Giacobbe Giusti, Leonardo’s earliest known drawing, the Arno Valley (1473), Uffizi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci
Giacobbe Giusti, Leonardo’s earliest known drawing, the Arno Valley (1473), Uffizi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci
Giacobbe Giusti, LEONARDO: Head of a Woman
Giacobbe Giusti, Deutsche Welle and Economic Times: LEONARDO da VINCI exibition
Giacobbe Giusti, Deutsche Welle and Economic Times: LEONARDO da VINCI exibition
Giacobbe Giusti, Deutsche Welle and Economic Times: LEONARDO da VINCI exibition
Giacobbe Giusti, Deutsche Welle and Economic Times: LEONARDO da VINCI exibition
France’s president has invited his Italian counterpart to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death. Emmanuel Macron hopes the gesture will help end a diplomatic spat between the neighbors.
Giacobbe Giusti, Deutsche Welle and Economic Times: LEONARDO da VINCI exibition
French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a joint French-Italian celebration marking 500 years since the death of Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci.
Macron told Italian broadcaster RAI he will host Italian President Sergio Mattarella in the French town of Amboise, where da Vinci died, « in the spirit of reconciliation. »
Both countries have traditionally claimed the artist, who was born in 1452 in the Tuscan town of Vinci in modern Italy and spent most of his life there.
Competing claims
Macron’s gesture follows a spat between Paris and Rome over plans by Paris’s Louvre Museum to host a blockbuster exhibition showcasing nearly all of da Vinci’s paintings, including works on loan from Italian museums.
Italy’s populist government has accused the preceding administration of « handing over » da Vinci’s legacy to France when it signed a deal with Paris that allowed the Louvre to loan the artist’s paintings from Italian museums.
« It’s unfair, a mistaken deal, » Italian Culture Ministry Undersecretary Lucia Borgonzoni said, adding that Leonardo was an Italian who « only died » in France.
Not only artistic disputes
Relations between Paris and Rome have also been strained by clashes over other issues, including migration and European Union budget policy. Italian leaders angered Macron recently by voicing their support for France’s « yellow vest » protesters.
In February, Paris briefly recalled Ambassador Christian Masset in protest at « unfounded attacks and outlandish claims » by the Italian government.
Macron’s love of Italy
At the end of Macron’s RAI interview, he expressed deep love for his Italian neighbors.
« There are so many French people who love Italy and Italians who love France and the French. But suddenly, we almost forgot that we have to keep on learning to understand each other, » Macron said.
« I do not underestimate any of the difficulties of everyday life and the impatience, but I believe that between our countries, there is and always has been a lot of heart, that is to say, friendship, love. »
kw/amp (AP, AFP, dpa)
ROME: Italian curators have unveiled what they believe is the only surviving sculpture by Leonardo da Vinci at an exhibition in Florence, a media report said on Saturday.
It’s always been part of da Vinci’s legend that he made sculptures, including a giant horse, but not a single extant three-dimensional work by him has been identified, the Guardian report said.
The 50 cm-tall red clay sculpture called « The Virgin with the Laughing Child » is the miraculous exception, according ..
Giacobbe Giusti, LEONARDO da VINCI: Portrait of a Musician
Giacobbe Giusti, LEONARDO da VINCI: Portrait of a Musician
Artist | Leonardo da Vinci |
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Year | 1485 |
Type | Oil on wood panel |
Dimensions | 45 cm × 32 cm (18 in × 13 in) |
Location | Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan |
Portrait of a Musician is an oilon wood paintingby Leonardo da Vinci. It was probably painted in 1485.
The man in the painting was at one time thought to be Franchino Gaffurio, who was the maestro di cappella of the Milanese Cathedral. Although some believe it to be a portrait of Gaffurio, others think the man is anonymous. The piece of paper he holds is at least one part of a musical score; it has notes written on it. The painting was greatly restored and repainted, and Leonardo probably left the portrait unfinished but close to completion.
The man is positioned in a three-quarter position and he is holding a partition sheet. The musician stares at something outside the spectator’s field of vision. Compared to the detailed face of the musician, the red hat, his tunic and his hair seem to be painted by a completely other painter. Art historians have recognized the fine art of da Vinci in the young man’s face, though the partition sheet and his hand may have been added onto the original work.
Siegfried Woldhek, a Dutch illustrator, has claimed that Portrait of a Musician is one of three self-portraits by Leonardo. [1]
Giacobbe Giusti, Lorenzo de’ Medici
Giacobbe Giusti, Lorenzo de’ Medici
Giacobbe Giusti, Lorenzo de’ Medici
Giacobbe Giusti, Lorenzo de’ Medici
Giacobbe Giusti, Lorenzo de’ Medici
Giacobbe Giusti, Lorenzo de’ Medici
Giacobbe Giusti, Lorenzo de’ Medici
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Lord of Florence | |
Reign | 2 December 1469 – 8 April 1492 |
Predecessor | Piero the Gouty |
Successor | Piero the Unfortunate |
Full name
Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici
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Born | 1 January 1449 Florence, Republic of Florence |
Died | 8 April 1492 (aged 43) Careggi, Republic of Florence |
Noble family | Medici |
Spouse(s) | Clarice Orsini |
Issue
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Father | Piero the Gouty |
Mother | Lucrezia Tornabuoni |
Signature |
Lorenzo de’ Medici(Italian pronunciation: [loˈrɛntso de ˈmɛːditʃi], 1 January 1449 – 8 April 1492)[1] was an Italian statesman, de facto ruler of the Florentine Republicand the most powerful and enthusiastic patron of Renaissance culture in Italy.[2][3][4] Also known as Lorenzo the Magnificent(Lorenzo il Magnifico[loˈrɛntso il maɲˈɲiːfiko]) by contemporary Florentines, he was a magnate, diplomat, politician and patron of scholars, artists and poets. As a patron, he is best known for his sponsorship of artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo. He held the balance of power within the Italic League, an alliance of states that stabilized political conditions on the Italian peninsula for decades, and his life coincided with the mature phase of the Italian Renaissanceand the Golden Age of Florence.[5] The Peace of Lodi of 1454 that he helped maintain among the various Italian states collapsed with his death. He is buried in the Medici Chapel in Florence.
