Max Dvořák’s lecture Lionardos Bedeutung für die Entwicklung der Kunst und Wissenschaft

This article presents Max Dvořák’s 1913 public lecture "Leonardo’s Significance for the Development of Art and Science", held at the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry and preserved in manuscript form in his archival estate. In it, Dvořák explores Leonardo’s dual role within the history of Italian art — as both a pioneering innovator and a faithful heir to Quattrocento naturalism. Contrary to teleological views of Renaissance art, Dvořák rejects the idea of a unified artistic progression, emphasizing instead the ongoing tension between naturalistic and idealistic tendencies.