THE WORSHIP ... OF LEONARDO. REVIEW OF AN ICONOGRAPHIC TYPE

Abstract

The study traces the history of one of the most common iconographic types in the Western Renaissance. More precisely, the author focuses on a moment of mutation in the scheme of this iconographic type, a mutation consecrated - but not produced, as demonstrated in the study - by Leonardo da Vinci. Although, throughout the Leonardo bibliography, one can find, as a true refrain, the statement that the Adoration of the Wise Man prepared by Leonardo in 1481-1482 is the first modern pictorial conception, no author supports his enthusiasm and admiration on a convincing investigation.