Unesco travelling print exhibition: Leonardo Da Vinci

the swan, a n d the two sets of twins hatched ou t o f the eggs resulting from Uffizi Gallery a t Florence. T h e enthusiasm with which Leonardo embarked this union. T h e work must have been carried a t least as far as the cartoon o n this work is shown b y the numb e r a n d variety o f the studies which he made but, if Leonardo ever finished a painting o f it, this does no t survive a n d we for it. I t was obviously for h im a problem o f the deepest significance: i n it know it only from his drawings a n d from copies ma d e by pupils. W e can, h e felt he was to express this solemn mystery in a language until then unknown. however, to a certain extent follow the master a t work on it. Le d a seems to T h e theme as Leonardo saw it in his mind's eye, a microcosm o f human have gone through various stages from a n exaggeratedly twisted figure life as well as a religious mystery, was perhaps beyond h uma n realization. kneeling on one knee to a standing figure in less violent pose. But it is the Yet, i n spite o f the fact t h a t it was never completed, the work was a revolution accessories o f the design which are most revealing o f Leonardo's methods o f in picture making. Instead o f confining himself to the conventional represen- work. T h e problem o f how h uma n babies would be hatched from eggs tation o f the three kings adoring the newly-born infant, h e added comments confronted h im to begin with. Instead o f shirking this problem as a n ordinary on life in general a n d a sort o f pattern book o f h uma n a n d equine behaviour painter might have done, Leonardo seems to have thought it essential to find in the background. I t was a t this time t ha t the horse as a structure first ou t the appearance o f the h uma n f t u s in the womb, so t ha t h e might with began to interest him, a n d numerous studies o f horses c a n be connected with the max imum verisimilitude a d a p t the process o f parturition to a n egg. This the Adoration o f the Kings. This unfinished work remains the first complete led to a whole series o f enquiries into h uma n generation, a whole series o f expression o f the Italian Hi gh Renaissance a n d profoundly influenced the great notes a n d drawings. artists o f the next generation, Raphael in particular. T h e scene was represented in a luxuriant landscape with plants in the But this documented work is by no means Leonardo's only achievement foreground. Fo r this Leonardo made a n intensified study o f plant life from during the period. A n umb e r o f other paintings mu s t on stylistic grounds be which resulted some o f his most beautiful drawings o f flowers a n d grasses, assigned a place here, a n d a numb e r o f drawings in preparation for works examples o f which find a place in this exhibition. Another problem arose, which were either never carried o u t as paintings o r which have perished. t h a t o f Leda's coiffure, a n d a further series o f drawings was produced of T o the first category belong the large Verrocchiesque painting o f the Annun- elaborately plaited wigs, which ma y also have h a d some relation to the design ciation, now in the Uffizi a t Florence, the Benois a n d Litta Madonnas, in the o f costumes for masques. T h e configuration o f running water, its eddies a n d Hermitage a t Leningrad, a n d the Portrait o f a Lady in the Lichtenstein collec meanders, engrossed Leonardo almost from the first. A t one momen t this tion; to the latter a composition o f the Virgin and Child with a Cat, for which problem seems to have been connected i n his mi nd with the configuration o f numerous drawings exist o f which examples are exhibited here. h uma n hair, a n d Leda's coiffure ma y have been also the occasion o f a renewed We d o not know the reasons why Leonardo left Florence for Milan between a n d intensified study o f water. Wi t h Leonardo nothing was irrelevant a n d 1481 a n d 1483. I t ma y have been simply the prospect o f lucrative employ- every aspect o f the physical world was a challenge to further research. me n t a n d more scope t h a n was to be found in Florence, b u t a feeling o f frustra I do not, however, wish to convey the impression that Leonardo never tion over his failure to complete the Adoration o f the Kings ma y also have been completed a ny o f his undertakings. By this time, about 1506, h e h a d behind partly the cause. T h e draft o f a letter is preserved, intended no doubt for h i m a t least two momentous achievements, the Virgin o f the Rocks a n d the Last Lodovico Sforza, Duke o f Milan, in which the artist sets out the astonishing Supper. T h e first h a d given to the world a new system o f light a n d shade; in list o f his qualifications for employment. H e describes himself as a military the second the ideal o f the Hi gh Renaissance was for the first time completely engineer, a n architect, a sculptor a n d a painter—and this order no doubt realized a n d the whole subsequent development o f painting is unthinkable reflects his opinion o f their relative importance. O u r first precise information without it. abou t h im in Milan is the contract which he signed, in association with the But the visitor to this exhibition will need some more precise information Milanese painters Evangolista a n d Ambrogio Prada, to paint a picture for about Leonardo's life a n d works. T h e artist was born in 1452 o n 15 April, the Confraternity o f the Conception, identifiable as the painting o f the Virgin the illegitimate son o f a notary a n d a peasant woman, Caterina. I n 1469 o f the Rocks now in the National Gallery, London. (The problem o f the relation he came with his father to Florence a n d was subsequently apprenticed between this panel a n d the undoubtedly original replica o f the composition to Andrea del Verrocchio the leading sculptor a n d goldsmith o f the city in the Louvre in Paris is one o f the outstanding mysteries i n the history of —he was still in Verrocchio's workshop i n 1476. Though Verrocchio was a r t a n d a problem which cannot b e discussed here.) primarily a goldsmith a nd a sculptor he also practised as a painter and, No t until 1489 is a commission for a n equestrian statue of Francesco, the story goes, only gave u p painting when h e realized t ha t he was going to father o f the reigning Duke o f Milan, Lodovico Sforza, first spoken of, though be outshone b y his pupil. Leonardo was enrolled as a painter i n the Guild it ma y well have been one o f the principal reasons for Leonardo's being o f St. Luke in Florence in 1472 a n d obviously soon gained a considerable invited to Milan. By 1483 a clay model o f this monume n t h a d been com- reputation. I n 1478 h e was in fact, commissioned by the Signoria, the pleted; it was never cast in bronze, as h a d been intended, a n d was destroyed Government o f Florence, to paint a n altarpiece for the Chapel o f S. Bernardino not long afterwards. in the Palazzo Vecchio. We he a r no more o f this picture a n d whether it I t continued for ma n y years to occupy Leonardo's mi nd a n d led to a was ever begun b y Leonardo is a matter o f surmise. resumption o f his studies o f the anatomy o f the horse begun in connexion Th r e e years later, in 1481, he received another important commission with the Adoration o f the Magi. Indeed there has been mu c h uncertainty as to paint a n altarpiece for the monks o f S. Donato a Scopeto. This is almost to whether the numerous drawings o f horses which have come down to us, certainly the unfinished painting o f the Adoration o f the Magi, now in the were ma d e in preparation for the last-named composition, for the "Cavallo" 5