When Friar Pietro de Novellara was floundering in his mission to convince Leonardo to paint a portrait for Isabella e’Este, he wrote to her in April 1501 to explain the situation: “Since he has been in Florence, he has only made one sketch – a cartoon of a child Christ, about a year old, almost jumping out of his mother’s arms to seize hold of a lamb. The mother is in the act of rising from Saint Anne’s lap and holds back the child from the lamb, which is a symbol of the Passion
The cartoon that the friar described was a full-size preparatory drawing for what would become one of Leonardo’s greatest masterpieces, the ‘Verign and Child with Saint Anne’ (Fig. 79) featuring Mary siting on the lap of he mother. The final painting combines many elements of Leonardo’s artistic geniuses: a moment transformed into a narrative, physical motions that match mental emotions, brilliant depictions of the dance of light, delicate sfumato, and the landscape informed by geology and color perspective. It was proclaimed to be “Leonardo de Vinci’s ultimate masterpiece,” (l’ultime chef d’oeuvre) in the title of the catalogue published by the Louere for 2012 exhibition celebration its restoration – this from the museum that also own the ‘Mona Lisa’ ~ Page 315
2 comments
Dinesh said:
The cartoon that the friar described was a full-size preparatory drawing for what would become one of Leonardo’s greatest masterpieces, the ‘Verign and Child with Saint Anne’ (Fig. 79) featuring Mary siting on the lap of he mother. The final painting combines many elements of Leonardo’s artistic geniuses: a moment transformed into a narrative, physical motions that match mental emotions, brilliant depictions of the dance of light, delicate sfumato, and the landscape informed by geology and color perspective. It was proclaimed to be “Leonardo de Vinci’s ultimate masterpiece,” (l’ultime chef d’oeuvre) in the title of the catalogue published by the Louere for 2012 exhibition celebration its restoration – this from the museum that also own the ‘Mona Lisa’ ~ Page 315
J.Garcia said: