WI Leonardo da Vinci had a son

What if da Vinci had an illegitimate son some time from around 1495 to 1508, and made him his pupil?
 
Well...in a purely hypothetical situation he somehow got an heir, what did you expect, Zuvarq? Talent isn't exactly always heritable.

(and if he DID have one, it would be one interesting apprenticeship, what with all the moving around and dad's boyfriends barely older than yourself).
 
Well...in a purely hypothetical situation he somehow got an heir, what did you expect, Zuvarq? Talent isn't exactly always heritable.

(and if he DID have one, it would be one interesting apprenticeship, what with all the moving around and dad's boyfriends barely older than yourself).
Well his kid would probably be at least somewhat clever, and with Leonardo da Vinci's teaching he could become as or almost as skilled as his father.
 
Well his kid would probably be at least somewhat clever, and with Leonardo da Vinci's teaching he could become as or almost as skilled as his father.

Well, Fillipino Lippi(son of a prominent and theoretically monastic painter and a nun he either ran off with or kidnapped) turned out pretty well as an artist, so there is precedent. Or he could turn out to be good-for-nothing. Really, hard to say exactly, esp. given how much Leonardo's habits would be affected by this and need to change for this to be viable-stuff like the constant moving from court to court, e.g.
 
as with any one from outside the modern area but well
"Little is known about Leonardo's sexuality, as, although he left hundreds of pages of writing, very little of it is personal in nature. He left no letters, poetry or diary that indicate any romantic interest. He never married and it cannot be stated with certainty that he had a sexually intimate relationship with any person, male or female."

Pretty clear that.

But anyway, if he has a son, would Leonardo necessarily have been a good teacher?

Being very talented at art (among other things) does not necessarily mean he can instruct his son well. And if he pays someone else to do it - well, that could go any which way.

Not sure why constantly moving from court rules out having a child, although it'll certainly impact the kid.
 
I am more thinking about what would happen to Leonardo's legacy. His last apprentice and the apprentice's wife kept his stuff historically iirc, which preserved it in obscurity.

If he had an actual heir of the flesh, I wonder what would happen? Would he live on his father's name? Try to preserve the papers? Sell things off piecemeal?
 
I am more thinking about what would happen to Leonardo's legacy. His last apprentice and the apprentice's wife kept his stuff historically iirc, which preserved it in obscurity.

If he had an actual heir of the flesh, I wonder what would happen? Would he live on his father's name? Try to preserve the papers? Sell things off piecemeal?

I think a lot depends on the kid.

Which is to say, its kind of up to the writer - although I suspect a son would be either told about Leonardo's secret stuff or kept away from it (as in, one extreme or the other).
 
I think a lot depends on the kid.

Which is to say, its kind of up to the writer - although I suspect a son would be either told about Leonardo's secret stuff or kept away from it (as in, one extreme or the other).

And then of course there's the possibility of him either being talented or not talented enough and being resentful of father's shadow. Definitely something the writer could do a lot with.
 
And then of course there's the possibility of him either being talented or not talented enough and being resentful of father's shadow. Definitely something the writer could do a lot with.

Yeah. I don't know if it would be worth a timeline on its own - barring Extreme Butterflies most things are likely to go as OTL (some may not, depending on what Leonardo's son does) - but it would be an appropriate and interesting butterfly consequence with a timeline set in the late 15th century.
 
And then of course there's the possibility of him either being talented or not talented enough and being resentful of father's shadow. Definitely something the writer could do a lot with.

Or could use those talents in different directions. Cpe bach was a good, not great, musician, but in a ratther differeent style. David Friedman is a respected economist but in a different school than his dad Milton. My grandpa was aa legendary country doctor, my dad a radiologist.

Leonardos apprentice, son or not, might invent pointilism or cubism or something crazy.
 
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