My arrival in London yesterday saw me plunging back into my first love - the Renaissance. It was time to teach part 3 of my City Lit course in Covent Garden, London; the course - Masters of the Renaissance: Leonardo and Michelangelo. In part 3 it was time, once again, to catch up with the remarkable life of the painter from the small town of Vinci - Leonardo.
In this lesson called - 'Nature, Anatomical and Experiment' we looked at Leonardo's view and perception of the world and how this shaped his art. This we did by looking at some examples of his work in the context of some of his own comments such as this one, which we discussed the meaning of: "“The human race in its marvellous and varied works seems to reveal itself as a second nature in this world.” Leonardo da Vinci: 1452-1519.
Further questions that were discussed were, 'was Leonardo the first to dissect human bodies to aid his depiction of them or was it a Florentine artist, practising in the 1470s, known as Antonio Pollaiuolo as is mentioned here by the 16th century painter turned art historian Giorgio Vasari: 1511-1574 - "“He (Antonio Pollaiuolo) understood about painting nudes in a way more modern than previous masters, and he dissected many bodies to view their anatomy. He was the first to show how to seek out the muscles and so give them their proper position and form in his figures.” This is a question I leave to you to decide.
We also got up close and personal to, in my opinion, the most enigmatic of portraits by Leonardo - the portrait of a young Florentine girl called Ginevra de' Benci. Painted circa 1480 it is one of Leonardo's earliest portrait commissions and is the only Leonardo in America.
Of course we also discussed the hotly anticipated exhibition at the National Gallery, London, and the need to book your tickets in advance, and the details of this live broadcast:
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/leonardolive
Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan
9 November 2011 – 5 February 2012
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