An archipelago of symbols and memories. Tradition and innovation in the architectural background of Leonardo da Vinci's Adoration of the Magi

The essay proposes a new interpretation of the role of architecture in Leonardo's painting and in the two preparatory drawings from the Louvre and the GDSU, widening the investigation to the architectural culture of the Florence of Lorenzo the Magnificent and to the possible conceptual links with the sacred places of Jerusalem, first of all the Temple of Solomon. For the Louvre drawing, moreover, a possible direct influence of specific contents of the Second Book of Vitruvius' De architectura is analyzed, circumscribing the context in which such reference could have matured (the Garden of San Marco and relations with Lorenzo di Pier Francesco dei Medici).