![]() Leonardo da Vinci, Drapery Study, Department of Prints and Drawings, Musée du Louvre, Paris. We all know that Leonardo was very absorbed with the intellectual and courtly status of the artist, so he probably wouldn’t be traveling around looking like a bum/old lady. Luckily, prince Henri is around to help save Leonardo’s most precious possession, which he calls “his life.” I don’t know why Leonardo is wearing this weird white bonnet, which is wears through the entire film. And while Henri is galloping around, we finally meet Leonardo, who is traveling to the king’s chateau when he is robbed by thieves. ![]() While out in the countryside, he runs into Danielle and borrows her horse. We are also introduced to the wayward Prince Henri, who wants to marry for love and runs away from home/the castle. The Château de la Roussie, which was burned in 1575 and reconstructed in 1600, is located near Sarlat in the Dordogne region of France. This all takes place at Danielle’s home, which is an actual manor house. The years pass and now Danielle is grown up and constantly mistreated by her family. Then there is more plot introducing Danielle, the death of her father, her evil stepmother, etc. The real deal: Leonardo da Vinci, La Scapigliata, Galleria Nazionale di Parma. She then shows them this famous Leonardo painting, which is supposedly a portrait of Danielle (and has definitely been altered to look more like Drew Barrymore). She tells them how she enjoyed their rendition of Cinderella but also says that they don’t know the true story of her ancestor, Danielle de Barbarac, who was the basis of the fairy tale. The film opens with the Brothers Grimm visiting an elderly French aristocrat. Here is our first art historical reference: Leonardo’s famous Head of a woman ( La Scapigliata). So for your viewing and reading pleasure, I have compiled all interesting Renaissance art history references. Like the rest of the movie, the art references are generally inaccurate, but they’re entertaining: a fun homage to Leonardo and his many inventions. The film, probably because of Leonardo’s presence, is also studded with art history easter eggs. But overall, it’s still an enjoyable movie, if you can suspend your historical disbelief. There are many anachronisms and historical inaccuracies, the most striking of which are that Leonardo was dead by the time Henri II was of age to be a hot love interest and that Henri II did not marry a forward thinking, Thomas More-quoting woman named Danielle. Watching this for the first time in many years, I enjoyed the now-quaint 90’s girl-power slant to it (this was the age of the Spice Girls!) but even more, I was tickled that this story takes place in sixteenth-century France, under the reign of François I, that Danielle’s love interest/Prince Charming is the future king Henri II, and that her new, improved fairy godmother is the most famous Renaissance man of all, Leonardo da Vinci (!). ![]() One of my favorites, Ever After, is a social-justice-feminist retelling of Cinderella, with Drew Barrymore as the heroine, now named Danielle de Barbarac. If you are a child of the 90’s, it is very likely you watched your fair share of Drew Barrymore movies growing up.
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