Leonardo's First Landscape to Return to Vinci for 500th Death Anniversary

Leonardo da Vinci's earliest dated work, the landscape drawing 'Il Paesaggio' (8P recto), will return to his birthplace Vinci for the first time in over 500 years. The drawing, created on August 5, 1473, is housed at the Uffizi's Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe. It will be exhibited at the Museo Leonardiano in Vinci from August 5, 2019, for five weeks, marking the 500th anniversary of Leonardo's death. The announcement was made three years in advance by Uffizi Director Eike Schmidt, curator Marzia Faietti, Museo Leonardiano Director Roberta Barsanti, and Vinci culture councillor Paolo Santini. The drawing depicts a river landscape resembling the Valdarno region, featuring cliffs, castles, trees, and cultivated fields. Schmidt called it one of the first autonomous landscapes in Western drawing and the earliest graphic testimony of the artist. Barsanti emphasized its symbolic connection between Leonardo and Vinci.