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Home , La Bella Principessa, Madonna Litta, Portrait of a Musician, Virgin of the Rocks

Leonardo

Society Newsletter

editor: Francis Ames-Lewis

Issue 38, May 2012

Recent and forthcoming events talented lawyers Giasone del Maino and Franceschino Corte, masters of pageantry and The Annual General Meeting and Annual music Antonio Cornazzano, , and Lecture 2012 , poet/dramatists Gaspare Ambrogio Visconti and Galeotto del Carretto, not The AGM and Annual Lecture for 2012 were held to mention very close associates Donato as usual in the Lecture Theatre at Bramante, Bernardo Bellincioni, Francino the Courtauld Institute of Art, on Friday 27 April Gaffurio and Luca Pacioli. Though relatively little 2012. The Annual Lecture was given by Dr is known of Leonardo’s direct engagement with Matthew Landrus, whose title was ‘New Evidence most of these individuals, he regularly requested of ’s Last Supper as a advice and information on a broad range of Humanist Contribution’. projects. For two of the most celebrated aspects of Dr Matthew Landrus writes: Although one the Last Supper – the naturalistic ‘truth’ of the sees Leonardo’s approaches to humanist figural emotions and the fictive space – he scholarship throughout his notebooks, and referenced Latin scholarship, as well as the Latin especially in his notes for a comparison of the arts tradition in painting that extended from Giotto (his paragone), direct humanistic engagements in and Masaccio. Referring to the ‘strife’ discussed his paintings are relatively unconfirmed when one in Luke 22: 21-24, Leonardo presents contrasts in considers his modes of musical and dramaturgical movements of the mind similar to what one reads engagement. This lecture offered new evidence of in Seneca, On Anger 2.4.1, such as the initial Leonardo’s development of his Last Supper as a involuntary interpretations of shock and denial by humanistic discourse, as an adaptation of moral, John and Philip, followed by the voluntary ‘ascent rhetorical, musical, geometrical and poetical of the mind’ to anger by James Major, and then categories. For Leonardo, the Last Supper was the third movement: the blind insistence to act, by ultimately an istoria, a humanistic narrative Peter with his knife, and by Philip asking if the honouring . It is a kind of traitor is himself. Ciceronian enargia – the vivid recreation of a Leonardo arranged this space with a vision with words – albeit as a mute painting, a geometric diagram on Windsor RL 12542r, more informative expression and demonstratio. It mapping a central space that corresponds to both is Leonardo’s visual oration to the Sforza Court, perspective and grid plans (this analysis ws one of to the Dominican friars, and to the many visitors the lecture’s new assessments). The vanishing to Santa Maria della Grazie, in which he argues point extends through Christ’s right temple – the that perspective painting is the ultimate artifice of tempia – a reference to him as tempio, a temple Nature, reason, experience and humanistic (or church). Orthogonal lines extend the historiography. perspective space toward the refectory, starting at As a basis for this moral dialogue, the centre of his brain, the traditional location of Leonardo contrasted Latin and Greek discourses, his soul and sensory judgement in the sensus the former exploiting precision rhetorical devices communis ventricle. In this manner, ‘spiritus such as perspectival coherence and narrative domini replevit orbem terrarum’ (the spirit of the expressions, and the latter Pythagorean harmony Lord filled the world), as noted in a Gradual and Aristotle’s Poetics. Before 1497, scholars (Getty MS. Ludwig VI 3, fol. 62v) illustrated by familiar to Leonardo in and Pavia included Antonio da Monza, one of several produced for the famous Greek scholar, Demetrios the Sforza Court in the 1490s. Chalcondyles, humanist historiographers Giorgio Recent studies of stylus preparatory Merula, Giovanni Simonetta, and Bernardo Corio, incisions in the wall surface locate the vanishing point and portions of the perspective and grid recommended by Alberti. The figures are 4 plans. These results correct previous studies while perspective braccia away from the wall surface. also providing further evidence in support of For Leonardo, a narrative painting in the Latin other arguments, such as Thomas Brachert’s 1971 tradition required a precision perspective system, article, ‘A musical canon of proportion in though he also applied two relatively independent Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper’ (Art Bulletin Pythagorean (Greek) systems, the first concerning 53:4, pp. 461-66). Measurements of the incisions the arrangement of figures within proportions of and preparatory marks assisted in the discovery the preparatory grid, the second as a chorus of of the preparatory grid of 24 by 12 squares, tapestries in harmonic proportion. These are proving that the mural proportions are exactly 2:1, clever discourses about the mute performance of and that its groups of figures fit proportionally painting, which can resonate with the viewer in a within the grid. The first interior group of squares, manner similar to Apelles’ painting of Calumny. between Bartholomew, Thaddeus and Simon at Leonardo referred to this popular narrative as ‘a the ends of the table, are within a portion of the harmonic proportion… because it serves the eye, grid consisting of 12 by 8 squares, a proportion of a sense more noble than the ear’ (Codex Urbinas 3:2. The only face in the second interior group of 10r). squares is that of Judas, in a type of exclusion In the early 1490s, Marsilio Ficino, grid of 8 by 6, a proportion of 4:3. The faces of Angelo Poliziano and Girolamo Savonarola John, Thomas, James Major, Peter and Philip are argued for the inclusion of painting within the in the third interior group, a grid of 6 by 4, a Liberal Arts, as Leonardo may have heard from proportion of 3:2. A central grid section has only their colleague, Chalcondyles. Leonardo noted the head and shoulders of Jesus framed by a around 1492 that painting ‘extends into natural square portion (a 2 by 2 grid) of the upper philosophy’, as compared with poetry that window, all within a grid of 4 by 2, a proportion ‘extends into moral philosophy’, and that both of 2:1. Thus the figures are arranged according to arts can ‘create a fiction that will signify great Pythagorean proportions of an octave (2:1), fifth things’ (MS A 99v). His novel approach to the (3:2), fourth (4:3), fifth, and an octave. Last Supper nonetheless engages with moral This recalls Leon Battista Alberti’s philosophy, both as Latin vernacular poesia and definition of beauty (pulchritudo) in his De re as Greek tragedy. Starting with a new approach to aedificatoria (IX 5: 302-303) as a harmonious the narrative, he advances the moment of action approach to number (numerus), measured outline beyond the time of Jesus stating that ‘one of you (finito) and arrangement (collocatio). He referred will betray me’ and the disciples were sorrowful to a complete product of this approach in musical or doubtful, as in Matthew 26: 21-22, Mark 14: terms, as a concinnitas that resonates with one’s 18-19 and John 13: 21-22. Waves of figural soul. Here we have Leonardo’s link between the movement and the undertow of hand gestures Latin humanist istoria and its Greek roots in suggest a new kind of enactment of the extended, Pythagorean music theory. So important was this more active moment in Luke 22: 21-24, when connection for him that he reemphasized musical ‘there was also strife among them’. This is close proportions in the progression of widths of the to Aristotle’s definition of tragedy as ‘an tapestries toward the back of the Last Supper’s enactment of a deed that is important and fictive space. Diminishing proportional widths complete, and of magnitude, by means of an start at the foreground, from 2:1 (widths of first enriched language… in different parts… and and second tapestries), to 3:2 (second and third), through pity and fear it effects relief [catharsis] to to 4:3 (third and fourth). This approach to such emotions’ (Poetics VI 1449b 2-3). Reactions harmony is nonetheless at odds with the 2 by 2 among the disciples are complex with regard to perspective braccia measurements of each of the recognisable involuntary and voluntary motions coffers. Coffer proportions remain consistent, of the mind, though they are unified with regard whereas the tapestries increase in width toward to their general strife; Jesus and others are in the the background. Leonardo also appropriately process of anagnorisis as they critically consider calculated the human proportions, so that the their own identities, and in the process of perspective height of each figure, if standing, peripeteia, a reversal of expectations and a would be 5’9”, or 3 braccia, as previously turning point in the istoria.

