A drawing of a sailboat at sea, in the stern of which a wolf sits with his right paw on a compass, and his left paw holding the tiller. The mast is an olive tree. The compass points straight at an eagle, which is perched on a globe resting on the shore. A rocky landscape forms the background.

This is Leonardo’s most highly finished chalk drawing, though its purpose is unknown, and the allegorical subject has received many different interpretations. The glorious eagle bestriding the earth wears a French crown with fleurs-de-lys, and must stand for the King of France; the animal in the boat is sometimes seen as a wolf representing the Pope, guiding the ‘ship of the Church’ (navis ecclesiae) with a tree for a mast. It has been seen as an allegory of the alliance between Pope Leo X and Francis I in 1515; of the marriage of Giuliano de’ Medici (Leonardo’s patron in Rome) and Philiberta of Savoy in 1516; of Ludovico Sforza fleeing to the protection of the Holy Roman Emperor in 1499; of Alexander VI cowering before the conquering Charles VIII in 1494; even as an allegory of canalisation projects in Lombardy.

The style of the landscape is that of the years around 1510, and the idea of a compass in turbulent waters remaining fixed on the glory of France is essentially the same as the central emblem of RCIN 912701. The animal in the boat is therefore presumably a dog, for fidelity, and the allegory expresses faithful devotion towards the King of France. Only the tree-mast is mysterious, though it could be a personal device of the patron.

Text adapted from Leonardo da Vinci: A life in drawing, London, 2018