Art e Dossier

This codex that Pompeo Leoni purchased from the Melzi family changed hands several times until it reached Prince Trivulzio after whom it is named. In 1935 it became part of the Castello Sforzesco collection. The codex dates from 1487-90 when Leonardo was studying Latin. It contains hundreds of latinsims taken from various books and repertories alternating with sketches of military and religious architecture or caricatures. This sheet has some caricatures, quick pen sketches probably done from life. In Leonardo’s backward handwriting there is a rhyme against Petrarch probably based on a sonnet by Leonardo’s friend the architect Donato Bramante who was in Milan during those years

Oil and tempera emulsion on wood This painting of St. John baptizing Jesus before the eyes of two angels was done for the Church of San Salvi in Florence, and it has been in the Uffizi Gallery since 1914. It is probable that Verrocchio, Leonardo’s teacher, had been commissioned to do the painting, but as was his custom, much of it was done by his pupils. Sources dating from as early as the beginning of the sixteenth century say that it was the young Leonardo who painted the angel on the left, and recently even the background landscape has been attributed to him. It is believed that other pupils of Verrocchio such as Domenico di Michelino, Sandro Botticelli and Francesco Botticini also worked on this painting.

This is the first definitely attributed drawing by Leonardo and it is dated (top left) 5 August 1473. It depicts the Arno valley from the side of the Fucecchio swamp and Monsummano as seen from Montalbano near Vinci that is visible on the left not too far, perhaps, from Leonardo’s birthplace that tradition maintains to be Anchiano. The artist was only twenty-one, but already revealed an exceptional mastery and freedom of technique – pen with which he was capable of rendering the sensation of distance.

The Virgin is portrayed in a room overlooking a mountain landscape through two double-lighted windows as she extends a carnation to the Infant Jesus. This is one of the many paintings of the Virgin Mary that Leonardo did during his early period. This Virgin and Child still clearly shows the influence of Leonardo’s teacher, Verrocchio to whom it had been attributed in the past. It also resembles the pose of the Lady with Primroses the famous bust by Verrocchio that is now in the Bargello. The landscape is typically Leonardesque, and is similar to the one in the background of the Mona Lisa.

Oil and tempera emulsion on wood This painting came to the Uffizi from the Monastery of San Bartolomeo a Monte Oliveto in 1867. Although it had formerly been attributed to Ghirlandaio, it is now considered one of Leonardo’s earlier works. The shape of the panel, and its horizontal development is unusual for an altarpiece, rather it more similar to a predella and bas-reliefs. The Annunciation is in the foreground, and behind it there is a Florentine building and a beautiful landscape in which Leonardo gave a highly natural rendering of the plants and the sense of distance. Spatial errors, such as in the Virgin’s right arm have been noted.

This small picture is set in a room illuminated by a window in the background: the very youthful looking Virgin holds a very sturdy-looking Child who is playing with a white flower, perhaps a jasmine blossom. The painting was only attributed to Leonardo in 1909 and since then has been included in the corpus of his works. The artist seems to be interested in portraying the human body and its movements in the surrounding space: the diagonal position of the group accents the relief effect and highlights the vitally of the Child. The loving relationship between the Mother and Child is conveyed not only through her gaze, but also in the delicately intertwined hands and fits into the poetics of feeling, one of the fundamental themes in Leonardo’s painting.

The distinction between these drawings of drapings and paintings proper is extremely subtle since the artist did them on canvas using the tip of the brush. As we know from Vasari, it was Piero della Francesca who started the practice of doing studies of drapings using mannequins draped with starched and richly fold cloths. The practice was continue between the fifteenth and sixteenth century by Florentine artists close to the workshops of Ghirlandaio and Verrocchio, and hence Leonardo who studied with the latter. In these drapings the focus of the exercise is the incidence of light on the folds and rendering the “feel” of the fabric. The drawing has also been attributed to Lorenzo di Credi and Fra Bartolomeo.