Lorenzo’s grandfather, Cosimo de’ Medici, was the first member of the Medici family to lead the Republic of Florence and run the Medici Banksimultaneously. As one of the wealthiest men in Europe, Cosimo spent a very large portion of his fortune on government and philanthropy, for example as a patron of the arts and financier of public works.[6]Lorenzo’s father, Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici, was equally at the centre of Florentine civic life, chiefly as an art patron and collector, while Lorenzo’s uncle, Giovanni di Cosimo de’ Medici, took care of the family’s business interests. Lorenzo’s mother, Lucrezia Tornabuoni, was a writer of sonnets and a friend to poets and philosophers of the Medici Academy.[7] She became her son’s advisor after the deaths of his father and uncle.[6]
Lorenzo, considered the most promising of the five children of Piero and Lucrezia, was tutored by a diplomat and bishop, Gentile de’ Becchi, and the humanist philosopher Marsilio Ficino,[8] and he was trained in Greek by John Argyropoulos.[9] With his brother Giuliano, he participated in jousting, hawking, hunting, and horse breeding for the Palio, a horse race in Siena. In 1469, aged 19, he won first prize in a jousting tournament sponsored by the Medici. The joust was the subject of a poem written by Luigi Pulci.[10] Niccolò Machiavelli also wrote of the occasion, perhaps sarcastically, that he won « not by way of favour, but by his own valour and skill in arms ».[11] He carried a banner painted by Verrocchio, and his horse was named Morello di Vento.[12][13]
Piero sent Lorenzo on many important diplomatic missions when he was still a youth, including trips to Rome to meet the pope and other important religious and political figures.[14]
Lorenzo was described as rather plain of appearance and of average height, having a broad frame and short legs, dark hair and eyes, a squashed nose, short-sighted eyes and a harsh voice. Giuliano, on the other hand, was regarded as handsome and a « golden boy », and was used as a model by Botticelli in his painting of Mars and Venus.[15]Even Lorenzo’s close friend Niccolo Valori described him as homely, saying, « nature had been a step mother to him in regards to his personal appearance, although she had acted as a loving mother in all things concocted with the mind. His complexion was dark, and although his face was not handsome it was so full of dignity as to compel respect. »[16]
Lorenzo, groomed for power, assumed a leading role in the state upon the death of his father in 1469, when he was twenty. Already drained by his grandfather’s building projects and constantly stressed by mismanagement, wars, and political expenses, the assets of the Medici Bank contracted seriously during the course of Lorenzo’s lifetime.[17]
Lorenzo, like his grandfather, father, and son, ruled Florence indirectly through surrogates in the city councils by means of threats, payoffs and strategic marriages.[18]He effectively reigned as a despot, and ordinary citizens had little political freedom.[19] Rival Florentine families inevitably harboured resentments over the Medicis’ dominance, and enemies of the Medici remained a factor in Florentine life long after Lorenzo’s passing.[18]The most notable of the rival families was the Pazzi, who nearly brought Lorenzo’s reign to an end.[20]
On Easter Sunday, 26 April 1478, in an incident known as the Pazzi conspiracy, a group headed by Girolamo Riario, Francesco de’ Pazzi, and Francesco Salviati (the archbishop of Pisa), attacked Lorenzo and his brother and co-ruler Giuliano in the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in an attempt to seize control of the Florentine government.[21]Shockingly, Salviati acted with the blessing of his patron Pope Sixtus IV. Giuliano was killed, brutally stabbed to death, but Lorenzo escaped with only a minor wound to the shoulder, having been defended by the poet Poliziano.[22] News of the conspiracy spread throughout Florence and was brutally put down by the populace through such measures as the lynching of the archbishop of Pisa and members of the Pazzi family who were involved in the conspiracy.[20]
In the aftermath of the Pazzi conspiracy and the punishment of supporters of Pope Sixtus IV, the Medici and Florence earned the wrath of the Holy See, which seized all the Medici assets that Sixtus could find, excommunicated Lorenzo and the entire government of Florence, and ultimately put the entire Florentine city-state under interdict.[23] When these moves had little effect, Sixtus formed a military alliance with King Ferdinand I of Naples, whose son, Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, led an invasion of the Florentine Republic, still ruled by Lorenzo.[24]
Lorenzo rallied the citizens. However, with little support from the traditional Medici allies in Bologna and Milan,[20] the war dragged on, and only diplomacy by Lorenzo, who personally traveled to Naples and became a prisoner of the king for several months, ultimately resolved the crisis. That success enabled Lorenzo to secure constitutional changes within the government of the Florentine Republic that further enhanced his own power.[18]
Thereafter, Lorenzo, like his grandfather Cosimo de’ Medici, pursued a policy of maintaining peace, balancing power between the northern Italian states and keeping major European states such as France and the Holy Roman Empire out of Italy. Lorenzo maintained good relations with Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire, as the Florentine maritime trade with the Ottomans was a major source of wealth for the Medici.[25]
Efforts to acquire revenue from the mining of alum in Tuscany unfortunately marred Lorenzo’s reputation. Alum had been discovered by local citizens of Volterra, who turned to Florence to get backing to exploit this important natural resource. A key commodity in the glass-making, tanning and textile industries, alum was available from only a few sources under the control of the Ottomans and monopolized by Genoa before the discovery of alum sources in Italy at Tolfa. First the Roman Curia in 1462, and then Lorenzo and the Medici Bank less than a year later, got involved in backing the mining operation, with the pope taking a two-ducat commission for each cantar quintal of alum retrieved and ensuring a monopoly against the Turkish-derived goods by prohibiting trade in alum with infidels.[26] When they realized the value of the alum mine, the people of Volterra wanted its revenues for their municipal funds rather than having it enter the pockets of their Florentine backers. Thus began an insurrection and secession from Florence, which involved putting to death several opposing citizens. Lorenzo sent mercenaries to suppress the revolt by force, and the mercenaries ultimately sacked the city. Lorenzo hurried to Volterra to make amends, but the incident would remain a dark stain on his record.[27][28]
Lorenzo’s court included artists such as Piero and Antonio del Pollaiuolo, Andrea del Verrocchio, Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Michelangelo Buonarroti, who were instrumental in achieving the 15th-century Renaissance. Although Lorenzo did not commission many works himself, he helped these artists to secure commissions from other patrons. Michelangelo lived with Lorenzo and his family for three years, dining at the family table and participating in discussions led by Marsilio Ficino.
Lorenzo himself was an artist and wrote poetry in his native Tuscan. In his poetry, he celebrates life while acknowledging with melancholy the fragility and instability of the human condition, particularly in his later works. Love, feasts and light dominate his verse.[29]
Cosimo had started the collection of books that became the Medici Library (also called the Laurentian Library), and Lorenzo expanded it. Lorenzo’s agents retrieved from the East large numbers of classical works, and he employed a large workshop to copy his books and disseminate their content across Europe. He supported the development of humanism through his circle of scholarly friends, including the philosophers Marsilio Ficino, Poliziano and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.[30] They studied Greek philosophers and attempted to merge the ideas of Plato with Christianity.
Apart from a personal interest, Lorenzo also used the Florentine milieuof fine arts for his diplomatic efforts. An example includes the commission of Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, Pietro Perugino and Cosimo Rosselli from Rome to paint murals in the Sistine Chapel, a move that has been interpreted as sealing the alliance between Lorenzo and Pope Sixtus IV.[30]
In 1471, Lorenzo calculated that his family had spent some 663,000 florins (about US$460 million today) on charity, buildings and taxes since 1434. He wrote,
« I do not regret this for though many would consider it better to have a part of that sum in their purse, I consider it to have been a great honour to our state, and I think the money was well-expended and I am well-pleased. »[31]
Lorenzo married Clarice Orsini by proxy on 7 February 1469. The marriage in person took place in Florence on 4 June 1469. She was a daughter of Giacomo Orsini, Lord of Monterotondo and Bracciano by his wife and cousin Maddalena Orsini. Clarice and Lorenzo had 10 children, all except Contessina Antonia born in Florence:
Lorenzo also adopted his nephew Giulio, the illegitimate son of his slain brother Giuliano. Giulio later became Pope Clement VII.
During Lorenzo’s tenure, several branches of the family bank collapsed because of bad loans, and in later years he got into financial difficulties and resorted to misappropriating trust and state funds.
