Da Vinci? Yes Please

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This is basically me trying to get a little art knowledge out there in the world. This is going to be a lot of basic information that I think we as humans should know. I thought I would start off with doing hopefully an artist a week (don't hold me to it). To begin I'm going to talk about an artist/inventor that everyone hopefully knows about just so you get a few facts. This is mostly influenced by the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit that I was able to score tickets to at the National Gallery a couple of Friday's ago [it was awesome!]. I also took a seminar on Leo when I was back in the state so I feel like I might know a little what I'm talking about. Since this is a blog, I'm going to mix the fact with my own personal opinion. Because of this I will not be talking about that smallish portrait with the woman who doesn't smile and has become famous for her mystery (you know which one I'm talking about, and if you don't: LOOK IT UP!). We're going to talk a little about his life, some of his paintings, some inventions, and even some drawings. This might be long but I just want to get the information out there, and I feel like people might want to know a little more than just about Mona. Because who needs Wikipedia when you've got me?

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Leonardo da Vinci. Born in 1452 in the tiny town of Vinci Italy (thus da Vinci). He was a bastard but spend a lot of time with his father and father's family. His father was a notary and made an reasonable living. When Leonardo grew up a bit, he showed some artistic talent and his father had connections enough to get him a slot in Andrea del Verrocchio's studio in Florence which was huge for him. Verrocchio might be forgotten in the main-stream art behind names like Donatello or Brunelleschi, but he was a very talented painter/sculptor/architect and it would have been very beneficial for the artistic growth of young Leo (and it's Leo because we're on such good terms). He also happened to be at the workshop at the same time a certain  Sandro Boticelli (huge Birth of Venus painting). He quickly surpassed his master and moved on to bigger and better things.

He had done some work in Florence, but decided to move along with his life. Now in his twenties/thirties, he was hired by the Duke of Milan as a musician. Who knew right? He might have actually presented the Duke with an inventive little instrument that was made out of a silver horse skull. Here he really hit his stride and produced what would be recognizable as Leonardo's. This is now the 1480s and he completes my favorite piece by him: Virgin of the Rocks. Although I prefer Madonna of the Rocks. But they're interchangeable so call it whatever you want.

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Here we have the Virgin center with an angel on her left and a seated Christ child pointing/blessing the young John the Baptist. Way you can tell the two apart is that John's wearing his signature hair shirt (although it's a little hard to see here). What makes this painting so unique is the rocky and dangerous landscape. Kinda an odd place for such a meeting if you ask me but it could be referential to Leonardo's home landscape and a hearkening back to a more innocent time. One of the newer things I learned was that in the foreground, I thought they were all gathered beside a leg, but if you look very carefully, you'll see that nothing's reflected in the water and they are in fact sitting right beside a cliff ledge. Again, I don't know exactly why he chose such a hazardous place to put a baby, but he's kind of a crazy guy.

When talking about Leo, it's impossible not to talk about a technique he uses called sfumato. By my definition it is like a hazy veil is put over the entire picture. There are no hard lines, but instead he uses sort of a shadowy blurriness that as a more naturalistic quality. It's also a great word to say/impress your friends with. Sfffffffuuuummaatto.

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Like any Renaissance artist, he did a fair number of portraits like this one. There's been some dispute about whether this is a true Leonardo, but I like to think it is. Like a traditional Italian portrait of a woman, she is seated from the waist up showing. This one differs because she's turned three quarters and is looking off into the distance. She has a very distinct look to her that seems like she's giving Leo all sorts of attitude. The purpose of such portraits was to show the wealth of the bride-to-be and really objectify her for the  I like to think of this as Leo protesting such ideals. She's still physically separated from the viewer, but she's not taking it lying down.

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I could drone on and on about The Last Supper or any number of Dan Brown books, but I don't really want to bore you with the details. This is just supposed to be a little taste of the art world for those that are interested. Art is something I'm very passionate about so I couldn't imagine a blog of mine where I wouldn't share it.