RECORDED THE MAESTRO’S THOUGHTS,
AS HE DICTATED THEM:
| “Y |
ou ask me what my apartment was like in Milan? It was an apartment of tapestries and antique furniture, paintings, mine and others. Sculptured pieces. I bought many things at the Thieves’ Market. My Camjac tapestries covered three walls. Made the room warmer. My paintings covered the fourth. This was my sala. A large stained glass window faced the street. You remember that street, of course. Lodi Street. Western exposure. Hot in summer. Dusty. But my apartment was on the fourth floor, had a wide, shaded balcony. There was a small courtyard of plants and a pair of little tiled fountains with squirting fish. Sometimes the courtyard was a refuge. Cypress. Old ones.
“With my big iron key, I stepped into my rooms. Five. My studio had good light. Of course I painted the walls black. You would have admired my Roman pieces, heads, busts. You, my friend, were living in Vaprio then.”
We moved his bed into the sun, and pulled open the drapes. He enjoyed lying there. “Spring is beautiful,” he said.
Cloux
April 5, 1519
Da Vinci talks to me with difficulty. However, I go on: