LDV Dog and Eagle Allegory (part 2)

 Leonardo Da Vinci’s dog and an eagle c1508-10 (part 2)

This illustration is described as Leonardo's ‘most highly finished chalk drawing, though it’s purpose is unknown and the allegorical subject has received many different interpretations’.

Leonardo was living in French occupied Milan when he did this drawing.  The allegorical subject has received numerous interpretations as listed below:

‘ The glorious eagle bestriding the earth wears a French crown with fleurs-de-lys, and must stand for the King of France.

• the animal in the boat is sometimes seen as a wolf representing the Pope, guiding the ‘ship of the Church’ (navis ecclesiae)  with a tree for a mast.
• It has been seen as an allegory of the alliance between Pope Leo X and Francis I in 1515
• the marriage of Giuliano de’ Medici (Leonardo’s patron in Rome) and Philiberta of Savoy in 1516
• Ludovico Sforza fleeing to the protection of the Holy Roman Emperor in 1499
• Alexander VI cowering before the conquering Charles VIII in 1494 
• even as an allegory of canalisation projects in Lombardy.

The style of the landscape is that of the years around 1510, and the idea of a compass in turbulent waters remaining fixed on the glory of France.

The animal in the boat is therefore presumably a dog, for fidelity, and the allegory expresses faithful devotion towards the King of France. Only the tree-mast is mysterious, though it could be a personal device of the patron. ’

Text adapted from Leonardo da Vinci: A life in drawing, Martin Clayton, 2018

I have superimposed a yellow brolly fabric on the sail section and adjusted the tone (see part 1, 03Jan24).