Toward the end of Lorenzo’s life, Florence came under the spell of Savonarola, who believed Christians had strayed too far into Greco-Roman culture. Lorenzo played a role in bringing Savonarola to Florence.[34]
Lorenzo died during the late night of 8 April, at the longtime family villa of Careggi. Savonarola visited Lorenzo on his death bed. The rumour that Savonarola damned Lorenzo on his deathbed has been refuted in Roberto Ridolfi‘s book, Vita di Girolamo Savonarola. Letters written by witnesses to Lorenzo’s death report that he died peacefully after listening to the Gospel of the day. Many signs and portents were claimed to have taken place at the moment of his death, including the dome of Florence Cathedral being struck by lightning, ghosts appearing, and the lions kept at Via Leone fighting one another.[35]
The Signoria and councils of Florence issued a decree:
« Whereas the foremost man of all this city, the lately deceased Lorenzo de’ Medici, did, during his whole life, neglect no opportunity of protecting, increasing, adorning and raising this city, but was always ready with counsel, authority and painstaking, in thought and deed; shrank from neither trouble nor danger for the good of the state and its freedom….. it has seemed good to the Senate and people of Florence…. to establish a public testimonial of gratitude to the memory of such a man, in order that virtue might not be unhonoured among Florentines, and that, in days to come, other citizens may be incited to serve the commonwealth with might and wisdom. »[36]
Lorenzo was buried with his brother Giuliano in the Church of San Lorenzo in the red porphyry sarcophagus designed for Piero and Giovanni de’ Medici, not, as might be expected, in the New Sacristy, designed by Michelangelo. The latter holds the two monumental tombs of Lorenzo and Giuliano’s less known namesakes: Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, and Giuliano, Duke of Nemours.[37] According to Williamson and others, the statues of the lesser Lorenzo and Giuliano were carved by Michelangelo to incorporate the essence of the famous men. In 1559, the bodies of Lorenzo de’ Medici (« the Magnificent ») and his brother Giuliano were interred in the New Sacristy in an unmarked tomb beneath Michelangelo’s statue of the Madonna.[37]
Lorenzo’s heir was his eldest son, Piero di Lorenzo de’ Medici, known as « Piero the Unfortunate ». In 1494, he squandered his father’s patrimony and brought down the Medici dynasty in Florence. His second son, Giovanni, who became Pope Leo X, retook the city in 1512 with the aid of a Spanish army.[38] In 1529, Lorenzo’s nephew Giulio – whom Lorenzo had raised as his own son and then reigned as Pope Clement VII – formalized Medici rule of Florence by installing Alessandro de’ Medici as the city’s first hereditary duke.[39]
Giacobbe Giusti, GIAMPIETRINO: Magdalena Penitente, Hermitage
Giacobbe Giusti, RUBENS: The Battle of Anghiari (painting)
Peter Paul Rubens‘s copy of The Battle of Anghiari. Purportedly, from left to right are Francesco Piccinino; Niccolò Piccinino; Ludovico Trevisan; Giovanni Antonio Del Balzo Orsini.
Giacobbe Giusti, LEONARDO da VINC: The Battle of Anghiari (painting)
Copia detta Tavola Doria
Giacobbe Giusti, LEONARDO da VINCI The Battle of Anghiari (painting)
Study of battles on Horseback and foot by Leonardo
Giacobbe Giusti, LEONARDO da VINCI: The Battle of Anghiari (painting)
Group of riders in the Battle of Anghiari by Leonardo
Giacobbe Giusti, LEONARDO da VINCI: The Battle of Anghiari (painting)
Study of battles on Horseback and foot by Leonardo {apparent sketch for Battle of The Standard at top right}
Giacobbe Giusti, LEONARDO da VINCI: The Battle of Anghiari (painting)
Study of a Warrior’s Head for the Battle of Anghiari. Red chalk on very pale pink prepared paper, 22.6 × 18.6 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
The Battle of Anghiari (1505) is a lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci, at times referred to as « The Lost Leonardo », which some commentators believe to be still hidden beneath one of the later frescoes in the Salone dei Cinquecento (Hall of the Five Hundred) in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. Its central scene depicted four men riding raging war horses engaged in a battle for possession of a standard, at the Battle of Anghiari in 1440.
Many preparatory studies by Leonardo still exist. The composition of the central section is best known through a drawing by Peter Paul Rubens in the Louvre, Paris. This work, dating from 1603 and known as The Battle of the Standard, was based on an engraving of 1553 by Lorenzo Zacchia, which was taken from the painting itself or possibly derived from a cartoon by Leonardo. Rubens succeeded in portraying the fury, the intense emotions and the sense of power that were presumably present in the original painting. Similarities have been noted between this Battle of Anghiari and the Hippopotamus Hunt painted by Rubens in 1616.
In March 2012, it was announced that a team led by Maurizio Seracini has found evidence that the painting still exists on a hidden inner wall behind a cavity, underneath a section of Vasari‘s fresco in the chamber.[1] The search was discontinued in September 2012, without any further progress having been made, due to conflict among the involved parties.[2]
Giacobbe Giusti, LEONARDO da VINCI: The Battle of Anghiari (painting)
In 1504 Leonardo da Vinci was given the commission by gonfaloniere Piero Soderini, a contract signed by Niccolò Machiavelli, to decorate the Hall of Five Hundred. At the same time his rival Michelangelo, who had just finished his David, was designated the opposite wall. This was the only time that Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo worked together on the same project. The painting of Michelangelo depicted an episode from the Battle of Cascina, when a group of bathing soldiers was surprised by the enemy. However Michelangelo did not stay in Florence long enough to complete the project. He was able to finish his cartoon, but only began the painting. He was invited back to Rome in 1505 by the newly appointed Pope Julius II and was commissioned to build the Pope’s tomb.
Leonardo da Vinci drew his large cartoon in the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, on the east wall, depicting a scene from the life of Niccolò Piccinino, a condottiere in the service of duke Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan. He drew a scene of a violent clash of horses and a furious battle of men fighting for the flag in the Battle of Anghiari. Giorgio Vasari in his book Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects praised the magisterial way in which Leonardo had put this scene on paper:
It would be impossible to express the inventiveness of Leonardo’s design for the soldiers’ uniforms, which he sketched in all their variety, or the crests of the helmets and other ornaments, not to mention the incredible skill he demonstrated in the shape and features of the horses, which Leonardo, better than any other master, created with their boldness, muscles and graceful beauty.
Leonardo built an ingenious scaffold in the Hall of Five Hundred that could be raised or folded in the manner of an accordion. This painting was to be his largest and most substantial work. Since he had a bad experience with fresco painting (The Last Supper; refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan), he wanted to apply oil colours on the wall. He began also to experiment with such a thick undercoat (possibly mingled with wax), that after he applied the colours, the paint began to drip. Trying to dry the painting in a hurry and save whatever he could, he hung large charcoal braziers close to the painting. Only the lower part could be saved in an intact state, the upper part couldn’t dry fast enough and the colours intermingled. Leonardo then abandoned the project.[citation needed]
Michelangelo’s and Leonardo’s unfinished paintings adorned the same room together for almost a decade (1505–1512). The cartoon of Michelangelo’s painting was cut in pieces by Bartolommeo Bandinelli out of jealousy in 1512. The centerpiece of The Battle of Anghiari was greatly admired and numerous copies were made for decades.[citation needed]
During the mid-16th century (1555–1572), the hall was enlarged and restructured by Vasari and his helpers, on the instructions of Grand Duke Cosimo I; in order that the Duke could hold court in this important chamber of the palace. In the course of the renovations, the remnants of famous (but unfinished) artworks from the previous plan of decoration for the hall, were lost; including The Battle of Cascina by Michelangelo and The Battle of Anghiari by Leonardo da Vinci.
