‘LEONARDO’S BICYCLE’ is the working title of a graphic investigation into the extraordinary sketch found in one of the maestro’s notebooks in 1974. This comic book is still in production, projected for completion in 2012. The cover will change.
In 1974 history was rewritten when the Italians discovered the sketch of a bicycle on the reverse of a page of Leonardo’s Codex Atlanticus notebook hidden for 300 years. It seemed the maestro had at least designed a perfectly proportioned roadster 400 years before a German invented the ‘running machine’. Might he have even built a working prototype for pootling round Milan!?
But what is the truth behind this doodle, patently not by Leonardo’s hand? Why are there now hundreds of models of the machine in august museums, in touring exhibitions and at places of significance to the artists life? What possible role could Italian terrorism, Vatican corruption and the ormertà (Mafia code of silence) have in the story? And what has any of this to do with the worst volcanic eruption experienced by mankind?
This work in progress is a none-too-serious unravelling of this controversial and convoluted case. The sample chapter below, ‘The Lecture’, chronicles how the discovery was revealed to the world. ‘The Crazies’ looks at some of the other controversies surrounding Leonardo’s work, including the famous theft of the ‘Mona Lisa’.
Any comments, theories or recently uncovered material please forward to BRICK, who will be hugely grateful if not highly amused.
Sample chapter -
‘The Lecture’
Sample chapter -
‘The Crazies’
Sample chapter -
‘The Godforsaken Year’
