Lost fresco by Leonardo da Vinci. Mysterious fresco by Leonardo. ⇡ We are not vandals

"Battle of Anghiari"

This is what Adolfo Venturi writes about this extraordinary work that Leonardo had to complete for the Council Chamber of the Palace of the Signoria:

“Leonardo resorted to depicting the raging elements in order to express the hatred that gripped the people mixed up in a fierce battle. The picture is a terrible heap of people merging together like the foam of a wave; in the center there is a group of horses, as if thrown out by a terrible explosion. People and horses are seized with convulsions, twisted, intertwined like snakes, mixed up, as if in a furious battle of the elements, in a crazy fight...

This image of a hurricane is followed by other images - horses galloping, rearing up, jumping, biting the bit, a young warrior swiftly galloping on a war horse, as if rushing into flight, a rider lost in a cloud of dust raised by a whirlwind gust of wind ... "

...But let's look at the facts. The contract, signed on May 4, 1504 in the presence of Machiavelli, provided for the payment of an advance to Leonardo in the amount of 35 florins, which was subsequently supposed to be deducted from the fee. He received 15 gold florins monthly for running expenses, committing himself to completing the work no later than the end of February 1505. If by the specified date he at least starts drawing a picture on the wall, then the contract can be extended. And then he will be compensated for all expenses.

Never before had Leonardo received such a lucrative order. On October 18, he re-enrolled in the corporation of Florentine painters - proof of his intention to settle in Florence! Machiavelli won.

Leonardo demanded space for himself and his entire team. On October 24, he was given the keys to the Papal Hall of the Monastery of Santa Maria Novella and adjacent rooms. In addition to a new workshop and several living quarters, Leonardo also received a spacious room in which he could calmly prepare cardboards - a kind of additional workshop for private use.

A long preparatory period began, evidenced by a multitude of documents, receipts confirming payments made at the request of his employees and suppliers, as well as a large number of preliminary drawings. When the cardboards were completed, he, alas, could not begin the main work. The Papal Hall was in extremely poor condition, with the roof and windows in urgent need of repair. Rainwater flowed directly into the room. On December 16, the Signoria decided to repair the roof so that Leonardo could begin work. All this took a very long time. However, this time the delay was not due to Leonardo's fault. Only on February 28 were the materials necessary for the repair of windows and doors, as well as for the construction of large mobile scaffolds, with which it was possible to reach any part of the wall, received.

The stage was built, of course, according to the drawings of Leonardo himself. It was impossible to do without them, given the size of the planned fresco “The Battle of Anghiari”. We had to paint a wall surface of 18.80 x 8 meters.

The mason carrying out the repair work made a passage in the wall that separated the Papal Hall from the vast adjacent room that Leonardo personally occupied. Now he could move freely from one room to another.

To obtain the necessary information about the Battle of Anghiari, Leonardo turned to Machiavelli, who composed an entire epic especially for him. The result is a fascinating story about an extremely bloody battle, in the midst of which St. Peter himself appeared! Historical truth very far from what Machiavelli came up with. In fact, only one person died at Anghiari, and another fell from a horse. In a word, the event was devoid of greatness. It did not at all correspond to the ideas about war that Leonardo was going to express in his fresco. His sketches in notebooks testify to this.

Leonardo began creating cardboards on which he depicted the appearance of a beast called man, seized by his most ferocious passion - the extermination of his own kind. He showed these atrocities with all mercilessness. But the human is expressed in the head of the horse, whose gaze conveys all the horror of death. In addition to his chosen angle of bodies piled one on top of the other, he focuses on typical details that give greater freedom and dynamism to his characters. The skillfully constructed composition makes a majestic impression. She delights, shocks, amazes. What about Leonardo's contemporaries? Were they able to discern in all this the terrible indictment of war put forward to them? What does it matter, in the end... The main thing is that Leonardo’s bold creation brought success to its creator. He always had a taste for risk - both in his works and in life. A virtuoso master of painting, he interprets the battle with amazing ease, but at the same time with frantic passion.

