Da Vinci clashes with Count Riario (Blake Ritson). (Tonto Films and Television Limit)
Hera Hilmar as Vanessa (Tonto Films and Television Limit)
It’s one thing to be a genius. But what if, besides being one of the world’s greatest painters, you were also an engineer, architect, mathematician, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer?
Those descriptions only begin to catalogue the off-the-charts brilliance of Leonardo Da Vinci, painter of “The Last Supper” and the “Mona Lisa.” Beginning April 12, STARZ begins an eight-part dramatic series that depicts the artist as a tortured young man, on the cusp of greatness but hunted by those threatened by his inventions. In “Da Vinci’s Demons,” you will also meet his model, Vanessa, and his enemy, the ruthless Count Riario, nephew of Pope Sixtus IV.
The New York Post spoke with creator and executive producer David S. Goyer, whose credits include working on the feature films “The Dark Knight” and “Man of Steel.”
Q. What did you know about Da Vinci when you started?
A. The first thing I knew when I was a kid, because I was a big comic book reader, was that Bob Kane, who created Batman, had based Batman’s wings on Da Vinci’s ornithopter. Before I knew he painted “The Last Supper” or the “Mona Lisa,” I knew that the design of Batman had been based on Da Vinci’s designs.
Q. What’s the difference between writing about Batman and Superman, and writing about da Vinci?
A. Batman and Superman are fictional characters. Da Vinci is a historical figure. But they’re all mythic figures. If you read [Giorgio] Vasari’s biography, written about 50 years after his death, it says that Da Vinci could bend steel bars with his hands — ridiculous things that he obviously couldn’t do. But I think he exists in this elevated status in people’s minds and he is not dissimilar to iconic figures like Bruce Wayne or Clark Kent.
Q. Weren’t you concerned that after 2003, and the mania surrounding “The Da Vinci Code,” the fascination with Da Vinci had been played out?
A. I wasn’t at all concerned that one of the best-selling books of all time had to do with Da Vinci. That was a plus. They did some market research on our show and 1,000 people were asked about 10 historical figures: Would you be interested in a show about this person or that person? And something like 99 percent said yes to Da Vinci. He seems to have universal fascination. But when you really drill down, people really don’t know very much about him. If you wanted to come up with a figure that had worldwide pre-awareness, you couldn’t come up with anyone better than him.
Q. Renaissance portraits of the artist don’t look anything like your leading man, actor Tom Riley. Can you explain?
A. No, and Tom is also Irish. But he’s also the best actor that came across the threshold. Tom was the guy who encapsulated that kind of feverish imagination, that sense of danger and irrationality and humor and genius. So I said, I’d rather go with a guy who is all of those things as opposed to a guy who has a Mediterranean complexion. One of the things I told the cast and crew at the very beginning was: This is historical fantasy and history is a lie. It’s interpretive, and constantly being over-written or rewritten by the victors.
One of the potential lies is that Da Vinci was a homosexual, because he tended to draw more men than women, because his companions were young men, and because he never married. He drew more men, I would argue, because the male form at the time tended to be what people drew. My own personal belief is that he was probably bisexual. But nobody knows for sure. Some people believe one of his mistresses was the Duchess of Milan. Other people think he had illegitimate children. Florence at the time was a very permissive society. In Renaissance Italy, being a bisexual or even a homosexual didn’t have the same kind of stigma that it has now. Yes, Da Vinci was put on trial twice for sodomy. But a lot of historians believe that [the charge] was political. We’re dealing with that in the first season, and not shying away from it.
Q. You’re presenting DaVinci as bisexual?
A. Yes.
Q. How would you describe his personality?
A. I think he was manic depressive. He drank a lot. Some people say he smoked opium. He was definitely tortured. I mean, it’s called “Da Vinci’s Demons” for a reason. And I was very intent that that title remain. It was a bone of contention at one point in the development of the show. I wanted people to know that there was going to be a certain amount of darkness. I think every great creative mind skirts madness and depression, and views the world in a slightly off-kilter way. That’s what allows them to come up with stuff that you and I haven’t seen before.