Unesco travelling print exhibition: Leonardo Da Vinci

as it is referred to b y Leonardo himself, for the Battle o f Anghiari o f 1503-4 o f this is included in this exhibition) a n d finally a painting now in the Louvre. or for a still later work—a projected monume n t to Gian Giacomo Trivulzio Studies for one o r other o f these three compositions have come down to us a n d some o f these are also shown. who became governor o f Milan in company with Gaston de Foix in 1511. But the catalogue o f Leonardo's work in Milan must be resumed. I n I n 1506 Leonardo, the Battle o f Anghiari still unfinished, was allowed by 1 4 9 7 h e was a t work on wh a t has generally been regarded as his greatest the Florentine Government to accept the invitation o f Charles d'Amboise, achievement, the Last Supper painted in fresco (or rather in a disastrous the French governor o f Milan, to return to t h a t city. Between t h a t date a n d 1513 he was partly in Milan b u t more often in Florence. A t the end compromise between oil a n d fresco) in the refectory of the convent o f Sta. Of 1513 h e went to Rome, no doubt in the hope o f obtaining congenial em- Ma r i a delle Grazie, Milan. Though this survives it is only as a shadow of wha t it must originally have been. Leonardo's passion for experiment ployment from the art-loving Pope Leo X , a fellow Florentine, a nd he remained there until 1516. But by this time Leonardo's style, once in the forefront, induced h im to a t t emp t a new technique; this a n d the dampness o f the wall led to its deterioration even during Leonardo's life-time. On l y as a compo- h a d become antiquated in the eyes o f his contemporaries. Michelangelo sition c an we j udg e it today. A t the momen t o f its completion, when the h a d b y then completed the ceiling o f the Sixtine Chapel a n d Raphael was expression h a d not yet faded or peeled off the faces o f the apostles, it must a t work on the Stanze o f the Vatican. I t was perhaps rather as a n engineer have been singularly arresting as a strikingly original re-statement o f a central t h a t the ageing artist came to Rome: a t least there is evidence o f his having Christian dogma a n d as the perfectly balanced solution o f a problem in p u t forward schemes for draining the Pontine Marshes, a n achievement which composition. Today, when its individual beauties have been effaced a n d the was no t realized till more t h a n 500 years later. Leonardo was in Rome as originality c an only b e grasped by the exercise o f a strong historical imagina- late as August 1516, b u t b y the end o f Ma y o r the beginning o f J u n e o f the fll tion, it has become for us—hackneyed. I t still arouses in us respect a n d rever- o o w i n g year h e is recorded as living near Amboise in France. Some years ence, b u t not excitement. earlier, in 1507, h e h a d been appointed Peintre et ingénieur ordinaire to Louis X I 15 Painting a n d sculpture were not however, the only reasons, for Leonardo's Ki ng o f France. Whe t he r this appointment carried with it a residential employment in Milan. Evidence o f his other activities there as a n architect, obligation o r whether Leonardo forfeited the post b y not taking it u p is not as a designer o f costumes for masques, a n d as a military engineer is provided clear. T h e offer must have been renewed o r the appointment ratified by b y the drawings. The r e is for example a series o f finished drawings, more o r Louis's successor, Francis I. I n any case Leonardo remained in France less uniform in size a n d technique, which illustrate various military inventions until his death, which occurred on 2 Ma y 1 5 1 9 , a t the Castle o f Cloux, near a n d must date from abou t 1483-85, no t long after his arrival in Milan. Amboise. Leonardo's employment in Milan came to a n end as the result o f circum- These, in brief, are the documented d a t a o f Leonardo's career. I n t o this stances beyond his control. I n 1499 the French troops o f Louis X I I occupied framework have been fitted some o f those essential b u t so often undated documents o f an artist, his paintings. I n the absence o f reproductions o f these the city a n d expelled Lodovico Sforza. Leonardo fled first to Venice a n d paintings it was necessary t h a t the visitor should be ma d e acquainted with then to Florence. After a time in the service o f Cesare Borgia as military engineer in the Romagna, he returned to Florence a nd by October 1503 was the works to which so ma n y o f the drawings here shown c an be related and a t work on a n important commission entrusted to h im by the Florentine State. thus b e able to form some idea o f the development o f Leonardo's art. This was to decorate one wall o f the great chamber o f the Palazzo Vecchio. T h e drawings, even the small selection here shown, give this with remar Michelangelo, then 28 years o f age, was to paint the opposite wall. T h e kable completeness: their total number, even without the diagrams and subjects chosen were illustrations o f the warlike history o f the Florentine illustrations in the manuscripts, is very large—larger t h a n in the case of Republic a n d the scheme was designed as a glorification o f the republican a ny other Italian artist o f the fifteenth century. Th e i r preservation may ideals a n d achievements. Leonardo's subject was a cavalry battle a n d again have been the result o f various causes. Leonardo, i n spite o f the wanderings the horse, this time in violent action, was its central theme, while Michelangelo o f his later years, was clearly b y nature a hoarder. H e was obviously adapted the subject allotted to him, so as to display the mastery o f his drawing sensible o f the value o f his own work a n d thought t ha t a t some time, o f the h uma n figure. On l y pa r t o f the Battle o f Anghiari, the subject o f Leonar- always receding further into the future, these drawings might again b e of do's fresco, was ever completed; this part, as well as the cartoon, has perished, practical value to him. H e left wh a t must have been a vast accumulation Later copies enable us to form some idea o f the composition as a whole; a o f drawings a n d manuscripts to a favourite pupil, Francesco Melzi, o f a numbe r o f drawings b y the master himself, ranging from slight thumbnail noble Milanese family, who h a d accompanied h i m to France. T h e material sketches to elaborate studies o f heads a n d horses, enable us to piece together remained in the Melzi family a t their villa n e a r Milan a n d gradually its interest a n d value were forgotten, so t h a t most o f it was purloined. the elements o f the design. Mu c h was acquired towards the end o f the sixteenth century b y the Though the most important o f his productions in Florence, the Battle o f Anghiari was no t the only one. We have, dating from as early as i 5 0 I a n eye- Milanese sculptor, Pompeo Leoni, who arranged a n d mounted it in albums. O n e o f these was bought after Leoni's death by Galleazzo Arconati, witness's account o f a cartoon o f the Virgin and Child with St. Anne, which was on exhibition in Florence a n d attracted crowds o f admirers. This parti- who presented it to the Ambrosian Library in Mi l an in 1636 where it remains. cular cartoon no longer exists, b u t Leonardo went on developing the compo- But the contents o f this album, lettered b y Leoni on the binding as Machines sition a n d evolved a second cartoon, t h a t o f the Virgin and Child with St. Anne and Secret Arts, are mainly technical a n d do no t concern us here. A second now in the Royal Academy, London (a necessarily very reduced reproduction a l bum left b y Leoni in Spain, was bought for the great collector Thomas