The theme of the Madonna recurs frequently in Leonardo’s early paintings, where the artist seems to be interested mainly in rendering movement and the emotional aspect in the looks exchanged between the Mother and Child. With its certain, quick pen strokes this drawing is almost a vignette portraying a young mother as she moving towards the right with a lively child in her arms who is leaning over to look at something below. It is a life sketch and can certainly be related to the many studies Leonardo did on this theme.

Leonardo was extremely interested in horses, especially their movements, and this confident, energetic drawing is an outstanding example. There are two horses and the tense figures of the riders are barely sketched in. This nimble drawing has been related to the Adoration of the Magi in the Uffizi, Leonardo’s unfinished painting for the monks of San Donato a Scopeti. It is a study for the many horses and riders visible in the background of the painting. Only one of the two horses – the one on the left – was actually included in the painting and can be seen in the background between the two central trees.

The winged figure at the top is generally identified as Victory while the lower one is Fortune placing a crown on a trophy where there is a heraldic figure. The drawing is typical of Leonardo’s Florentine period with its long, quick lines that confer a lively effect of motion with just a few strokes of the pen.

We know very little if anything at all about this painting that was probably done during Leonardo’s Florentine sojourn. This period is linked to his interests in the human form and representing its movement in space. The painting, a contemporary of the Adoration of the Magi is unfinished, but it is precisely the incomplete state that confers intense drama on the figure. The anatomical model is carefully planned, as it is hit by light; the compact and sculptural. St. Jerome is set in a rocky cavern against a barely sketched landscape that is typical of the profound and misty backgrounds of Leonardo’s paintings.

The Codex Atlanticus that gets its name from the atlas shape is a volume of miscellany; it was assembled at the end of the sixteenth century by the sculpture Pompeo Leoni who collated extracts from several of Leonardo’s notebooks on various topics. In this sheet we see the mechanisms and operation of Archimedean screws and some water pumps. The studies date from his early period, around 1480.

The codex Atlanticus comprises sheets from about fifty years of Leonardo’s life, from 1478 to his death in 1519. It covers a vast range of subjects from mathematics to astronomy, physics, botany, mechanics, anatomy and a large number of architectural and urbanistic plans. It also contains a large number of notes, philosophical notes and thoughts. This sheet, from 1480 shows a bellows machine for raising water as well as small sketches of a figure observing an armillary sphere through a perspectograph, a device used by fifteenth century Florentine artists and architects to study perspective. According to some scholars the figure is Leonardo himself.

Leonardo never completed the large Adoration of the Magi that had been ordered by the Monks of San Donato a Scopeti; the painting was preceded by elaborate yet small sketches and drawings. These drawings cannot be referred to the entire painting, but only to parts, figures, or groups of figures. This drawing is a perspective study of the architecture and figures that form the background of the painting. In it Leonardo reveals his great mathematical abilities and his perspective studies with the grid of lines that make it possible to scan space in depth. In this drawing we can see the shed, symbolizing the Church, that was not included in the final version.

The monks of San Donato a Scopeti commissioned Leonardo to do this painting, but it was never completed due to his departure for Milan. He left it in the home of Amerigo Benci, father of Ginevra the young noblewoman he painted. The theme of the Adoration of the Magi was very popular in late fifteenth century Florentine painting since it was highly adapted to the Neoplatonic philosophy signifying not only the revelation of the Messiah but also the decline of the pagan world that was replaced by the new Christian era. Leonardo handled the subject in a highly dramatic manner, with the figures of the magi and their entourages with grotesque faces emerging from the shadows and gesticulating convulsively. The ruins of the buildings and the knights brawling in the background symbolize the decline of the pagan world that was conquered by the advent of Christ.

According to some sources, this drawing of a woman’s head, portrays the features of Cecilia Gallerani and was a preparation for the Virgin of the Rocks that Leonardo painted in two similar versions during his sojourns in Milan. The first was done in 1483-1483 and the second in 1508 and they were placed, in succession, in the chapel of the Concezione in the church of San Francesco Grande in Milan. Today the paintings are in the Louvre and in the National Gallery in London, respectively. This study is typical of Leonardesque feminine beauty, veiled and ambiguous, with an ineffable and mysterious smile and gaze.

