Everyone in the world knows Leonardo’s genius as an artist and scientist. But few people know that Leonardo was also a “vocabulist” — a collector of words. Read more

Sabrina D’Alessandro, “Salvatica”, 2022-2025
Parola-scultura in mostra al Castello Sforzesco
(30 ottobre 2025 - 30 gennaio 2026)

“Salvatica,” a terracotta sculpture, takes its name from a word found in the Trivulziano Codex. The term salvatico literally means “wild,” “sylvan,” or “something that grows spontaneously without human intervention.” Yet, through a play on words, Leonardo interpreted it as “that which is saved.”
Installed in the Cortile delle Armi, the sculpture holds within it other “lost” words recorded by the Renaissance genius, symbolically “saving” them, for here they return to memory — and thus to life.
Sabrina D’Alessandro has paired the words and placed them in contrast on the front and back of the sculpture: they define human qualities, attitudes, virtues, and flaws, echoing Leonardo’s reflections on ethics and morality found in his fables, bestiaries, and prophecies.
Here, the words become image and sound — evoking without revealing, suggesting without declaring. It is up to the observer to decide whether, at least in part, to unravel their enigma by seeking their meaning.