Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) (TV: City of Death) was an Italian Renaissance polymath known for his painting and inventions.

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Biography

Circa 1492, Leonardo and his then-patron the Duke of Milan were among the guests invited to the masque organised by the young Duke Giuliano of San Martino. Being caught up in the Mandragora Helix's attempt to conquer 15th century Earth, the Fourth Doctor missed this opportunity to meet Leonardo, later noting it was probably for the best. (TV: The Masque of Mandragora)

According to one account, in 1503, Leonardo began painting the first Mona Lisa. (COMIC: Art Attack) According to another account, circa 1505, Leonardo painted it. His model for the painting was Clara Oswald, and the Twelfth Doctor gave him critique on it. (COMIC: The Swords of Kali) Later that year, he was hired by a new patron he knew as "Captain Tancredi", in reality, Scaroth of the Jagaroth. Tancredi asked him to paint six extra copies of the Mona Lisa. (TV: City of Death) One of these copies was painted using oil pigments he borrowed from a neighbouring artist, Giuseppe di Cattivo. Unbeknowst to both of them, the minerals used in this paint would bring the painting to life in future. (TV: Mona Lisa's Revenge, Sarah Jane's Alien Files episode 5)

The Fourth Doctor arrived from 1979 Paris to 1505 Florence to seek clues to the plot of Count Scarlioni (another of Scaroth's time-splintered selves) to steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. He found the design of a helicopter among the papers in his laboratory. After being briefly captured and interrogated by Tancredi, the Doctor wrote "This is a fake" in felt pen on the boards Leonardo would paint the extra Mona Lisa copies. Before returning to the future to try to stop Count Scarlioni, he left him a message written in mirrored font. (TV: City of Death)

In 1516, Leonardo was forced to sell the Mona Lisa to King Francis, an action which the Ninth Doctor claimed "broke his heart". (COMIC: Art Attack)

Da Vinci was one of the guests at Bernice Summerfield and Jason Kane's wedding in Cheldon Bonniface on 24 April 2010. (PROSE: Happy Endings)

Undated events

The behaviour of the Fourth Doctor in the laboratory of Leonardo in 1505 implied they had already met each other. (TV: City of Death)

The Eighth Doctor recounted a tale to Alex Campbell that he took Leonardo for a trip in the TARDIS to around 0 AD, in Bethlehem, where Leonardo checked the lighting for his painting Adoration of the Magi. There, he was given the possibility to watch the nativity of Jesus Christ, but he didn't dare to. (AUDIO: Relative Dimensions)

The Monk's logbook recorded a meeting with Leonardo in which he discussed with Leonardo the principles of powered flight. (TV: "Checkmate")

Legacy

The flying machine design was used by Astrolabus while he was fleeing from the Sixth Doctor. (COMIC: Voyager) By the late 21st century, his sketches or a copy thereof, were displayed on the wall of Professor Daniel Eldred's space museum; the TARDIS landed in front of the sketches, carrying the Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon, and Zoe Heriot. (TV: The Seeds of Death)

Among a long strip of business cards owned by the Sixth Doctor for various famous scientists and luminaries was one which read "da Vinci." (TV: The Two Doctors)

Grace Holloway had a print of a Leonardo sketch in her home. The Eighth Doctor, upon seeing it, noted that he had a cold when he drew it. (TV: Doctor Who)

One of the copies of the Mona Lisa painted by Leonardo came to life in the 21st century. (TV: Mona Lisa's Revenge, Sarah Jane's Alien Files episode 5)

In 2020, the Eleventh Doctor used Leonardo as one example of people who had dyslexia that did great things, in order to encourage Elliot Northover to continue trying. (TV: The Hungry Earth)

Behind the scenes

"Da Vinci" was not a family name, and Leonardo was never known to have used a surname in the modern sense. This part of his name merely means "of Vinci," indicating that Leonardo was born in Vinci, a town near Florence. It is therefore grammatically incorrect to refer to Leonardo as simply "da Vinci," though that form of address remains in somewhat common use and has appeared in The Two Doctors, the TV movie and The Hungry Earth as well as the title of Da Vinci's Robots.
The title of the episode The Shakespeare Code is a play on the title of the popular Dan Brown novel The Da Vinci Code which dealt with a centuries-old conspiracy theory involving secret codes allegedly included in some of Leonardo's works. The Da Vinci Code was itself heavily inspired by the non-fiction book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by former Doctor Who scriptwriter Henry Lincoln.
Leonardo da Vinci is one of very few characters to be referenced in both the Doctor Who and Star Trek franchises, with an immortal human claiming to have been him appearing once in Star Trek: The Original Series ("Requiem for Methuselah"), and a holographic recreation of him appearing twice in Star Trek: Voyager ("Scorpion" and "Concerning Flight").
According to The Brilliant Book 2012, a book that contains non-narrative based information, in an alternate universe where all of history happened at once, Leonardo seemingly wrote The Da Vinci Code.
Leonardo was played by Patrick Godfrey in the 1998 film Ever After.