Sir Kenneth M. Clark - Leonardo da Vinci: An Account of His Development as an Artist

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Text originally published in 1958 under the same title.

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Although in most cases we have retained the Authors original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern readers benefit.

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LEONARDO DA VINCI:

AN ACCOUNT OF HIS DEVELOPMENT AS AN ARTIST

BY

KENNETH CLARK

With 64 Plates

REVISED EDITION

Contents

Sir Kenneth Clark was born in 1903. He was educated at Winchester and Oxford, and worked for two years with Bernard Berenson in Florence. He was appointed Director of the National Gallery at the age of 30 and remained there until 1945. During the war the organized the war artists scheme, and with Dame Myra Hess was responsible for the National Gallery Concerts. He was Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford from 1946 to 1950. Sir Kenneth has been Chairman of the Arts Council since May 1953, and was appointed Chairman on the setting up of the Independent Television Authority. His first publications, written at the age of 22, was The Gothic Revival . During the 1930s he worked on Leonardo da Vinci and laid the foundations of the present volume. His Landscape into Art (1949) was widely acclaimed and later republished as a Pelican. It was followed by a study of Piero della Francesca (1951) and The Nude (1955) which has been described as a truly great book.

Dedicated to

DAVID BALNIEL

1. Detail from Verrocchios Baptism, c. 1472. Uffizi, Florence. ( Photo Anderson )

2. The Val dArno, 1473. Uffizi, Florence

3. The Angel from the Annunciation , 1472-3. Uffizi, Florence. ( Photo Brogi )

4. The Virgin from the Annunciation , 1472-3. Uffizi, Florence ( Photo Anderson )

Ginevra de Benci , 1474. Liechtenstein Gallery, Vienna

6. Study of hands, 1474? Windsor

An Antique Warrior, ?Darius, c . 1475. British Museum

The Benois Madonna , 1478-80. Hermitage. ( Photo Giraudon )

9. Study for the Benois Madonna , 1478-80. Louvre. ( Photo Giraudon )

10. Study for the Madonna with the Cat , 1478-80. British Museum

11. Study for the Adoration of the Shepherds , 1478-80. Muse Bonnat, Bayonne. ( Photo Giraudon )

12. Study for the Adoration of the Kings , 1481. Uffizi, Florence

13. Study for the Adoration of the Kings , 1481. Clarke Collection, Cambridge

The Adoration of the Kings , 1481-2. Uffizi, Florence

15. Detail from the Adoration of the Kings , 1481-2. Uffizi, Florence

16. Detail from the Adoration of the Kings , 1481-2. Uffizi, Florence

17. Guns and machines of war, c . 1485. Windsor

18. St. Jerome, c . 1483. Vatican Gallery. ( Photo Anderson )

19. Study for the Madonna Litta, c. 1480. Louvre. ( Photo Giraudon )

20. Studies for the Virgin and Holy Children , 1482-3. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1917

The Virgin of the Rocks , 1482-3. Louvre

22. Study for the Angels head in the Virgin of the Rocks, c . 1480. Royal Library, Turin. ( Photo Anderson )

23. St. John from the Virgin of the Rocks . Louvre. ( Photo Alinari )

24. Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, c . 1483. Czartoryski Gallery, Krakw

25. Detail of the portrait of a musician, c . 1485. Ambrosiana, Milan. ( Photo Brogi )

26. Studies of a domed church, 1485-90. MS. B., Bibliothque de lInstitut, Paris

27. Grotesque heads, 1485-90. Windsor

28. Anatomical studies of skulls, 1489. Windsor

29. Study for the Sforza Monument, 1488. Windsor

30. Study from nature for the Sforza Monument, 1490. Windsor

The Last Supper , 1497. Sta Maria delle Grazie, Milan. ( Photo Anderson )

32. Study for the head of St. James Major, c . 1496. Windsor

33. Study for the head of St. Philip, c . 1496. Windsor

The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John Baptist, c . 1498. Burlington House, London. ( Photo Anderson )

35. Portrait of Mona Lisa, 1503. Louvre. ( Copyright W. F. Mansell )

36. Landscape with a storm in the Alps, c . 1503. Windsor

37. Study of acorns and Dyers Greenweed, c . 1506. Windsor

38. Study of a plant, c . 1506. Windsor

39. Study of a Star of Bethlehem, Spurge, and other plants, c . 1506. Windsor

40. Cesare da Sesto after Leonardo: Leda. Wilton House. ( Photo A. C. Cooper )

41. Study for the Leda, c. 1506. Windsor

42. Study for Neptune in his Chariot , 1504. Windsor

43. Rubens after Leonardo: part of the Battle of Anghiari , 1505. Louvre. ( Photo Giraudon )

44. Studies of horses for the Battle of Anghiari, c . 1504. Windsor

45. Anatomical studies of the nude, connected with Anghiari, c . 1504. Windsor

46. Studies for a St. George and the Dragon, c . 1507-8. Windsor

47. The Angels head from the Virgin of the Rocks, c . 1506-8. National Gallery, London

48. Study of stratification, c . 1508. Windsor

The Virgin and Child and St. Anne , 1508-10. Louvre. ( Archives Photographiques )

50. Study for the Virgin and St. Anne, c . 1508-10. Louvre. ( Archives Photographiques )

51. Head of St. Anne from the Virgin and Child and St. Anne , 1508-10. Louvre. ( Laboratoire du Muse du Louvre )

52. Study for head of St. Anne, c. 1508-10. Windsor

53. Study for the Trivulzio Monument, 1511-12. Windsor

54. Studies for the Trivulzio Monument, 1511-12. Windsor

Masquerader , c . 1512. Windsor

A Nymph , c . 1512. Windsor

57. An embryo in the womb, c . 1512. Windsor

58. Anatomical study, 1513. Windsor

59. An old man meditating and studies of water, c . 1513. Windsor

60. Studies of water, c . 1510. Windsor

61. The beginning of the Deluge, c . 1514. Windsor

62. A mountain falling on a town, c . 1514. Windsor

63. The Deluge at its height, c . 1514. Windsor

64. The Deluge formalized, c . 1514. Windsor

65. St. John the Baptist, c . 1515. Louvre. ( Photo Giraudon )

66. An old man, after 1515. Windsor

Self-portrait, c . 1512. Turin. ( Photo Anderson )

His Majesty King George V graciously permitted me to reproduce drawings from the Windsor Castle Collection.

I am indebted to the Earl of Pembroke for permission to reproduce the copy of Leda by Cesare da Sesto at Wilton and to the Prince of Liechtenstein for permission to use the photograph of the Ginevra de Benci taken in the National Gallery.

K. C.

THIS book grew out of a number of lectures I gave between 1933 and 1936, culminating in the Ryerson Lectures, at Yale. It was first published in 1939, and a second edition with a few changes appeared in 1952. My thanks are due to the Cambridge University Press for allowing me to reprint it as a Pelican. I have made a number of alterations and additions to the text in order to include the results of recent Leonardo studies, and some changes in my own opinions.