Leonardo de Vinci, Mythologie ou théologie?

Nice dedication from the author to Professor Martin Stanton, May 1994.

Freud cherished his study A Childhood Memory of Leonardo da Vinci. However, it was marred by a serious misunderstanding. Since the "bird" in Vinci is a kite and not a vulture, what was left of an interpretation based in part on an intervention in Egyptian mythology concerning Mut the vulture goddess? More seriously, was the discrediting of Freud's work not going to extend to any attempt at psychoanalysis outside the treatment? Discrediting Freud? Tempting! Another path has been opened up in a work that traces the stages of the polemic surrounding Freud's Leonardo: from the work of the American art critic Meyer Schapiro and Kurt R. Eissler's riposte, to the most recent studies. It is precisely Schapiro who opens up this path for us by recalling the sources of Leonardo's inspiration that Freud overlooked: namely, the efflorescence in the Christian West of iconographic themes relating to the Virgin Mary and, in particular, of the scheme of the "Saint Anne in thirds" - a triad associating the Virgin Mary and Anne with the Child Jesus. A scenario that preoccupied Vinci for years. There is no need to imagine, with Freud, the diversions of a Leonardo discovering the myth of Mout! It was necessary to go directly to the Judeo-Christian inspiration, leading to Mariology and devotion to Saint Anne. Hence the drift, unpredictable at first, of this work: between Egyptian mythology and biblical theology, enigmatic scenarios of original seduction unfold. Such a drift in no way harms psychoanalysis outside the cure, which always proves to be an integral part of psychoanalysis tout court.