Leonardo da Vinci, born on April 15, 1452 in the italian town of Vinci, was born in his lifetime, covering areas such as drawing, murals, oil paintings, sculptures, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, plants, paleontology and cartography. Known for his precision, science, and clear mind, he observed and studied animals, plants, geology and even the human body itself, and he is known as the father of paleontology, botany and architecture. His scientific practice provided a source of ideas for future sciences.
Vasari, an expert on the history of art in the Renaissance, said of Leonardo da Vinci: "Heaven sometimes endows beauty, elegance, and talent on a man, making him extraordinary in all his deeds, showing that his genius comes from the heavens rather than the power of the world." Leonardo is exactly that. His elegance and grace are unparalleled, and his intellect is so high that he can solve all problems. "After Leonardo da Vinci, heaven could not afford to create such a genius.
The artistic language of Leonardo da Vinci's painting is to use the chiaroscuro method to create a three-dimensional sense of flat image, creating a precedent for the perspective method of painting. His Mona Lisa is one of the greatest portraits in the world, and the Last Supper is one of the world's most famous religious frescoes. Leonardo da Vinci described in his diary: "The greatest miracle of painting is to make the flat picture appear concave and convex. ”
As one of the three masters of the European Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci is considered one of the greatest painters in the world, leaving behind classics such as "Our Lady of the Rocks", "The Last Supper", "Mona Lisa" and so on. Leonardo da Vinci's surviving paintings are few, "Time treasure - dialogue with Leonardo da Vinci" immersive light and shadow art experience exhibition starts from Leonardo da Vinci's classic paintings, selects the paintings that best represent Leonardo da Vinci's life in various periods for display, this exhibition almost includes the most important works of Leonardo da Vinci's life: "Mona Lisa" (c. 1503-1506), "The Last Supper" (1495-1498), "Our Lady of the Rocks" (c. 1483-1486), the second "Madonna of the Rocks" (fr. 1483-1486), the second "Our Lady of the Rocks" (1483-1486) c. 1491-1493), The Woman with the Silver Sable (1488-1490), The Pilgrimage of the Three Doctors (1481-1482), The Virgin and Child and Saint Anne (1503), The Virgin of Benois (1475-1478), The Virgin of Carnations (1473-1475), etc.
Today, let's talk about the things behind Leonardo da Vinci's work that you don't know.
1. "The Retribution of our Lady"
Created in 1474
Extant location: Uffizi Gallery, Florence
The Annunciation of Our Lady is a painting by Leonardo da Vincido as a young man for the Church of San Bartolomeo in Florence. This is a highly complex work in which the painter presents a meticulous study of detail and the natural environment, as well as an attempted use of pictorial perspective.
2. "The Virgin of carnations"
Leonardo da Vinci and Verrocchio Workshop
Created in: 1473-1475
Location: Munich Museum
Teacher Verrocchio's studio, like many other studios, created many devout church paintings with Santa Maria as the main body. Here, Leonardo da Vinci focused on painting Christ, the treatment of light and shade, and the meticulous portrayal of details (such as the details of life can be seen in the corners).
3. "Our Lady of Nursing"
Created in: 1490
Extant location: Hermitage Museum, USSR
The image of the baby in the bosom of the Virgin mary is painted vividly, with a plump and idyllic look, imbued with the tender heart of a young mother who loves her son. Whether "Our Lady of Nursing" has the handwriting of his students, there is no written basis. However, the face of the Virgin still reveals the formula used by Leonardo da Vinci, with too much emphasis on the block structure of the female eye (which is reflected in many of his later images of the Virgin). This painting is an example of his early portrait art. During this period, Leonardo da Vinci was preoccupied with his scientific research on the depiction of the human body.
4. "The Virgin and Child and Santa Ana"
Created between 1503 and 1508
Current location: National Gallery, London
During the European Renaissance, represented by Leonardo da Vinci, the god was reduced to a human being, and through the name of singing praises, he gave the god a mortal heart and a common body, and depicted it with a very delicate, profound, and subtle expression, so that it was immortal. The Virgin and Child and The Virgin's Anna, this sketch is based on the light and dark tones of the characters. The painter concentrated on Santa Ana, Maria, Christ and the sheep as a harmonious and joyful family member, with pyramid-shaped figures becoming the most classic triangular compositions in art history. The theme of the dialogue between Santa Ana and the Virgin in the group portrait expresses a kind of heavenly affection for the family on earth, the feelings of the characters are delicate, and the overlapping bodies also give people a beautiful atmosphere of intimacy.
5. "The Virgin of Benois"
Leonardo da Vinci used the two-arched window design at the top to direct the viewer's attention to the Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus sitting on the bench. The Virgin, in the center left, held the unclothed Child in her arms, holding him in one hand and a flower in the other, and the Child's right hand reached out to take the flower, while reaching out with the other hand to grasp the mother. Thus, the action of playing with flowers constitutes the theme of the whole painting, and the vertical central axis of the picture is impartial and just passes through the three hands and the place where they are slowly interlaced, becoming the center point of the whole painting.
Maria wears a delicate, fluttering blue robe, plus a red dress and exposed red sleeves; She pinned a brooch to her chest and carefully braided her fluffy curls. In this painting, the care and gesture between the Virgin and the Child are fully integrated into the inner world of the painting, and the intimacy and empathy they exude are very avant-garde after the Middle Ages, and it is difficult for the viewer to take their attention away from them.
6. "Our Lady of the Rocks"
Created in: 1483
Extant location: Museum of the Louvre, France
In 1483, Leonardo da Vinci, at the request of the Basilica of St. Francis in Milan, spent a lot of effort to create the "Virgin of the Rocks". After the completion of the work, its strong artistic shock even exceeded the imagination of the painter himself and everyone else. Leonardo da Vinci then made a request for an increase in remuneration to the Basilica of St. Francis, but his request was quickly and firmly rejected. As a result, Leonardo da Vinci sold the completed masterpiece elsewhere, and the work that was sold early was the "Madonna of the Rocks", which is currently in the Collection of the Louvre.
It doesn't end there. After Leonardo da Vinci sold the Virgin of the Rocks, the Cathedral of Francis in Milan paid several times more than Da Vinci had asked for to buy back the painting. At this time, It was Da Vinci's turn to be embarrassed, and he had to ask for a new work. However, the Basilica of Francis stubbornly asked Leonardo da Vinci to create an identical "Virgin of the Rocks". Leonardo da Vinci had to repaint a painting of the Virgin of the Rocks, which is now treasured by the National Gallery of Art and has been passed down to the world. The two "Madonnas of the Rocks" were also written by Leonardo da Vinci, but there are many details between them. (This also became a very interesting interaction in this exhibition, where we can discover their mysteries with the audience.)
Our Lady of the Rocks
Created in: 1491-1493 (restored in 1506-1508)
Extant location: National Gallery, London
This painting is the second version. Collector Gavin Hamilton brought it to England in 1785. It differs from the first version in its portrait, color and treatment of atmospheric rendering.
7. The Last Supper
The Last Supper is based on the biblical theme of Jesus' last supper with twelve apostles. The frightened, angry, suspicious, dissected and other expressions of the characters in the picture, as well as gestures, eyes and bodies, and even food utensils tablecloths are depicted in detail and exquisitely. The use of the whole picture in landscape perspective also became the most classic representative of Leonardo da Vinci, which caused a sensation at the time. It became the most famous wet wall in art history. In the collection of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy.
8. St. John the Baptist
St. John the Baptist, painted in 1508-1513 on a walnut drawing board, is 57 cm wide and 69 cm high. Against a dark background, St. John the Baptist's upper body was exposed, and his entire body was submerged in darkness, exposing only his right shoulder to his arm, his face, his right hand, and his faintly visible left hand. St. John the Baptist's hair appeared in Leonardo da Vinci's most classic curly hairstyle, a young shepherd, holding a cross in one hand and pointing to the sky with the other, with a sly and mysterious smile on his face.
The painting of St. John the Baptist is based on a character from the Bible: St. John the Baptist, at the behest of God, will baptize Jesus, and when he scoops up the holy waters of the Jordan River to baptize Jesus, the sky suddenly opens up, and a dove-shaped Holy Spirit appears in the opened sky. From then on, St. John the Baptist followed Jesus' sermon and was named "St. John the Baptist". St. John the Baptist is widely regarded as leonardo da Vinci's last painting, which leonardo da Vinci carried with him in his later years and revised it repeatedly.
9. Pilgrimage of the Three Doctors
Created in: 1481
Extant location: Uffizi Gallery, Florence
The painting was commissioned by the monks of San Donato to paint for their altar. The place in the painting is located on the outskirts of Florence. Leonardo da Vinci did not paint traditional scenes as required by the monks, but used a dynamic method of expression. The young work "The Pilgrimage of the Three Doctors" is not complete, this painting contains all the figures, like a pictorial newspaper in motion, hands, gestures, faces are all moving in one scene. In this scene, the image of the horse also appears, which is a milestone in Leonardo da Vinci's research.
Thumbnails don't look addictive? Come and see the "Time treasure - Dialogue with Leonardo da Vinci" immersive light and shadow art experience exhibition in beijing economic and technological development zone.
The exhibition will also start with Leonardo da Vinci's paintings, allowing the audience to enter the gallery space first, so that the audience can quickly and intuitively understand the master's exquisite skills and experience his spiritual world. The audience will then see Leonardo da Vinci presented through holographic technology, and the master will personally introduce his own life journey to the audience. After that, the audience will enter the real sense of light and shadow experiential space, which will present the audience with a journey of light and shadow full of amazing experiences, and experience the splendor of Leonardo da Vinci in the magnificent Renaissance with music, pictures and sounds.
Exhibition: "Time and Treasure - Dialogue with Leonardo da Vinci" immersive light and shadow art experience exhibition
Date: December 2021 - February 2022
Venue: Da Vinci Digital Art Museum, Han's Square, Ronghua South Road, Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, Beijing
Author: Yuan Shuai