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. |