Vasari himself painted new frescoes on the now-extended walls. On the walls are large and expansive frescoes that depict battles and military victories by Florence over Pisa and Siena :
Maurizio Seracini, an Italian expert in high-technology art analysis, believes that Leonardo’s Anghiari is hidden behind one of the mural Battle of Marciano in Val di Chiana(1563) painted by Vasari. In the upper part of Vasari’s fresco, 12 meters above the ground, a Florentine soldier waves a green flag with the words « Cerca trova » (« He who seeks, finds »). These enigmatic words are suggested to be a hint from Vasari, who had praised The Battle of Anghiari highly in his writings, incomplete and damaged as it was.
Seracini believes it is unlikely that Vasari would have willingly destroyed da Vinci’s work. Vasari’s concealment and preservation of another painting, Masaccio‘s Holy Trinity, during a subsequent renovation project also assigned to him by Cosimo I, is cited as precedent.
Using non-invasive techniques, such as a high-frequency, surface-penetrating radar and a thermographic camera, Seracini made a survey of the hall. Among other findings, he discovered that Vasari had built a curtain wall in front of the original east wall, and painted his fresco on the new wall. Seracini believes the original fresco of Leonardo da Vinci to be located on the older wall, beneath it. Sensors found a gap of 1 to 3 centimeters between the two walls, large enough for the older fresco to be preserved.
In early 2007, the city council of Florence and the Italian Minister of Culture gave the green light for further investigation. After unsuccessful attempts to fund the development of a more advanced non-invasive scanning system, in December 2011 Seracini and his associates drilled small holes through areas of the Vasari fresco believed to have been previously damaged and restored, hence no longer comprising « original paint » from Vasari’s work. An endoscopic probe with a camera was extended into the cavity behind the curtain wall, and the team discovered fragments of pigment and indications of fresco surfacing on the plaster of the inner wall; samples were taken at the time, with the results being announced publicly on 12 March 2012. Seracini believes that this is conclusive evidence for the continued existence of da Vinci’s fresco. Seracini’s research is highly controversial with strong criticism being levelled against him for drilling the holes.[3] In March 2012 researchers said « the material found behind the Vasari wall shows a chemical composition similar to black pigment found in brown glazes on Leonardo’s Mona Lisa and St. John the Baptist, identified in a recently published scientific paper by the Louvre, which analyzed all the da Vinci paintings in its collection. »[4]
In September 2012, it was reported that research efforts to investigate the cavity behind Vasari’s fresco have been discontinued, due to the conflicting views of interested parties, as to whether and how to proceed.[2]
Continuing the heated debate among Italian art scholars and historians, in December 2012 the scholars Alfonso Musci and Alessandro Savorelli, both opponents of Seracini’s hypothesis, published an article in the journal of the Italian Institute of Renaissance Studies at Palazzo Strozzi, disputing his interpretation of the motto on the green flag in Vasari’s mural. In the article they attempted to investigate the writing “CERCA TROVA” in the context of the real events that occurred during the Battle of Scannagallo (1554) and made known through the works of Bernardo Segni , Antonio Ramirez de Montalvo , Domenico Moreni .
These works contain detailed descriptions of anti-Medicean heraldic insignia present in Marciano della Chiana, including eight green flags embroidered with the verse of Dante: « Libertà va cercando, ch’è sì cara , ch’è sì cara come sa chi per lei vita rifiuta » (Purgatorio , vv. 70–72 ) and the ancient coat of arms « Libertas » in golden. These banners had been delivered by Henry II of France to the troops of the Florentine exiles, armed by the Republican banker Bindo Altoviti and led by Piero Strozzi and Giambattista Altoviti. After the defeat of the Republicans and of the French troops, these green flags would have become spoils of the winners, and handed over to Grand Duke Cosimo I. They would have been publicly displayed in the central nave of the Basilica of San Lorenzo.
Following the theme of luck and damnation of the oldest Florentine ‘stemma’ (Libertas) in the cycle of paintings conceived by the Grand Duke Cosimo I and Vincenzo Borghini in the Salone dei Cinquecento , Musci and Savorelli suggest that the motto « CERCA TROVA » was an allusion to the verse of Dante and to the unfortunate fate of the Republicans (« searching freedom and finding death »), and thereby dispute Seracini’s interpretation of the green flag as a hint left by Vasari, of the location and fate of da Vinci’s painting.
However, the article does not address questions about the discovery of pigment and evidence of paintwork found in the cavity behind Vasari’s mural.
Anghiari by Leonardo da Vinci |
Giacobbe Giusti, RAPHAEL: Madonna of the Goldfinch (Madonna del cardellino)
Italian: Madonna del cardellino
Giacobbe Giusti, RAPHAEL: Madonna of the Goldfinch (Madonna del cardellino)
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Giacobbe Giusti, RAPHAEL: Madonna of the Goldfinch (Madonna del cardellino)
Il dipinto prima del restauro. Oltre all’ingiallimento sono evidenti i segni delle antiche fratture
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Artist | Raphael |
Year | 1505–1506 |
Medium | Oil on wood |
Dimensions | 107 cm × 77 cm (42 in × 30 in) |
Location | Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
The Madonna del cardellino or Madonna of the Goldfinch is a painting by the Italianrenaissance artist Raphael, from c. 1505-1506. A 10-year restoration process was completed in 2008, after which the painting was returned to its home at the Uffizi in Florence.[1]During the restoration, an antique copy replaced the painting in the gallery.
Raphael is considered to be a “master” of the High Renaissance, a title he shares with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. He was born in 1483 and died in 1520, living a mere thirty-seven years. Despite his relatively short lifespan, he was highly influential throughout his time on earth. He produced a vast quantity of work in a variety of media. He was active in architecture, printmaking, painting, and drawing. During the first half of his career, he spent years traveling across Northern Italy and was influenced by the Florentine styles he saw there, causing this stage to be called his Florentine Period. After which, in 1508, he moved to Rome where he continued to work. Many of his commissions came from the Vatican, including the Apostolic Palace, which brought about one of his most famous works, School of Athens.[2] Due to his relationship with the church, he and Michelangelo were fierce rivals throughout both of their careers, and often competed for the same commissions. During his Florentine period, this work, The Madonna Del Cardellino, was painted along with several other well-known Madonnas: The Madonna of the Meadow and La Belle Jardinière. All three share several characteristics: Madonna is clothed in red and blue, the same three subjects are painted, the pyramidal composition, the natural background, and the connection to the church through the representation of books, crosses, or, indeed, the goldfinch.
In this painting, as in most of the Madonnas of his Florentine period, Raphael arranged the three figures – Mary, Christ and the young John the Baptist – to fit into a geometrical design. Though the positions of the three bodies are natural, together they form an almost regular triangle. The Madonna is shown young and beautiful, as with Raphael’s various other Madonnas.[3] She is also clothed in red and blue, also typical, for red signifies the passion of Christ and blue was used to signify the church. Christ and John are still very young, only babies. John holds a goldfinch in his hand, and Christ is reaching out to touch it. The background is one typical of Raphael.[3]The natural setting is diverse and yet all calmly frames the central subject taking place.
