LEONARDO MICHELANGELO
In a work dated 1515, Leonardo da Vinci complained of the poor quality of the wine he had been offered, blaming the wrong maturation in the vat.
"Though the leaves attract all the substances needed to mature the grapes, we ruin the fruits of this labour by placing the wine in uncovered jars, thus allowing the essence to vanish and leave nothing but insipid, coloured liquid extracted from peel and pulp."

Leonardo da Vinci, in a letter that was first lost and later discovered and published in 1828, after speaking of the best way to treat wine, concludes with: "… and thus, if you and the others understand my reasoning, we shall drink excellent wine ( 9 X 1515)".

During his work at the Sistine chapel, Michelangelo wrote a daily diet for his pupils in which he specified: "…and the man drank excellent wine."

Some "wine" fountains dating from 1400, designed and built for celebration in landowners' houses.

THE WINE

Bacchus checkers: a game with glasses filled with red wine on one side and white wine on the other instead of the checkers. The player making a losing move has to drink.

To the Medicis, a family of merchants and bankers, wine was a commodity. It was one of the most renowned products of the region and they took great care of it as well as of agriculture and botany which they fostered as a science.

Nel tempo d'ogni fronde
Lascia el verde…
E Bacco per le ville e 'n ogni via
Si vede a torno andar, col cui aiuto
Vo' a quest'opra el suo principio sia

Selected paintings from the exibition "Uve dei Medici" ( 1992), with notes taken from the book edited by the Museo Ideale di Leonardo in Vinci (Florence).

Satyr with flask. School of Giambologna.

THE OIL

Oil was sacred to the ancients, as sacred as bread and wine, and the olive tree was the most sacred of all. Various finds document the cultivation of the olive tree and the production of oil by the Etruscans in the 7th and 6th centuries B.C.

Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli have left us their personal interpretation of this, where from many of the labels of the modern oil producers take inspiration.