Page 15 of DATE
Even when clients came with specific deadlines and repeatedly came to urge him, he was still slow as ever.
Hedy even asked him how many paintings he could finish in a year.
"Two? Or three?" Da Vinci responded uncertainly. "Does it matter?"
No wonder when I went to the Louvre, I didn’t see many of your paintings...
It was bad enough that he painted so slowly, but many of them were left half-done, abandoned with no intention of being touched again.
Hedy had gotten used to helping him tidy up these works, saving them in order. She casually asked, “Sir, why don’t you continue painting?”
At least finish one before moving to the next.
Da Vinci, sipping his citrus potion, clicked his tongue thoughtfully. “—That one has issues.”
“Issues?”
He stood up, holding his glass, and walked over to the old painting. “When a person stretches their arms, the lines of the arms and shoulders shouldn’t be like this.”
As if to prove his point, he extended his right arm, showing her the muscles that tensed as he stretched.
“If I’m right, the wrist, arm, muscles—these things are all interconnected.” He sat back down. “But how exactly they influence each other, I haven’t figured out yet.”
Wasn’t this common knowledge in medicine? Wouldn’t it be clear from studying human anatomy charts?
Hedy was about to say something when she suddenly recalled the strange things she had seen in the apothecary.
Of course, this era didn’t have medical school; they probably hadn’t even started studying human anatomy yet.
She sighed softly, continuing to wipe down the tables and chairs with a cloth.
"By the way, the potion you made is quite useful," Da Vinci shook his glass. "Not only does it taste good, but my gum bleeding has stopped."
That was the vitamin C supplement.
Hedy looked up, continuing to play the role of a clumsy maid. "The alchemist taught me to make it that way."
When his sketches from four months ago were finally finished, he took the materials and went to the church near Palazzo Vecchio to paint.
As Da Vinci’s only maid, Hedy not only had to prepare his meals in the morning and afternoon but also had to follow him to the church and help with the ladder.
In Florence, the real power was in the hands of the young fourth-generation heir of the Medici family, Lorenzo de’ Medici.
In this small republic, with the rise of the merchant class, the Medici family had almost absolute control.
They owned grand private estates on the outskirts of the city and even controlled the vast Palazzo Pitti, which towered like a mountain.
The Medici family started with moneylending, then switched to banking halfway through, making a fortune in the process.
The second and third generations expanded the family business and used their wealth to sponsor artists and build churches for the Pope, gaining fame in the process.
Even the magnificent Florence Cathedral was completed thanks to a blueprint from ancient Greece provided by Cosimo de’ Medici, the second generation. This move helped him gain favor with the Pope and enter the political sphere.
Now, in the fourth generation—Lorenzo de’ Medici, the great Lorenzo—the banking business hadn’t seen much progress, but the political scene was well under control. Artists had more work, and every few months, they could afford a nice meal.
Hedy was well-versed in these matters because she had visited the office of this noble family—the future Uffizi Gallery.
Back when she was filming in Italy, she took the opportunity to explore, and she spent a long time at the Uffizi Gallery, guided by a hired tour guide.
