Leonardo da Vinci and artworks E-Book

Gabriel Séailles

• Herausgeber: Parkstone International
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 71

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Leonardo’s early life was spent in Florence, his maturity in Milan, and the last three years of his life in France. Leonardo’s teacher was Verrocchio. First he was a goldsmith, then a painter and sculptor: as a painter, representative of the very scientific school of draughtsmanship; more famous as a sculptor, being the creator of the Colleoni statue at Venice, Leonardo was a man of striking physical attractiveness, great charm of manner and conversation, and mental accomplishment. He was well grounded in the sciences and mathematics of the day, as well as a gifted musician. His skill in draughtsmanship was extraordinary; shown by his numerous drawings as well as by his comparatively few paintings. His skill of hand is at the service of most minute observation and analytical research into the character and structure of form. Leonardo is the first in date of the great men who had the desire to create in a picture a kind of mystic unity brought about by the fusion of matter and spirit. Now that the Primitives had concluded their experiments, ceaselessly pursued during two centuries, by the conquest of the methods of painting, he was able to pronounce the words which served as a password to all later artists worthy of the name: painting is a spiritual thing, cosa mentale. He completed Florentine draughtsmanship in applying to modelling by light and shade, a sharp subtlety which his predecessors had used only to give greater precision to their contours. This marvellous draughtsmanship, this modelling and chiaroscuro he used not solely to paint the exterior appearance of the body but, as no one before him had done, to cast over it a reflection of the mystery of the inner life. In the Mona Lisa and his other masterpieces he even used landscape not merely as a more or less picturesque decoration, but as a sort of echo of that interior life and an element of a perfect harmony. Relying on the still quite novel laws of perspective this doctor of scholastic wisdom, who was at the same time an initiator of modern thought, substituted for the discursive manner of the Primitives the principle of concentration which is the basis of classical art. The picture is no longer presented to us as an almost fortuitous aggregate of details and episodes. It is an organism in which all the elements, lines and colours, shadows and lights, compose a subtle tracery converging on a spiritual, a sensuous centre. It was not with the external significance of objects, but with their inward and spiritual significance, that Leonardo was occupied.

Leseprobe

Gabriel Séailles

Leonardo

© 2023, Confidential Concepts, Worldwide, USA

© 2023, Parkstone Press USA, New York

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All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced or adapted without the permission of the copyright holder, throughout the world.

Unless otherwise specified, copyright on the works reproduced lies with the respective photographers. Despite intensive research, it has not always been possible to establish copyright ownership. Where this is the case, we would appreciate notification.

ISBN: 978-1-78160-854-8

Contents

BIOGRAPHY

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

A

A Cannon Factory,c.1503-1504

A Masquerader as an Exotic Pikeman,c.1517-1518

A Portrait of a Young Woman in Right Profile,c. 1485-1490

A Rider on a Rearing Horse Trampling a Fallen Foe (Study for the Sforza Monument), 1485-1490

A Rocky Ravine, c.1475

A Scheme for a Canal to Bypass the Arno,c.1504

A Sheet of Pictograms, Drawn over an Architectural Plan,c.1490

A Storm in an Alpine Valley,c.1508-1510

A Study for the Costume of a Masquerader,c.1517-1518

A Study of a Woman’s Hands, c.1490

Adoration of the Magi, 1480

Allegory of the Wolf and the Eagle,c.1510

Arno Landscape, 1473

Automobile, Undated

B

Baptism of Christ, Leonardo da Vinci and Andrea del Verrocchio, 1470-1476

Botanical Studies with Star-of-Bethlehem, Grasses Crowfoot, Wood Anemone, and Another Genus,c.1505-1508

Bust of a Warrior in Profile, c.1475-1480

Bust of an Apostle with Right Hand Raised, c.1495

C

Cardiovascular System,c.1508

Cataclysmic Study,c.1511-1512

Chariot Armed with Scythe,c.1485

Comparative Studies of Human and Horse Legs,c.1506-1508

Coupling Study, 1492-1494

Cow Uterus,c.1508

D

Different Types of Chains,1493-1497

Drapery for a Seated Figure from the Front, Undated

Drapery for a Seated Figure, Undated

F

Five Grotesque Heads, Undated

Giant Mechanical Digger,c.1503

Ginevra de’ Benci, c. 1474/1478

Grotesque Profile of a Man, c.1485-1490

H

Half a Male and Half a Female Body, c.1492-1493

Head of a Dishevelled Young Girl, or La Scapagliata,1500

Head of a Woman

Head of the Virgin in Three-Quarter View Facing Right, 1508-1512

Head of the Virgin,1508-1512

Heads in Profile,c.1478

Hercules with the Lion Nemean,c.1505-1508

I

Interior of the Skull, 1489

K

Kneeling Leda and the Swan,c.1505

Kneeling Leda and the Swan,c.1505

L

Leda and the Swan,After Leonardo da Vinci, 1505

Lily, 1480-1485

M

Machine Gun, c.1482

Map of the Val de Chiana, 1504

Map of Tuscany and Emilie-Romagne, 1502-1503

Map of Western Tuscany,1502-1505

Mechanism for Alternative to Continuous Movement,c.1485

Mortars Firing Cannonballs, Undated

Mould of the Head and Neck of the Horse for the Sforza Monument, Undated

Muscles of the Arms, Shoulder, and Neck,after 1510

Muscles of the Arms, Shoulder, and Neck,after 1510

Muscles of the Thorax and Shoulders of a Man,1510

N

Nude Study,c. 1508-1511

P

Perspectival Study for Adoration of the Magi, c.1481

Pharmacopoeia on the Flight of Birds,1505-1506

Portrait of a Lady from the Court of Milan, wrongly called the Beautiful Ferronniere, 1490-1495