The Madonna was a wedding gift from Raphael to his friend Lorenzo Nasi. On November 17, 1548 Nasi’s house was destroyed by an earthquake and the painting broke into seventeen pieces. It was immediately taken to be salvaged, and was hastily put back together, though the seams were quite visible. In 2002, George Bonsanti of the Precious Stones organization gave the task of restoration to Patrizia Riitano. During the six-year process that followed, her team worked to remove the years of grime that had degraded the painting’s color, and to fix the damage done by the earthquake long ago. Before beginning the project, they studied the work as closely as possible, utilizing resources such as X-rays, CAT scans, reflective infra-red photography, and even lasers. Riitano closely studied the past quick fix layers that had been applied and removed them until the original by Raphael finally shone through. The restoration was completed in 2008, and the painting was put on display in Uffizi.[4]
In Madonna Del Cardellino, the goldfinch represents Christ’s crucifixion. The reason for its association comes from the legend that its red spot was born at the time of the crucifixion. It flew down over the head of Christ and was taking a thorn from His crown, when it was splashed with the drop of His blood. The book in Mary’s hand reads Sedes Sapientiae or The Throne of Wisdom. This term usually is applied to images in which Mary is seated upon a throne, with Jesus on her lap, but in this case, the inscription implies the rock on which Mary sits is her natural throne.
In some versions of Vasari another similar painting is described as the Vallombrosa version but it has never been identified.
Raphael, Madonna of the Goldfinch, Smarthistory[5] |
Giacobbe Giusti, Léonard de Vinci: Tête de jeune femme, Turin
Giacobbe Giusti, Léonard de Vinci: Tête de jeune femme, Turin
Giacobbe Giusti, Léonard de Vinci: Tête de jeune femme, Turin
Giacobbe Giusti, Léonard de Vinci: Tête de jeune femme, Turin
Giacobbe Giusti, Léonard de Vinci: Tête de jeune femme, Turin
La Dame à l’hermine, portrait de Cecilia Gallerani (Léonard de Vinci, entre 1488 et 1490, Cracovie, Musée national).
Giacobbe Giusti, Léonard de Vinci: Tête de jeune femme, Turin
La Vierge, l’Enfant Jésus avec sainte Anne et saint Jean-Baptiste, vers 1500, Londres, National Gallery.
Giacobbe Giusti, Léonard de Vinci: Tête de jeune femme, Turin
La Joconde, entre 1503 et 1506 ou entre 1513 et 1516, Paris, musée du Louvre.
Giacobbe Giusti, Léonard de Vinci: Tête de jeune femme, Turin
Saint Jean-Baptiste, entre 1513 et 1516, Paris, musée du Louvre.
Giacobbe Giusti, Léonard de Vinci: Tête de jeune femme, Turin
Artiste | |
---|---|
Date | |
Type | |
Dimensions (H × L) |
18,1 × 15,9 centimètres
|
Localisation | |
Numéro d’inventaire |
15572 DC; Dis. It. 1/19
|
La Tête de jeune femme est un dessin réalisé à la pointe d’argent sur papier par le peintre italienLéonard de Vinci et conservé à la bibliothèque royale de Turin.
Ce dessin de moyenne dimension est un portraiten buste d’une jeune femme anonyme. Il est établi qu’il constitue l’étude préparatoire à la tête de l’ange Uriel présent sur la version de La Vierge aux rochers, conservé au musée du Louvre, dont le commanditaire est la Confrérie de l’Immaculée Conception. Donc vraisemblablement réalisé entre 1483 et 1485, il appartient probablement aux trois dernières études conservées se rapportant à ce tableau.
Cette étude marque une étape importante de la vie artistique du peintre puisqu’elle constitue à la fois une synthèse de son apprentissage chez Verrocchio et la mise en place de ses codifications futures concernant le portrait. C’est ainsi qu’on en retrouve l’influence dans nombre de compositions futures du peintre lui-même mais aussi, indirectement, chez Titien, Raphaël ou Vermeer.
Reconnue pour ses qualités techniques, esthétiques et psychologiques, l’œuvre fait l’objet d’un intérêt soutenu, allant jusqu’à l’admiration, de la part des historiens de l’art qui le tiennent pour l’« un des plus beaux dessins du monde ».
Le dessin de la Tête de jeune femme a pour support une feuille de papier préparée avec de l’ocre clair ; celle-ci est rectangulaire et de dimensions 18,1 × 15,9 cm. Il est réalisé à la pointe d’argent et comporte de légères touches de blanc de céruse1,2. Au dos de la feuille se trouve un petit croquis de la même main qui pourrait constituer l’ornement pour la couverture d’un projet d’ouvrage2,3.
Il présente le portrait d’une jeune femme en busteP 1. Seuls les traits de son visage sont clairement tracés, celui-ci présentant une expression faite à la fois d’intensité et de grâceN 1,P 1. Le haut de son buste et sa chevelure sont seulement esquissés : ses cheveux semblent couverts d’un chapeau et sa poitrine, son épaule gauche et l’arrière de son bras droit se laissent deviner par quelques lignes succinctement tracées2,P 3. Les épaules tournées vers la gauche du cadre, la jeune femme est montrée de trois quarts dos : sa tête effectue une rotation vers la gauche, ce qui découvre son visage de trois quarts face. Son regard est légèrement incliné vers le bas2 et elle amorce un début de sourire5.
L’artiste utilise la technique de la hachure pour marquer les ombres et modeler les volumes. Seul le visage, notamment la mâchoire et la joue, comporte les hachures les plus précisément tracées et est porteur de blanc de céruse. De la même manière que leurs contours ne sont qu’esquissés, les autres parties du corps portent des hachures plus rapidement marquéesN 2,3.
L’attribution du dessin à Léonard de Vinci fait l’objet d’un large consensus parmi la communauté scientifique depuis le xixe siècle, et plus particulièrement à partir de sa première attribution par Giovanni Rosini en 1843 dans son ouvrage Storia della pittura italiana esposta coi monumentiP 4 puis de l’établissement de son lien avec La Vierge aux rochers par l’historien de l’artallemand Jean-Paul Richter en 18837,P 5. Cette attribution s’affermit sans guère de résistance au siècle suivant grâce, notamment, aux expertises de deux des plus éminents spécialistes de l’œuvre du peintre florentin, Bernard Berenson et Carlo PedrettiP 6.
La première indication de l’aspect autographe du dessin tient au caractère tout à fait léonardesque du visage, avec « [l’]accentuation des globes oculaires, entre l’ovale et le triangle renversé, [le] long nez, [les] lèvres charnues et légèrement souriantes, [le] menton arrondi et proéminent », typiques des visages féminins du peintreN 2. Par ailleurs, l’artiste use d’un sfumato qui lui est caractéristiqueN 2,N 3. De plus, les pérégrinations de l’œuvre, bien qu’elles soient documentées de façon lacunaire, tendent à remonter à LéonardP 4. Enfin, l’identification du dessin comme étude préparatoire du visage de l’ange dans la version de La Vierge aux rochers conservée au musée du Louvre constitue un indicateur décisif7,N 4.
