LEONARDO THE VINCI - The world most famous painter.
23, Bacchus (St.John The Baptist).
Housed in the Louvre, this painting is based on a drawing by Leonardo.
It is presumed to have been executed by an unknown follower, perhaps in the artist’s
workshop. The canvas depicts a male figure with a garlanded
head and leopard skin, seated in an idyllic landscape.
He points with his right hand off to his left, while with his left hand he grasps his thyrsus
and points down to earth. The painting originally depicted John the
Baptist, but in the late seventeenth century, it was altered to portray the mythical god
Bacchus. The fur robe is the legacy of John the Baptist,
but has been painted over with leopard-spots relating, like the wreath, to Bacchus, the
Roman god of wine and revelry.
24, The Battle Of Anghiari.
This is the title of a lost painting by Leonardo. Its central scene depicted four men riding
raging war horses engaged in a battle for possession of a standard at the Battle of
Anghiari in 1440. Many preparatory studies by Leonardo still
exist, but the work is best known through a drawing by the famous Dutch painter Peter
Paul Rubens in the Louvre. Rubens’ drawing, dating from 1603, was based
on an engraving of 1553 by Lorenzo Zacchia, which was taken from Leonardo’s painting
itself or possibly derived from a cartoon by the artist.
In 1504 Leonardo was given the commission by Piero Soderini to decorate the Hall of
Five Hundred. At the same time his rival Michelangelo, who
had just finished his sculpture of David, was designated the opposite wall.
This was the only time that Leonardo and Michelangelo worked together on the same project.
The painting of Michelangelo depicted an episode from the Battle of Cascina, when a group of
bathing soldiers was surprised by the enemy. However, Michelangelo did not stay in Florence
long enough to complete the project. He was able to finish his cartoon, but only
began the painting. He was invited back to Rome in 1505 by the
newly appointed Pope Julius II and was commissioned to build the Pope’s tomb.
Leonardo drew his large cartoon in the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella, depicting a scene
from the life of Niccolò Piccinino, a condottiere in the service of duke Filippo Maria Visconti
of Milan. He drew a scene of a violent clash of horses
and a furious skirmish of men fighting for the flag in the Battle of Anghiari.
Giorgio Vasari praised the magisterial way Leonardo had put this scene on paper: “It
would be impossible to express the inventiveness of Leonardo’s design for the soldiers’
uniforms, which he sketched in all their variety, or the crests of the helmets and other ornaments,
not to mention the incredible skill he demonstrated in the shape and features of the horses, which
Leonardo, better than any other master, created with their boldness, muscles and graceful
beauty.” Leonardo built an ingenious scaffold in the
Hall of Five Hundred that could be raised or folded in the manner of an accordion.
This painting was to be his largest and most substantial work.
Since he had suffered an almost disastrous experience in fresco painting with The Last
Supper, he wanted to apply oil colours on the wall.
He began also to experiment with a thick undercoat, which after he applied the colours, the paint
began to drip. Trying to dry the painting in a hurry and
save whatever he could, he hung large charcoal braziers close to the painting.
Only the lower part could be saved in an intact state.
But the upper part did not dry fast enough and the colours intermingled.
Leonardo then abandoned the project.
Michelangelo and Leonardo’s unfinished paintings adorned the same room together for almost
a decade (1505-1512). The cartoon of Michelangelo’s painting was
cut in pieces by Bartolommeo Bandinelli out of jealousy in 1512.
The centrepiece of The Battle of Anghiari was greatly admired and numerous copies were
made for decades.
In the mid-16th century (1555-1572), the hall was enlarged and restructured by Vasari and
his helpers, so that Grand Duke Cosimo I could hold his court in the chamber.
During this transformation, several famous, but unfinished works were lost, including
The Battle of Cascina by Michelangelo and The Battle of Anghiari
by Leonardo.
25, Salvator Mundi.
This work was lost, but later rediscovered and restored in 2011.
The title translates as ‘Saviour of the World’ and depicts Christ giving a benediction.
Leonardo painted the subject in France for Louis XII between 1506 and 1513.
The recently authenticated work was once owned by King Charles I and recorded in his art
collection in 1649, before being auctioned by the son of the Duke of Buckingham in 1763.
The canvas next appeared in 1900, damaged from previous restoration attempts and its
authorship unclear, when it was purchased by a British collector, Sir Frederick Cook.
Cook’s descendants sold the painting at auction in 1958 for £45.
Salvator Mundi was rediscovered and acquired by a US consortium of art dealers in 2005,
who authenticated the work as being by Leonardo. It was exhibited by London’s National Gallery
during the Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan from November 2011 to February
2012.
This work was lost, but later rediscovered and restored in 2011.
The title translates as ‘Saviour of the World’ and depicts Christ giving a benediction.
Leonardo painted the subject in France for Louis XII between 1506 and 1513.
The recently authenticated work was once owned by King Charles I and recorded in his art
collection in 1649, before being auctioned by the son of the Duke of Buckingham in 1763.
