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'Da Vinci's Demons' spins fantasy out of historical threads his own journals when he was 13 where something happened in a cave. We don't know exactly Born in the middle of what happened. He the 15th century, during sketched it, and he said the Renaissance, artist that, sort of, something and visionary Leonardo horrific happened to him da Vinci was one of the most brilliant and restless in a cave. And that's something we explore in minds of a glittering and this show. restive age. "I also thought it was One would think that interesting that Bob Kane, sticking 100 percent of the time to the facts of the the creator of Batman, originally based da Vinci's life of a man described — I'm sorry — Batman's by contemporary Giorgio Vasari as having a "beauty cape on da Vinci's glider. So there are sort of two of body never sufficiently figures that have always extolled," an "infinite been kind of inextricably grace" and "great bodily linked." strength," with a "spirit Among Goyer's and courage ever royal and magnanimous" would colorful cast of figures in decadent Florence, Italy be enough for a dramatic (some based loosely on cable series. history), are Lucrezia And that's not even Donati (Laura Haddock), mentioning the major the mistress of Lorenzo works of art he's known Medici (Elliot Cowan); best for: the enigmatic Count Girolamo Riario portrait "Mona Lisa," the (Blake Ritson), a nephew reverent and yet dynamic of Pope Sixtus IV (James "The Last Supper," and Faulkner, in a sceneryone of the most famous chewing portrayal) pen-and-ink drawings transformed here into of all time, depicting the pontiff's pious, secret the beauty of proper son; Clarice Orsini proportions, called (Lara Pulver), Lorenzo's "Vitruvian Man." devoted and devout On Friday, April 12, wife; thief and grave Starz premieres "Da robber Zoroaster (Gregg Vinci's Demons," a creation of writer David S. Chillin); barmaid/model Vanessa (Hera Hilmar); Goyer ("Batman Begins," teenage apprentice "The Dark Knight," "The Nico Machiavelli (Eros Dark Knight Rises"), that Vlahos); bon vivant uses the life of Leonardo Giuliano Medici (Tom da Vinci (Tom Riley) as a Bateman); and painter, jumping-off point for an sculptor and architect extravagantly produced Andrea Verrocchio (Allan historical fantasy that Corduner). reimagines him as a What is true is that womanizing swashbuckler searching for the mythical Leonardo da Vinci was a bit of an intellectual "Book of Leaves" with the hummingbird, landing on help of a possibly — or different pursuits just long probably — imaginary enough to get a taste figure called The Turk but not often sticking (Alexander Siddig). around to become an In Goyer's mind, the accomplished master. comic book parallels are It's a testament to his obvious. native genius, then, that "There are some the things he actually parallels to Batman," he finished — aside from says. "He had big father issues, you know, missing reams of journal entries and sketches of ingenious parent. Obviously, both inventions and the obsessed with flight. intricacies of the body and Both had these formative the natural world — are horrific incidents where deathless works of art. they were trapped in "He was so mercurial," caves — or, in Batman's says Riley, "and so much case, a well. "There was one that was written about how da Vinci wrote about in his mind flitted from one By Kate O'Hare © Zap2it 2 Lara Pulver stars in "Da Vinci's Demons," premiering Friday on Starz. thing to the next, and how frustrated he got, how charming he could be when necessary, and then how angry he would get. "To get to play all these different things in one role, in one job, that's a gift." As to what he might think of this version of Leonardo if he met him in life, Riley says, "How you would feel when you met him is like a hundred different people at once The Goshen News • Viewer's Choice • April 8-14, 2013 — depends on what day you met him." Vasari describes the aging and ill Leonardo as desiring to learn about Catholicism and struggling to his feet to receive communion. So it seems the hedonistic humanist eventually found his way to faith. By contrast, Pulver's character stands firm in her beliefs right from the beginning. "She was of noble birth," says Pulver, "so she entered into an arranged marriage with Lorenzo Medici, controversially, really, because she was very much a woman of the church. "She was entering this very freethinking, Bohemian world of Florence at that time. Many people had opinions and looked down on her strong beliefs." According to Pulver, that doesn't faze Clarice Orsini. "She's the first person I've ever played," she says, "who knows exactly who she is, and she's so OK with who she is. Therefore other people's opinions, criticisms, slightly wash over her, because she knows who she is, she knows what she stands for, and she's able to keep her cards very close to her chest. "She's a very clever, shrewd businesswoman and politician. She delivers that knowledge or that trump card whenever her husband or Leonardo da Vinci needs her to."

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