Portrait of a Musician, c. 1485

Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, The Lady with the Ermine, 1483-1490

Portrait of Isabella d’Este,1500

Portrait of Mona Lisa del Giocondo(The Mona Lisa),1503-1506

Profiles of a Young and an Old Man

R

Rapid Fire Trigger, Undated

Saint Anne, the Virgin with the Child and Child John the Baptist, 1499-1500

Saint Jerome Praying in the Wilderness, 1482

Saint John the Baptist – Bacchus,1510-1515

Self-portrait,c.1512

St Anne, Mary and the Christ Child,c.1508

St John the Baptist,1513-1515

Studies and Positions of Cats,supposed dates: 1515-1520

Studies for the Christ Child, 1501-1510

Studies for the Heads of Two Soldiers in the “Battle of Anghiari”,1503-1504

Studies for the Nativity,1480-1485

Studies of a Dog’s Paw, 1490

Studies of Anatomy

Studies of Churches with Central Nave Plans, 1485-1490

Study for an Equestrian Monument,1508-1511

Study for the Fight with the Dragon,Undated

Study for the Fight with the Dragon,Undated

Study for the Head of a Soldier in the “Battle of Anghiari”,1503-1504

Study for The Last Supper (Christ), c.1495

Study for the Trivulzio Monument,1508-1511

Study of a Hand,c.1483

Study of a Head of a Woman, c.1490

Study of a Nude, Undated

Study of Draperies for the Arm of an Angel in the Annunciation, c.1472

Study of Flowers, c.1481-1483

Study of Geometric Transformations, Undated

Study of Horses’ Hind Legs,c.1508

Study of the Madonna and Child with a Cat, c.1478

Study of Weapons, Undated

T

The Annunciation, 1472

The Babe in the Womb,c.1511

The Bust of a Man, Full Face, and the Head of a Lion,c.1505-1510

The Distance from the Sun to Earth and the Size of the Moon,1506-1508

The Etruscan Mausoleum

The Foetus in the Uterus,c.1511-1513

The Head of a Youth in Right Profile,c.1510

The Head of Judas, c.1495 or later

The Head of Leda,c.1505-1506

The Head of St Anne,c.1510-1515

The Head of St James and Architectural Sketches,c.1495

The Head of St Phillip, c.1495

The Heart,c.1512-1513

The Last Supper, 1494-1498

The Madonna and Child (The Benois Madonna), 1478

The Madonna and Child with the Infant Baptist, and Heads in Profile,c.1478

The Organs of Women,c. 1509

The Skull Sectioned, 1489

The Surface Anatomy of the Shoulder,c.1510-1511

The Virgin and Child with Two Angels, Leonardo da Vinci and the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, probably 1470s

The Virgin of the Rocks (The Virgin with the Infant Saint John adoring the Infant Christ accompanied by an Angel), about 1491-1508

The Virgin, Christ Child and Saint Anne,1510

The Vitruvian Man, 1490

Three Dancing Nymphs, Undated

V

Various Studies, before 1490

Various Studies,before 1508

Vertical Flying Machine,1487-1490

Virgin and Child (Madonna of the Carnation), c.1473

Virgin and Child with Cat, c.1478-1481

Y

Young Woman Pointing in a Landscape,after 1513

Forword

“Details make perfection but perfection is not a detail.”

Head of the Virgin in Three-Quarter View Facing Right, 1508-1512

Charcoal, black and red chalks, 20.3 x 15.6 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Biography

1452:

Leonardo is born on April 15th in a small Tuscan town called Anchiano near Vinci in the Florentine region. He is the illegitimate son of a wealthy notary, Ser Piero, and a peasant girl, Caterina. His father takes charge of him after his birth, while Caterina leaves to marry another man. His two parents, each of them remarrying, give him seventeen brothers and sisters.

1457:

Leonardo goes to live with his father, who had married Alberia Amadori.

1460:

The young man follows his father to Florence.

1469:

At the age of 15 he becomes an apprentice in the famous studio of Andrea del Verrochio in Florence. There, he is responsible for part of the altarpieces and for some large painted panels as well as for sculptures in bronze and marble. He draws an angel in one of the Verrochio’s paintings which so impresses his master that the latter vows never to paint again. Leonardo remains in that studio until 1477.

1472:

He enters the painters’ guild.

1473:

Leonardo paints the first of his famous works, La Valle dell’Arno.

1478:

He receives an order for an altar panel for the Vecchio Palace, a project which is never completed.

1492:

Leonardo leaves Florence for Milan. He manages to enter the service of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, after boasting in a letter to him of his talent for building bridges, ships, cannons, catapults and other war machines. In fact, it is because he professes to be a musician beyond compare that he is given the post he requested. He remains as an artist in the court of Milan for eighteen years, paints numerous portraits and creates the decorations for palace parties. His fascination with complex mechanisms becomes more intense, and he studies at length physics, biology and mathematics, applying his new knowledge to his duties as an engineer. However, Leonardo’s interests are so broad that he often leaves projects unfinished.

1492:

Leonardo paints The Virgin of the Rocks. He also designs elaborate armaments, among them a tank and war vehicles, as well as submarines and other battle engines.

1492:

He draws remarkable plans for a flying machine.

1495:

Leonardo begins work on The Last Supper, in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie. The work is finished in 1498.

1496:

Leonardo meets the mathematician, Luca Pacioli, with whom he studies the treatises of Euclid.

1499:

The invasion of Milan by the French drives Leonardo to leave the city. He goes to Mantua, then to Venice, and finally to Friuli seeking employment.

1502: