da Vinci Leonardo - Leonardo Da Vinci

Author: Gabriel Sailles

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ISBN: 978-1-78160-629-2

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Gabriel Sailles

Leonardo da Vinci

Oil on panel, 42.7 x 37 cm.

The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Leonardo was born in 1452 on the right bank of the Arno in the town of Vinci between Florence and Pisa. His father was Ser Piero who at that time was twenty-two or twenty-three years old. His mother was a young peasant girl named Catarina . One may well imagine the details of the little family drama that took place at the birth of Leonardo which put a brusque and prosaic end to his parents romantic idyll. Ser Piero broke his vows with Catarina , at the urging of his father without a doubt, taking his son with him, and in that same year married Albiera di Giovanni Amadori . For her part, Catarina quietly married a certain Accatabriga di Piero del Vacca , a peasant who did not look too closely into her past. As an illegitimate son living with his father, Leonardo grew up without that maternal influence which every great man with self-respect should experience. Leonardo da Vinci spent his childhood in his fathers house. Probably he was not made to suffer because he had been born out of wedlock, since it was his good luck that during his childhood no legitimate child was born to turn his stepmothers mistrust against him.

We know very little about his early studies. He went from Vinci to Verrocchios studio in 1470 at the latest, and, starting in the year 1472, his name is written in the register of the painters guild as an independent member. Perugin and Lorenzo di Credi were his fellow students at the studio. This is the time when, with the divine gift of youth and infinity of hope, the world opened up before him. As an artist, from his very first works, he attracted all eyes, aroused the attention of his rivals and, if we can believe the legend, discouraged his master. Verrochio had received an order from the Vallombrosa monks for a Baptism of Christ and Leonardo contributed a kneeling angel to that painting. The figure should have been unnoticeable within the group work, but it stood out to such an extent that nothing else was noticed. Vasari tells the story that since the master-painter was so disturbed to see a child paint better than himself, Verrocchio decided that from that day forward he would never again take up a brush. During that first stay in Florence, Leonardo must have led a brilliant, and probably somewhat dissipated, existence ,. More than once his comic verve showed up at the expense of the stolid bourgeoisie of Florence.

Almost all of Leonardos first works have been lost. They are hardly known at all except from the descriptions of Vasari. But those descriptions are enough to show us that from the beginning he had found his own identity as an artist. Already the scholar in him appears within the artist, studying natures functions in order to use her methods in the human sphere like a machine that responds to ones needs, or a work of art that enriches the soul with the emotions it awakens.

He already had the skill of composition, the science of chiaroscuro , the joyful attitude and the strength of expression which would make all of his contemporaries from Perugin ( Virgin, in the museum in Nancy, Virgin of the Rocks ,) to Lorenzo di Credi , Michelangelo and Raphael, become to a greater or lesser extent imitators of Leonardo.

Oil on wood, 15.7 x 12.8 cm.

The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Oil on wood, 62 x 47.5 cm.

Alte Pinakothek , Munich.

One can sense the living spirit of da Vinci in his works as it moves from the soul to the body, from the inside to the outside, first imagining feelings, and then their expression in gesture and physiognomy. By insisting on emotion, he defines it and varies its nuances. But, as a painter, he does not separate this from the movement that follows from it. He sees it represented in the bodies it animates, and he follows, with his impeccable hand, the lines moved by that ineffable shiver of inner life. If the scholar in da Vinci did not kill the artist, it is because above all he loved invention. He never asked of science more than the power it bestows to act and to create.

Already in this first period of his life, Leonardo was many things; a painter, a sculptor, an architect, an engineer and a scholar in a word, a man who is a real man, and whose actions flow in all directions.

LEONARDO DA VINCI IN MILAN (1483-1499)

At thirty, Leonardo was in full possession of his talent. No longer the sublime child of the Baptism of Christ, he knew what he wanted and what he could do. He had method and he had genius. His early successes gave him the highest aspirations. What was he missing? A free field of action, material power, money, everything that could turn his dreams into reality. Although he had been reproached for leaving Florence for Milan, and Lorenzo da Medici for Ludovico Sforza, he went to Milan looking for what he would look for all his life, a prince who trusted in his genius and who would give him the means for action. Leonardo came to Milan seeking the opportunity to act, and to exercise his universal genius. He could not have found anyone better than this prince who was avid for glory, curious about all the sciences and intent on justifying his usurpation of power by making Milan the most important city in Italy and the rival of Florence.

Leonardo was the man Sforza needed for this purpose. For the regent, the duke, and the other noblemen, he organised fashionable shows, processions, triumphal scenes, and mythological pantomimes ( Perseusand Andromeda , Orpheus Charming the Wild Beasts , etc.), and cleverly-directed allegories in which the symbolic characters seemed to float in the air. By employing beautiful forms and beautiful colours , and by using a harmony of refined sensations, all of these entertainments blended art with life. Leonardo designed the costumes, directed the troupes, designated the decorations for the characters, and invented ingenious tricks to enliven the shows. But these roles of director and decorator were merely superficial games within the scope of his genius. While amusing himself by inventing ephemeral shows that reflected the vagaries of the changing moods and fashions of the great ladies of Milan, he worked on lasting works of art, which are, to this day, continually reborn and freshly renewed in the spirit of mankind.