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The BBC calls it 'one of this year’s most significant art events,' whilst the Guardian gives it legendary status as 'a once in a lifetime' opportunity. Such effusive praise is certainly provocative, perhaps extreme, but definitely not inaccurate. In bringing together 9 out of 20 paintings by a legendary man, the National Gallery’s exhibition ‘Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan' has unquestionably earned its legendary status.
Focused on Da Vinci in his capacity as an artist (as opposed to the more popular interest in him as scientist or inventor), the show includes stark yet evasive portraits of women in ‘Lady with an Ermine’ and ‘La Belle Ferronnierre’; glowing depictions of the Virgin mother and child in two different versions of ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’; and a mystical evocation of Christ in ‘Salvator Mundi’ (intriguingly, it is still disputed whether Da Vinci is definitely the artist).
What ties this selection together is Da Vinci’s fascinated attention to the shape and structure of the human form, informed by his unrelenting determination to create an ideal or ‘character type’ to celebrate his subjects. Far more than showing idealised humanity, however, the paintings share a complexity in what the subjects hold back. The evasive gazes and poised poses give a sense of possible (but unrevealed) narrative, leaving the viewer with unanswered questions. What is the music that the musician sang in ‘Portrait of a Musician’? Who or what is the girl looking at in ‘Lady with an Ermine’?
The exhibition’s greatest achievement is not just in the paintings. Sketches – and there are many of them – are where Leonardo developed his skill, knowledge and ideas which feed into the craft of his paint work.
The sketches give a fascinating insight into the process and development of his paintings; of a perfectionism reached through fearless experimentation. They are intensely detailed drawings; small, fluid and fast. They range from renditions of a sinewy human arm or a cross section of a skull, to more developed preparatory sketches of overlapping figures or features. They’re repeatedly reworked as part of Da Vinci’s 'thinking' technique as he tried to plan the most harmonious compositions to honour his religious subjects. These reveal not only his thought process and dedication, but his attempts to depict the perfect human form. So some sketches include markings where Da Vinci has measured the ideal proportions of an arm, whilst others trace (on the same page) the transition from a scientific drawing of a human skull to a fleshy sketch of a young girl.
The exhibit is peppered by paintings by the genius’s apprentices. Their renditions are strikingly, almost confusingly, similar to the work of their teacher. Yet on closer inspection they appear more masklike and dull; with much skill but little of Leonardo’s characteristic emotional detail. And so, along with the sketches, the inclusion of works by his students provides a valuable comparison with, and insight into, the artist’s influence as well as his influences. By gathering together Leonardo da Vinci’s paintings, the National Gallery indicates his artistic process as much as the finished product. The achievement of this exhibition is in what is revealed about the work behind the painting, as much as in what the paintings show.
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