The Life of Leonardo da Vinci
La Vita di Leonardo Da Vinci — in English, The Life of Leonardo da Vinci — is a 1971 Italian miniseries created by Renato Castellani. The series is based largely on a biography in Giorgio Vasari's Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori.
Synopsis
The life and development of Leonardo da Vinci are presented and analyzed with lingering myths being addressed and laid to rest along the way.Cast
- Philippe Leroy as Leonardo da Vinci
- Riad Gholmie as Francis I of France
- Giampiero Albertini as Ludovico Sforza
- Renzo Rossi as Sandro Botticelli
- Bruno Cirino as Michelangelo
- Marta Fischer as Isabella of Aragon
- Enrico Osterman as Niccolò Machiavelli
- Mario Molli as Andrea del Verrocchio
- Carlo Simoni as Francesco Melzi
- Bianca Toccafondi as Isabella d'Este
- Bruno Piergentili as Salaì
Production
This was written and directed by Renato Castellani and produced by RAI, Televisión Española, ORTF and Istituto Luce. Everything was filmed entirely on location in Italy and France.The final credits feature Ornella Vanoni singing Leonardo's famous aphorism, put to music by Romanian composer Roman Vlad as "La canzone di Leonardo."
Release
In Italy, the series was broadcast in five episodes from October 24 to November 21, 1971, on Programma Nazionale. It was made in color, even though the Italian government had not yet adopted this technique. Later, CBS distributed the series in the United States with English-language dubbing, airing it from August 13, 1972 to September 10, 1972. In Quebec, the series was broadcast from September 7, 1973 on Radio-Canada Television, and in France from May 2, 1974 on the second channel of ORTF and rebroadcast in April 1980 on the first channel.Italy officially began rebroadcasts in color in 1977.