5. Leonardo’s Medusa were widely regarded as among his finest creations
Detailed in Giorgio Vasari’s Vita di Leonardo (Life of Leonardo) from 1568, Vasari recounts in detail how a young Leonardo produced a masterpiece representing the monstrous head of the Gorgon Medusa on a buckler as a favor for Ser Piero da Vinci. Allegedly terrifying Ser Piero upon first glance, the appreciative nobleman secretly sold the work of art to some merchants in Florence for a hundred ducats who in turn sold it on to the Duke of Milan for three hundred. Although unknown what happened to this shield, with some art historians disputing the veracity of Vasari’s anecdote, a succession of 17th-century painters sought to copy Leonardo’s work after observing it suggesting at least some truth to the story.
Following this successful endeavor as a young amateur, Vasari alleged an older Leonardo was one day taken by fancy to “paint a picture in oils of the head of Medusa”. Remaining unfinished, but nonetheless “the most strange and extravagant invention that could ever be imagined”, Vasari claimed the work was in the possession of the Duke of Cosimo. Thought to have been discovered in 1782 at the Uffizi, the supposed masterpiece was celebrated throughout the 19th century as one of Leonardo’s finest. However, in the 20th century it was proven to not be the work of Leonardo, dating instead from approximately 1600 and is today attributed to an anonymous Flemish painter.