Art Museum Journal

Leonardo da Vinci: Hand of the Genius Exhibition in U.S.
By STAN PARCHIN
September 15, 2009

Andrea del Verrocchio (Italian, ca. 1435-1488) and Attributed to Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Beheading of St. John the Baptist from the Silver Altar of the Baptistery (1477-83). Silver. 31.5 x 42 cm (12 3/8 x 16 1/2 in.). Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence.

Attributed to Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519). Youth from Beheading of St. John the Baptist from the Silver Altar of the Baptistery (1477-83). Silver. 20.3 cm (8 in.). Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence.

Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519). Studies for the Christ Child with a Lamb (recto); A Child with a Lamb, Head of an Old Man and Studies of Machinery (verso) (ca. 1503-06). Pen, brown ink and black chalk. 21 x 14.2 cm (8 1/4 x 5 9/16 in.). J. Paul Getty Museum.

Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519). A Horseman Fighting a Dragon (ca. 1481). Pen and brown ink with brown wash on paper. 14 x 19.1 cm (5 1/2 x 7 1/2 in.). © The Trustees of the British Museum.

Giovanni Francesco Rustici (Italian, 1474-1554). John the Baptist Preaching to a Levite and a Pharisee (1506-11). Bronze. 268 x 90 cm (105 1/2 x 35 1/2 in.). Baptistery Façade, Florence.

 
Leonardo da Vinci: Hand of the Genius is a groundbreaking exhibition that explores the polymath's role in the development of Western European sculpture. It describes the ancient and Renaissance works he studied, sketches for three unrealized projects and his interaction with other artists. The show premieres at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia (October 6, 2009 to February 21, 2010). A modified version then travels to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California (March 23-June 30, 2010).
 
Some 50 works, including 20 sketches and studies by Leonardo (many on view in the United States for the first time), are on loan from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the Vatican Museums, the Musée du Louvre, the British Museum, the Museo Nazionale del Bargello and the Getty Museum.
 
Leonardo and Verrocchio: A Discovery
Few extant examples of sculpture by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1512) survive. Their paucity gave rise to the erroneous assumption that he believed sculpture was inferior to painting. In point-of-fact, Leonardo was inspired by antique and contemporary statuary.
 
The Florentine painter Andrea del Verrocchio (ca. 1435-1488), Leonardo's mentor, was also a renowned bronze sculptor. Gary M. Radke, Professor of Fine Arts at Syracuse University and the exhibition's curator, closely examined Verrocchio's recently cleaned Beheading of St. John the Baptist (1477-83), a relief from the Silver Altar of Florence's Bastistery. All seven of the panel's background figures, cast separately, were inserted into the composition, having allowed for their creation by more than one hand. Radke's cutting-edge research strongly suggests that the sculpture's youth holding a salver and its muscular turbaned officer with a baton were rendered by Leonardo in a naturalistic fashion that contrasts sharply with Verrocchio's linear figures. The Baptistery's restored relief and Radke's findings are highlights of the exhibition.
 
Equestrian Monuments
During his lifetime, Leonardo designed three large-scale equestrian monuments dedicated to Duke Francesco Sforza of Milan (1401-1466), Gian Giacomo Trivulzio (1440/41-1518) and King Francis I of France (1494-1547). On display are the artist's preparatory sketches and anatomical drawings for these ambitious projects that were never completed. Included are important equine studies from the Royal Library at Windsor Castle.
 
Ancient and Early Renaissance Influences
The exhibition explains the influence of ancient and early Renaissance sculpture on Leonardo as seen in a number of his remarkable three-dimensional drawings. The artist drew inspiration for a standing figure in his Adoration of the Magi (1481-82), an unfinished painting in the Galleria degli Uffizi, from a marble bearded Prophet (ca. 1418-20) sculpted by Donatello (ca. 1386-1466) for Florence's Campanile or bell tower. The recently restored life-sized statue plays a major role in the show.
 
Also on view are the Musée du Louvre's pair of terracotta Angels (ca. 1480), one attributed to Verrocchio and the other to Leonardo, his astute pupil.
 
In Focus: Studies for the Christ Child with a Lamb
The Getty Museum's Studies for the Christ Child with a Lamb (ca. 1503/06) features three sensitive renditions of the same subject on the sheet's recto or right-hand side. In the second figural drawing, Leonardo changed the angles of the heads of the infant Jesus and lamb from those in the first image. The third detailed rendering on the bottom left of the page is visibly more complex than the other two in terms of pose. One observes in Leonardo's drawings how he arrived at solutions to different problems in his design. The top of the sheet includes the scholar's notes, handwritten backwards as is typical of his many recorded observations.
 
Leonardo's Legacy
The installation concludes with a consideration of the effect Leonardo's monumental fresco Battle of Anghiari (1505) had on other artists, especially Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) and Giovan Francesco Rustici (1474-1554). Rubens' famous restored and reworked study of Leonardo's wall painting is accompanied by Rustici's two terracotta battle groups, small bronze horses and warriors. Rustici, Leonardo's devoted student, is also represented by John the Baptist Preaching to a Levite and a Pharisee (1506-11), a sculptural group of three larger-than-life-sized bronze figures completed with the master's sage advice.
 
Sources
Bambach, Carmen C. (ed.), et al. Leonardo da Vinci: Master Draftsman (exh. cat.). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003, 267-277, 336-341, 353-355, 397-399, 426-435, 485-498, 515-520, 575-577, 634-636.
 
Pedretti, Carlo, et al. Leonardo da Vinci: Drawings of Horses and Other Animals from the Royal Library at Windsor Castle (exh. cat.). New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984.
 
Radke, Gary M., et al. Leonardo da Vinci and the Art of Sculpture (exh. cat.). Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 2009.