Comments on: Leonardo da Vinci’s Pet Dragon

By: 100swallows

100swallows — Sat, 24 May 2008 18:44:09 +0000

Thanks, John. I’ll try and find some more good ones for you and your friends before they start to tell each other: “Oops! Here comes John again with that darned dragon story of his!”

By: john

john — Sat, 24 May 2008 03:42:57 +0000

It is a awsome story, I read it every day and tell all my friens about it

By: ion danu

ion danu — Fri, 09 May 2008 01:40:11 +0000

…a beard and horns and bigger eyes… That looks pretty much as a Romanian Drac (Devil)… Dragon… Dragu… Dracu… It’s the derivation of the name of Vlad Dracul (Vlad the Devil), the father of Vlad the Impaler or Draculya (name he signed some documents, for real…) Vlad Dracul was called like that especially because he was a member of the Order of the Dragon, a knight order, very exclusiv, founded by Sigismund of Luxembourg, king of Hungary…

And, by the way, I do my own monsters too… not as scary as those of Leonardo, of course, but still…

By: 100swallows

100swallows — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:03:05 +0000

But Michelangelo’s looks more like a possible creature, doesn’t it, rich? Of course this one has gotten itself dangerously knotted up. Uccello’s (the one in the National Gallery, London) looks just a little too improbable. (I was surprised to see insignias like those on the wings of a praying mantis, who spread them to defend himself against a cat.) Maybe I’ll make a dragon post–that’s a good idea. Renaissance dragons, though: I don’t know much about the Chinese ones. To me, THEY all have a predictable look.
Not every uccello is a rondine.

By: rich

rich — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:54:25 +0000

There’s Paolo Swallows - eh - forgive me for confounding things, I mean Paolo Uccello.
That dragon reminds me of his “St.George with the Dragon”, a common motive of those times.

These dragons always look similar to me; like what I would call the Western Dragon concept, or the Snake concept (except the Aesculap which looks quite sound and healthy)… Always dragons and snakes are shown to us in an evil context and with a frightening touch.

I have a book on ancient Chinese painting and enjoy those dragons there. Would be an interesting study, about the Occidental and the Oriental concept of the dragon.

By: erikatakacs

erikatakacs — Tue, 06 May 2008 13:01:01 +0000

And he didn’t leave behind a sketch of the dragon? Sounds like he liked practical jokes.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:28:29 +0000

This is very cool.