Leonardo was a man
beyond the Renaissance.

The Renaissance had begun, as its name implies, as a rebirth or re-discovery of a culture that had already been born once. It was, in the first place, a recovery of ancient learning, and the early Renaissance was not a revolution, but a revival.

Florence turned into the home of this classical revival. The medieval Church had leaned heavily on Aristotle, and had elevated him almost to the status of an honorary saint.

Now, however, the Medici praised the work and the outlook of Plato. The pride of Florence was the Medici library of ancient manuscripts and commentaries on them, and the Platonic Academy. Florence in the 1470s, when Leonardo worked there, was dominated by the taste of the greatest of the Medici, Lorenzo the Magnificent. His taste was, in essence, for the Greek and Roman classics.

By contrast, Leonardo turned into one of the first men who had carried the Renaissance in a new way—not as a recovery but as a discovery.

In any case, Lorenzo the Magnificent considered Leonard da Vinci to be an unscholarly, unlettered painter because he did not even know Latin—a prerequisite for the learned man at the time—and because he never looked into the Greek learning. Remember that he had neither attended a formal school nor received a private tutor.

Leonardo wrote in his notebook:

I am fully aware that the fact of my not being a man of letters may cause certain arrogant persons to think that they may with reason censure me, alleging that I am a man ignorant of book-learning. Foolish folk! Do they not know that I might retort by saying, as did Marius to the Roman patricians, “They who themselves go about adorned in the labor of others will not permit me my own.”

They will say that because of my lack of book-learning, I cannot properly express what I desire to treat of. Do they not know that my subjects require for their exposition experience rather than the words of others? And since experience has been the mistress of whoever has written well, I take her as my mistress, and to her in all points make my appeal.

Leonardo made two points. First, he expressed his contempt for the new aristocracy of Florence—the moneyed men who leaned on the talents of others, and whose taste showed no mind of its own. Secondly, he set up a new standard of the original mind that went directly to nature.

The first point had something to do with his decision to move to Milan. When Leonardo chose between Florebce and Milan, he didn’t merely choose between two different cities, but two different cultures or two different aspects of the Renaissance.

The medieval Church had taught that the universe can be understood only spiritually, as a God-given and abstract order, and that the beauty of man and of nature is a snare that tempts us away from that principle.

The Renaissance denied these morose dogmas, holding instead that fleshly and natural beauty is not sinful but rather an expression of the divine order. The pioneers of the Renaissance found their ideal of man and nature in the splendid texts of the classics and in the works of art in the ancient world.

But the self-taught and self-willed men like Leonardo did hardly accept anything at second hand. Instead, they longed to see, to understand, and to experiment for themselves. Leonardo above all wanted not to recover but to discover his own humanity.

When he left Florence for Milan, Leonardo turned his back on the classical Renaissance, and instead looked for a more advanced Renaissance. Milan gave Leonard such an opportunity because Milan was a city larger than Florence, less dependent on its rich men like Lorenzo the Magnificent. Milan had a more cosmopolitan outlook, and the Milanese more highly regarded mathematics and mechanics than the Florentines who remained deeply soaked up in the Platonic climate.

Do you know why Leonardo didn’t produce a portrait for Isabella d’Este despite she highly respected him?

Isabela d’Este, Marchioness of Mantua, could, even at the age of sixteen, speak Greek and Latin as well as play the lute, sing, dance and debate with much older people. Because Isabella’s father believed in the equality of men and women, his siblings were well-educated.

Isabella patronized and promoted the arts, and collected many paintings and statues. She allowed writers, artists and poets to exchange their ideas in her salon. She also set artistic fashions and standards, and wrote over two thousand letters, and in these she commented on everything from politics to war. For these activities, Isabella became known as the “First Lady of the Renaissance”.

Although she had a talented court-appointed painter, Andrea Mantegna, Isabella did not fall in love with the way Mantegna painted the figures—too realistic, according to her eyes.

Although Leonardo observed any object with his keen eyes, this “avant-garde” artist had achived more than simple reproduction of the sitter’s appearance as displays the following portrait of Cecilia Gallerani—a charming mistres of Lodovico Sforza, Duke of Milan.

“Paint the face,” Leonardo once said, “in such a way that it will be easy to understand what is going on in the mind.”

In a sense, he seemed more modern than his contemporaries who tended to record only the sitter’s features—not the unity of art and nature as shown in the above portrait.

If you take a close look at her hand, it is elongated so that the ermine and the hand are well-balanced in the picture. Leonardo painted the portrait soon after he arrived in Milan. The ermine Cecilia held in her arms was one of the emblems of Lodovico. The animal is also intended as a visual pun on Cecilia Gallerani’s name because gale is the Greek name for an ermine. Leonardo explored the character with his keen eyes, and treated the portrait as a research into man and animal, as well as a creation of unity.

Isabella preferred Leonardo’s way of making a portrait. This is the reason why Mantegna had never had an opportunity to produce her portrait. Instead, Isabella wanted Leonardo to do the work. Unfortunately, however, Leonardo showed no great interest in producing her portrait with full colors—only leaving a sketch as shown in the above. Why did he not engage in portraiting Isabella?

Personally, Leonardo didn’t seem to dislike the Marchioness of Mantua. She showed him around and treated him with a due respect. She guided him into her favorite chamber and showed him her collection of great paintings and statues. And naturally enough, she talked about the magnificent works of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Although she was a shrewed “statesman”, Isabella didn’t know the mentality of this genius.

Not being a man of letters may cause certain arrogant persons to think that they may with reason censure me, alleging that I am a man ignorant of book-learning. Foolish folk!

Leonardo might not have thought that way with Isabella. However, her collection of paintings and statues as well as her knowledge of the Greek and Roman classics were just too much for him. Leonardo didn’t feel at home in Mantua. (Well aware of his lack of book-learning, Leonardo learned Latin by himself when he stayed in Milan.)

For Leonardo, those great works of the ancient Greeks and Romans amounted to nothing more than a deterrent, if not an obstruct, once he had acquired the basic skills and learned the crux of the ancient misteries.

Leonardo further wrote:

The painter will produce pictures of little merit if he takes the works of others as his standard; but if he will apply himself to learn from the objects of nature he will produce good results. This we see was the case with the painters who came after the time of the Romans, for they continually imitated each other, and from age to age their art steadily declined. . . .

It is safer to go direct to the works of nature than to those that have been imitated from the originals with great deterioration and thereby to acquire a bad method, for he who has access to the fountain does not go to the water-pot.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

In 1475 Leonardo painted an angel in Verrocchio’s Baptism of Christ. When he was twenty-one he painted the Annunication. In 1481 he painted the Adoration of the Magi. In 1483 he started to paint the first version of the Virgin. He finished it in 1485. In 1495 he made a clay model for the statue of Francesco Forza, and put it on display. In 1486 he began to explore human flight. In 1500 he went to Mantua.

Leonardo studied philosophy, natural history, anatomy, biology, medicine, optics, acoustics, science, engineering, architecture, music, mathematics and hydraulics. He sketched the first parachute, first helicopter, first aeroplane, first tank, first repeating rifle, swinging bridge, paddle boat and first motor car. He designed machines of war as well. He was one of the first artists to sketch outdoor portraits. He was a sculptor and designer of costumes. He was also a mathematician and a botanist.

One of Leonardo’s greatest pieces of art was the Mona Lisa (1500-1505), which was famous for her mysterious smile when piano music played. The Mona Lisa took Leonardo six years to complete. After he had finished the painting, the King of France bought it. Leonardo did not want to part with the portrait, so the King of France let him keep it in his studio until he died. Another famous painting was The Last Supper, which was painted in 1495. It has become the most famous painting in the world. Leonardo was also very proud of his Self Portrait, which he painted it in 1515, four years before he died.

Mona Lisa without eyebrows?

Leonardo drew the first relaxed portraits with misty landscapes in the background. He used warm and passionate colours to create the misty look on the landscapes.

Leonardo had a different way of painting with mixing colours. He did not put eyebrows on his painting.

With her well-balanced features, slightly pointed chin, and heavy eyelids, the face of the Mona Lisa represents Leonardo’s vision of ideal beauty. Unlike the richly ornamented women painted by his contemporaries, she displays no jewelery and wears a simple dress and fine black veil.

The true identity of Mona Lisa has never been verified and the meaning of her enigmatic smile continues to be debated.

Leonardo changed the way people painted and made sculptures. He was famous for the way he used light in his portraits. It seemed as if you could see into the soul of the paintings.

Leonardo’s Later Life

In 1506 Leonardo went again to Milan, at the summons of its French governor, Charles d’Amboise. The following year he was named court painter to King Louis XII of France, who then resided in Milan. For the next six years Leonardo divided his time between Milan and Florence, where he often visited his half brothers and half sisters and looked after his inheritance.

In Milan he continued his engineering projects and worked on an equestrian figure for a monument to Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, commander of the French forces in the city. Although he had not finished the project, the drawings and studies have remained ever since.

From 1514 to 1516 Leonardo lived in Rome under the patronage of Pope Leo X. Leonardo stayed in the Palazzo Belvedere in the Vatican and seems to have been occupied principally with scientific experimentation.

In 1516 he traveled to France to enter the service of King Francis I. He spent his last years at the Château de Cloux, near Amboise, where he died on May 2, 1519.

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