Alongside of some architectural sketches and encrypted writing there are some beautiful watercolors of fruits and vegetables, cherries and pods in particular. He drew them with great natural liveliness and they are an example of his great interest in nature that is also evident in the careful rendering of the flowers and grass in some paintings such as the Annunciation in the Uffizi.

This sheet is part of what is known as Manuscript B of the Institut de France, which comprises a single, codex and is one of the oldest surviving ones. It is dated between 1487 and 1489, the years that Leonardo was at the Sforza court in Milan. There he worked as an architect and civil and military engineer and most of the sheets in the codex are related to these duties. In addition to some sketches and notations for military fortifications there is a central plan church, seen from above and in a plane view that develops themes of Tuscan architecture that Bramante would use in later years.

Originally this painting was part of the Visconti collection in Milan and then passed to the hands of the Litta family from which it gets its name. In 1865 it was purchased by Tzar Alexander II and transferred from the wood to canvas with considerable damage. The attribution to Leonardo is quite widely accepted, but there are still some critics who believe it was done by his Lombard followers. A certain harshness in the chiaroscuro would suggest that a pupil, perhaps Botraffio, completed it.

This drawing illustrates the canon of human proportions postulated in the architectural treatises of Vitruvius, the first century Roman architect. The theory aims at demonstrating that human proportions can be inscribed in two perfect geometric shapes, the circle and the square. Leonardo’s drawing was done as an illustration of a theory and as such has precise lines and clear details, elements that are necessary for reproduction by printing. The great innovation in this drawing is that the same figure is superimposed on itself, reproducing the simultaneity of perception of two different overlapping images. This was not followed by later illustrators of Vitruvius’ codex that was translated into Italian several times during the sixteenth century: they continued to demonstrate the architect’s theories using two separate drawings.

This painting has been in French collections since the era of Francis I, but its origins are unknown. The title La Belle Ferronière is due to he fact that in an inventory of the royal collections it was confused with a portrait of one of the king’s mistresses who went by that name. Actually, the portrait is typical of Leonardo’s Milanese production and hence dates from his sojourn in that city. Because of the great similarity of the faces, many scholars believe that it is a second portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, according to others it could be a portrait of Lucrezia Crivelli – another of Ludovico il Moro’s mistresses – since sources state that Leonardo also painted her too.

Among Leonardo’s drawings we frequently see caricature portraits. Although he drew them from live models he exaggerated facial features creating grotesques. Although they seem to be jokes or a pleasant amusement Leonardo actually aimed at expressing the subjects’ inner personality through their faces. This old man, for example, with his rapacious glare and hand raised to his chest leads us to think of a preparatory study for Judas in the Last Supper in Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan.

This painting probably is a portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, a young and intelligent Milanese woman loved by Ludovico Il Moro. Her surname seems to allude to the Greek word for the ermine, galè, which she holds in her arms. The ermine was also the symbol that Ludovico chose for himself in 1489. The painting is a typical example of a Leonardesque portrait from this period in which his interest for the dynamism of the figure is evident, and exemplified in the three-quarter pose. Cecilia dressed and coifed according to the fashion of the period is shown slightly off to the side of the painting, and looking to her right as if she were being called by someone outside the painting. The light strikes her from the right and illuminates her face, highlighting her beauty as well as her profound inner feelings.

Ludovico Il Moro had a special relationship with the monastery of Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan. He commissioned Bramante to remodel it and then had Leonardo paint the Last Supper in the refectory. Leonardo painted it between 1495 and 1497 using a dry technique that was the first cause of its deterioration. The Last Supper was a common theme in fifteenth century painting but Leonardo distanced himself from the traditional iconography of the consecration of the bread and the wine and focused on the most dramatic moment in the Gospel story: Christ telling the apostles that one of them would betray him and their psychological reactions to his words. This allowed Leonardo to portray the various states of mind through a careful study of gestures and facial expressions.

This manuscript consists of two pocketsize notebooks that Leonardo used between 1497 and 1499. The subjects vary from geometry to the motion of water, to notes on Latin grammar and coded scripts and prophecies. The two sheets shown here depict ornamental motifs and a dog’s head for a geometric study of proportions, but above all it is a masterpiece of naturalism and refined drawing with intense color effects.

Thanks to a letter from Pietro da Novellara to Isabella d’Este we can date this painting in 1501. Novellara describes a painting in which the Virgin holds the Child, while trying to insert the reel in the spindle, creating a cross-shaped instrument that symbolizes his martyrdom. The painting had been believed lost for a long time and was only known through Lombard variations that confirm that it was indeed done by the master during his sojourn in Milan.

In 1503 Leonardo received the commission to decorate one wall in the Salone de Cinquecento in Palazzo della Signoria in Florence with the Battle of Anghiari in which the Florentines triumphed over the Milanese in 1440. By 1506 he had already painted the central portion of the enormous composition depicting the struggle for the banner, but experiments with the encaustic technique caused it to be totally ruined and Leonardo left it unfinished. We know of this painting through the many contemporary copies that also allow us to recognize some of the preparatory drawings he made such as the two heads (in Budapest) that were to have been the two central figures in the fray. The marked facial features and the violent almost fierce expressions of the two figures are clear proof of Leonardo’s concept of war as a beastly madness.

The traditional identification of the woman portrayed here as Monna Lisa di Giocondo, in what is probably the most famous painting in the world, as advanced by Vasari, has been put into doubt by recent theories, and even the early sixteenth century date has been moved up to the second decade of the fifteen hundreds. It is stylistically similar to other paintings that Leonardo did starting in 1510 in which he used the same type of landscape, the same soft sfumato of the faces and enigmatic smile. This incredible female figure is presented against background that was originally framed by a window. There is an intimate relationship between the landscape with its mountains that seem to rise from water in a misty atmosphere, and the figure. It is based on a fundamental Leonardesque concept of the continuity and harmony among the components of the universe and particularly between man and nature.

The Madrid codices came to the royal library of Philip V from the collection of Pompeo Leoni who had purchased them from the heirs of Leonardo’s pupil Francesco Melzi. They contain many dated pages that make it possible to place them between 1491 and 1505. The II Madrid Codex contains various drawings and sketches of Tuscan topography and specifically the Arno valley from Florence to Pisa that were done while Florence was at war with Pisa (1503-1504). These drawings were part of a study to divert the course of the Arno so that it would no longer reach Pisa.

Leonardo’s theatrical sets aroused the admiration and wonder of the audience. These two sheets contain notes along with his studies for the sets for Agnolo Poliziano’s Orpheus. There are also the devices for moving the scenery and a hoist for the actor playing Pluto to rise from the beneath the stage as if he were emerging from hell itself.

This drawing is an interesting Leonardesque interpretation of classicism. According to the custom of classic medals it portrays the profile of a man crowned with laurel, a hero or a Roman emperor. Leonardo’s “classical” images were always transformed by naturalism as in this case where the profile, from an ancient portrait – a medal or bas-relief has force, presents very naturalistic features and verges on the grotesque.

This sheet is part of the Arundel codex, a volume containing 283 sheets of miscellaneous studies: from physics to optics, astronomy ad architecture. Expense notes and memos allow us to date the first thirty sheets in 1508 while the others are from the years between 1478 and 1518. The codex contains the famous and cold note about his father’s death in 1504. The volume came to the museum from the collection of Lord Arundel who purchased it in Spain in the seventeenth century. This sheet is a highly detailed and well-developed drawing of a device for underwater breathing. It contains all the details, including the valves to let air in and out.

The first cartoon of this subject that dates from the final years of the fifteenth century has been lost and we only have copies. The second version of the cartoon dates from 1508 and is a preparation for the painting begun in 1510 that is now in the Louvre. The harmonious and fluid pyramidal composition that would be a model for all sixteenth century painters is characterized by the softness of the contours in Leonardo’s typical sfumato mode. Behind this solemn yet affectionate portrayal there is a highly complex symbolism. According to a theological theory that was highly in vogue early in the sixteenth century, the Virgin foresees the death of her Son seated on her lap and tries to distract him from Saint John who, in Christian symbolism heralds the passion of Christ. But she is convinced to mitigate her protective instinct by Saint Anne who points to the heaven to remind the Virgin of Christ’s divine mission.

