Leonardo da Vinci: His Art
“His Art” from Leonardo Da Vinci by Robert Henry Hobart Cust, 1908.
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“His Art” from Leonardo Da Vinci by Robert Henry Hobart Cust, 1908.
I have said at the commencement of my essay that it is difficult to discover anything new regarding Leonardo da Vinci, and yet in a paradoxical sense we are always finding out new things about him from his own works: some startling fact wherein he has shown himself the forerunner of all modern thought and science.
It is, therefore, no easy matter to sum up in a few words the character of so complex a personality. Painting was but one of the many outlets for his extraordinary genius, and by no means the most remarkable one at that. That he was a superb draughtsman, a colourist of exquisite taste, and threw into his compositions an unequalled degree of intellectual care and energy, is beyond question; but a malignant fate seems to have dogged his finest conceptions, both in painting and sculpture, so that it is difficult from those specimens of the former art which have come down to us to fairly gauge his artistic value.
Painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, musician, naturalist, scientist, scholar, philosopher, athlete, courtier, and polished man of the world, he was all of these and more ; for whilst excelling in so many things, he brought to the exercise of all of them an enthusiasm unsurpassed at that or any other period of the world's history.
Although so much of his work has perished, we have ample evidence of the enormous amount of thought and patience that he concentrated upon the tasks before him. Countless sketches of all sorts survive—almost bewildering in their number and variety—whilst his manuscripts teem with notes and directions regarding commissions given to him, and ideas for future work on hisown account. In the words of his earliest biographer, Antonio Billi, "His spirit was never at rest, his mind was ever desiring new things."
Coming early under the powerful influence of Verrocchio he inherited from that master a passionate devotion for correct form and for the careful study of anatomy. From him, perhaps, he also acquired a taste for mathematical calculation, for geometry, and for music. From this master seems also to have originated that wonderful smile, so beautiful, but at the same time so uncanny—bordering as it does now on the seductive, now on the repulsive—that is such a strong characteristic of Leonardo, and still more of his followers; whilst the expressive hands, of which we have such fine examples in Verrocchio's sculpture, find their constant counterpart in his great pupil's painting.
But his restless spirit could not be content with ordinary methods and the stale traditions of the art schools around him. Endless were his experiments in materials and other vehicles for expressing his great conceptions. To this passion is largely due the loss to posterity of much of his most celebrated work; undertakings which in his own day were the admiration and stupefaction of his contemporaries.
His influence upon the lesser-gifted painters of his day was, we know, enormous; so great in fact was it that all the artists who came within his sphere during the two periods of his residence in the Milanese, whether actually his pupils or not, are now dubbed as belonging to his "School."
A well-known critic has recently dealt with considerable acuteness upon the questions, whether the Art of Lombardy was really benefited during the years that he spent in Milan, and whether the artist himself did not rather lose than gain through the circumstances and influences by which he was surrounded during his sojourn in that city. There is unquestionably a very great amount of truth in the contention that in a measure loss resulted in both cases; but at the same time there is no denying a strangely immediate sense of pleasure to be derived from the examples of "the school of Leonardo" that are scattered throughout the Art Collections of the World; all bearing more or less of that subtle charm so reminiscent of the great Master himself.
In a great many cases these works are little more than imitations of his most marked characteristics. Some few of his followers, indeed, succeeded in attaining to so high a degree of excellence, that their work has been honoured by a temporary attribution to the master himself: and it is even possible that some of their works may have been completed upon compositions commenced by him, or have been direct copies of his lost originals. We have related above how, when in later years paralysis had seized his right hand, he had with him a clever Milanese pupil, who worked under his direct guidance and carried out his ideas extremely well.
Although in this present sketch we are more nearly concerned with Leonardo's efforts as a painter, we cannot entirely overlook the other sides of his genius. Space forbids us here to dwell at length upon the famous "Treatise on Painting," which embodies the theories that he has carried out in his own compositions, and which remains the standard guide to artists of all succeeding generations: whilst his other literary works teem with suggestive thoughts and endless problems to stir the imagination of the generations that have come after him.
The late Mr. Walter Pater, in his "Studies in the History of the Renaissance" (p. 102), sums up our artist's character in the following striking words: "Curiosity and the desire of beauty—these are the two elementary forces in Leonardo's genius: curiosity often in conflict with the desire of beauty, but generating in union with it, a type of subtle and curious grace." He adds too with considerable truth that Raphael represents "the return to antiquity," Leonardo "the return to nature"; and indeed the latter's most noticeable characteristic is his fervent devotion to the study of Nature and her secrets, thereby anticipating the scientists of more modern times. A large proportion of the marvels of present-day "inventions" find their prototypes in the MSS. of Leonardo da Vinci.
For example, the subject of "flying" deeply engrossed his attention, and one of his most interesting Codices deals with The Flight of Birds; whilst the exquisitely careful finish, which he displays in the wings of the Angel Gabriel in the small painting of The Annunciation in the Louvre, shows how closely he must have studied the formation and structure of a bird's pinions.
His interest in botany and in the delicate intricacies of plant life appears in his many exquisite studies of flowers and leaves, etc., which he moreover has introduced with charming effect into some of his more finished paintings.
That he was a skilled musician we know: indeed, the "Anonimo Gaddiano" states that it was as such that he was sent by Lorenzo de' Medici to Lodovico Sforza with a present of a lute. To judge though from the draft of his own letter addressed to that Prince he was a sort of "Admirable Crichton" in everything else but music.
Contemporary chronicles tell us of his personal charm, the beauty of his person, his attractive conversation, and his skill and ability in every sort of social accomplishment. So greatly sought after was he as courtier and as adviser on so vast a variety of subjects, that we may well wonder, not how little exists of his work, but how he could succeed in even accomplishing so much,
His life, it is true, was a tolerably long one; but we read that he aged before his time—though but sixty-four years of age in 1517, he appeared to be seventy—and latterly, as we have said, he became partially paralyzed in his right hand. Moreover, his methods of work were notoriously slow, and his stupendous projects were continually frustrated by circumstances over which he had no control.
In spite of everything he remains to us for all time one of the most consummately magnificent figures in the world's history.
Cust, Robert Henry Hobart. Leonardo Da Vinci. George Bell & Sons, 1908.
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