Novels and short stories •
The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci (1901) by
Dmitry Merezhkovsky. •
The Second Mrs. Giaconda (1975) by
E. L. Konigsburg is a children's novel about why Leonardo painted the
Mona Lisa. •
Leonardo Da Vinci: Detective a short story by Theodore Mathieson, portrays him using his genius to solve a murder during his time in France. • ''Pasquale's Angel'' by
Paul J. McAuley, set in an
alternate universe Florence, portrays Leonardo as "the Great Engineer", creating a premature
Industrial Revolution (see
clockpunk). • The novel
The Memory Cathedral by
Jack Dann is a fictional account of a "lost year" in the life of Leonardo. Dann has his genius protagonist actually create his flying machine. • The 1999 novel
Pilgrim by
Timothy Findley describes the encounters of an immortal named Pilgrim with Leonardo da Vinci among others, as told to
Carl Jung. •
Terry Pratchett's character Leonard of Quirm (or da Quirm) is a
pastiche of Leonardo. A talented artist and inventor,
Lord Vetinari, the Patrician of
Ankh-Morpork, imprisoned Leonard as it would have been dangerous for him to fall into the wrong hands given Leonard's naïvety regarding the military applications of some of his inventions (particularly his conceptual siege weapons). Leonard's talent for inventing does not extend to names which are often clunky circumlocutions; for example, his
submarine is called a 'Going-Under-the-Water-Safely Device'. • Crowley, the demon in
Good Omens by Pratchett and
Neil Gaiman, owns the original sketch or cartoon of the
Mona Lisa and considers it superior to the finished work. • Three novels by
Martin Woodhouse and Robert Ross feature the adventures of Leonardo da Vinci in the guise of a
James Bond-type spy of the Italian Renaissance:
The Medici Guns (1974);
The Medici Emerald and
The Medici Hawks. •
The Secret Supper (2006) by Javier Sierra explores the symbology of Leonardo's
Last Supper, and its threat to the Catholic Church, as he is painting the fresco in 15th century Milan. •
Black Madonna (1996) by
Carl Sargent and
Marc Gascoigne, is set in the
Shadowrun game universe and portrays Leonardo as still living in the 21st century, blackmailing corporations to finance his inventions. •
The Medici Seal, a children's novel by
Theresa Breslin (2006). • In the
Children of the Red King series, a Donatella da Vinci married a Bertram Babbington-Bloor. Donatella was the daughter of an Italian magician. No connection between Leonardo and Donatella has been stated since. • In
Robert Heinlein's 1957 novel
The Door Into Summer, Dr. Twitchell recounts a tale of a student whom he displaced in time by 500 years. While there was no way of knowing whether the student went to the past or the future, Dr. Twitchell hints that he believes it was the past due to the student's name—Leonard Vincent. • In the novel ''Saturn's Apprentice'' by M.A. Lang, an alchemical experiment gone wrong causes Leonardo to be lost in the present day, while back in Renaissance Florence his friend
Tomasso Masini desperately tries to save him. • Leonardo da Vinci is a significant character in the novels ''
Assassin's Creed: Renaissance (2009) and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (2010), books based on the video game series Assassin's Creed''. Leonardo is portrayed as a close friend of the protagonist, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a Florentine nobleman's son who joined the Assassin Brotherhood after the murder of his father and brothers by the ruling families of Italy, each part of the once thought disbanded
Knights Templar. Leonardo helps the assassin decipher encrypted codex pages left behind by legendary master assassin, Altair (the protagonist of the original ''Assassin's Creed'' game). Leonardo's flying machine is successfully built and helps Ezio travel across
Venice in order to assassinate one of his targets. Leonardo makes a brief appearance in ''
Assassin's Creed: Revelations'' novel. Ezio and his close friend and fellow Assassin,
Niccolò Machiavelli visit him during the week that he died, present at his side while he passes away. Machiavelli recalls a rumour that King Francis cradled his head in his arms as he died, to which Ezio remarked: "Some people – even Kings – will do anything for publicity".
