6A MUSICAL EAR

Amongst his myriad skills, Leonardo was a talented musician. Lorenzo de’ Medici sent him to Milan to bring the duke a present, a lyre that Leonardo himself had designed and built.

Vasari writes in his “Vite” that Leonardo won a musical competition playing his silver lyre, created in the shape of a horse’s head. He also designed a mechanical drum and called music the “sister of painting”, because they both create harmonic composition, adding that painting is superior because it doesn’t die after the execution. Shame he didn’t invent a way to record it.

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