Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) enjoys a considerable reputation as an architect. But how can we discuss the architecture of an architect who – so far as is known – built virtually nothing? The raw material comes largely from Leonardo’s sketches and notes, a rich profusion of original ideas and borrowings, and copies of drawings by contemporaries, such as Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439-1502). Martini was one of the most prolific military designers of his generation who, it should be said, also copied from Leonardo. This takes nothing away from either architect’s reputation. How else could ideas travel in the days before printing and printed illustrations transformed the spread of knowledge? For our purposes, Leonardo’s sketchbooks and their notes are the only guide to his architectural ambitions and provide the best clues to his elusive career.

Leonardo’s apprenticeship in Florence began in 1472 in the workshop of Andrea del Verrochio. In a later sketchbook Leonardo reminds himself to “keep in mind how the ball of Santa Maria del Fiore was soldered together.” This was a reference to the gilded globe which was made in Verrochio’s workshop before being fixed on top of the recently completed lantern over the dome of Florence’s cathedral some time between 1468 and 1472. Leonardo may have witnessed this operation, and almost certainly was able to inspect the lifting equipment that would still have been in place when he arrived in Florence. Brunelleschi’s dome was the greatest architectural and engineering achievement of its age and Leonardo’s numerous sketches of its scaffolding, cranes, gearing systems, and blocks and tackle testify to his fascination.

Leonardo’s sketchbooks contain numerous examples of domed octagonal or circular churches, surrounded by symmetrical clusters of chapels covered by smaller domes or semi-domes. Explored both in bird’s-eye perspectives and in geometrical diagrams, the domed centrally-planned church was clearly an obsessive interest and this may well have had its origins in Brunelleschi’s scheme for Santa Maria del Fiore which served to “centralize” a Gothic cross-shaped church.

Later in life, Leonardo drew inspiration from Bramante’s circular Tempietto for the base of a proposed equestrian monument to the French general, Gian Giacomo Trivulzio. Throughout his career Leonardo seems to have been much more interested in the overall geometry of buildings than in the use of the orders and the classical detailing that was fast becoming the new orthodoxy in Italy.

In 1482 or 1483 Leonardo moved to the Milanese court of Lodovico il Moro, initially as a musician (according to Vasari’s Life). In Milan his activities expanded to include both civil and military engineering as well as three of his greatest artworks – the “Virgin of the Rocks”, the “Last Supper” (both begun in mid-1490s and finished much later) and the massive but never completed equestrian bronze statue of Duke Francesco Sforza (1401-66), which was commissioned by his son, Lodovico (1451-1508).

What might have been Leonardo’s greatest architectural project was also set in Milan. In the early 1480s the Milanese found themselves in a situation similar to that of the Florentines sixty years earlier, facing the need to complete an enormous unfinished Gothic cathedral by covering the crossing of the nave, transepts and choir. Brunelleschi had given the Florentines a dome, and unsurprisingly Leonardo’s competition scheme for Milan promised the same. But this proposal found no support in a city still strongly influenced by Northern Gothic ideas. Before the Gothic tower and steeple was built between 1490 and 1500, a lively debate continued about the best way to solve the structural problems. The largest surviving group of Leonardo’s drawings on a single project are his sketches and diagrams of interlocking pointed arches for the vaulting system that would cover the crossing and carry the tower (which was much taller and heavier than the lantern over Brunelleschi’s dome). Having lost the dome, Leonardo was determined to be involved in one of the last great Gothic enterprises.

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