The Da Vinci Code A bestselling 2003 novel by
Dan Brown, adapted and released as a major
motion picture in 2006,
The Da Vinci Code revolves around a conspiracy based on elements of Leonardo's
Last Supper and other works. A preface to the novel claims that depictions of artworks, secret societies and rites described within the novel are factual. For this reason much of the content of the novel has been widely accepted by readers as authoritative. Because the theme involves a conspiracy within the
Church over the life of Jesus and the suggestion that the Church has hidden the facts of his marriage, there has been a strong reaction against the novel and much material published examining and refuting its claims. Within the novel it is claimed that from 1510–1519, Leonardo was the Grand Master of a secret society, the
Priory of Sion. In reality this society existed only as a 20th-century hoax, but author Dan Brown used as a source the 1982
pseudohistory book
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. The writers of this book had based their research on forged medieval documents that had been created as part of the Priory of Sion fraud. The mix of fact and fiction in the documents made it difficult to discount immediately as a forgery. For example, it was claimed that the Grand Master prior to Leonardo was
Botticelli, who had indeed had an association with Leonardo, as they were both students at the Florence workshop of
Andrea del Verrocchio. The Priory of Sion story and the veracity of
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail was eventually debunked, and many of those involved publicly recanted, although Dan Brown continued to assert that the facts as presented were true. In portraying the Priory of Sion as "fact"
The Da Vinci Code expanded on the claims in
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail: • That there were additional secrets hidden in Leonardo's paintings, such as an "M" letter in the painting of
The Last Supper, indicating the presence of
Mary Magdalene and that the figure to the left of Jesus traditionally said to represent
John the Evangelist actually represents
Mary Magdalene. • That the
Mona Lisa was actually a self-portrait. • That among the differences in the two versions of the painting of the
Virgin of the Rocks which hang in the
Louvre and London's
National Gallery, is the fact that in the Louvre painting the baby to the left of the picture depicts Jesus, and to the right
John the Baptist, rather than the accepted view, which is the other way round. • That Leonardo invented a
cryptex for carrying secret messages. The book also used a variation of Leonardo's backwards handwriting to hide a secret message on the American bookjacket. Among the many criticisms of Brown's writing is that he uses the name da Vinci (meaning "from Vinci") in the manner that surnames are commonly used nowadays. Leonardo would never have been referred to simply as "da Vinci" in his lifetime. Such designations were appended to common baptismal names in order to identify individuals.
Film Films that are about the life of Leonardo or in which he appears as a character: •
Leonardo Da Vinci (1919) – silent film •
The Life of Leonardo da Vinci (1971) starring
Philippe Leroy as Leonardo da Vinci •
Nothing Left to Do But Cry (1984) directed by and starring
Roberto Benigni and
Massimo Troisi, with
Paolo Bonacelli as Leonardo da Vinci. Bonacelli was nominated for a
David di Donatello for Best Supporting Actor for the role •
A Season of Giants (1990) depicts Da Vinci, played by
John Glover, and
Michelangelo •
Quest of the Delta Knights (1993) depicting a fictional version of the young Leonardo •
Leonardo Da Vinci (1996) – animated movie •
Ever After (1998) starring
Drew Barrymore and
Patrick Godfrey as Leonardo da Vinci • ''Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry'' (2000) starring
Mattia Sbragia as Leonardo da Vinci •
The Virgins of Sherwood Forest (2000) and
The Exotic Time Machine II (2000) – two
softcore films by
Surrender Cinema filmed in close succession. Both feature Leonardo encountered via a time-travel plot; he is played by a different actor in each film. •
Leonardo (2003) – TV movie starring
Mark Rylance as Leonardo da Vinci • In
Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014), Leonardo and Peabody work together to build a machine to recharge the
WABAC machine. However, Peabody first helps Leonardo make Mona Lisa smile. At the end of the film, Leonardo and Mona Lisa are doing graffiti. Leonardo's glider also appears in a scene where Sherman and Penny use it to fly through Florence. •
Leo Da Vinci: Mission Mona Lisa (2018), an animated movie that focuses on a teenage Leonardo who meets and falls in love with a teenage Mona Lisa as they work together to fight pirates. •
