"Jacopo – Portrait of a Young Man"
Description
According to the account contained in the book—later itself lost—the portrait was destroyed following the 1476 trial, when Leonardo da Vinci and other young Florentines — including Jacopo Saltarelli, Baccino di Giovanni, and others — were accused of sodomy.
Although the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence, the episode caused a scandal in the city’s circles, prompting some powerful families, including the Medici, to distance themselves from the artist and his acquaintances.
The text claims that the desire to erase all traces of that affair, and to remove any shadow from the honor of the families involved, led to the destruction of the painting. This decision is said to have been encouraged by figures close to the Medici court, eager to safeguard the reputation of the dynasty and preserve an image of public morality
Sketch
Description
Jacopo – Portrait of a Young Man sketch
Legal Notice – Origin and Nature of the Artwork
The artwork presented here is an artistic reconstruction created by Navaret, based on an original hand-drawn sketch made by his father. The sketch was executed from a partial visual testimony of a page from a book that was damaged and subsequently lost following the Florence flood of 1966.
The original source is currently considered empirically unidentifiable, lacking bibliographic traceability and not included in any public archive or protected collection.
The artwork does not reproduce any known or catalogued content, nor does it constitute a mechanical copy of existing works. The reconstruction is to be understood as an autonomous creative interpretation, drawn freehand and subsequently reworked in digital format.
The artwork is protected under current copyright law as the original creation of the artist. No third-party rights related to pre-existing works apply, nor are there any obligations of archival, museum, or cultural protection deriving from known sources.