Même si la date de création du dessin varie selon les auteurs entre le début ou la fin de la décennie 1480, il est établi qu’il est postérieur à l’installation de Léonard de Vinci à Milan en 1482. Celui-ci a environ trente ans. Il est alors un artiste reconnu : il reçoit d’importantes commandes, établit son atelier10 et bénéficie de l’appui de Laurent le Magnifique11. Sachant que quelques années plus tôt, en 1478, il quitte l’atelier florentin de Verrocchio dont il est l’élève depuis 146912. L’historien de l’art et biographe Giorgio Vasarinote que le maître s’emble s’arrêter de peindre, considérant que son élève le surpasse dans le domaineN 5. Créé à l’issue de cette période florentine et au début de sa première période milanaise, le dessin de la Tête de jeune femmeconstitue ainsi la synthèse de l’ensemble des expériences techniques et stylistiques issues de la formation du peintre chez Verrocchio2,P 8.
La quasi totalité des chercheurs contemporains voient dans le dessin une étude préparatoire à la tête de l’ange dans La Vierge aux rochers. Ils situent donc sa création à « environ 1483 », date de signature du contrat de commande entre Léonard et la Confrérie de l’Immaculée Conception14,15,16,N 6. Certains comme Carlo Pedretti estiment cette création « entre 1483 et 1485 », soit selon une limite finale d’un an avant la date d’achèvement présumée du tableauP 9. Une théorie ancienne et désormais rarement soutenue avance que le dessin constitue une étude pour le portrait de Cecilia Gallerani dans La Dame à l’hermine peint entre 1489 et 1490. Ceci date donc le dessin de ces mêmes années18,16. Mais cette hypothèse demeure largement minoritaire parmi les membres de la communauté scientifique qui considèrent que La Dame à l’hermine est plutôt un réemploi par Léonard de ses procédés développés des années plus tôt, notamment dans le dessin de la Tête de jeune femme19.
L’œuvre semble avoir subi les mêmes pérégrinations que l’Autoportrait de Léonard : à la mort de ce dernier, le 2 mai 1519, son élève Francesco Melzi en hérite, au même titre que la quasi-totalité de ses manuscrits et dessins20. À la mort de Melzi en 1570, l’ensemble est dispersé par son fils Orazio21. En 1707, le collectionneur de dessins et moine Sebastiano Resta indique avoir en sa possession ce qui semble être le dessin de la Tête de jeune femmeN 7. Dans la seconde moitié du xviiie siècle, le graveur, antiquaire et collectionneur Giovanni Volpato(1735 – 1803) redécouvre puis réunit un ensemble de treize dessins de Léonard, dont fait partie la Tête de jeune femme1. En 1839, Charles-Albert de Sardaigne se porte acquéreur de la collection de Volpato en vue d’enrichir sa bibliothèque royale23. Depuis, le dessin est conservé à la bibliothèque royale de Turin sous le numéro d’inventaire 15572 D.C.; Dis. It. 1/191.
Les études subsistantes de la création de la version de La Vierge aux rochers.
Réalisé entre 1483 et 1485, le dessin est considéré comme une étude préparatoire à la tête de l’archange Uriel présent sur la version du tableau La Vierge aux rochers conservée au musée du Louvre à Paris et réalisée entre 1483 et 14861,19,16,P 10. Seules trois études pour l’œuvre peinte nous sont parvenues : outre la Tête de jeune femme, une étude pour la tête de Jean Baptiste bébé est conservée au département des arts graphiques du musée du Louvre24,P 10 et une autre présumée de Léonard pour la main droite de l’ange (celle qui désigne le petit Jean Baptiste) est conservée au château de Windsordans la Royal Library25,26,27,28.
Comparaison de l’étude et de sa réalisation au sein du tableau.
Si ce lien est fait entre le dessin et le tableau depuis 1883 et les travaux de l’historien de l’art allemand Jean-Paul Richter7, il demeure ténu et sujet à débats. Léonard de Vinci réutilise en effet volontiers ses trouvailles techniques et esthétiques d’un dessin sur l’autre ; ce que confirme Frank Zöllner, pour qui, chez le peintre, « des études de figures individuelles […] sont infiniment plus difficiles à rapprocher d’une peinture particulière que les dessins à plusieurs figures, qui souvent représentent des actions complètes19 ». Permettant de dépasser cette difficulté, les points de correspondance entre dessin et peinture sont néanmoins suffisamment nombreux et précis pour asseoir la conviction : même pose « par-dessus l’épaule »P 11, visages quasiment identiques19 — ce sont en particulier son sourire et la rotation de sa tête qui servent de modèle au peintre5 — et mêmes regards dirigés vers le spectateur29.
Les chercheurs considèrent que les deux œuvres — dessin et portrait peint — forment l’exemple de la « coloration florentine dans la finesse des traits du visage, le mouvement de la tête et dans la longue chevelure bouclée » telle que Léonard l’a apprise auprès de Verrocchio et telle que l’attendent les commanditaires de La Vierge aux rochers30,P 12. De fait, le tableau constitue une mise en œuvre fidèle de l’étude malgré les tâtonnements du peintre dans les autres parties de l’œuvre29. En outre, cette fidélité trahit un choix précoce de contrevenir dans la forme et dans l’esprit aux demandes des commanditaires de l’œuvreN 8. La décision de Léonard d’abandonner le regard direct de son étude dans la version plus tardive de Londres (datée entre 1507 et 1508) est à ce titre éloquente3.
Néanmoins, Léonard de Vinci introduit entre le dessin et le tableau des différences de détails qui apportent une dimension nouvelle à l’œuvre finale. Ainsi, si le visage sur le dessin est identifié par tous les observateurs avec celui d’une femme, celui du tableau devient clairement androgyne32. Constitutive de l’œuvre du peintre, cette ambiguïté est identifiée par de nombreux observateurs comme le reflet de sa propre sexualité, et notamment d’une homosexualité cachée33. D’autre part, l’historienne et théoricienne des arts Frédérique Villemurconstate que l’androgynie est « porteuse d’une virtualité figurative et que son efficacité tient chez Léonard de Vinci à la puissance de l’indistinct, à une fusion des genres jusque dans le neutre34 »N 9. Autre élément du devenir du dessin dans l’œuvre peinte, le regard du personnage qui est également un point commun fascinant : si l’intensité de ce regard vers le spectateur invite efficacement ce dernier à pénétrer dans l’œuvre, son « expression [devient] quelque peu cruelle »dans le tableau, ce qui induit un double mouvement d’attirance-répulsion absent auparavantP 3.
L’historien de l’art spécialiste de l’œuvre de Léonard de Vinci Carlo Pedrettirecommande, pour analyser le dessin, de le considérer dans le cadre technique et temporel d’une étude pour l’ange de La Vierge aux rochersP 5.
La Tête de jeune femme est volontiers décrit comme une synthèse de l’apprentissage de Léonard de Vinci chez Verrocchio ainsi que de ses expérimentations techniques et artistiques16,P 13. Ainsi, en premier lieu, il présente une capacité du peintre à tourner autour de son modèle, tel un sculpteur. En cela, l’œuvre évoque un autre dessin, l’étude de dix-huit positions du buste d’une femme daté de la même période (1478-1480) et présentant le buste et la tête d’un même modèle sous une grande variété de points de vueP 12. Par ailleurs, le dessin atteste de l’aptitude du jeune Léonard à saisir le mouvement ; celui-ci est induit par la posture dynamique de son modèle, dite « par-dessus l’épaule », dans laquelle le spectateur voit le personnage de trois quarts dos et, à la suite d’une rotation, son visage de trois quarts faceP 7. Ces éléments confirment un apprentissage chez un maître, Verrocchio, certes connu pour son travail de peintre mais célébré surtout pour son talent de sculpteur2,16.