The Inventor (2023), an animated film that focus on the end of Leonardo da Vinci's life when he moved to France. •
Leonardo Da Vinci (2024), a documentary directed by
Ken Burns. Films that refer to Leonardo's works or inventions: •
Hudson Hawk (1991), starring
Bruce Willis and
Danny Aiello, revolves around Leonardo da Vinci's inventions •
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), In 1899, men dressed as German soldiers attack the
Bank of England and steal Leonardo Da Vinci's layouts of
Venice's foundations. •
The Da Vinci Code (2006) starring
Tom Hanks •
The Da Vinci Treasure (2006) depicts Leonardo's paintings as clues that lead to enlightenment •
The Three Musketeers (2011) depicts the musketeers stealing plans by Leonardo for an airship from "Leonardo's vault" in Venice •
The Lost Leonardo (2021 film) – documentary about the discovery of the
Salvator Mundi and its 2017 record sale for $450 million
Theatre •
Marie-Thérèse Bodart's 1947 play
Et Adam répondit focuses on the rivalry between Leonardo and
Girolamo Savonarola. •
Peter Barnes's 1969 play ''
Leonardo's Last Supper'' centres on Leonardo being "resurrected" in a filthy charnel house after being prematurely declared dead. •
David Davalos's 2002 play
Daedalus tells a fantasized story of Leonardo's time as a military engineer in the service of
Cesare Borgia, in the company of
Lucrezia Borgia and
Niccolò Machiavelli.
Music • Author
Charles Anthony Silvestri and composer
Eric Whitacre collaborated to create an "opera bréve" based on text from Leonardo's journals and original text by Silvestri. This piece,
Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, was modeled after Leonardo's conceptual flying machine. This piece was written on commission by the
American Choral Directors Association as the second piece in Whitacre's series of
Element Works, the first being
Cloudburst, written in 1992. •
Dream Theater vocalist
James LaBrie performed as Leonardo in the
progressive metal album
Leonardo: The Absolute Man, an album which itself explored his life and works through the milieu of music. • In the
Red Hot Chili Peppers video for
Californication, Leonardo can be seen working on the
Mona Lisa and a cartoon
John Frusciante can later be seen riding Leonardo's helicopter. •
Mona Lisa is used as a stage name by Kimberley Leadbetter, an American pop and R&B singer-songwriter. • "
The Ballad of Mona Lisa" is a song by
Panic! at the Disco, an American rock band, published in February 2011. • "Why Mona Lisa Smiled" is a song by
Chris de Burgh from the album
Moonfleet & Other Stories, about Leonardo and why he painted the
Mona Lisa. •
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping's
soundtrack features the track
Mona Lisa by
The Lonely Island that criticizes the titular painting and name-drops Da Vinci's name.
Television • 1966: In "Martin Meets His Match", an episode of the science fiction sitcom
My Favorite Martian, Martin uses his time machine to bring Leonardo to the present day to help him repair his spaceship. Instead, Leonardo decides to steal his painting, the
Mona Lisa, and take it back with him. • 1967: In the
Bewitched episode "Samantha's Da Vinci Dilemma", Aunt Clara tries to conjure up a house painter, but she goofs and summons Leonardo da Vinci from the past instead. • 1969: In the
Star Trek episode "
Requiem for Methuselah", Leonardo da Vinci is revealed to be one of many aliases of "Flint", an immortal man born in the year 3834 BC. Leonardo's abilities and knowledge are thus attributed to centuries of scientific and artistic study. Leonardo appears again in the
Star Trek universe, in the series
Star Trek: Voyager, where he and his workshop are created as a
holographic simulation. In the
Starfleet Corps of Engineers novellas the main starship is the USS
da Vinci (NCC-81623), named for the artist. • 1969: In the
Ironside Season 2 episode "The Prophecy," a fictional Leonardo painting called
The Seraglio is stolen from a museum. A psychic friend of Ironside's tells Mark Sanger he will catch "a lovely black girl all in silver and emeralds with golden rings around her ankles," and it is Mark who saves the painting—which features a bejeweled black woman dancing in a
seraglio—from rolling into the sea toward the end of the episode. • 1970: In the British comedy series ''
Monty Python's Flying Circus in the "Art Gallery Strike" sketch in the episode "Spam", the Mona Lisa'' was used in two animated links by
Terry Gilliam, the first as one of many paintings going on strike (she dons a cap and declares in a low-pitched voice, "I'm off") and as a temptress who reveals large breasts under her garment; here she tells the viewer (in a seductive, smoky American accent), "Come over here to my window, big boy." • 1979: The
Doctor Who episode "
City of Death" features a theft of the
Mona Lisa.