The canvas next appeared in 1900, damaged from previous restoration attempts and its
authorship unclear, when it was purchased by a British collector, Sir Frederick Cook.
Cook’s descendants sold the painting at auction in 1958 for £45.
Salvator Mundi was rediscovered and acquired by a US consortium of art dealers in 2005,
who authenticated the work as being by Leonardo. It was exhibited by London’s National Gallery
during the Leonardo the Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan from November 2011 to February
2012.
The painting was sold at auction for US$450.3 million on 15 November 2017, by Christie's
in New York to Prince Badr bin Abdullah, setting a new record for most expensive painting ever
sold at public auction. Prince Badr allegedly made the purchase on
behalf of Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism, but it has since been posited
that he may have been a stand-in bidder for his close ally and Saudi Arabian crown prince
Mohammed bin Salman. This follows late-2017 reports that the painting
would be put on display at the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the unexplained cancellation of
its scheduled September 2018 unveiling.
26, Portrait Of A Lady In Profile.
Housed in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan, this portrait is generally attributed to Ambrogio
de Predis, though the face is thought by some to show the hand of Leonardo.
27, Madonna And Child With St.Joseph.
This tempera on panel work, now housed in the Galleria Borghese in Rome, was previously
attributed to Fra Bartolomeo. However, after recent cleaning, the Borghese
Gallery sought attribution as a work of Leonardo's youth, based on the discovery of a fingerprint
similar to one that appears in The Lady with the Ermine.
The true identity of the artist is still unresolved.
28, The Vitruvian Man.
This famous drawing was created circa 1487, accompanied with notes based on the work of
the famed architect Vitruvius. The drawing was made in pen and ink on paper,
depicting a male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and
simultaneously inscribed in a circle and square. The drawing and text are sometimes called
the ‘Canon of Proportions’. Housed in the Gallerie dell’Accademia in
Venice, it is only occasionally displayed. The drawing is based on the correlations of
ideal human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in
Book III of his treatise De Architectura. Vitruvius described the human figure as being
the principal source of proportion among the Classical orders of architecture.
This image exemplifies the blend of art and science during the Renaissance and provides
the perfect example of Leonardo’s keen interest in proportion.
In addition, this picture represents a cornerstone of Leonardo’s attempts to relate man to
nature.
29, The Virgin And Child With St.Anne And St.John The Baptist.
Housed in the National Gallery, London, this drawing is believed to have been completed
by 1500, drawn in charcoal and black and white chalk, on eight sheets of paper glued together.
Due to its large size and format the drawing is presumed to be a cartoon for a painting,
though no painting exists that is based directly on the cartoon.
The drawing depicts the Virgin Mary seated on the knees of her mother St.Anne and holding
the Child Jesus, while St.John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, stands to the right.
The drawing is notable for its complex composition, demonstrating the alternation in the positioning
of figures that is first apparent in Leonardo’s paintings in the Benois Madonna.
The knees of the two women point in different directions, with Mary’s knees turning out
of the painting to the left, while her body turns sharply to the right, creating a sinuous
movement. The knees and the feet of the figures establish
a strong up-and-down rhythm at a point in the composition where a firm foundation comprising
firmly planted feet, widely spread knees and a broad spread of enclosing garment would
normally be found. While the lower halves of their bodies turn
away, the faces of the two women turn towards each other, mirroring each other’s features.
The delineation between the upper bodies has lost clarity, suggesting that the heads are
part of the same body.
30, Self-Portrait.
This drawing is widely accepted as a self-portrait of Leonardo, which he drew at approximately
the age of 60. The portrait is drawn in red chalk on paper,
depicting the head of an elderly man in three-quarter view, turned towards the viewer’s right.
The subject is distinguished by his long hair and long waving beard, which flow over the
shoulders and breast. The length of the hair and beard is uncommon
in Renaissance portraits and suggests, as they still do now, a person of sagacity.
The face has a somewhat aquiline nose and is marked by deep lines on the brow and pouches
below the eyes. It appears as if the man has lost his upper
front teeth, causing deepening of the grooves from the nostrils.
The drawing has been produced in fine lines, shadowed by hatching and executed with the
left hand, as was Leonardo’s habit. The paper has brownish “fox marks” caused
by the accumulation of iron salts, due to the build-up of moisture over time.
The drawing is housed in the Royal Library in Turin and is not generally viewable by
the public due to its fragility and poor condition.
31, Study Of Horses.
Leonardo was commissioned to create a statue of a horse in 1482 by the Duke of Milan Ludovico
il Moro, but the work was never completed. It was intended to be the largest equestrian
statue in the world, a monument to the Duke’s father Francesco.
Leonardo did complete extensive preparatory work for the project, but he produced only
a clay model, which was destroyed by French soldiers when they invaded Milan in 1499.
About five centuries later, Leonardo’s surviving design materials were used as the basis for
sculptures intended to bring the project to life.