Just when you think you’ve got the measure of Leonardo da Vinci – painter, anatomist, pioneer of flight, animal-rights prophet – he turns out to have one more talent up his sleeve. He played a kind of fat violin called the lira da braccio, for which there were not even written scores. Playing it “was the Renaissance version of playing the blues”, says Hollingworth. He shows me another piece of evidence suggesting that Leonardo was famous in his time as the Jimi Hendrix of the lyre. And as the hall fills with early music’s good vibrations, I get why Leonardo employed musicians to make her smile.

Source: The Guardian April 30, 2019 07:36 UTC