“The drawings were inspired by my visits to the sea, by my trips to the mountains where I saw avalanches. Sound...the crash of falling boulders, the crash of a raging ocean...they warn. Finality—in one form or another—surrounds. We can’t escape.
“Rage, rage...much of life is rage...desperate rage.
“Here, far inland, I can hear the tumultuous sea!”
Sometimes I can barely make out his words. I served his supper. He ate very little. He remarked about the pigeons cooing on the roof.
Cloux
April 12, 1519
Royalty have visited us. Alone with me, da Vinci said:
“Yesterday, I dreamed that the sun was coming through my window at Vinci...there were bunches of grapes on our table...bare table, in the sun. Caterina was sitting opposite me, her hands in the sun. I seemed to be about thirty years old. She seemed to be about the same age. Our dog lay on the floor, waiting for me to take him out.
“I felt imprisoned by the sunlight, happily imprisoned... I was imprisoned by the beauty in Caterina’s face. My eyes followed the grain of the table, mixed with the bunches of grapes, went out into the street, returned to her face, her smile.