Leonardo da Vinci turns 555
Haşim Nur Gürel
“Since we know that painting embraces the surfaces, colours and shapes of every
single thing created by nature or resulting from the fortuitous actions of men -
in short, all that the eye can see- he who can only do a single thing well seems
to me but a poor master.”
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452, in the town of Vinci, not far from
Florence.
Leonardo Davinci Mona Lisa Portrait of Lisa del GiocondoBeing an
illegitimate child, Leonardo could not benefit from the educational
opportunities that were granted to aristocrats, and was therefore not exposed to
classical Greek manuscripts in his early years of education. Thus, with his
sharp mind and endless curiosity, Leonardo began to re-discover his environment
with his own observations, and with the method of “tabula rasa”(1) he found the
chance to develop his own point of view on every matter…
Leonardo’s ease and talent in drawing attracted attention from his early years
on and at the same time the perfection of his figures proved that he was a
unique talent. According to historian Vasari, Leonardo’s father Piero showed the
drawings to his close friend, artist Andrea del Verrocchio.
Verrocchio was
fascinated by the drawings of the young Leonardo and so at the age of 17
Leonardo began an apprenticeship in the workshop of Verrocchio. As a general
evaluation of the drawings Leonardo made from his early years on until the last
years of his life, one can say that with his observations on environment,
objects and living things he was in fact exploring the mysteries of life. Some
of the drawings and notes in his sketchbooks show that he was the first person
to make autopsies with a systematic and scientific approach. He observed the
functioning of the “machinery” of humans and of all living creatures, especially
birds, as well as the changes that are caused in these organisms by ageing. And
so, 500 years ago, he found some cause and effect relations which are still
valid today.
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For example he came to the conclusion that rich and heavy food cause
atherosclerosis as one gets older. Sigmund Freud emphasizes the fact that
Leonardo never lost his childish and curious vision by saying, “Indeed the great
Leonardo remained like a child for the whole of his life in more than one way;
it is said that all great men are bound to retain some infantile part. Even as
an adult he continued to play, and this was another reason why he often appeared
uncanny and incomprehensible to his contemporaries.”
The artist has also often used the power of his observation talent on the
people around him; his piercing gaze would penetrate through the masks people
use to hide behind. This researching, relentless, curious and passionate
perception has also left behind an unforgettable “gallery of types” showing
various human types of Renaissance Italy.
A major part of these human drawings are sketches of figures necessary for
the creation of portrait and composition orders. Another part of the drawings
are of citizens of Renaissance Italy, who with their striking and extraordinary
physical features attracted da Vinci’s attention and so had the privilege of
entering his sketchbooks. These were people from Florence, Rome, Milan, people
from the artist’s social environment, employers, their wives, sketches of
portraits of members of the church, and various human portraits of beautiful,
ugly, old, young, females and males.
The Renaissance period in which Leonardo lived was a time of continuous
agitation, conflict, wars and riots. When searching for sponsors, Leonardo has
therefore emphasized his engineering skills –his expertise in war machinery and
methods– in his letters of application. It is no surprise that the male figures
in Leonardo’s portraits stand out with their warrior, gruesome, grotesque
features. It is also remarkable that the majority of the female figures he used
in his religious paintings and portrait orders have an idealized beauty.
Important exceptions to this conclusion are of course the “Portrait of a
Grotesque Old Woman” which is thought to have been copied from Leonardo by
Francesko Melzi in 1490/91 and the “Grotesque Portrait Studies” estimated to
have been made in 1492.
But in general one can say that the women in his paintings such as “Mona
Lisa” (Portrait of Lisa del Giocondo), “The Madonna of the Carnation”,
“Annunciation”, “Portrait of Ginevra de' Benci”, “Virgin of the Rocks”,
“Portrait of an Unknown Woman” dated 1490, “The Virgin and Child with St Anne”
and “Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani (Lady with an Ermine)” have been idealized
with smooth and radiant complexions and fully symmetric and geometric facial
proportions. One can also assume that the warrior rulers and other
powerful men of Renaissance Italy got married to much younger women than
themselves and therefore the majority of Leonardo’s models were young and
beautiful women.
The inner organs of the human being in Leonardo’s anatomy drawings are more
closely interconnected than they are in 0reality; this reflects his concept of
the deep complexity of human nature. Leonardo believed that different parts of
the body had emotional functions; for instance tears came directly from the
heart, the seat of all feeling. In line with the idea that the human face is a
direct reflection of an individual’s underlying character and momentary
sensations, da Vinci gave expressions to the faces of the people he observed
according to his opinion of them and to the role he gave them.
This must also be the reason why his gallery of human portraits stands out
with grotesque and caricaturized images. In his illustrations of some emotional
moments in Christian mythology, the artist tends to illustrate the people he
isn’t fond of uglier than they are. On Leonardo da Vinci The Last Supperthe
other hand, he would use all his talent to illustrate the people he is
interested in or has special feelings towards -for example the noble women whose
portraits he made- mysterious and emotional. His foremost work of this sort was
surely the “Mona Lisa”, a painting he always carried by his side, until the day
he died. da Vinci is mainly acknowledged and identified with the “Mona Lisa”
portrait.
Using ink pens, Leonardo has illustrated the people he chose for his “human
types gallery” in various positions -in side view, from the front and half way
turned around- and with different facial expressions… We know that some of these
drawings have been used for the figures in some of the few oil paintings he made
on canvas. These works that complete each other are therefore a good indication
of how, by using different painting materials and techniques, the same human
face can have various superior and peculiar strengths of expression.
Vinci’s human illustrations take us right into the crowded streets of
Renaissance Italy. The princes, priests, merchants, warriors, noblemen, women
and children are the forerunner of the modern man, the individual, who has
emerged in the atmosphere of freedom subsequent to the medieval.
555 years after his birth, we honor the big master Leonardo da Vinci with
respect, as he is the one who has granted us this awareness by keeping a visual
recollection of that period. |