by Dukgyu | Jun 3, 2022 | Leonardo da Vinci Paintings
Leonardo da Vinci Adoration of the Magi
The Adoration of the Magi (click for large image)
Title: The Adoration of the Magi
Year: 1481
Size: 246 x 243 cm
Medium: Oil on wood
Location: Uffizi, Florence, Italy
The Virgin Mary and Child are represented in the foreground of the Adoration of the Magi painting, forming a triangular configuration with the Magi kneeling in adoration. A semicircle of additional figures surrounds them, including what appears to be a self-portrait of the young Leonardo (on the far right).
The ruin of a pagan edifice can be seen in the backdrop on the left, where builders are reportedly repairing it. On the right, there are soldiers fighting on horseback and a depiction of a rocky environment.
What was the Adoration of the Magi?
A multitude of men and women with uncertain identities surround Mary and the young Jesus, as does the Tree of Life, which is depicted at the back. The painting’s overall theme is the three wise men worshipping the infant Jesus.
As an allusion to the decline of paganism and the arrival of Christianity, the rocky landscape is painted with the background depicting the ruins of King David’s palace and combating knights on horseback.
In the manner the people are shown in the painting, da Vinci’s method in this painting turned out to be a mark in the growth of art. The scene features dynamic movement from the individuals and acts surrounding Mary and the child Jesus, who are clearly depicted as the focal point.
Another technique depicted in the artwork is a painting technique known as chiaroscuro, in which the contrast of light and dark tones increases as a figure is painted closer to the ground.
Why is the Adoration of the Magi important?
Da Vinci Adoration of the Magi is an incomplete early painting by Leonardo da Vinci, an Italian Renaissance artist. The Augustinian monks of San Donato in Scopeto in Florence gave Leonardo the commission in 1481, but he left for Milan the following year, leaving the work unfinished. It has been housed in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery since 1670.
The Adoration of the Magi is one of Leonardo da Vinci’s most unusual and fruitful creations. He converted a mundane biblical subject into a scenario from human history by merging figures of imploring old men and armed cavalry. Simultaneously, he pushed the non-finito technique to its limit.
On the five boards that make up this panel, the figures and building components are sharply drawn and filled out in earth hues, anticipating the style of sketch work that will characterize contemporary painting. This image is notable for its intense concentration and force.
The ruins could be a reference to the Basilica of Maxentius, which the Romans swore would stand until a virgin gave birth, according to Medieval mythology. It is said to have collapsed on the night of Jesus’ birth (in fact it was not even built until a later date).
Leonardo’s preparatory perspective drawing, which also features the warring horsemen, is dominated by the ruins. The palm tree in the center is associated with the Virgin Mary, in part because the Song of Solomon phrase “You are stately as a palm tree” is said to foreshadow her.
Restoration of the Adoration of the Magi
The Adoration of the Magi painting was dispatched to a repair team at the Opificio Delle Pietre Dure, an Italian cultural ministry research and conservation center, in 2011. After a six-year renovation, the masterpiece emerged cleaner and brighter in 2017. The Adoration of the Magi is a fantastic work that continues to uncover numerous secrets as intriguing as the “Da Vinci Code.”
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by Dukgyu | Jun 3, 2022 | Leonardo da Vinci Paintings
Leonardo da Vinci Saint John the Baptist
Saint John the Baptist (click for large image)
Title: Saint John the Baptist
Year: c. 1513-1516
Size: 69 x 57 cm
Medium: Oil on wood
Location: Louvre Museum, Paris, France
The Saint John the Baptist is an oil painting on walnut wood, it is housed in the Louvre in Paris. Between 1513 and 1516, it was most likely completed. The piece uses chiaroscuro to represent the figure of John the Baptist in isolation, with the figure appearing to emerge from the murky background.