The Doctor goes back in time to visit Leonardo's workshop and claims to be an old acquaintance of the artist. Though Leonardo himself does not appear, he plays an important role in the plot, creating several copies of the
Mona Lisa. Leonardo also appears as a character in several
Doctor Who novels, while "
Mona Lisa's Revenge", a 2009 episode of the spin-off series
The Sarah Jane Adventures, is built around the concept that an alien criminal took on the form of the woman depicted in the
Mona Lisa and was trapped within the painting for centuries. • 1984– : In the
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series, comics, films, and other media, the leader of the turtles is named
Leonardo, after Leonardo da Vinci. • 1989: In
The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! live-action segment "The Painting", the Mario Bros. find a painting they believe to Leonardo's second version of
The Last Supper. However, upon further examination, they discover that the painting is actually worthless because it was painted by an impostor. Much of the information dealing with Leonardo in this episode is incorrect. • 1989–1990: The anime
Time Quest features Professor Leonardo as inventor of the kettle-shaped time machine, who is revealed to be Leonardo da Vinci in the final episodes. • 1993: The game show
Legends of the Hidden Temple features Leonardo in the legend that was told. The featured artifact was his paintbrush. • 1995: The cartoon
The Tick features Leonardo in "Leonardo DaVinci and his Fightin' Genius Time Commandos!" (Season 2, Episode 17) in which a number of famous inventors are brought to the present by an inventor seeking to take credit for their work. Leonardo is portrayed as being able to create fantastic flying devices out of rudimentary objects. • 1998: An episode of
Histeria! focusing on
the Renaissance featured a cartoon caricature of Leonardo as a host. Over the course of the episode, he is criticized by
World's Oldest Woman for
wearing a dress, and also parodies
the 1960s Batman series as Renaissance Man, with
Loud Kiddington as his sidekick. Leonardo Da Vinci is voiced by
Don Novello. • 1998: In the animated series
The Simpsons episode "
The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace" Homer notices an infographic poster of
Thomas Edison comparing himself to Leonardo in a museum in
New Jersey. • 1999: In the animated series
Dilbert episode "
Art" shows Leonardo as the secret ruler of the art world. He reveals that he discovered immortality centuries ago through the invention of the
fountain of youth. • 1999: In
Blackadder: Back & Forth,
Baldrick builds a
time machine to Leonardo's exact design specifications and it actually works. Earlier in the
Blackadder series the episode
Money featured a painter by the name of "Leonardo Acropolis", ostensibly based on Leonardo. • 2001–2006: The show
Alias features a character
Milo Giacomo Rambaldi, a fictional character clearly based on Leonardo. • 2006: Featured on the
History Channel's
Man, Moment, Machine. • 2006: The
Boston Legal episode "
The Nutcrackers" portrayed the main character,
Alan Shore, as the
Mona Lisa, a play on his stoic demeanor in the show. • 2010: The
Futurama episode "
The Duh-Vinci Code" reveals Leonardo to be an alien from Planet Vinci, which is inhabited by brilliant intellectuals of human appearance. However, he is considered to be the least intelligent of the planet's inhabitants and is bullied by everyone else for it. He came to Earth as a means of escape, but eventually returned to Vinci after being disillusioned by how much more unintelligent the people of Earth were compared to him. • 2011: The
Family Guy episode "
The Big Bang Theory" follows
Stewie and
Brian on a quest to stop
Bertram from killing Leonardo, which would permanently erase Stewie from the universe. • 2011–2012: The BBC series
Leonardo centers on Leonardo when he was a teenager, played by
Jonathan Bailey. • 2012 and 2017: In the series
Horrible Histories and its
reboot Leonardo is played by
Mathew Baynton/
Tom Stourton • 2013: ''
Da Vinci's Demons'' is an
historical fantasy series about Leonardo da Vinci at the age of 25. Leonardo is involved in political intrigue amongst the Italian city-states, the Vatican, and the mystery cult known as the
Sons of Mithras. He is played by
Tom Riley. • 2013: In the feature-length documentary
Inside the Mind of Leonardo, Leonardo is played by
Peter Capaldi. • 2015: In the anime
Lupin the 3rd Part IV: The Italian Adventure, the MI6 creates a clone of Leonardo, who becomes the series main villain, by using his genius intellect to create a machine that will replicate his consciousness in the mind of every inhabitant of Italy, thus trapping them in what he calls "Il Sogno Italiano" (The Italian Dream). • 2018: In the Philippine series
Sana Dalawa ang Puso, two
look-alike women played by
Jodi Sta. Maria are named Mona and Lisa. • 2021: TV series
Leonardo Advertising •
Benetton's 1988 "United Superstars of Benetton" print and billboard campaign, paired with
Julius Caesar Comics and graphic novels • The
DC Comics Elseworlds story "
Black Masterpiece", in
Batman Annual No. 18, shows Leonardo's apprentice becoming a Renaissance Batman, using the Master's devices in his war on Florentine crime. • DC Comics's
Vertigo division published a ten-issue miniseries "strongly laced with sex, violence, and magic" In ''
Assassin's Creed II'', a young Leonardo befriends the protagonist,
Ezio Auditore da Firenze, in 1476 when introduced by Ezio's mother Maria, a patron of Leonardo's. He later helps Ezio by deciphering pages of an ancient Assassin
Codex written by legendary Assassin Mentor
Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and using his mechanical know-how to build various devices, inventions and weapons. An older Leonardo appears in ''
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, having been forced to make war machines for Cesare Borgia and Rodrigo Borgia and asking Ezio to help him by destroying them. In the DLC The Da Vinci Disappearance for Brotherhood'', Leonardo is kidnapped by Hermeticists, members of the Cult of Hermes, and Ezio must rescue him. The DLC also includes Leonardo's pupil and suspected lover,
Salaì. • In
Super Monday Night Combat, a clone of Leonardo da Vinci under the name of "Leo" is playable. • In
LittleBigPlanet 2, a tutorial and supporting character is also named Da Vinci with some few difference: he wears 3D glasses, his head is made of craft, and his first name is "Larry". • In the mobile game
Fate/Grand Order, Leonardo is portrayed as a woman with visual characteristics of
Mona Lisa, and manifested as a Caster-class Servant. She
willingly changed her gender and form upon being summoned, and is a genius in magecraft, mathematics, engineering, natural history, music, architecture, sculpture, painting, inventing, and weapons development. • In the 2016 game
Persona 5, the character
Yusuke Kitagawa (an artist) indicates a desire to go by the code name "Da Vinci", however his fellow Phantom Thieves give him the callsign "Fox" instead. • In
Totally Accurate Battle Simulator,
Leonardo's proposed fighting vehicle appears as the most powerful unit in the Renaissance Faction. He is also mentioned on the names of achievements.
Other • 2014: In the
Epic Rap Battles of History episode "Artists vs. TMNT", Leonardo, portrayed by Link Neal of
Rhett and Link, appears alongside portrayals of
Donatello,
Michelangelo and
Raphael, engaged in a
battle rap with the eponymous
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. •
Lego released a set in 2025 based on Leonardo's flying machine. Leonardo also appears as a minifigure in the set. • In 2025, the
European Central Bank announced that Leonardo had been selected to appear on the obverse of
100 euro banknotes in a
future redesign, were the theme "European culture" to be selected over "Rivers and birds".
Exhibitions •
Leonardo da Vinci: Machines in Motion is a traveling exhibition of 40 full-scale machines that were built after study of Leonardo da Vinci's designs by a group of scientists and craftsmen in
Florence, Italy. The exhibition was produced by Evergreen Exhibitions and has been exhibited by many science museums, including Museo Tecnologico in
Mexico City,
Witte Museum in
San Antonio, Texas,
South Carolina State Museum in
Columbia, South Carolina,
McWane Science Center in
Birmingham, Alabama and many more. == Gallery ==