# Leonardo (2021)

> A speculative Italian historical drama that reads Leonardo da Vinci's paintings as coded clues to a hidden, tortured life.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/81221

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 8
- Episode runtime: 50 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, history, crime
- Created by: Frank Spotnitz, Steve Thompson
- Network: Rai 1
- Cast: Aidan Turner, Freddie Highmore, Antonio De Matteo, Matilda De Angelis, Andrew Knott, Giancarlo Giannini, Gabriel Lo Giudice, Max Bennett
- TMDB rating: 7.2/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7950706/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: melancholic, contemplative, suspenseful, introspective

## What critics say

Viewers found this loose, gentle reinterpretation of Leonardo da Vinci's life uncertain in its audience and short on the creative punch of earlier takes on the artist.

## Synopsis

Leonardo (2021) is an Italian historical crime drama series created by Frank Spotnitz and Steve Thompson for Rai 1. Aidan Turner plays the painter Leonardo da Vinci, a gifted outsider reimagined as a gay man who hides his true self inside his canvases, while Freddie Highmore plays Stefano Giraldi, a figure drawn into the murky world around the artist. Matilda De Angelis, Antonio De Matteo, and James D'Arcy appear among the principal cast. Its engine is the artist's private struggle against secrecy and the relentless demand for perfection, and each of its eight episodes of roughly fifty minutes takes a single famous artwork and searches it for concealed clues, with the crimes and intrigues of fifteenth century Italian courts woven around those investigations. The series is a single self-contained season with a complete arc and a clear sense of closure. Set in the Renaissance courts and workshops of Italy, it foregrounds rich period costume, candlelit interiors, and a melancholic, introspective register. Its tone blends contemplative biography with suspense, and its themes of concealed identity and artistic obsession will appeal to viewers who enjoy historical art mysteries. Fans of Da Vinci's Demons, The Borgias and Medici: Masters of Florence will find resonance in its blend of Renaissance intrigue and portraiture of a historical genius.

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