His numerous cardboards, necessary to create such a complex composition, represent various groups people and horses mixed together. In the center are two horsemen attacking two opponents; their twisted bodies were inextricably intertwined. Below lie the mutilated bodies of other people. They've already fallen, they're already dead. The convulsive grimaces of these naked bodies produce a shocking impression. Leonardo had the habit of first depicting his characters completely naked, and only at the very end of the work dressing them in appropriate clothes, believing that this was the only way to achieve the greatest verisimilitude. On another cardboard there is a river, on the bridge across which another battle takes place. When depicting a group of horsemen, Leonardo fully demonstrated his skill as an animal painter, acquired in Milan: the horses he painted rear up, gallop, lie on the ground, bite and fight like people. Years of work on “The Big Horse” bore fruit, giving the painter the ability to achieve extreme accuracy and realism in the image. People and horses convey all the ferocity of the world with their disfigured features. The image is cruel, but at the same time sublime.

Just as was the case with “St. Anne” in the Church of the Annunciation, these cardboards aroused great interest. This time Leonardo was offered to put the cardboards on public display, opening the doors of the Papal Hall for everyone to see his “Battle of Anghiari”. And again the Florentines, friends, rivals reached out... Thanks to the fact that the artists saw this famous “Battle”, we have some idea about it. Raphael, Andrea del Sarto, Sodoma (the pseudonym of the artist Giovanni Bazzi), Lorenzo di Credi - all reproduced what they saw. Even Rubens made a copy of the central group much later. Who didn’t copy the “Battle of Anghiari” before it disappeared, falling victim to Vasari’s jealous brush!

Even the distrustful and touchy Michelangelo secretly copied certain fragments... Subsequently, he often used them in his compositions with horses rearing up and galloping.

Although Leonardo receives few orders, the whole world knows him, and everyone has their own opinion about him. He is truly famous, even if his fame does not benefit him. But at that moment he needs money more than wide recognition. This means that the work must be completed as soon as possible, and this has always been a problem for Leonardo... The main difficulty in painting a fresco for him was the need to work “without rewriting,” and in such a large space!

Before transferring the image from the cardboard to the wall, Leonardo covered it with a new layer of plaster to make it perfectly flat and smooth. He decided to use a “revolutionary” painting technique, which he had previously tested on part of the wall and on small panels. The result satisfied him. He abandoned the fresco technique of painting, from applying paints to plaster that had not yet dried. Instead, he decided to resort to the encaustic technique, which was advocated by Pliny the Elder. Leonardo didn’t find anything newer! This technique is similar to applying tempera to dry plaster. Leonardo did not forget the sad fate that befell his “Last Supper” in Milan. He doesn't intend to take any more risks. He wants what he wrote on this wall to remain forever. However, when creating such a large-scale and defiant bold work Wouldn't it be better to resort to the "coloring" technique? Botticelli himself, foreseeing the sad fate of Leonardo's new work, tried to persuade him to use more simple technique, but he remained adamant. With the incredible enthusiasm inherent in great inventors, he gets to work.

The preparatory work progressed successfully until that fateful day, which Leonardo called the day of the disaster and the date of which he accurately indicated in his notebooks: “On Friday, June 6, when thirteen o’clock rang in the bell tower, I began painting the hall in the palace. However, just as I was about to apply the first brush stroke, the weather suddenly turned bad, and the alarm bell sounded the signal for everyone to return to their homes. The cardboard tore, the previously brought jug of water broke, and the water spilled and soaked the cardboard. The weather was terrible, it poured like buckets, and the downpour continued until the evening; it was dark, as if night had already fallen. The cardboard came off...” Leonardo had to put it back in place, having first restored it to its original form. He persistently continued his work, experimenting with paints along the way, making up new mixtures, selecting new types of oil and wax, and composing new types of plaster. Since the first results terribly disappointed him, he had to, discarding the thought of fate taking up arms against him, try something else. He did not want to retreat, on the contrary, he passionately wanted to achieve success, to overcome all obstacles...