Cette capacité à saisir le mouvement explique ainsi la confusion passée de certains observateurs entre le dessin et le portrait de Cecilia Gallerani dit La Dame à l’hermine (portrait daté entre 1488 et 1490) dont il aurait constitué une étude : ce tableau présente en effet une jeune femme en buste qui adopte une pose similaire au modèle de la Tête de jeune femmeN 10. Or il n’est qu’une variation du dessin puisqu’il ne fait que résulter d’un changement de point de vue du peintre autour d’un modèle ayant conservé une pose identique. Mais les chercheurs s’accordent désormais pour voir plutôt dans ce portrait une réutilisation de solutions techniques mises au point notamment avec la Tête d’une jeune femme19,P 7.
La Tête de jeune femme convoque tout un jeu sur les ombres et la lumière sur lequel il s’interroge et qui fait l’objet de questionnements de la part des artistes d’alors. Ainsi, l’œuvre est le lieu où s’appliquent les préceptes qu’énonce le théoricien des arts Leon Battista Alberti dans son De pictura(1435) concernant la transition « insensible » que doit exposer le peintre entre zone éclairée et zone ombragée16 :
« Mais de telle figure qui aura ses superficies attachées de façon que de douces lumières s’y convertissent insensiblement en ombres suaves, qui n’aura aucune aspérité anguleuse, nous dirons avec raison qu’elle est belle et pleine de charme36. »
De même, la Tête d’une jeune femme applique les préceptes que Léonard définit lui-même dans son Traité de la peinture concernant l’opposition forte de luminosité qu’il convient de donner entre les zones du visage16,N 11 :
« La force des ombres et des lumières contribue beaucoup à la grâce des visages des personnes qui sont assises aux portes des maisons obscures, parce que celui qui les regarde voit que le côté du visage qui est ombré se trouve encore obscurci de l’ombre du lieu, et l’autre côté du même visage qui est éclairé du jour reçoit aussi la clarté qui vient de la lumière de l’air, par lequel accroissement d’ombre et de lumière le visage prend un grand relief, et vers le côté du jour les ombres y sont presque insensibles, tellement que par cette représentation et accroissement d’ombre et de lumière le visage acquiert une grâce et une beauté particulière37. »
Afin de restituer les effets de demi-teintes, Léonard de Vinci utilise la technique de la hachure, un ensemble de lignes parallèles dont l’espacement varie en fonction de la tonalité désirée : il est considéré avec Domenico Ghirlandaio comme un des artistes maîtrisant le mieux le procédé3. Néanmoins, la technique ne permet pas de rendre parfaitement toutes les nuances que le dessin porte — question qui ne se pose évidemment pas sur la figure du tableau achevé dont les dégradés de tons sont obtenus par glacis. Bien qu’il la résolve en partie par l’ajout de blanc de céruse, la solution n’est que partielle. Or, même à l’époque de la conception de la version de Londres de La Vierge aux rochers(1507 – 1508), il ne parvient pas à trouver de solution pleinement satisfaisante38.
Le sourire comme élément d’ambiguïté psychologique
dans les œuvres de Léonard de Vinci.
Le dessin Tête de jeune femme s’impose comme une œuvre à part entière malgré son caractère d’étude préparatoire à un tableau. En effet, au moyen d’une parfaite connaissance des faits physiques et d’une grande maîtrise technique, Léonard de Vinci offre au spectateur « un être plein de grâce et de vie N 1 » et compose ainsi une œuvre poétique16.
Or une grande part de cette expérience poétique tient à la capacité du peintre à faire émerger la vérité psychologique de son sujet où se mêlent grâce, maliceN 1 et « noblesse »P 13. Les chercheurs ajoutent à cette description un élément de complexité : la douceur du visage est rendue ambigüe par la présence d’un sourire qui deviendra par la suite propre aux portraits du peintreN 12.
Pour nombre d’observateurs, le dessin de la Tête d’une jeune femme constitue une transition dans l’œuvre du peintre, entre un style et une technique issues d’une expérience passée dans l’atelier d’un peintre renommé, Verrocchio, et l’établissement d’une codification16. L’œuvre inaugure donc un point de départ pour le peintre en ce qu’il est possible d’en retrouver les codifications dans des œuvres plus tardives comme dans le tableau de La Madone aux fuseaux (dont il ne subsiste que des copies, dont une, conservée à New York, est datée vers 1501)P 12. C’est ce qui conduit ainsi les historiens de l’art Frank Zöllner et Johannes Nathan à qualifier le dessin de « prototype »19.
Le dessin présente une vue « par-dessus l’épaule » c’est-à-dire une pose obtenue par la « torsion du buste observée depuis l’arrière et accompagnée d’un mouvement de la tête tournée vers le spectateur »P 7. Cette pose est caractéristique du lien fait par Léonard entre son apprentissage chez Verrocchio et les créations qu’il peut en tirer : c’est parce que Verrocchio lui enseigne la représentation du mouvement et du corps selon différents points de vue qu’il peut concevoir cette vue1,2,19. Léonard propose ainsi dès 1475 les prémisses d’un tel procédé dans le Baptême du Christ, un tableau de Verrocchio (dont il est encore élève) sur lequel il conçoit et peint la pose de l’ange le plus à gauche : le personnage est figuré selon une vue de dos et une rotation de la tête ; cette rotation demeure néanmoins partielle car la tête est encore orientée vers le centre de la scène40,41. Dans le dessin de la Tête de jeune femme, la rotation est complète et la vue « par-dessus l’épaule » est désormais techniquement installée. Cette création dans le dessin donne lieu à des expérimentations que Léonard conduit dans le reste de sa carrière, et notamment lors de sa première période milanaise. C’est ainsi qu’on peut la retrouver dans un autre dessin plus tardif et intitulé Tête du Christ portant sa Croix (1495-1497, Venise, Gallerie dell’Accademia)16.
Le succès de l’œuvre tient en premier lieu à la beauté intrinsèque du modèle représenté, avant toute considération technique, qu’elle concerne la composition de l’œuvre ou la technique purement graphique par exempleP 14. De fait, Léonard de Vinci établit avec ce dessin un canon d’une beauté féminine idéalisée même s’il est fait ici d’après nature19.
Le portrait se construit donc selon un agencement des parties du visage tout à fait codifié : « un front presque aussi haut que le sommet de la têteP 13 », de longs cheveux ondulés, hérités des représentations de Verrocchio30, de grands yeux « emplis de maliceN 1 », « [un] long nez, [des] lèvres charnues et légèrement souriantes, [un] menton arrondi et proéminentN 2 ».
C’est pourquoi il n’est guère étonnant de retrouver ces caractéristiques des années plus tard dans des œuvres comme La dame à l’hermine (1489-1490) : la rencontre entre Léonard de Vinci et Cecilia Gallerani constitue de fait la rencontre entre un artiste, un type de visage dont il a construit les caractéristiques et un modèle qui rassemble ces dernières et auquel le peintre ne peut donc qu’être sensible19.
Exemples d’études plus tardives de têtes féminines.