The saint is clad in furs, has long curly hair, and smiles enigmatically, similar to Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Mona Lisa. He holds a reed cross in his left hand, while his right-hand gestures up toward heaven, as in Leonardo’s Burlington House Cartoon’s Saint Anne.
History of the Saint John the Baptist
Leonardo da Vinci commanded the canvas and the brush in this painting as if they were made just for him. One renowned artwork done later in his life is St. John the Baptist. This is due in part to the fact that he completed this painting during his final years on Earth, between 1513 and 1519. Kenneth Clark argued that Saint John represented “the perpetual question mark, the enigma of creation” for Leonardo, and he underlined the painting’s “uneasiness.”
Describing Saint John coming from the darkness in almost startlingly near relation to the spectator, Leonardo emphasizes the very ambiguity between spirit and flesh. Leonardo’s figure’s grace, despite its shockingly sensual charge, has a spiritual connotation to which Saint John refers when he speaks of God’s fullness of grace.
The painting of Saint John the Baptist was added to King Francis I’s collection at Fontainebleau, after da Vinci’s death. In 1625, King Charles I of England swapped “John the Baptist” Louis XIII inviting the French monarch the “Holy family” and Titian’s “Portrait Of Erasmus Of Rotterdam Holbein.
In 1649, a Charles collection was auctioned, and Leonardo ended up in the hands of a German banker named Eberhard Abacha. In 1661, “John the Baptist” returned to France, this time under the tutelage of the country’s ruler, Louis XIV. Following the revolution, the picture was moved to the Louvre, where it remains to this day.
Why is John the Baptist important?
St. John’s gesture toward the skies suggests the significance of salvation through baptism, which John the Baptist portrays. Later painters, particularly those of the late Renaissance and Mannerism schools, frequently reference the work. Incorporating a gesture akin to John’s would emphasize the significance of work with a religious pretension.
Leonardo Da Vinci attempted to represent the spirit of St. John the Baptist as described in the Gospel books of the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, in his painting. The saint is represented as a man of the jungle or a man of the desert. He is supposed to have eaten locusts and drank wild honey.
He donned camel skin and preached the Gospel to anybody who would listen, paving the way for the Messiah.
Leonardo da Vinci possessed only three of his graphic works when he died in 1519. And the artist was unable to complete all three works – “Madonna with Child and St. Anna,” “La Gioconda,” and “Saint John The Baptist.” Leonardo continued to work on them, adding detail and perfecting a smoky sfumato look with new and new thin layers of paint.
Most critics believe the painting “Saint John the Baptist,” considered da Vinci’s final work, to be the peak of the artist’s skill in this method.
Was John the Baptist Jesus cousin?
In the Gospel of Luke, John is a relative of Jesus whose birth was predicted by Gabriel. John the Baptist himself saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove in the Gospel of John and explicitly proclaimed that Jesus was the Son of God.
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by Dukgyu | Jun 3, 2022 | Leonardo da Vinci Paintings
Leonardo da Vinci Ginevra de’ Benci
Ginevra de’ Benci (click for large image)
Title: Portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci
Year: c. 1474-1478
Size: 38.1 x 37 cm
Medium: Oil on panel
Location: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
The Ginevra de’ Benci is a portrait of the 15th-century Florentine aristocrat Ginevra de’ Benci (born around 1458) by Leonardo da Vinci. Ginevra de’ Benci, age 16, or 17, is a babysitter, who is dressed in a brown with blue laces and gold trim, as well as a black scarf. She wears a delicate white shirt with a golden pin beneath the outfit. Her skin is flawless, and her hair is done in ringlets.
