[MUSIC PLAYING]
SPEAKER 1: Even in the Renaissance,
drawings were sometimes works of art unto themselves.
They weren't always preparatory.
And we think that's the case with the large scale drawing
by Leonardo that is usually given the title of the Virgin
and Child with St. Anne and St. John.
And that's because it's not perforated.
SPEAKER 2: Right Although it's unfinished.
So it's status is a little bit unclear.
And it would have had tiny dots or perforations in it
so that that would have allowed Leonardo
to trace the outlines of the figures
so that you could transfer a drawing to a panel or a wall
to paint on.
SPEAKER 1: Although using Leonardo's technique
is so different from traditional, much
more linear Renaissance painting that that
would be more problematic.
You get the basic contours.
But his construction of the figure
is so often simply using chiaroscuro,
or using light and shadow.
SPEAKER 2: Sfumato.
SPEAKER 1: Well, that's because it's so soft
and because it's so smoky.
That idea of just the line that would
be traced by the perforations seems sort of absurd.
SPEAKER 2: Right.
Yeah.
He was much more interested in these, very slow gradations
from dark to light and then moving back into dark again.
So that is such a sense of three dimensionality
and monumentality to these figures.
SPEAKER 1: And also an integration
of the figures into a whole.
The figures form a kind of pyramid.
They are so stable.
And that's one of the characteristics
about Renaissance.
SPEAKER 2: That stability that would
suggest that kind of eternity that
is appropriate for the subject of these divine figures,
so, go ahead.
Did you want to say something?
SPEAKER 1: Well, just wanted to say
that it is such an interesting contrast.
Because on the one hand, you've got
the sense of an ideal perfection.
This notion of the eternal, and sort of the eternally
spiritual.
On the other hand, there's such a kind
of intimacy between figures, between Anne and Mary,
and between John and Christ.
SPEAKER 2: That's very human.
SPEAKER 1: That's incredibly human
and seems incredibly precious.
And so sort of at odds with the notion of the eternal.
SPEAKER 2: Yeah.
It's both.
That's what Leonardo does, right?
He combines the human and the divine.
That's the definition to me of what
Leonardo accomplished in High Renaissance.
SPEAKER 1: There are all these marvelous passages here.
I mean, I just love the way that Anne
turns to Mary, who sits on her lap.
There's this kind of rhythm of needs of the two women, right?
SPEAKER 2: Yeah.
SPEAKER 1: Down, and up and down, and up again.
It's almost musical as it moves across.
SPEAKER 2: It makes me feel that Leonardo is certainly
looking at classical sculpture.
Because that so much looks to me like drapery
on ancient Greek and Roman figures.
SPEAKER 1: There is a sense of the varied age of the figures.
And you get a real sense of Leonardo's process, especially
when you look at the contrast between Anne's face
and her hand, which is so much less finished and still so much
more linear.
SPEAKER 2: And Anne is pointing up
to communicate this idea that this is part of God's plan,
that Christ and his future sacrifice
is part of God's plan for the salvation of mankind.
SPEAKER 1: Look at the way in which Christ's arm bends around
and his finger's up in blessing John.
Actually it's continued upward by Anne's fingers.
SPEAKER 2: Yeah.
SPEAKER 1: So that's one continuous movement.
In a sense Christ is literally drawn up in Anne's gesture.
SPEAKER 2: Well, and that begins with the line from Mary's
shoulder up through Christ and then pointing up to God.
SPEAKER 1: In fact, you could actually
begin that movement with Anne's glance at--
SPEAKER 2: Right.
SPEAKER 1: Mary continuing down her shoulders, as you said,
around her elbow, and then up through Christ's arm
SPEAKER 2: And actually what we just
did is a really good example of what
was so important to Leonardo, which is that unification.
Like, you can start linking things together
the longer you look at the image.
I mean, we can look at St. John's glance up at Christ
and then move up there to Mary's looking at the Christ child.
And then go back to Anne, whose looking at Mary.
SPEAKER 1: That's right.
And it really does create a pathway for her eyes.
But all of which lead toward Heaven,
which is, of course, the very point of the drawing.
[MUSIC PLAYING]