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By virtue of the vanishing point extending Presentations will be: Professor John through Christ’s sensus communis, he is telling Henderson (Birkbeck, University of London), this story that focuses on him. This is almost ‘Anatomising hospital medicine in Italy at time of Leonardo’s Calumny, his moral discourse Leonardo da Vinci’; Dr Domenico Laurenza regarding the unjust deed against Christ, as if ‘the (bgC3 Seattle/Kirkland and Museo Galileo, whole field appeared in a single moment’, ), ‘Aspects and problems of Leonardo’s recalling Ficino’s reference to Apelles’ desire and anatomical studies: an overview’; Professor Helen ‘divine madness’ to paint Calumny (Platonic King (Open University), ‘Leonardo and the Theology, c. 1469-74). And Ludovico Sforza, female body’; Francis Wells (Papworth Hospital, considered the Lord and saviour of Milan, Cambridge), ‘Leonardo’s study of the lungs, possibly valued the painting’s allegory of diaphragm and gastro-intestinal tract’; Kenneth personal sacrifice, as he had in the mid-1490s Wise (Wycombe and Stoke Hospitals, Oxford gained as many important allies as he had gained Region), ‘The mistakes in the anatomy of the back powerful enemies. Instead of the traditional by Leonardo, and others, explained’; Dr Sachiko interpretation of the disciples’ sorrow or doubt, Kusukawa (Trinity College, Cambridge), Leonardo renders an enargia of the ascent of their ‘Vesalian images and their relationship to his text minds. This approach would appear again in and to the human body’, and Martin Clayton ’s Loggia for the Papal Palace, wherein (Royal Library), ‘What we don't know about the Last Supper ‘strife’ in Luke 22: 21-24 was Leonardo's anatomical work’. painted on vault thirteen around 1519, possibly by The cost of the Study day will be £ 35.00 Giovanni da Spoleto. Around 1490, Bellincioni per person (students/unwaged £ 25.00), to include recited sonnets that praised Leonardo as the the private view. Space in the Queen’s Gallery’s Florentine Apelles, referred to Milan as ‘today’s Redgrave Conference room is limited, so Athens’, and invited scholars to Ludovico members are advised to book early. To reserve Sforza’s ‘Parnassus’ (Rime, 1493). Leonardo’s your place online, please visit www.royal Last Supper addressed Greek scholars, humanist collection.org.uk, or telephone 020 7766 7323. poets, friars, musicians, Ludovico Sforza, and others at the Sforza Court with a variety of systematic intellectual ornaments, arguing in visual terms that only the science of narrative painting could engage instantly with the harmony Leonardesque News of the soul. Dr Landrus is grateful for the questions A conference on Leonardo da Vinci’s from members of the audience, and for additional comments from Martin Kemp and Claire Farago, Technical Practice: Paintings, Drawings all of which he hopes to have briefly addressed in and Influence the present summary of his talk. Professor Claire Farago (University of Colorado and Fulbright-York Scholar, Visiting Distin- A Study day on ‘Anatomy in the guished Professor, University of York) writes: Renaissance’: Friday 7 September 2012 This conference, organized by the CHARISMA project (Cultural Heritage Advanced Research A Study day organised by the Leonardo da Vinci Infrastructures: Synergy for a Multidisciplinary Society, in association with the Approach to Conservation/ Restoration) at the Trust, on ‘Anatomy in the Renaissance’ is to be , London, was held on January held on Friday 7 September 2012 at the Queen’s 13-14, 2012. Bruno Brunetti (University of Gallery, Buckingham Palace. This has been Perugia), coordinator of the EU-funded planned to coincide with the current exhibition of consortium, reported that CHARISMA involves ‘Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist’ on display at the eleven countries and twenty-two institutions, and Queen’s Gallery until 4 October 2012. There will provides transnational access to conservation be a private view of the exhibition exclusively for studies and joint research. The line-up of participants at the end of the study day. expertise, both among the speakers and the

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audience, was unprecedented: briefly stated – and opened by Cecilia Frosinini (Opificio delle Pietre to quote Martin Kemp () – Dure, Florence – OPD) who offered a brief this was one of the most extraordinary overview of connoisseurship studies involving conferences many of us had ever been to. non-invasive imaging technology. Frosinini called The papers, organized into three thematic for a history of technical analysis and stressed the topics, were devoted to individual paintings by need to overcome the current “lack of solid inter- Leonardo; some workshop copies and paintings professional exchange”. Marco Ciatti (OPD) by Boltraffio; and selected groups of drawings. presented a preliminary review of the current Much new and surprising information was Adoration of the Magi project: this combines presented by the scientific community, in terms research on previous conservation treatments, accessible to a lay audience. Martin Kemp’s imaging techniques, and spot-testing of materials. plenary panel attempted some concluding The condition of the painting is not good – there generalizations, in keeping with the spirit of is strong craquelure obscured by non-original collaborative research that the conference stressed materials, including numerous layers of varnish. as a whole. Ashok Roy (National Gallery, The support is made up of ten poplar panels of London) called for more research on organic and mediocre quality joined by metal brackets inorganic materials, such as binding media. In the (ponticelli), typical of later fifteenth-century future, Kemp said, it will be possible to tease out . The lower part of the joined this kind of information from non-invasive panel has no support, as if it had been cut, examination of the layer structures. although this does not correspond to the design on (formerly National Gallery, London) offered the the surface. More varnish has been removed from possibility of bringing connoisseurship and the figures and bright areas. The underdrawing is teaching issues together. Carmen Bambach crisp. (Metropolitan Museum, New York) stressed the Jan Schmidt (Alte Pinakothek, Munich) need to integrate the evidence of drawings on spoke on the c. 1475 with a Carnation, paper and new information about underdrawings, the subject of extensive scientific analysis carried keeping in mind that they are independent out at the Doerner Institut before the 2006 Munich activities. exhibition. The conservators’ crucial question was Almost everyone, including Bruno Mottin whether and how Leonardo used oil paint. The (French Museums Research and Conservation materials were found to be conventional, but Centre, Paris – C2RMF), emphasized the need to unconventionally used. The slightly reduced panel share work openly. Kemp insisted that scientific has at least three layers of gesso, then a layer of analysis be separated from conservation, which linseed oil priming similar to both Virgins of the can quickly become politicized – as recently with Rocks, offering insulation and a reflecting surface the Virgin and Child with St Anne, to be for the paint layers. There is some brown exhibited at the Louvre from March 29; a undermodelling, but IR reflectography detected Scholars’ Study day is planned for June 20. In his no underdrawing. The drapery was laid out with closing remarks CHARISMA coordinator modelling and a series of stylus incisions. A Brunetti added that independent studies belong to compass and rule were used to lay out the the past: in both scientific analyses and art history, architecture, including unexecuted geometric collaboration and group work are the order of the forms comparable to those on CA 224r. Partly day. These concluding desiderata were preceded translucent layers of colour were applied over the by many revelations concerning Leonardo’s modelling, and gold was used decoratively in technique and working processes. Among the many details such as the curls of the child’s hair most exciting concerned the rediscovered Salvator and the rim of the Virgin’s veil. Distinctive Mundi, the Belle Ferronière, the Prado copy of wrinkling in the flesh tones suggests the use of the , and technical analysis of drying oils, and documents Leonardo’s struggle to Boltraffio’s paintings. This report will now achieve technical mastery of his medium. present some of the main findings of the Elizabeth Walmsley (National Gallery of individual papers. Art, Wahington) spoke on the portrait of Ginevra Chaired by Luke Syson, the first session, de’ Benci, where no craquelure has developed, devoted to Leonardo’s autograph paintings, was suggesting a later date than the Munich painting.

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Walmsley offered three scenarios, the latest being given the Baptist’s historical association with the 1478-80, corresponding with the hypothesis that Immaculate Conception subject, and the lack yet the painting was commissioned by Bernardo of an established for the new Bembo, who chose this young female poet as his devotion, it might be more feasible to explain the platonic lover. Walmsley reviewed the evidence changes on different grounds. Thanks to the new that the painting was cut down, suggesting the use evidence provided by recent improvements in of a cartoon for the head only, based on black imaging technology, we now have to account for underdrawing visible in the final painting. In four rather than two compositions for the Virgin addition to the evidence of and of the Rocks, with all iconographical changes pouncing, she discussed the probable presence of revolving around the changing emphasis on the finger wipes and suggested that the massing of the Baptist. juniper bush was intended to cover pentimenti. One of the most highly anticipated reports Discussion at the end of the first session stayed concerned the new scientific data for La Belle close to the physical evidence. Kemp made a plea Ferronière, presented by Elisabeth Ravaud. Her that equipment be synchronized, because analysis of the single walnut panel focused first differences create incommensurable sets of data. on whether it was taken from the same board as The second session, chaired by Ashok the Cecilia Gallerani portrait. The most surprising Roy, was comprised of papers on the Paris Virgin technical finding was that the painting is built up of the Rocks, La Belle Ferronière, The Last over a lead white ground, without gesso Supper, and the newly conserved Salvator Mundi. underneath, on dark wood to help establish the Pietro Marani’s (Politecnico di Milano, Milan) modelling. There is evidence of pouncing in the presentation on The Last Supper assessed eyes and nose; incisions indicate the parapet; and Leonardo’s imitation of panel-painting procedure, shadows mainly in ochre-coloured lead white with and described Pinin Brambilla’s sometimes highlights painted in two layers of light and controversially received restoration as a model lighter pink, with dark shadow added on top. In worthy of imitation. The other papers presented this respect the technique is in line with the flesh entirely new evidence. Vincent Delieuvin modelling in The Musician, the London Virgin of (Louvre, Paris) spoke on the Paris Virgin of the the Rocks, and portraits by Boltraffio included in Rocks, outlining its seven significant restorations the exhibition. Importantly, the troublingly harsh between 1763 and 1996, the C2RMF investigation highlight on the figure’s chin is due to an of 2001-2, and more recently the reflectograms inappropriate past cleaning. made in 2008. Referring to the recent discovery of The most exciting new attribution included a second composition beneath the London in the exhibition was presented by conservator version, Elisabeth Ravaud (C2RFM) explained Dianne Dwyer Modestini, who discussed the how the cartoon for the young Baptist’s head in condition of the newly conserved Salvator Mundi, the Paris version was re-used for the Christ in advance of full documentation to be published Child’s head in the first underdrawing in the in spring 2013. Scientific study started in 2005 London painting. The Paris underdrawing is found that the painting, on a single, thinned-down intact, but there is no correlation between the two walnut panel that had cracked vertically the entire compositions: the figures were developed length of the panel, was heavily repainted except separately, and the angel in the London version is on the right. Previous attempts to align the two 10% larger. The Virgin’s hand was significantly sides on either side of the crack included planing modified. Analysis conducted in 2009 included the panel from the front and covering original micro-reflectograms of faces: Christ’s head is of paint with gesso. Initially the panel was sealed high quality, while the Baptist’s body is abraded with what was probably animal glue, over which and his limbs re-positioned, although his head is lies a double ground of lead white in a walnut oil well-preserved. The most exciting new finding is binder, the upper, finer layer mixed with tin that the Angel’s hand with pointing finger was yellow. Little trace of underdrawing was found, added at a very late stage, after the background although part of an arc inscribes the head. The was painted. Delieuven hypothesized that this surface is built up using black wash and a rich new emphasis on the Baptist might be understood underpaint of black and vermillion glaze similar as due to an unknown patron’s request. However, to the St Jerome. The lapis mixture of the robes

The Leonardo da Vinci Society Page 5 Registered Charity 1012878 must have initially been translucent. At least three a 2010 exhibition on The Musician, comparing it paint layers were identified with no brush marks with two portraits attributed to Boltraffio, and visible. The shadows of the flesh tones are arguing that the new attribution of one of these to complex, consisting of four layers of vermillion, Marco d’Oggiono is not justified on stylistic and black, and lead white. Both eyes are abraded, technical grounds. Wells reviewed the visual making the gaze of the face difficult to assess. history of the Lansdowne Madonna in relation to The orb is rendered in a manner typical of rock the Buccleuch version, comparing more than 40 crystal. In the restoration tiny fissures on the face versions of the Yarnwinder composition, mostly and forearm were covered with glazes and by unknown artists. She argued that preliminary scumbles to make the surface softer. The colour features in the Lansdowne underdrawing are palette is strikingly simple, and the pigments are preserved in some of these copies, particularly in conventional although the mixture of different- features such as the baby-walker group in the sized particles is innovative. There are numerous middle-ground, the architectural and landscape pentimenti: the position of the stole was lowered, surround, the presence of a spindle, and the the right hand was shifted slightly to the left and different positioning of the Christchild’s legs the fingers moved, and the left hand was lowered. kicking a second basket, as described by Pietro da According to Modestini, one of the details most Novellara in 1501. The existence of so many convincingly arguing for a Leonardo attribution copies testifies to Leonardo’s extraordinary was the appearance, when the was influence across Europe where “he was a brand”. removed, of a second solution for the right thumb Acidini reviewed evidence for the provenance of finished to the stage of pink underpainting. These the Buccleuch and Lansdowne versions of the changes are entirely consistent with Leonardo’s Yarnwinder, and the recent scientific examination revisions in other autograph paintings and the of the Lansdowne Madonna, discussing motifs figure follows his canon of ideal proportions that appear only in the underdrawing previously exactly. mentioned by Wells. Superimpositions of tracings In the discussion that followed this show that the cartoon for the Madonna’s head was session, Jill Dunkerton suggested that Leonardo re-used for the head of the Virgin in the Louvre St may have learned the faulty oil-painting technique Anne. She also commented on the hypothesis that of Piero Pollaiuolo who eliminated gesso and drawings and cartoons “leaked out” from the maybe imprimatura; this may also explain the workshop, leading to so many copies. cryptic passage on how to prepare a panel (Ms. A, It appears from this presentation and many 1r, c. 1490-92). Ravaud noted that the links others that the nature of the workshop, between the Ms. A passage and the Belle particularly how apprentices and independent Ferronière were suggestive. Responding to painters might have interacted, is far from settled. questions from Syson, Marani confirmed his The new evidence of underdrawings made visible position that on the basis of surviving drawings by IRR and multi-NR scanner types of the Last Supper was begun in the early 1490s, reflectography and emissionography has opened contemporary with the execution of the London up the possibilities in exciting new ways awaiting . further investigation and discussion. Nowhere did The second section of the conference was new evidence cause more excitement than in the devoted to Leonardo and his workshop, beginning presentation of the hitherto practically unknown with a session chaired by Michel Menu. Maria Prado copy of the Mona Lisa. Mozo discussed Teresa Fiorio (Ente Raccolta Vinciana, Milan) details of costume and a curved chair recently spoke on the and the revealed in the Paris Mona Lisa underdrawing Milanese workshop; Thereza Wells (Central Saint which led to the hypothesis that the Prado copy Martin’s, London) spoke on Leonardo’s was painted in front of the original. The sequence Lansdowne Madonna of the Yarnwinder; Cristina of execution also follows the original, and Mozo Acidini (OPD) gave a second paper on this argued that the copy may be based on the same subject; and a paper on the Prado copy of the cartoon, because so many details correspond, Mona Lisa was presented jointly by Ana González including the drapery line, shoulders and hands, Mozo (Prado, Madrid) and Bruno Mottin line of the chest, and folds of the sleeves – lines (C2RMF). Fiorio reviewed evidence prepared for that were corrected freehand with a brush. The

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landscape includes similar details; the colour and presented an extensive set of reflections on the transparency of paint layers is similar; and there role of technical evidence in the study of are many minor corrections that were not included Leonardo’s graphic practices. She discussed the on the surface of the Paris Mona Lisa – all clearly use of ultraviolet light and other scientific indicating that the Prado portrait was made in instruments that have revolutionized the way Leonardo’s workshop. Mottin further noted that Leonardo’s drawings are understood; the need to the underdrawing suggests the Prado portrait was clarify the role of past restorers, and to study painted either by or Salai. Eager watermarks in connection with other contextual questioning at the end of this session focused on evidence; and the organization of ideas in the relationship between pupils and master, and Leonardo’s manuscripts, questioning the recent original and copies, leading to a lively debate on practice of dismembering the notebooks because the structure of the workshop, the validity of of its destruction of historical evidence. The terminology distinguishing originals from copies, highlight of her presentation was a close analysis and the need to produce comparable scientific of the coloured chalk drawing of the Virgin’s evidence as problems of connoisseurship escalate. head for the Louvre St Anne (Metropolitan The second session of the second day, Museum), describing tonal subtleties difficult to chaired by Marco Ciatti, continued the theme of capture in photographs that embody his mature studio practices, focusing on Leonardo’s early research on colouristic effects. Milanese follower Boltraffio. Carlotta Beccaria, Judith Rayner (British Museum, London) an independent restorer, presented a paper on the presented a paper on drawings in the museum, Poldi Pezzoli Madonna and Child; and Sue Ann also focusing on the multi-layered character of Chui (Getty Museum, Los Angeles) spoke on the Leonardo’s drawing technique, with special Esterházy Madonna and Child in Budapest. attention to his use of stylus and of varied types of Beccaria, who examined four Boltraffio paintings paper that are identifiable through a combination on walnut panel supports, reported in detail on the of transmitted light, raking light, and IR imaging. condition of the Milan Madonna and Child, André Le Prat and Franck Louis’ (Louvre, Paris) focusing on the restoration of the drapery based innovative paper on the drapery studies on linen on a preparatory drawing at Christ Church that in the Louvre combined philological research with can be superimposed on the painting. Exciting connoisseurship. They argued that past translators was her discussion of Boltraffio’s use of a lead of Vasari have misconstrued his use of the word white ground worked with his fingers – close to “medagli” (medallions) as a misprint of and yet distinct from Leonardo’s technique, as “modagli” (models), thereby missing the crucial defined in new evidence emerging at the point that the drapery studies were developed over conference. Chui discussed how in the Budapest clay reliefs, rather than fully in the round, so that Madonna and Child, Boltraffio drew upon lighting can be made consistent and the objects Leonardo’s painting methods. The Esterházy themselves can be more easily stored in a Madonna is on poplar wood, unusual in crowded studio. The conference’s final paper, Leonardo’s Milanese practice; the imprimatura is presented by Alan Donnithorne (Royal Library, similar to Leonardo’s description in Ms. A; and Windsor) and Joanna Russell (British Museum, the cycle of dry and wet mediums, the presence of London) was devoted to the problem of the a cartoon used by both Boltraffio and Leonardo, “faded” metalpoint drawings in the Royal and the presence of finger and palm prints in the Collection. From a series of chemical and Raman imprimatura all suggest the close relationship of spectography analyses, it appears that the results both artists. More specifically, the use of grey are still inconclusive, but the best hypothesis to undermodelling for drapery folds creates a date is that lines that have disappeared but are still complex structure that is here particularly close to visible under ultraviolet light do not contain Leonardo’s techniques. The evidence that Chui silver. Since silver is inert the implication is that presented has important implications, calling for a the disappearance of lines is connected with the re-evaluation of attribution criteria. occasional absence of silver in Leonardo’s The final session of the conference was metalpoint process. A brief discussion followed devoted to drawings, chaired by Hugo Chapman the session, before Kemp’s round-table described (British Museum, London). Carmen Bambach at the beginning of my report.

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A Conference on ‘Leonardo da Vinci: us that Apelles painted thunder and lightning: Painting as Philosophy’ Poussin seeks here to emulate both Apelles and Leonardo. This one-day conference, organised by Peter Francesca Fiorani (University of Virginia) Mack (Warburg Institute, London) and Luke spoke on ‘Leonardo and Optics’. Painting as a Syson (National Gallery, London), was held at the science is based in optics, so no study was more Warburg Institute on 2 February 2012. Speakers important to Leonardo than that of optics. His asked how Leonardo set about expressing visually early notes include very few on this subject: only different and sometimes competing ideas about from the late 1480s did he write extensively on the universe and its causes, in a Christian era. optics, basing his theories on the work of What did Leonardo mean by promoting painting Aristotle, Bacon, Pecham and especially Alhazen. as a science, as knowledge, and how should we These notes are fragmented, scattered: some are understand the scientific painting of traditional (or based in observation, some on his textual sources, novel) devotional subjects? How did his theory of some in his imagination. He was fascinated by painting affect his treatment of secular ‘polluted shadows’ even as early as the celebrated commissions, such as portraiture? How did his 1473 landscape drawing (, Florence); and thinking change? How did he react to classical they are evident in early landscapes such as that thought and the ideas of his contemporaries and for the (Uffizi, Florence). Early what impact did this have on his art? notes of the 1470s – the earliest seem to be on a The first speaker was Alessandro Nova sheet in the Codex Atanticus – on the eye are (Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence), on ‘Air, derived from Alhazen, and show that he already Wind and Atmosphere in Leonardo’s Graphic accepts the intromission theory of vision. In Oeuvre’. In his drawings of storms and deluges extensive writings in MS.C (c.1490) he accepted Leonardo abandoned conventional methods of Alhazen’s theory of the surface of the eye as the representation and developed new graphic site of vision. He proposed that his intensive patterns. In RL 12376 he still shows two putti optical research in MS.C should result in seven blowing into trumpets to indicate wind, but also books on shadows – in parallel with the seven begins to develop the spiralling, abstract vortices books of Alhazen’s de Aspectibus. It is not clear of storm-driven air that pervade the series of ten how or when Leonardo read Alhazen, but the text or so ‘deluge’ sheets. The function and subject of was known in Italy from the late fourteenth these are mysterious, but they parallel (though century, and underpins both Alberti’s de Pictura they do not illustrate) his written descriptions of and Ghiberti’s third Commentary. Leonardo knew storms and tempest. The curved, spiral signs for Buonaccorso Ghiberti, the inheritor of Ghiberti’s turbulence are analogous to the highly evocative writings; and he was deeply indebted to Alhazen language of his text, and lead the way towards an for his optical theory and its application to aesthetic of the Sublime – as for example in the painting, in reproducing natural phenomena such work of Fuseli. The spirals suggest thick, dense, as shadows, blurred edges and atmospheric perhaps dust-filled air; parallel lines suggest a perspective. In his early Annunciation Leonardo’s lighter, breezier air. His long, pseudo-scientific shadows are both metaphorical – as commentary reflections on the natural phenomenon of wind on Luke I, 35: ‘the Holy Ghost shall come upon may have metaphorical value, for instance of thee, and the power of the Highest shall Victory. Leonardo’s theoretical interest in overshadow thee…’ – and real at the same time. turbulent weather conditions is fundamental to the Martin Clayton (Windsor, Royal Library) later tradition: as shown in Poussin’s Pyramus discussed ‘The Context of Leonardo’s Anatomical and Thisbe (Frankfurt-am-Main), painted in 1651, Studies’. These studies fall into two phases, those the year of publication in Paris of Leonardo’s of the later 1480s, when he had no access to Treatise on Painting, in which both Poussin and human dissection but worked mainly on animals, his patron Cassiano dal Pozzo were involved. external observation of human anatomy, and Ovid’s telling of the story is set in a windless proportion, and the period 1504-13, with greatest night, but Poussin uses storm motifs to show his intensity of study around 1507, during which ability to represent natural phenomena; and bad years he dissected some 30 cadavers. The first weather is a metaphor for ill-fated love. Pliny tells outline of his Treatise on Anatomy comes in