Her look is a little irritated on the one hand and proud on the other. Her eyes make this clear. Her left eye is focused on the spectator, but her right eye appears to be staring down at something. Ginevra’s facial expression has been viewed by experts as an indicator that she is unhappy with the (upcoming) marriage. Take note of Ginevra’s sparse brows. Shaving the brows was typical for women at the time, as shown in Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
A juniper bush grows behind Ginevra. The halo of spikes from juniper leaves contrasts wonderfully with Ginevra’s depiction. Mountains, trees, water, a tiny village, and a hazy sky are typical of Leonardo da Vinci’s style in the right background. It is the only Leonardo painting on public display in the Americas, and it is on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
History of Ginevra de’ Benci
In the leonardo da vinci Ginevra de’ Benci painting, Ginevra de Benci, a well-known young Florentine woman, is largely regarded as a sitter. Leonardo created the picture in Florence between 1474 and 1478, presumably to commemorate Ginevra’s 16th-year marriage to Luigi di Bernardo Niccolini. It is more than likely a commemoration of the engagement.
Contemporary portraits of females were typically commissioned for one of two reasons: betrothal or marriage. Wedding pictures were customarily done in pairs, with the woman on the right facing left and the man on the left; because this portrait faced right, it most likely signifies betrothal.
The juniper bush that surrounds Ginevra’s head and fills much of the background has a purpose other than decoration. The juniper was considered a symbol of female virtue in Renaissance Italy, and the Italian term for juniper, Ginepra, is also a play on Ginevra’s name.
The laurel and palm on the back of the artwork represent Ginepra’s intelligence and moral standards, respectively. However, the laurel and palm were also Bernardo Bembo’s personal insignia, as he was considered to be having a platonic affair with Ginevra. Bernardo Bembo was the Venetian ambassador to Florence, and he most likely commissioned the rear of this painting (as well as the front, according to others, but this is not verified).
Ginevra de’ Benci worth
Unlike Leonardo’s previous female portraits, this lady appears sulky, unforgiving, and arrogant, which is highlighted by the slightly smaller cast of one eye, which makes her appear withdrawn. Her left eye appears to be looking directly at us, while her right appears to be looking beyond some intangible point.
Ginevra, like other Florentine ladies of the time, has shaved her brows (this is also obvious in the Mona Lisa). Perhaps her expression shows that she was not fully enthusiastic about her impending marriage.
Later in life, she would go into self-imposed exile in order to recover from a terrible illness; she was also plagued by an ill-fated love affair.
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by Dukgyu | Jun 3, 2022 | Leonardo da Vinci Paintings
Leonardo da Vinci Portrait of a Musician
Potrait of a Musician (click for large image)
Title: Portrait of a Musician
Year: c. 1483-1487
Size: 44.7 x 32 cm
Medium: Oil on panel
Location: Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan, Italy
The Portrait of a Musician depicts a young man with wavy shoulder-length hair, wearing a red cap, and concentrating intently on something outside. His look is heightened by clever lighting that draws emphasis to his face, particularly his huge glassy eyes. He’s dressed in a tight white undershirt. His black doublet is unfinished, and his brownish-orange stole is barely partially painted.
The colors have faded, most likely as a result of modest repainting and inadequate care. The doublet was most likely originally dark red, and the stole was bright yellow, according to a technical inspection of the piece.
The man’s mouth suggests a smile or that he is about to or has just finished singing, the impression of the light beyond the frame of his eyes is a distinguishing aspect of his face. The light dilates the pupils of both eyes, but the proper right pupil dilates significantly more than the left, which is not conceivable. Some claim that this is purely for dramatic effect so that the audience perceives movement from the musician’s left to right side of his face.
Leonardo da Vinci Portrait of a Musician was created in oils and perhaps tempera on a small walnut wood panel measuring 44.7 x 32 cm. It represents a young man in a three-quarter view with a bust-length right hand. The painting is mostly incomplete, except for the face and hair, but it’s in decent shape overall, with only the bottom right corner damaged. According to art historian Kenneth Clark, the Musician is arguably the best conserved of Leonardo’s extant paintings, despite color diminishing over time.
