Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna of the Yarnwinder on View Again in Scotland
By STAN PARCHIN
December 17, 2009
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| Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519) and Workshop. The Madonna of the Yarnwinder (ca. 1501-07). Oil on panel. 48.3 x 36.9 cm (19 x 14.5 in.). © Collection of the Duke of Buccleuch & Queensberry, KT. |
The
National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh announced today its display of
The Madonna of the Yarnwinder (ca. 1501-07) by Italian Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Owned by Richard Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch, the oil on panel composition, valued at £30 million, was stolen by thieves from his father's Drumlanrig Castle in a 2003 daytime heist. It was recovered four years later when the police raided a central Glascow insolvency lawyer's offices.
A letter dated April 14, 1501 from Fra Pietro da Novellara, a Carmelite monk in Florence, to Isabella d'Este, Marchioness of Mantua and patroness of the arts, describes Leonardo's work on the original version of the painting (now lost). It was executed between 1500 and 1508 for Florimond Robertet (1459-1527), a minister and diplomat for France's King Louis XII (r. 1498-1515) with close ties to the courts of Renaissance Italy. Whether or not Robertet ever received the devotional image is unclear.
The Madonna of the Yarnwinder portrays the sorrowful Virgin Mary with the Christ Child, oversized to denote his importance and seated beside his mother. The infant Jesus gazes intensely at the cruciform wooden instrument that is a symbolic reference to the fate that awaits him.
How much of the Buccleuch copy was painted by Leonardo was a matter of scholarly debate until recently. Scientific studies indicate that in addition to the work's underdrawing (with its pentimenti or small changes), the genius was most likely responsible for its overall design, the figures and the skillfully rendered rocky foreground. The landscape is uncharacteristic of Leonardo; it was probably painted a bit later by another artist, perhaps a workshop assistant. The flesh tones of Mary's face were executed using Leonardo's typical sfumato or smoky technique.
A second brighter copy of The Madonna of the Yarnwinder belongs to a private collector.
Source
Kemp, Martin. Leonardo da Vinci and the Mystery of the Madonna of the Yarnwinder (exh. cat.). Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 1992.