Unesco travelling print exhibition: Leonardo Da Vinci

Howard, Earl o f Arundel, a n d found its way to Englana. Its history after even a t their most extravagant, always retain the structure o f humanity. the Earl's de a t h is still obscure, b u t b y the last years o f the seventeenth century T h e "Deluges" present us with quite another aspect o f Leonardo's peculiar it was in the English Royal collection. T h e contents o f this album, still character, though here again there is something almost morbid in his absorption preserved in the Royal Library a t Windsor Castle, form the greatest single in them. T h e appearance o f water h a d fascinated h i m as a youth, b u t fear collection o f artist's, as opposed to mechanical o r scientific, drawings b y was combined with fascination. H e studied hydraulics as no m a n before Leonardo in existence. Mo r e t h a n two-thirds o f the present exhibition is h im h a d done a n d strove to master the secrets o f water, yet he never lost this d r awn from this source. Most, though b y no means all, o f the Windsor terror o f its uncontrollable force. drawings date from Leonardo's later years. T h e greater p a r t o f the compara- Visions o f a catastrophic flood bringing the world to a n end haunted his tively less numerous drawings o f his first Florentine period are widely scattered imagination a n d found expression, in his later years, in the extraordinary a n d are to be found in all the great European collections—in the Louvre in series o f impressions o f this terrific unleashing o f t he forces o f nature. Paris, the British Mu s eum in London a n d the Uffizi in Florence as well as in some smaller private collections in Europe a n d America. Leonardo employed every technique known to the draughtsman o f his d a y T h e reproductions o f drawings in this exhibition have been arranged in four a n d even invented a new one, pastel, if we are to believe Lomazzo, a writer groups, partly according to their subject-matter, the order within these o f the sixteenth century. T h e appearance o f his drawings, apa r t from changes groups being roughly chronological. T h e first group o f the first Florentine in style, differs widely according to the med i um in which they are executed. period (with the exception o f the self-portrait o f Leonardo late i n life) contains I n his first Florentine period h e seems mainly to have used pen a n d ink for studies for Ma d o n n a compositions a n d for the Adoration o f the Magi a n d the ordinary sketches, b u t for studies o f detail—heads, hands, drapery a n d related works, including studies o f horses a n d animals for these compositions. horses—metal point on coloured, often brightly coloured grounds, was T h e second group includes studies a n d portraits o f women, designs for masques preferred. H e continued to use this elaborate medium in Milan, b u t less and, forming the largest series, detail drawings for the versions o f the Virgin a n d less frequently, a n d black a n d red chalk, hitherto exceptional, began to b e and Child with St. Anne. I n the third group are the studies for other famous regularly employed. I t is, o f course, impossible in a few words to analyse works o f Leonardo's maturity, the Last Supper, the Sforza a n d Trivulzio the changes which took place a t various times in the media h e employed o r monuments a n d the Battle o f Anghiari, with a numb e r o f drawings o f horses; the ma nn e r i n which h e employed them. O n e c a n only say t h a t Leonardo's drawings ma d e i n connexion with studies in ana t omy a n d proportion and drawings as h e grew older h a d a tendency to become more atmospheric a n d finally the series o f catastrophes a n d deluges. T h e fourth group comprises one feels certain t h a t such a drawing as the famous Woman Pointing a t Windsor a selection from the allegorical a n d satirical drawings a n d from the caricatures; Castle, must belong to a late period in his career. O n e thing abou t Leonardo drawings o f some o f Leonardo's inventions as a military engineer, some however is absolutely constant, his left-handedness. No t only did h e consis- miscellaneous drawings a n d finally the drawings o f rock formations, o f land- tently write from right to left, b u t in his drawings the strokes o f the p e n scapes, o f maps a n d o f plants. However, where two o r more reproductions o r chalk always slope from left to right, not, as with a right-handed are mounted together o n one sheet, these are no t invariably o f similar subject draughtsman, from right to left. This peculiarity facilitates the work o f o r date; the arrangement adopted in principle cannot therefore b e followed the connoisseur a n d it is rare t ha t any doub t arises as to the authenticity o f consistently. a drawing from Leonardo's hand. A. E . POPHAM. T h e subjects o f his drawings are as various as his interests. Ap a r t from the studies ma d e for his paintings a n d sculpture, the early Madonnas a n d Adorations, the Sforza a n d Trivulzio monuments, the Last Supper, the Battle o f Anghiari, the Leda a n d the Virgin and Child with St. Anne, there are two types o f drawings peculiar to h im which call for some comment, the caricatures a n d the "Deluges". T h e former, which enjoyed a wide popularity for three centuries after his death, must have been the expression o f some curious psychological kink in his nature. His beauty as a young m a n became a legend in Florence and from early in his career in ma n y o f his drawings the profile o f a beautiful youth, perhaps typifying himself, confronts t h a t of' a sinister old man . The contrast between youth a n d age was no doub t o f particular significance and ever present to his mind, a n d the contrasted types continue to appe a r almost to the end o f his career. But while the type o f youth varies only slightly, modified in accordance with the appearance o f successive favourites, t h a t o f the old ma n develops a n d multiplies to become a veritable gallery o f male, and occasionally female, deformity o f feature. This inherent interest i n the gro- tesque was perhaps stimulated by studies in anatomy a nd the caricatures,