History of the Portrait of a Musician
The Portrait of a Musician is a painting from the same era as Lady with an Ermine. If Leonardo did paint it, Portrait of a Musician would be his only portrait of a man, according to some. There is no documentation for this painting, and there is no record of anyone ever commissioning it. Despite being widely regarded as his least important work, fate has decreed that it be the best preserved.
Unfortunately, the identity of the sitter is still unknown today. The sheet of paper was not visible prior to restoration in the early twentieth century, and it was supposed it was a portrait of Ludovico Sforza himself. Initially, the main candidate was Sforza’s court musician, Franchinus Gaffurius (1451 to 1522). Because both men worked at Duke’s court and thus knew one other, this became a very believable theory.
Many people feel that the subject’s face is strained because he is in the middle of a performance. The painting has also been seen as a reflection of Leonardo’s self-induced idea of painting’s superiority over other creative forms like poetry and music. Leonardo famously claimed at the start of his unfinished Libro de pittura
Original painting of the Portrait of a Musician
Although the attribution of Leonardo’s Portrait of a Musician painting to him was contentious in prior centuries, current art historians consider it to be one of his original works. For virtually as long as the painting has been known, there have been doubts about its attribution to Leonardo. It was identified by Leonardo in a 1672 catalog for the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, while a 1686 inventory of the collection assigned it to Bernardino Luini. This was shortly removed and replaced with or rather by Leonardo.
When it comes down to it, all we can say for certain about Portrait Of A Musician is what we see in front of our eyes: how, well Leonardo obviously understood the bone structure under the flesh, how free the pose is, the exquisitely wavy hair and graceful fingers that are so common in Leonardo’s work.
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by Dukgyu | Jun 2, 2022 | Leonardo da Vinci Paintings
Leonardo da Vinci Annunciation
The Annunciation (click for large image)
Title: Annunciation
Year: c. 1472-1476
Size: 98 x 217 cm
Medium: Oil and tempera on panel
Location: Uffizi, Florence, Italy
The Annunciation by Leonardo Da Vinci was painted with oil and tempera on a poplar panel. The subject content of Leonardo da Vinci the Annunciation is taken from Luke 1.26 to 39. It depicts the angel Gabriel declaring to Mary that she will miraculously conceive and give birth to a boy named Jesus and referred to as “the Son of God,” whose dominion would never end.
The annunciation was a popular topic for contemporaneous paintings in Christian countries such as Italy, and it had been shown numerous times in Florentine art, including many samples by the Early Renaissance painter Fra Angelico. Details about the painting’s commission and early history are unknown.
The marble table in front of Mary is most likely based on the tomb of Piero and Giovanni De’ Medici in Florence’s Basilica of San Lorenzo, which Verrocchio sculpted around the same time period. The angel is holding a Madonna flower, which represents Mary’s virginity as well as the city of Florence.
It is assumed that Leonardo, a skilled observer of nature, painted the angel’s wings to resemble those of a bird in flight, but the wings were later substantially stretched by another artist.
Why is the Annunciation important?
The Annunciation picture, dated c. 1472-1476, is usually attributed to the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. It is Leonardo’s earliest existing major work, completed in Florence while he was an apprentice in Andrea del Verrocchio’s studio.
The Annunciation (Leonardo da Vinci), a popular biblical subject in 15th-century Florence, was painted in oil and tempera on a huge poplar panel. It has been housed in the Uffizi in Florence. Though the piece has been critiqued for compositional faults, it is one of the most well-known depictions of the Annunciation in Christian art.
In his left hand, the angel carries a Madonna lily. Mary is distinguished by her predominantly blue outfit. The enclosed garden in which Gabriel kneels represents Mary’s virginity. The marble desk or sarcophagus in the center was inspired by Verrocchio’s carving of Piero and Giovanni De’ Medici’s tomb.
Since the fourth century, artists have been depicting the ‘Annunciation.’ It was a common motif in Florentine art. It depicts the moment when the Archangel Gabriel informs the Virgin Mary that she would bear the Son of God.
