Can't wait to see this in person.
Looks haunting and of course, brilliant.
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Two thoughts:
(1) Years ago, I read Dorothy Sayers' essay on Dante. All that terza rima going on and on. But her point was--the story HAD to be told. Get it down. Even if some of the lines were BAD lines. Keep it moving. Keep going. Don't stop.
When was it--around 1817? Beethoven simply came to a stop. Not a FULL stop--a pause. "If I let the Muse sleep," he remarked, "it is only that she may wake up the stronger."
You think? His stupendous Ninth Symphony was just a few years away.
But Leonardo! He died calling himself a brilliant failure.
A failure? NO! Of course not. And yet. . .and yet. . .
You wish he had left us more. Just one more masterpiece, Leonardo! Or two maybe. Or. . . .
Well. We should be grateful for what we have.
(2) Ever read any St. Jerome? Gosh--what a guy!
Brilliant--oh yes. Acerbic--oh yes. And spiritually haunted--oh yes. With a vengeance.
"Ciceronianus es, non Christianus!" cried one of God's vengeful angels--scourging the poor guy with might and main. "You're a Ciceronian--not a Christian!"
And he speaks of his appalling severities in the desert. Shrunken to virtually nothing. Ribs sticking out. Breathing labored. Stomach a permanent vacuum.
Tortured by lust. Tormented by visions of. . .of. . .
Oh what a pity Leonardo didn't finish that painting!
But even as is--
--looks like a veritable masterpiece.
And here i'd never heard of it. Thanks, New York Times.
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Angelica Kaufmann did not, alas, live so long as stated here...
As for the Boboli slaves Michelangelo didn’t finish, how sure are we that he didn’t?
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I am gratified to see attention devoted to this masterpiece of design, unique in Leonardo's oeuvre. I love how the geometry of parallel and perpendicular axes controls everything so that the oblique angles of the saint's and the lion's gestures command our attention. I love the top-to-bottom arrangement of diagonal switchbacks that pull the eye across the entire surface of the picture, culminating in the relaxed arc of the lion. My eye slides down his back, swirls around his curvilinear tail and is propelled right back up to the focal point of the composition. I agree that these beautiful bones of a picture don't need a full fleshing-out to be effective. I do question the severe cropping on the right margin. Are there some inches of the panel still missing? Degas might have cropped the lion this way, but Leonardo...?
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The strong diagonal of the extended arm, the angled leg and the great curve of the lion plus the startling centrality of the human body may be signs of Leonardo’s effort to renew the Classical idealism of Polykleitos’ Canon , Myron’s Discobolos and, of course, Plato. No wonder he hesitated.
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Rather like the unfinished Michelangelo sculptures, where an almost perfectly finished neck, ear and jaw, seem to pull from the stone, next to a roughly chisled shoulder. This painting is fascinating, as Cotter points out, in showing us how firm is Leonardo's sense of structure and composition, and how unorthodox his "piece-meal" approach to detail and "finish" is, his priorities in the progress of the painting.
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Thank you for this article. I find myself very hungry for any education about the arts.
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It’s fascinating to me how forgiving we’ve become of the classics: the most interesting note in the article is from Vasari who wrote of how he failed despite his genius. Da Vinci left almost nothing but hope: the achievements are figments and echoes of possibility, with nothing bar the Mona Lisa reaching any point of note.
Imagine what he could have done if he had succeeded and finished his works.
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