The Leonardo TV series seems to have intrigued the public. To the point of giving rise to a first exciting debate, namely: in Leonardo what are the differences between fiction and reality? The story of Leonardo, as it is told, has both.
In fact, while general information about the painter’s life is generally reported in the series, many other details and plots are the result of pure fiction. The TV series is structured on a plot between thriller and thriller. For this reason, many events narrated are inventive and serve as a support to the chosen genre. What are the main differences between fiction and reality in Leonardo?
Giraldi and Caterina: fictional characters
It is now confirmed that the beautiful Caterina Da Cremona, played by Matilda De Angelis, is a character that never existed in Leonardo’s real life. Matilda herself and the producer Bernabei testify that the idea of a story around the figure of Caterina came from the sketches of La Scapigliata, drawn by Leonardo. In the series, Leonardo’s events develop from the murder of Catherine herself, also this pure narrative device.
To investigate Leonardo appears a certain Stefano Giraldi, played by Freddie Highmore (already popular on TV thanks to The Good Doctor). Catherine never existed, her murder never happened, and Stefano Giraldi is also an invented character.
Leonardo, the differences of fiction with reality
Some anecdotes related to Leonardo himself are in the balance between fiction and reality. Specifically, for example, the fact that Leonardo was thrown out of Verrocchio’s workshop never occurred in the artist’s life. Or again, the story of the bronze ball to be placed on Brunelleschi’s dome. The undertaking was actually commissioned to Verrocchio. In the film, however, it is Leonardo with a stroke of genius who resolves the doubts of the master on how to do it. Surely Leonardo, as a pupil, contributed to help Verrocchio but not in these sensational terms. Finally, among the many, in the first episode of Leonardo it is said that the artist had been hit by a curse. In fiction, a mysteriously gifted sorceress notices this and Leonardo’s mother will find out when he is just born.
The details of the fiction that thrill viewers
In Leonardo there are many fictional details far from reality. This, however, seems to have made the series even more exciting. As if it were a form of challenge, in fact, they squeeze their brains to understand what or who actually existed in the artist’s life. All this has brought Leonardo back today, among us, and even very searched for on the web. Scholars but also simple amateur enthusiasts continue to identify in Leonardo the differences between fiction and reality. Another and last little clue. Verrocchio welcomes Leonardo as an apprentice of his workshop around his 40 years. This does not coincide well with the series in which a much older Verrocchio was portrayed. It is in fact played by the seventy year old Giancarlo Giannini.