L’œuvre constitue une source d’influence certaine pour Léonard de Vinci lui-même qui n’a de cesse que de s’en inspirer dans nombre de ses portraits futurs19. S’il n’est pas avéré que les prédécesseurs de Léonard aient vu le dessin, il est établi que les découvertes qu’il a induites les ont influencés : ainsi, la vue dite « par-dessus l’épaule » est volontiers reprise par Giorgione et, à sa suite, par Titien comme dans son Portrait d’homme (vers 1512)P 12 puis, certainement parRaphaël comme dans son Portrait de Bindo Altoviti (vers 1515). Puis il est possible de poursuivre ce cheminement par Johannes Vermeer qui l’emprunte à ces deux derniers dans son tableau La Jeune Fille à la perle (vers 1665)42,43.
Une filiation technique de la Tête de jeune femme de Léonard
jusqu’à La jeune fille à la perle de Vermeer
Le dessin fait l’objet de l’admiration de la part de spécialistes de Léonard de Vinci, à tel point que l’historien de l’art Carlo Pedretti s’en émeut et reproche à nombre d’entre-eux de finir par ignorer toute méthodologie scientifique pour ne se consacrer qu’à une étude située à un niveau esthétiqueP 9. Cette réflexion est ainsi l’occasion pour lui d’affirmer que c’est au contraire l’observation scientifique qui permet d’analyser et de comprendre la beauté d’une œuvreP 13.
Dès le xixe siècle, les chercheurs expriment leur admiration. Ainsi, l’historien de l’art français Eugène Müntz dans son ouvrage consacré au peintre considère cette étude « plus belle que la partie correspondante du tableau du Louvre29 ». De son côté, Adolfo Venturi affirme dans son ouvrage Leonardo e la sua scuola paru en 1942 que « la tête, modelée en traits rapides et vibrants, tient son caractère ensorcelant de la pâle phosphorescence des yeux, de la lueur perlée qui, dans la pénombre de leur orbite, irradie de leurs iris44. » En 1952, Giulia Brunetti le juge, dans le catalogue de l’exposition consacrée à Michel-Ange et organisée dans la Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, « comme l’une des créations les plus réussies de Leonard45 ».
De façon significative, en 1952, à l’occasion des cinq cents ans de la naissance du peintre, l’historien de l’art américain, spécialiste de la Renaissance italienne, Bernard Berenson, est réputé avoir affirmé lors d’une conférence que la Tête de jeune femme est « le plus beau dessin du monde »1,15,46,2. Mais Carlo Pedretti y voit une attribution erronée par un journaliste trop enthousiasteP 9. Bernard Berenson affirme néanmoins que la Tête de jeune femme est « un des fruits les plus remarquables de l’art du dessinN 13 ».
Au final, la Tête de jeune femme est le plus célèbre des dessins de Léonard possédés par la bibliothèque royale de Turin — conjointement avec son Autoportrait — à tel point que le musée en a fait son logo officiel2.
La Tête de jeune Femme fait partie des collections permanentes de la bibliothèque où elle est exposée aux côtés de l’ Autoportrait de Léonard de Vinci. Dans la bibliothèque même est organisée, entre le et le , l’exposition intitulée Léonard et le trésor du roi (en italien : Leonardo e i tesori del re) 47,48. À cette occasion, un catalogue paraît, Leonardo e i tesori del re, sous la direction d’Angela Griseri49.
C’est à partir du milieu du xxe siècle que l’œuvre fait aussi l’objet d’expositions en-dehors de Turin. Parmi les plus récentes, l’exposition intitulée Léonard de Vinci : dessins de la bibliothèque royale de Turin (en anglais : Leonardo da Vinci : drawings from the Biblioteca Reale in Turin) est l’occasion de la présenter parmi un groupe de onze dessins et le Codex sur le vol des oiseauxdans plusieurs villes aux États-Unis : elle s’ouvre le au Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery en Alabama, passe par le musée d’Art du Nevada à Reno, puis se termine à San Francisco, au Legion of Honor, où elle demeure du au 50,51. Elle fait ensuite partie de l’exposition itinérante intitulée Léonard de Vinci et l’idée de la beauté(en italien : Leonardo da Vinci : E L’idea Della Bellezza) qui se déroule de mars à au musée du Bunkamura à Tokyo52 puis au Musée des beaux-arts de Boston aux États-Unis du au . À cette occasion, un catalogue est édité sous la direction de l’historien d’art spécialiste de la Renaissance italienne John T. Spike53,54. Entre-temps, l’œuvre est présentée du au à New Yorkdans le Morgan Library and Museum lors d’une exposition intitulée Léonard de Vinci : les trésors de la bibliothèque royale de Turin (en anglais : Leonardo da Vinci : Treasures from the Biblioteca Reale, Turin)55.
Bien que convaincus du caractère autographe de l’œuvre, certains chercheurs invitent toutefois à la prudence car le dessin peut ne pas être entièrement de la main du maître : entamé par Léonard, il peut être achevé par un de ses élèves sous sa supervision, à l’exemple du dessin Tête et buste de jeune femme (ca. 1485-1490, Windsor, Royal Collection, RCIN 912512)9,P 7.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%AAte_de_jeune_femme_(L%C3%A9onard_de_Vinci,_Turin)
Giacobbe Giusti, LEONARDO da VINCI, Uffizi Gallery
Annunciation is a painting by the Italian Renaissanceartists Leonardo da Vinci and Andrea del Verrocchio, dating from circa 1472–1475.[1] It is housed in the Uffizigallery of Florence, Italy.
The subject matter is drawn from Luke1.26-39 and depicts the angel Gabriel, sent by God to announce to a virgin, Mary, that she would miraculously conceive and give birth to a son, to be named Jesus, and to be called « the Son of God » whose reign would never end. The subject was very popular for artworks and had been depicted many times in the art of Florence, including several examples by the Early Renaissance painter Fra Angelico. The details of its commission and its early history remain obscure.[2]
In 1867, following Gustav Waagen methods, Baron Liphart identified this Annunciation, newly arrived in the Uffizi Gallery from a convent near Florence, as by the young Leonardo, still working in the studio of his master Verrocchio.[3] The painting has since been attributed to different artists, including Leonardo and Verrocchio’s contemporary Domenico Ghirlandaio. It was more recently determined to be a collaboration between Leonardo and his master Verrocchio, with whom Leonardo collaborated on the Baptism of Jesus.[citation needed]
Giacobbe Giusti, LEONARDO da VINCI, Uffizi Gallery
The Adoration of the Magi is an early painting by Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo was given the commission by the Augustinian monks of San Donato a Scopeto in Florence, but he departed for Milan the following year, leaving the painting unfinished. It has been in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence since 1670.
Giacobbe Giusti, ANDREA del VERROCCHIO and LEONARDO da VINCI, Uffizi Gallery
The Baptism of Christ is a painting finished around 1475 in the studio of the ItalianRenaissance painter Andrea del Verrocchio and generally ascribed to him and his pupil Leonardo da Vinci. Some art historians discern the hands of other members of Verrocchio’s workshop in the painting as well.
The picture depicts the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist as recorded in the Biblical Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. The angel to the left is recorded as having been painted by the youthful Leonardo, a fact which has excited so much special comment and mythology, that the importance and value of the picture as a whole and within the œuvre of Verrocchio is often overlooked. Modern critics also attribute much of the landscape in the background and the figure of Christ to Leonardo da Vinci as well.[1] The painting is housed in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baptism_of_Christ_(Verrocchio)