Bicycle model constructed based on an alleged drawing by Leonardo da Vinci or one of his pupils, now widely held to be a hoax. Photo by Erik Möller.

WARNING: the following comment is OR. Mandy 00:13, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

The page on which the bicylce drawing is found has a drawing which is by Leonardo. There are a number of other images on the page. One of the pictures is a very poorly drawn profile of a face. The drawing of the face is NOT by a "pupil of Leonardo" because it is drawn by someone with no training in either observation of the human form, or in handling a drawing implement. The evidencce for this is that (as in the drawings of most young children) the eyes are up near the top of the head, the face has features, but no appearancce of having a skull. Secondly, the hair has been drawn by someone with a small hand (which can be judged by the radius of the arcs inscribed), in a scribbly way dictated not by the shape of the head, but merely by the mechanics of the hand without consideration for form.

The bicycle shows all the same characteristcs as the face. It appears to have been drawn by the same hand, and in the same scribbly manner. Like the face, it has a serious problem with the proportions: the gear and pedals are drawn so large that they stick down beyond the wheels of the bike. Leonardo often simply omitted from his drawings some of the most basic mechanical components, (eg some of his inventions will not work when constructed as drawn because he has left out a couple of angle gears or even the lever that makes a thing operate) but he did not draw things that were seriously disproportionate. If a part needed to be shown in greater detail, then he drew an additional drawing of the part.

Moreover, Leonardo drew decisively. He did not draw by using a series of short uncertain lines, or a series of scribbles in the hope that one mighht fall in the right place. His steady and expert hand did not drive the implement that drew this bike!

In my POV, it is not a hoax, because there is no attempt by any clever person to make the drawing look as if it was done by the master. It looks as if it has been done by a kid, perhaps inspired by Leonardo's drawings of both figures and mechanical objects. The date of the two images could be determined by the form of the bike. Mandy 00:13, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

Leonardo da Vinci. Mensch - Erfinder - Genie exhibit, Berlin 2005.

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