Here is what Vasari says about this: “Leonardo, abandoning the technique of tempera, turned to oil, which he purified using a distillation apparatus. It was because he resorted to this painting technique that almost all of his frescoes came off the wall, including the “Battle of Lngiari” and “The Last Supper”. They collapsed and the reason for this was the plaster he used. And at the same time, he did not save materials at all, spending six hundred pounds of plaster and ninety liters of rosin, as well as eleven liters of linseed oil...” Today we can say with confidence that it was precisely following the recommendations read from Pliny the Elder that caused the destruction of both famous creations of Leonardo .

Anghiari is a small picturesque town in Tuscany, which is nestled on the side of a steep hill. In the distance you can see the city of Sansepolcro - the birthplace of the great genius Pietro della Francesca. Between the two settlements there is a wide plain, the valley of the young Tiber, and the path of the famous river begins nearby. It was in this valley between the two cities that the Battle of Anghiari took place on June 29, 1440. It became part of the Lombard Wars between the Italian League and Milan.

During the first half of the 15th century, wars did not stop in northern Italy. Milan increased its power; it tried to conquer small independent cities in Lombardy and Tuscany. He was opposed by the powerful Venice and Florence. To wage war, cities hired condottieri - military leaders with their armies. They were paid huge salaries.

In the 15th century, wars almost never stopped in northern Italy.

In 1440, after a series of conflicts, Milan found itself in an extremely unpleasant situation: the troops of Duke Visconti suffered several sensitive defeats. The famous condottiere Niccolo Piccini, who fought on the side of Milan, was ordered to leave Tuscany to the north - to Lombardy. At this moment, the glorious warrior learns that the League army is located very nearby - near Anghiari. Niccolo had numerical superiority and the factor of surprise; he decided to try his luck and attack. Moreover, in Borgo Sansepolcro another 2 thousand townspeople joined him in the hope of reaping the fruits of a future victory.

The League soldiers were completely unprepared for battle. They expected the enemy to retreat and hoped to win the war for Tuscany without so much as a swing of the sword. The army was commanded by another condottiere, Micheletto Attendolo. Under his command were 300 Venetian horsemen, 4,000 Florentine infantry and the same number of papal soldiers. By some miracle, Micheletto noticed clouds of dust in the distance, realized that it was the enemy, and very quickly managed to line up his fighters.

Micheletto Attendolo was very lucky - he noticed the approach of the enemy

As a result, the soldiers clashed right on the bridge over the Tiber. Detailed description the battle left Machiavelli, although he did it several decades later: “Micheletto valiantly withstood the onslaught of the first enemy troops and even pushed them back, but Piccini, approaching with selected troops, attacked Micheletto so fiercely that he captured the bridge, and threw him back to the very rise to the city of Anghiari." After this, the Florentines and papal soldiers “hardly” hit Piccini’s troops from both flanks and pushed him behind the bridge. “This fight lasted two hours, and the bridge was constantly changing hands,” writes Machiavelli.

But the equal battle was only for the bridge. In all other places the Milanese failed. The fact is that as soon as they crossed over to the enemy’s side, they were met by a large army, which, thanks to its favorable location on the plain, constantly put fresh fighters forward. It was very convenient to change positions. When the Florentines crossed the bridge, Niccolo could not promptly send help due to the large number of ditches and potholes on the road. The enemy left them in advance.

As a result of the battle, only one rider died, who accidentally fell from his horse

“And so it happened that every time Niccolo’s soldiers crossed the bridge, they were immediately driven back by fresh enemy forces. Finally, the Florentines firmly captured the bridge, and their troops were able to cross onto the wide road. The speed of their onslaught and the inconvenience of the terrain did not give Niccolo time to support his own with fresh reinforcements, so those who were in front got mixed up with those coming behind, confusion arose, and the entire army was forced to flee, and everyone was no longer thinking about anything but salvation. without thinking, he rushed towards Borgo...”, Machiavelli describes the situation.

