance Drawings at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 2019, no. 46.
Selected references: Morrison 1892, 6:325; Richter 1939, 2: no. 45; Steinitz 1948, 41; Richter 1970, 1: no. 50; De Toni 1975, 6-7; Pedretti 1977, no. 46; Pedretti 1988, 142- 43; Fellows Report 22 1989, 357-58; London 1989, no. 114; Florence 1992, no. 9.20; Pedretti and Trutty- Coohill 1993, no. 6; Scaglia 1995; Boston and Tübingen 1997, 146; New York 2002-3, no. 55; Matuschek 2005, no. 452; New York 2006, no. 6; Munich 2008-9, 13; Garton 2011, 159ff.; New York 2013-14, 61-62; Milan 2015, V1.15.
From Leonardo to Pollock: Master drawings from the Morgan Library. New York: Morgan Library, 2006, cat. no. 6, p. 14-15.
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Twenty-First Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1984-1986. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1989, p. 357-358.

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