How old was Leonardo da Vinci when he painted the Annunciation?
Leonardo’s Annunciation painting is one of his foremost works, most likely completed while the artist was still an apprentice at Verrocchio’s workshop. The brightness of the countryside, which softly slopes to the backdrop, blurs the outlines of the mountains and the city visible among the trees.
Painting is a mental act for Leonardo, a method to understand reality and nature. Leonardo’s Annunciation artwork, painted when the artist was probably in his early twenties, shows his fascination with nature and curiosity about global occurrences that Renaissance man was attempting to understand.
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by Dukgyu | Jun 1, 2022 | Leonardo da Vinci Paintings
Leonardo da Vinci Madonna Litta
Madonna Litta (click for large image)
Title: Madonna Litta
Year: c. 1490
Size: 42 x 33 cm
Medium: Tempera on canvas
Location: Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
The Madonna Litta by Leonardo da Vinci has its figures positioned in a dark room with two arched arches, similar to his earlier Madonna of the Carnation, and a mountainous scene in aerial view can be seen beyond. Christ holds a goldfinch in his left hand as a symbol of his impending Passion.
The Virgin Mary is breastfeeding Baby Jesus. While breastfeeding, Mary appears respectable. She is looking at Jesus with her eyelashes dropped. She is dressed in a brilliant red gown with an orange-copper border and a light blue mantle. She covers her head with a transparent veil, which extends under her robe to her right and left hands.
Baby Jesus has curly hair and appears to be a healthy, fat infant. He resembles, albeit slightly younger, Baby Jesus in Leonardo da Vinci’s Virgin of the Rocks in the National Gallery. Jesus enthusiastically takes his mother’s breast while glancing around to ensure he is not missing anything in his surroundings. He clutches Mary’s breast in his right hand and a goldfinch in his left.
Interestingly, Mary and Jesus do not have a halo around their heads, which is unusual for Leonardo but not uncommon in his work. In the background, two symmetrical arched windows show a mountain panorama and a blue sky with clouds.
History of the Madonna Litta
The Madonna Litta painting could be one of the Madonna and Child paintings recorded in Leonardo’s studio prior to or during his first Milanese period 1481 to 1483. Leonardo stated on a drawing in the Uffizi that he had begun “two Virgin Maries” in late 1478, and an inventory of his workshop written in 1482 (part of the Codex Atlanticus) cites two paintings of “Our Lady” once more.
According to several readings, the second of them is either “nearly finished, in profile” or “finished, almost in profile.” The Virgin’s head in the Madonna Litta might be described in either way, hence it has been suggested that the painting was started during Leonardo’s first Florentine era and then abandoned until it was completed by a pupil in Milan.
However, scientific investigation of the picture has revealed that it was created by only one person. Scholars disagree on the piece’s attribution, with some claiming it is the work of a Leonardo disciple such as Marco d’Oggiono or Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio; however, the Hermitage Museum believes it is an autograph work by Leonardo. The picture was named after the House of Litta, a Milanese noble family that owned it for much of the nineteenth century.
Madonna Litta meaning
The Virgin Mary breastfeeding Baby Jesus exemplifies motherhood and maternal love. Mary’s blue mantle represents the Church, while her scarlet garment represents Christ’s passion. The goldfinch represents Jesus’ future crucifixion. The mountain backdrop in the background shows God’s majesty in creating the world.
The plain countryside, Mary’s fairly boring attire, the shadows in this painting, and the absence of details in her face (compare this to Leonardo’s drawing in the Louvre above) are the primary reasons why people wonder if this painting is totally made by Leonardo. Some believe that these elements are not of the standard we’d expect from Leonardo.
Experts agree, however, that the design of the picture, particularly the difficult posture of Mary and Baby Jesus, could be by Leonardo. So it is not unlikely that Leonardo began this painting but that it was completed by an assistant, possibly Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio.
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