The artist and science
Excerpt from the book 'Leonardo da Vinci - The Complete Paintings and Drawings' by Frank Zöllner
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
Indicative of this rivalry were the problems and polemics that arose out of the unrealized project for the equestrian monument to Francesco Sforza. The earliest documented reference to Leonardo's work on the monument is found in a letter of 22 July 1489, which reveals that the important commission was in immediate danger of being given to another sculptor, since Ludovico Sforza had apparently come to the conclusion that Leonardo wasn't up to the job (cf. Ch. IV). When the Milan literati also seized upon the monument as a target for their criticism, Leonardo must have felt his role as a fine artist challenged yet again. July 1489 namely saw the translation into Italian of Giovanni Simonetta's De gestis Francisci Sphortiae, a eulogy to Francesco Sforza. The dedication to this Italian edition was written by Francesco Puteolano, who used the occasion to stress the superiority of literary creations over works of fine art. Puteolano expressly pointed out that the memory of great rulers and generals of the past, such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, had been preserved not by monumental works of art but thanks to writers and historians. Small books had guaranteed these men more enduring protection from oblivion than monuments created from the most expensive materials. A ruler was not preserved in the memoria of posterity by statues and pictures, which as a rule rapidly deteriorated or were even destroyed and which attracted only criticism-thus Puteolano in his long-winded preface. Possibly as a reaction both to this line of argument and the threat of losing the commission for the equestrian monument to another artist (cf. Ch. IV), in August 1489 Leonardo asked the humanist Piattino Piatti to compose some poems in praise of the work still to be completed. Perhaps he hoped to be able to counter Puteolano's polemics with Piatti's poetry.
Puteolano's remarks unmistakably express an open rivalry between the artists and writers at the Milan court. His comparison, for example, of the eternal memoria bequeathed by literary works with the less enduring testament of fragile works of art could not be clearer. Nor is it possible to overlook his allusion to the plans to cast the monumental equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza in costly bronze. In 1489, therefore, both the imminent threat of losing this commission and the doubts cast on the efficacy of fine art by the writers at the Milanese court cast a radical question mark over Leonardo's social status as an artist. It is probably no coincidence that Leonardo should, at this point in time, intensify his researches into proportion and other spheres of knowledge in which he hoped to make a name for himself both as a scientist and an artist. This same period lastly also provided the stimulus for the Paragone, the comparison of the arts conducted by Leonardo at the start of his treatise on painting.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
Indicative of this rivalry were the problems and polemics that arose out of the unrealized project for the equestrian monument to Francesco Sforza. The earliest documented reference to Leonardo's work on the monument is found in a letter of 22 July 1489, which reveals that the important commission was in immediate danger of being given to another sculptor, since Ludovico Sforza had apparently come to the conclusion that Leonardo wasn't up to the job (cf. Ch. IV). When the Milan literati also seized upon the monument as a target for their criticism, Leonardo must have felt his role as a fine artist challenged yet again. July 1489 namely saw the translation into Italian of Giovanni Simonetta's De gestis Francisci Sphortiae, a eulogy to Francesco Sforza. The dedication to this Italian edition was written by Francesco Puteolano, who used the occasion to stress the superiority of literary creations over works of fine art. Puteolano expressly pointed out that the memory of great rulers and generals of the past, such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, had been preserved not by monumental works of art but thanks to writers and historians. Small books had guaranteed these men more enduring protection from oblivion than monuments created from the most expensive materials. A ruler was not preserved in the memoria of posterity by statues and pictures, which as a rule rapidly deteriorated or were even destroyed and which attracted only criticism-thus Puteolano in his long-winded preface. Possibly as a reaction both to this line of argument and the threat of losing the commission for the equestrian monument to another artist (cf. Ch. IV), in August 1489 Leonardo asked the humanist Piattino Piatti to compose some poems in praise of the work still to be completed. Perhaps he hoped to be able to counter Puteolano's polemics with Piatti's poetry.
Puteolano's remarks unmistakably express an open rivalry between the artists and writers at the Milan court. His comparison, for example, of the eternal memoria bequeathed by literary works with the less enduring testament of fragile works of art could not be clearer. Nor is it possible to overlook his allusion to the plans to cast the monumental equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza in costly bronze. In 1489, therefore, both the imminent threat of losing this commission and the doubts cast on the efficacy of fine art by the writers at the Milanese court cast a radical question mark over Leonardo's social status as an artist. It is probably no coincidence that Leonardo should, at this point in time, intensify his researches into proportion and other spheres of knowledge in which he hoped to make a name for himself both as a scientist and an artist. This same period lastly also provided the stimulus for the Paragone, the comparison of the arts conducted by Leonardo at the start of his treatise on painting.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
Leonardo da Vinci - The Complete Paintings and Drawings
Hardcover, 29 x 44 cm (11.4 x 17.3 in.), 696 pages
$ 200.00
$ 200.00
Da Vinci in detail: Leonardo's life and work - the definitive edition. All pictures, all drawings!
Anatomical Study of the Muscles of the Side of the Torso, c. 1507