This painting is said to be an unfinished study for the head of a female figure looking downwards, perhaps a Madonna. Only the face is complete and is a careful luministic study, while the rest of the head is only sketched in with quick brush strokes for the hair. This head is called “la scapiliata” since it is generally identified with a painting that Ippolito Calandra suggested be hung in the bedroom of Federico Gonzaga’s wife, Margherita Paleologa; he called it by that name and attributed it to Leonardo. This attribution is not always accepted and some scholars consider it a nineteenth century forgery by Gaetano Callani, a painter from Parma in whose collection it was when it was purchased by the Pinacoteca of Parma in 1839.

The theme comes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses: Leda is the symbol of the generating force of nature, the allusion is completed by her union with Jupiter in the guise of a swan that generated the two sets of twins, Castor and Pollux and Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. Leonardo’s studies on this theme dated from 1504 but only later, perhaps during his Milanese period did he do the renowned version portraying the standing Leda with her arms entwined around the swan. Leonardo’s invention is recognized through the description by Cassiano dal Pozzo who saw it in the French royal collections in 1623. There are many, highly similar versions of this painting all based on Leonardo’s creation, but none of them can be attributed to the master.

This figure, like Leonardo’s Bacchus, the angel in the Virgin of the Rocks and even the Mona Lisa represents the ideal of ambiguous and hermaphroditic beauty. St. John with his magnificent, curling hair emerges from the shadows with his disquieting smile and points upward to the fully lighted cross on which Christ would be sacrificed. This is a highly delicate painting with a strong sensual charge and is executed in almost monochromatic tones. It was part of the French royal collections, but was given to the king of England in the seventeenth century in exchange for other paintings. It was later purchased by Cardinal Mazzarin and returned to France.

The codex that has been broken up into single sheets and now in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle was part of Pompeo Leoni’s collection in the early seventeenth century. In 1630 it became the property of the English collector, Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, and by the end of the seventeenth century it was in the Royal Collection. This codex too is miscellaneous and was assembled by Leoni. It comprises about six hundred drawings done between 1478 and 1518 on various subjects such as anatomy, landscapes, animals and human figures. This sheet is an anatomical study of an ox heart, and specifically the valves and arteries. Leonardo did his studies of the heart during the final years of his life and this sheet is dated around 1513.

This intense and powerful self-portrait shows Leonardo in his sixties with a long thick beard, when he had been living in France for some time. The paper was probably trimmed on the sides to make his curved shoulders less conspicuous. Leonardo wanted to leave a drawing of himself for posterity, according to an idea that he expressed in his notes. Scholars believe that he periodically painted or drew pictures of himself that can be recognized in various works. Many scholars believe it unlikely that Leonardo, by then an old man, could still draw as sharply as this self-portrait would suggest and not all concur that it was done by his hand. In fact, it has been stated that the drawing is an early nineteenth century forgery. Another, perhaps erroneous yet curious hypothesis maintains that it is Leonardo’s father and was done by the master some time around 1505.

This large drawing may perhaps be a portrait of Scaramuccia, the gypsy leader mentioned by Vasari. The drawing is pierced for dusting and this shows that it was used for a painting that has since been lost. In this portrait again, Leonardo reveals great naturalism and a strong sense of the grotesques. The subject may illustrate human ugliness. The splendidly executed curling hair is in the foreground of this curious back view.

This small size manuscript contains three dates, (1510, 1511 and 1515) so that we can determine when it was done with reasonable accuracy. The first part contains botanical studies for paintings, the second covers geometry, technology, optics and the motion of water. One of the two sheets from Leonardo’s Roman period shows his plans for building burning mirrors by mounting small metal tiles on a concave support that could concentrate light beams and release them with enormous power, presumably to destroy an enemy: a sort of forerunner of the laser beam.