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Anatomical MS.B of c.1489 (contemporary with Mona Lisa is a microcosm within the macrocosm the skull studies), with studies of veins, muscles of the landscape; the bridge ‘bridges’ the and the skeleton: these studies soon went beyond microcosm and the macrocosm; it is a meta- the needs of the painter. The role of the nervous pictorial element within a hostile landscape. The system in life was an early preoccupation, and he bridge derails the universality of the landscape, sought also to include the study of human emotion which is no longer self-contained, no longer has within these empirical investigations. In 1507-13 autonomy and trans-historical validity. In the Leonardo conducted a sustained campaign of Madonna and Child with St Anne, on the other dissection and anatomical study: the centenarian hand, there is strict distinction between the dissection was in winter 1506; around 1508 he foreground and the background landscape, which intensively studied the brain; in around 1510 his is remote and unattainable. Its palette is distinct; collaboration with Marcantonio della Torre led to there is no human activity; it is a wasteland of Anatomical MS.A, with the finest examples of his nature untamed, a challenge to humankind within dissection diagrams. In 1511 and his move from the reassuring context of Christian iconography. Milan he lost access to human corpses, so worked Here we experience what it truly means to on the hearts of oxen. The Vatican St Jerome respond to a painting, a trans-historical image. relates the movements of the body to the Mary Pardo (University of North Carolina movements of the mind, a preoccupation of the at Chapel Hill) discussed ‘Leonardo’s nuova early 1490s. But the subtle inflections of the inventione di speculatione’. In his writings on contours of the right arm correspond to the c.1510 composition and compositional invention diagrams of the dissected arm; and the Leonardo suggests that the painter learn from the musculature of the neck, especially the pectoralis stains or mould patterns on walls, as stimuli to the major muscle, is identical with the c.1510 imagination. Reading such indefinable patterns diagrams, whereas it is inaccurately rendered in helped Leonardo to develop pictorial the c.1495 Head of Judas study for the Last compositions and figural interplay, unlike Supper. The profound and accurate understanding Alberti’s rational approach to compositional of the muscles of St Jerome’s face parallels that construction. In the early 1490s he correlated reached only in the dissection drawings of 1510. methods of composition with mental faculties: Although the painting may have been started judgement, memory and imagination stimulate around 1490, the musculature of the right arm, different sorts of drawing. Examining stained shoulder, neck and face cannot date earlier than walls, or variegated conglomerate stones, rouses 1510: he seems to have returned to the painting at the ingegno, serves as a ‘new invention for that time to rework the anatomical detail. speculation’. Brainstorm drawings were Robert Zwijnenberg (University of Leonardo’s portable stained walls: drawing Leiden) spoke on ‘Walls and Bridges’. A crucial constantly stimulated new designs and issue is how we relate to historical (as opposed to composition, exploiting the versatility of the quill contemporary) painting, for which knowledge of pen. He took with him to Milan many designs and the artist and his intentions is inevitably lacking. sketches, such as sketches of a child and a cat, A work of art has a special visual presence: it from which the ‘Madonna and Child with a Cat’ captivates through its visuality; it is a work of art compositions derive. These were of enduring because of the aesthetic experience that it value as stimuli for later works and compositions prompts. Most art historians strive for objectivity, by members of his circle. The cat, and its fluent refusing to acknowledge their engagement with movements, as demonstrations of organic the work of art, or the role of their personal flexibility kept Leonardo returning to the motif. A experience; but the approach to a work of art child may have similar flexibility as a cat: in depends of the self-reflective capacity of the MS.A Leonardo considers the different historian. Zwijnenberg admits to feeling uneasy movements of figures according to their age. A before the Mona Lisa, feeling that something is seated child, for example, should be restless and not right: the bridge in the right landscape, which dynamic, whereas a standing child should be ‘is a carbuncle disfiguring the painting’. The timorous. Stains on walls can stimulate not only landscape is connected with the sitter only by the harmonious and playful movements, but also bridge; there is no other sign of human activity. violent ones, such as battles. A Leonardo child

The Leonardo da Vinci Society Page 9 Registered Charity 1012878 also can be in tension, even violent, as it seizes a never reached fixed solutions: for him, questions cat, or leaps to escape its mother’s grasp, as in the were always open. Nevertheless, he established Madonna of the Yarnwinder. iconic examples in all genres to fuel the work of Finally, Frank Fehrenbach (Harvard his followers and circle. University) spoke on ‘Leonardo’s point’. In the first paragraph of the Treatise on Painting, painting is defined as a science because it is A Personal View by Martin Kemp in the founded on the point, the ‘ultimo principio’. The aftermath of the National Gallery’s point is not material, but mysteriously creates the exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci. Painter image. The point is a zero, spiritual but not substantial. In meditations in the , at the Court of Milan c.1505-08, Leonardo conceives of the point as the third liminal quantity lying somewhere between With the permission of Martin Kemp and the Art nothing and something: the point is the beginning Newspaper, we are able to reprint here his article of the line but not of it, because it is infinitely published in the Art Newspaper in February 2012. small although differing from nothing. A line is th generated by the movement of a point, and a Leonardo mania officially ends on Sunday 5 surface is generated by the transversal movement February at 10.00pm – at least as far as London is of a line: a body is therefore created by movement concerned. That is when the National Gallery’s (this is also stated in the first chapters of the Leonardo da Vinci. Painter at the Court of Milan Treatise). Hence the point is the basis of closes its doors. Gone will be early-morning Leonardo’s theory of movement; it is identified queues shivering in the winter gloom of Trafalgar with the principle of movement. On Codex Square. The ticket touts and event agencies, Arundel 132r a series of five diagrammatic trading tickets on the internet for £100s, will have sketches culminates in the representation of a to turn elsewhere. The press stories will calm. Or point shown distorting the positiveness of space, will they? Leonardo breaks all the rules. The silly although an infinitely small element. Leonardo’s season never ends where he is concerned. My point is linked with absence in nature, oscillating email inbox testifies that the “Leonardo loonies” between being and not being: ‘where nothing never tire of the ahistorical quest to discover some ends, the thing is born, and where the thing bizarre secrets hidden in paintings, just waiting disappears, nothing emerges’ (Codex Arundel for some smart-alec decoder to come along 500 159r). Creations of the painter originate in the years later. They never tire of sending images of movement of a point: the point is therefore at the new Leonardos. The “weekly Leonardo” is inception of pictorial art. generally remote and absurd, even when The discussion that followed highlighted accompanied by barrages of so-called evidence. Leonardo’s struggle throughout his career to get At the end of the day I suppose it is better that theory and painterly practice to come together, the Leonardo lives in today’s imaginations, however one to follow the other, ‘helping and being fevered, than lies in an obscure corner of helped’. His scientific interests emerged from his desiccated history. practice of picture-making, but the tension The exhibition has left us with a lot to between painting and science was ultimately digest and some serious thinking to do, not least irresolvable. The symbiosis was noted between in relation to the important if uneven catalogue. his graphic practice and his creative thinking: We could carp about the convenient re-dating of thought was amplified by image-making and vice works to Leonardo’s years (c.1492-1499) at the versa; the act of drawing forced clarifications in Sforza court in Milan. The Madonna of the thinking, and served as a spur to further thought. Yarnwinder is securely dated to the following Leonardo’s activity as a maker of sacred images Florentine period. The newly discovered Salvator was highlighted. His optics relate with the world Mundi is post-1500 for a number of reasons. The of Arab scholarship, which had a very different Gallery’s own cartoon for the Virgin, Child and St view of representation. The historical moment Anne has been redated to c.1499, although the around 1500 allowed artists increasingly more hydraulic engineering on the preparatory drawing licence to reinterpret the sacred; but Leonardo in the British Museum belongs with the Codex

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Leicester of c.1507-8. This last is typical of art and modes of publication. At present there is too historians’ propensity not to take into account often a chaos of incompatibility in the results datable scientific and technical studies on sheets issued by each laboratory. The kind of containing drawings for works of art. There was international collaboration signalled by the also the bizarre spectacle of the catalogue entry European CHARISMA project needs to be for the Hermitage’s being written sustained and extended (http://www. by Tatiana Custodieva – presumably a condition charismaproject.eu/). of the loan – who unquestioningly attributes the Examination of pictures from Leonardo’s whole painting to Leonardo, when the catalogue circle is yielding real results, although the often entries for related drawings demonstrate that it dispiriting pastiches by the tend not was executed by Boltraffio (who emerges as to encourage galleries to devote resources and something of a star of the show). time to their examination. Martin Bailey [in the But it is worth looking forward with Art Newspaper, February 2012] draws our gratitude rather than niggling. After this intense attention to the revelations produced by the experience, where does Leonardo scholarship go Prado’s Mona Lisa variant. The yields go beyond from here? The major advances unquestionably questions of attribution. They reveal much about are being made through technical examination, the the sociology of the production and patronage of subject of a superb public conference organised paintings, particularly with respect to multiples on by Ashok Roy on 13th and 14th January. Most of a small scale and the series of devotional pictures the major desiderata of the next few years involve compiled from mixing-and-matching the scientific analysis to lesser or greater degrees. resources of drawings, cartoons and unfinished Technical examination rarely solves attributional paintings in his own studio. The scientific study of issues in a definitive manner – unless some drawings, as Carmen Bambach of the horrible anachronism emerges. But it often shows Metropolitan showed, trails far behind the that our questions and presumptions are much too examination of paintings, even though techniques simple and stereotyped. The underdrawings in the that deliver basic results are readily available, two versions of the Madonna of the Yarnwinder, including microscopic scrutiny and multispectral the New York version of which was arbitrarily scanning. There also is a big and largely excluded from the show, demonstrate that the unexamined question about the deterioration of commercial categories of “original” and “copy” the legibility of drawings that have been much simply will not work where the production of exhibited. I subjectively sense that there are things paintings in a Renaissance workshop is I could once see in some of the drawings that are concerned. The overall situation regarding how no longer visible. Systematic, non-subjective we calibrate the assertions of the connoisseur’s study is urgently required. eye in relation to the scientific evidence is We also need to pay much more attention currently disastrous. This is one of the biggest to the original format of Leonardo’s bound issues in the current study of works of art, and I manuscripts (including those now dismembered), hope to write something on this in due course. reconstructing sequences of drawings and notes, Much light is being shed on Leonardo’s and cross-dating from one manuscript to another. techniques in general. I say “techniques” This is a big and slow task, unattractive in the advisedly. It is become evident that he tended to context of academic research reviews, which tackle the job of making each or prioritise productivity. We can also ask mural on a fresh and experimental basis. It seems demanding questions about the fashion for from the portraits of women, including possibly unbinding the manuscripts so that the double the Mona Lisa, that he abandoned white gesso sheets can be mounted separately, vitiating the plaster grounds in favour of a tinted white lead eccentric coherence of Leonardo’s thought preparation, but later reverted to priming his panel processes. with gesso. Generalisation is hazardous. He There are also a series of “political” certainly was not a pragmatic picture-maker in the desiderata, which cannot in practice be separated mode of Raphael. We need each picture to be from the intellectual endeavours. In the aftermath intensively examined in its own right, not least of the conference there was a warm feeling of using comparable apparatus, methods of analysis cuddly cooperation between the various experts

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and institutions involved. How long will it last, surname. In Milan he was called “Leonardo da before we revert to the partisan default position of Firenze”. the exercise of national, institutional and personal self-interest? I have a wish list to add to the hopes outlined above. It is produced here as much in An exhibition of ‘Leonardo da Vinci: hope as expectation. Anatomist’ at the Queen’s Gallery, Let us move the debate about restoration, Buckingham Palace, until 4 October which is intricately tied into questions of scientific analysis, on to a more rational and less fevered 2012 basis. The Louvre and the Centre de Recherche and Restauration in Paris have been doing much Currently on display at the Queen’s Gallery is the in this respect, but it is all to easy for galleries to largest exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci’s retreat into defensive mode when faced by the anatomical drawings ever mounted. Eighty-seven same set of noisy opponents who generate sheets of drawings are spread throughout the effective news stories. Let us untie the quest to Gallery’s three main rooms, a large proportion of examine works of art scientifically from the them displayed double-sided; a group of modern process of restoration. Too often a work is only anatomical models are displayed in the two small examined as part of a programme to conserve it or cabinet rooms. In the first room, which is painted as a justification for such a programme. Knowing a rich deep blue, the early studies are displayed, and intervening are different things. Let us those dating between around 1485 and 1494 and eliminate the virtual ostracism of accomplished including the 1489 studies of a sectioned skull, private researchers. Pascal Cotte in Paris and and the group of studies of a dissected bear’s foot, Maurizio Seracini in Florence, to name just two in metalpoint on blue-grey prepared paper. One of privateers who are virtuosi of technical the 1489 studies has on the verso a first outline of examination, have undertaken analyses that the contents of Leonardo’s proposed Treatise on should have been acknowledged in the Anatomy; a later sheet of studies of the bladder conference. suggests in its relatively formal layout what a Let us try to separate the stances taken page of the Treatise might have looked like. about attribution from the ownership and Another early drawing, of the leg shown in cross- circumstances of emergence of individual works. section, foreshadows the range of diagrammatic The contrasting fortunes of the Salvator Mundi techniques that Leonardo exploits in the (hanging proudly in the National Gallery anatomical drawings. A sequence of drawings exhibition) and the portrait of a young woman on shows the shoulder from a series of different vellum – , the origins of angles; another the shoulder gradually built up which in a Sforza manuscript effectively eliminate element by element; another the shoulder stripped the silly things that have been said about it – down. Leonardo used the architect’s system of demonstrate vividly how what something looks plan, elevation and section, and the engineer’s like is radically coloured by non-visual factors. ‘exploded view’ in which elements are pulled Whereas the sober owner(s) of the former apart to show how they fit together. carefully and quietly secured opinions and The second room, in deep green, opens facilitated long-term research outside the glare of with the renewal of Leonardo’s anatomical study publicity, the latter underwent a series of around the time of his work on the Battle of premature and ill-judged exposures (in some of Anghiari. This phase culminates with the which I was personally involved) that have greatly dissection of the centenarian in winter 1507-08 prejudiced its status. It is not the fault of the and the studies that make up the bulk of object how it is handled. Anatomical MS B, which opens with the 1489 These issues extend beyond Leonardo but skull studies. Twenty-one pages of Anatomical are sharply focussed by him. And of course there MS B, all dating around 1508, are displayed here, is question of his name. Can we hope (probably along with the superb, large-scale study of the unavailingly) that the ugly Americanism, “Da principal organs of a woman which stands as the Vinci” will be abandoned? “Da Vinci” is not a culmination of his series of studies of internal anatomy.

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The final room, painted in rich blood red, faces of the Madonna and of Saint Anne; the deep opens with sheets dealing with the bones and slate-purple drapery over Saint Anne’s lower legs; muscles, making up Anatomical MS A on which the delicacy of the veil-like fabric that creates Leonardo worked around 1510-11. At this time he rippling rings of folds around the Madonna’s right collaborated with Marcantonio della Torre, arm; the elaborate folds of crimson drapery across professor of anatomy at the University of Pavia, the Madonna’s back, clearly painted over the who had good access to human material: diagonal edge of her blue robe; the carefully Leonardo may have dissected as many as twenty detailed crimping curls of the ’s hair, corpses during this period. However, Marcantonio and of the lamb’s fleece; the complex, stratified died in 1511, and with the fall of Milan to the formation of the rocky plateau on which the French at the end of that year, Leonardo retreated figures sit; and above all the fine modelling and to stay with Francesco Melzi in his villa not far play of light on the light-blue robe across her the from Milan. In 1512-13 Leonardo no longer had Madonna’s right leg. access to human material. For the ‘Villa Melzi The conservation has also made clearer the studies’ Leonardo used dogs, birds and oxen in a areas of lack of finish, such as the light brown series of sheets which culminate in the middle-ground, and Saint Anne’s left sleeve. It magnificent studies of the heart. Here he made also revealed a peculiarity of Leonardo’s innovatory observations on the structure and technique, his use of a red lacquer underpaint functions of the heart valves and the passage of before the application of the light lapis-lazuli blood through them. Many of the drawings pigment on the Madonna’s robe. The faulty and displayed in this room are not only sophisticated uneven drying of this lacquer caused shifts in the explorations of anatomy but also masterworks of lapis layer, leading to the paint losses that graphic art. As a whole, the exhibition is of great prompted many disfiguring retouches. Cleaning interest from both the scientific and the visual has in particular greatly improved this area, which points of view. had hitherto been deepened to a muddy blue-grey by varnishing, de-varnishing and re-varnishing over later centuries. Also on display for the first An exhibition of La Sainte Anne: time are the three recently-discovered sketches on l’ultime chef-d’oeuvre de Léonard de the reverse of the panel, the head of a horse Vinci (perhaps to be associated with the Battle of Anghiari), a skull (not unlike the skull drawings of 1489 in Anatomical MS B), and a child with a On display at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, until 25 lamb, posed in reverse of the group in the June 2012, is an exhibition that centres around painting. Better seen in reflectograms, Leonardo da Vinci’s recently cleaned Madonna these drawings are very hard to read and to and Child with Saint Anne. Cleaning and interpret. conservation have been delicate and sensitive, The Madonna and Child with Saint Anne bringing out both the quality and beauty of the is displayed alongside the National Gallery’s painting, and refined details that have for ‘Burlington House’ cartoon, highlighting the issue centuries been scarcely visible under layers of of their relationship. The first sections of the yellowed varnish. The conservator was exhibition are largely devoted to the question of painstaking in the removal of varnish layers, the genesis of the painting’s design. which had to be gradually thinned to a uniform Controversially, it is argued that the National level throughout the painting, to preserve a degree Gallery cartoon is the first of three cartoons drawn of patina, and to ensure that the solvents did not by Leonardo in the process of preparing the make contact with the paint layers. The result composition, and that it dates to 1499-1500. This reveals the soft blue-greys of the distant work, it is argued, was left unfinished by landscape, picked up in the glowing, light lapis- Leonardo when he set to work on the cartoon lazuli blue of the Madonna’s robe; the caressing made in SS Annunziata, Florence, and seen in light falling on the Christ Child’s face April 1501 by Fra Pietro da Novellara, whose and right arm; the subtle tonal and colouristic letter to Isabella d’Este in which he describes it in differentiation between the highly expressive some detail is also on display. This now-lost

The Leonardo da Vinci Society Page 13 Registered Charity 1012878 cartoon showed the group in reverse, along a first in-depth study of a relationship that has descending diagonal from upper right to lower generated much art-historical discussion, between left, as is shown in the copy made around 1515 by Leonardo da Vinci and Isabella d’Este – the Brescianino brothers. Another cartoon, Marchioness of Mantua, famous collector and possibly the one used for the transfer of patron, and shrewd politician. Like Leonardo, in Leonardo’s design to the panel for painting (or his famous black chalk portrait of Isabella that perhaps an early, workshop copy) disappeared adorns the cover, Ames-Lewis carefully and during World War II; an old photograph is sympathetically delineates Isabella’s character, reproduced in the exhibition catalogue and several amply aided by selections from her huge early copies are displayed. Also on show is the surviving correspondence (28,000 letters to recently-discovered marginal note written by Isabella, and 12,000 copies of letters from her are Agostino Vespucci in a copy of Cicero, which housed in the Mantuan archives). implies that by October 1503 the head of Saint Given the wealth of textual sources, it is Anne was complete. It is proposed that on his perhaps frustrating for the modern audience, as return to Milan in 1506 Leonardo returned to Ames-Lewis points out, that this famous portrait work on the panel, and new drawings for the drawing is the only visual survival of Leonardo Madonna’s draperies were made at this time. and Isabella’s relationship. Leonardo did other Further drawings, for Saint Anne’s drapery, were drawings for the marchioness, of antique vases made after Leonardo moved to France in 1516, she was interested in buying; and she since they were drawn on paper with a French commissioned further work from him. She hoped watermark. As can plainly be seen, the painting he would give her a completed , was still unfinished at the time of Leonardo’s as well as an image of the young Christ, but these death in 1519. were either never finished or are lost. The portrait A number of the Louvre’s other paintings drawing then, is used as a kind of fulcrum around and drawings by Leonardo are displayed, such as which to discuss broader art-historical questions. the late Saint , which would We gain an insight in the first chapter into appreciate the care and attention of a conservator Isabella’s intellectual world, considering her such as the one who worked so sensitively on the studiolo and grotta, where she housed her famed Madonna and Child with Saint Anne. Also on collections of antiquities and contemporary exhibition is the Prado copy of the Mona Lisa painting and sculpture. The second chapter (regrettably not however shown next to the explores how Isabella’s “refined and experienced original) which is discussed by Claire Farago in eye” may have developed in her youth in Ferrara. her report, elsewhere in this Newsletter, on the Her use of paragone, or comparison, as a means conference on Leonardo’s technical practice at the of discussing artistic elegance, is highlighted. National Gallery in January. The exhibition Isabella has had a mixed press regarding her continues with several sections dealing with the relationship with artists – she has been portrayed legacy of Leonardo’s Madonna and Child with both as imperious and demanding in her Saint Anne, including works by Raphael, relationship with Perugino, and obsequious in her and many other sixteenth century letters to Leonardo and Giovanni Bellini. Through artists, both Italian and North European; and it a balanced analysis of the available concludes, perhaps unnecessarily, with works by documentation Isabella here comes across as a such twentieth-century painters as Odilon Redon sensitive and perspicacious viewer of Renaissance and Max Ernst. painting, who adapted her letters to suit her audience. The third chapter constitutes an overview of artistic culture in Mantua around A new publication: Isabella d’Este and 1500. Mantegna was the key figure, and his work Leonardo da Vinci, by Francis Ames- reflects the intense fascination with art all’antica Lewis that characterised the city. Mantegna’s major works – including the Hampton Court Triumphs of Caesar – are discussed, alongside Mantuan Dr Jill Burke writes: Francis Ames-Lewis’s small bronzes by Antico amongst others. The elegant and beautifully produced new book is the portrait drawing, in chapter 4, is discussed both in

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technical terms (it was pricked for transfer, and 103-120 Luisa Cogliati Arano, ‘Un’aggiunta ad several copies survive) as well as being placed in Ambrogio de’ Predis’ the tradition of female portraiture in this period. 121-136 Giovanni Battista Sannazzaro, ‘Per la The influence of Netherlandish art on the shift in Chiesa di San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore di Italy from the profile to the full-face portrait Milano: il piccolo affresco con paesaggio nel around the 1460s and 70s is convincingly shown. presbiterio di clausura’ The next chapter focuses on now lost 137-186 Mauro Pavesi, ‘Una proposta per il drawings that Leonardo made for Isabella of some Maestro di Ercole e Gerolamo Visconti’ antique hardstone vases she was interested in 187-222 Anna Sconza, ‘Tracce di trasmissione purchasing from the former Medici collection. indiretta del Libro di pittura di Leonardo in lettori This glimpse into the use of drawings as a means di ambito milanese’ of visual communication surely, as Ames-Lewis 223-286 Juliana Barone, ‘Cassiano dal Pozzo’s notes, indicates the importance of this medium for manuscript copy of the Trattato: new evidence of the spread of artistic knowledge and the workings editorial procedures and responses to Leonardo in of the art market. Like Leonardo’s images, most the Seventeenth Century’ of these drawings no longer survive, having 287-340 Francesco Saracino, ‘Passionis served their original use – and we are lucky to Mysteria, una visione di Marco d’Oggiono’ have documentary testimony of their existence, as 341-384 Pietro C. Marani, ‘Sotto la pelle di in this case. In chapter 6, the image gets dimmer Bramante e Bramantino: radiografie e still, as Isabella’s request to Leonardo for a riflettografie dei dipinti di Brera, Urbino e painting of a youthful Christ may never really Madrid. Confronti e deduzioni a seghuito di have got underway. However, there are several vecchie e nuove riprese’ paintings of this subject by followers of Leonardo 385-428 Maria Teresa Fiorio, ‘Sotto il colore: – so the influence of Isabella’s request may have leonardeschi all’infrarosso’ had ramifications beyond one artist and one 431-597 ed. Monica Taddei, ‘Bibliografia patron. internazionale leonardiana (BIL) 2009-2011’

Francis Ames-Lewis, Isabella and Leonardo. The Artistic Relationship between Isabella d’Este and The Lettura Vinciana LII, 21 April 2012 Leonardo da Vinci, 1500-1506, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2012. ISBN 978- The fifty-second Lettura Vinciana was delivered 0-300-12124-7. on 21 April 2012 by Juliana Barone, one of the Society’s committee members. Her title was ‘Leonardo nella Francia del XVII secolo: eredità Raccolta Vinciana XXXIV (2011) paradossali’ (‘Leonardo in 17th century France: paradoxical legacies’). How was Leonardo Volume XXXIV of Raccolta Vinciana has received in seventeenth-century France? It was in recently been published. It includes an article by France, in 1651, that his Treatise on Painting was Juliana Barone, a member of the Society’s published for the first time. The publication took committee, a comprehensive Leonardo the form of two editions: one in French by Roland bibliography for 2009-2011, and for the first time Fréart de Chambray and the other in Italian by two articles devoted to the results of laboratory Raphael Trichet du Fresne. Although questions analysis of leonardesque paintings. The contents remain about the precise relationship and sources are: of these two editions, both provided illustrations based on a set of drawings designed by Nicolas 1-52 Marino Vignano, ‘Gian Giacomo Trivulzio Poussin. This ‘visual’ Leonardo has shaped the e Leonardo. Appunti su una committenza (1482- reception of his teachings not only at the time, but 1518)’ also in the following centuries. Poussin’s 53-102 Edoardo Villata, ‘Intorno a Leonardo intervention in the visual form in which scultore: una proposta di metodo e un’ipotesi di Leonardo’s ideas were conveyed was deliberate applicazione’ and involved a careful process of selection and reconfiguration of the human figure, one which

The Leonardo da Vinci Society Page 15 Registered Charity 1012878 had radical implications for forging a new way in Gordon Square, London WC1H.0PD; e-mail: which Leonardo’s ideas were transmitted, notably [email protected] on human motion. However, does this new view Vice-President: Emeritus Professor Francis of Leonardo, mediated through Poussin’s eyes, Ames-Lewis, 52, Prebend Gardens, London W6 actually convey what was thought to be a 0XU; tel: 020.8748.1259; e-mail: f.ames- Leonardo in the seventeenth century? Which were [email protected] the paintings known at the time and believed to be Secretary and Treasurer: Tony Mann, School original ‘Leonardos’? Seemingly, none of his of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, paintings was the subject of the famous University of Greenwich, Old Royal Naval conférences in the French Academy. The visual College, Park Row, London SE10 9LS; exemplars in the Academy were provided by 020.8331.8709; e-mail: [email protected] Poussin and Raphael. Although the theoretical Leonardo offered in the Treatise did not pass Committee members: totally unchallenged, his text held a canonical status in the Academy. Moreover, it is the image Dr Monica Azzolini, Department of History, of the theoretical Leonardo which emerges as University of Edinburgh; e-mail: praiseworthy throughout contemporary French [email protected] biographies. Even his most admired painting in Dr Juliana Barone, School of History of Art, seventeenth-century France, the Last Supper, was Film and Visual Media, Birkbeck College, 43 overshadowed by a Poussin painting. The Gordon Square, London WC1H.0PD; e-mail: paradoxes between the visual and theoretical [email protected] legacies of Leonardo are not accidental. The Noël-Ann Bradshaw, School of Computing dichotomy that emerges helps us assess the and Mathematical Sciences, University of historical process of the construction of an Greenwich, Old Royal Naval College, Park Row, ‘authorised’ image, a process which had its London SE10 9LS; 020.8331.8484; e-mail: climax in seventeenth-century France and which, [email protected] nevertheless, is modern not only in its Dr Jill Burke, Department of History of Art, mechanisms but also in having filtered our own University of Edinburg; e-mail: [email protected] views of his teachings. Professor Frank A.J.L. James, Royal Institution Centre for the History of Science and Technology, Royal Institution of Great Britain, 21 The Leonardo da Vinci Society Albemarle Street, London W1X.4BS; e-mail: [email protected] The Secretary is very grateful for the comments Dr Matthew Landrus, Research Fellow in the and suggestions made by members and very much History of Art, Wolfson College, University of regrets that he has not had time to reply to them Oxford; e-mail: [email protected] individually. Please send items for publication to the editor of We would always be grateful for suggestions of the Leonardo da Vinci Society Newsletter, material, such as forthcoming conferences, Emeritus Professor Francis Ames-Lewis, 52, symposia and other events, exhibitions, Prebend Gardens, London W6 0XU; tel: publications and so on, that would be of interest to 020.8748.1259; e-mail: [email protected], members of the Society for inclusion in this or to Dr Matt Landrus, Research Fellow, Wolfson Newsletter or on the webpage, which can be College, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6UD; visited at the following address: tel: 07530 942043, and 001 401 374 4159; e-mail: < http://www.bbk.ac.uk/hosted/leonardo/ > [email protected], who will for the November 2012 issue share the editorship of this Officers: Newsletter.

President: Dr J.V. Field, School of History of Art, Film and Visual Media, Birkbeck College, 43

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