“Returning to your beginnings
“Returning to your beginningsbegins them again”
begins them again”Each time he walked the streets of Florence, paths oft tread in another life, he wondered if the change he saw and felt was in him or the city.
It was never easy for Leonardo to return to Florence, but to return for them, for the women who looked to him, he ignored the unease. Falling out of Lorenzo de’ Medici’s favor had cast a pall on Florence, or so it felt to him, through his eyes, no matter the depth of his love of the city. But one could not—should not—blame others when the blame rested so precisely on one’s own shoulders.
Lorenzo was correct; Leonardo admitted it, at least to himself. He had left far too many commissions unfinished, he had been unproductive, and he wrestled for contro