Florentine soldiers took thousands of people prisoner, seized carts, banners, horses and weapons. In Machiavelli's description, the battle seems grandiose; fantasy depicts dozens of horsemen who died on the bridge for several hours. But the outcome of the battle was somewhat different. There was only one victim - the knight unsuccessfully fell from his horse and broke his spine. No one else died. This can be explained by the fact that warriors at that time wore very powerful armor and it was extremely difficult to wound each other.

At the same time, for Milan this defeat was not significant. Losses in weapons and horses could be easily restored, and prisoners could be ransomed. Meanwhile, if Florence had lost, it would likely have lost its control of Tuscany. Victoria's joy was such that 60 years later, the Florentine gonfaloniere Soderini ordered a fresco from Leonardo da Vinci on the theme of the Battle of Anghiari. The master painted one of the walls in the Hall of the Five Hundred in the Palazzo Vecchio. Another genius worked opposite him - Michelangelo.

The fresco was considered lost for a long time. Allegedly, Vasari left his painting instead. On the other hand, scientists drew attention to the small inscription on Vasari’s canvas “let the seeker find.” A cavity was discovered behind his fresco. Some scientists suggest that it was there that Leonardo's masterpiece was preserved. But no full-fledged studies have been carried out yet.

The rapture of mournful passive renunciation that permeates the paintings of Botticelli and Perugino, Borgognone and Francia, with further development The Italian Renaissance began to give way to the optimism of joy and youth. The artist who overcame the decadent moods of that time, began a new period of Italian humanism and, after an era of sorrow and renunciation, returned man to his right to cheerfulness and sensual enjoyment of life was Leonardo da Vinci .

Leonardo began his activities in the seventies of the 15th century. Leaving the workshop Verrocchio, he was accepted as an independent master into the Florentine guild of artists. According to Vasari, he invented it in Florence special kind mandolin, the shape and sound of which really pleased the famous Duke of Florence Lorenzo the Magnificent, which allegedly prompted him to bring it from his name, Lorenzo, to the Duke of Milan Ludovico Moro from the Sforza dynasty. But in a letter that has survived to this day, written by Leonardo in his own hand to Duke Ludovico, we are talking, however, more about the services that he can provide as a military engineer. Around 1484 Leonardo moved from Florence to Milan. He lived there until 1499.

“The best thing a talented person can do,” Leonardo once wrote, “is to pass on to others the fruits of his talent.” Thus, on his initiative, the Academy of Leonardo da Vinci was founded by the Duke. He lectured in Milan and it is likely that many of his surviving manuscripts were nothing more than lecture notes.

At the same time, he worked in all areas of art: he oversaw the strengthening of the Milan fortress, built a pavilion and a bathhouse for the duchess in the palace park. As a sculptor, Leonardo da Vinci worked on a monument for Francesco, the great founder of the Sforza dynasty, who married the daughter of the last representative of the previous one. ruling family Milana - Visconti. At the same time, he painted portraits of all the Duke's mistresses. Having completed his work as a painter of beautiful sinners, Leonardo went to the Dominican church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, where he painted The Last Supper, completed in 1497.

During this era, strife began in Milan, which led to the fact that the duchy went to the French. Leonardo left the city. The time of restless wanderings began for him. First, he spent some time in Mantua with Isabella D'Este. In the spring of 1500, he went to Venice. Then we find him in the service of Cesare Borgia as a military engineer, strengthening the cities of Romagna for him. He was associated with Caesar even then, when he settled again in Florence (1502 - 1506), having then visited Milan again, as well as Rome and Parma, in 1515 he accepted the offer of the French king Francis I to move to France, with an annual salary of 700 thalers (15 thousand). rubles with our money). His place of residence was assigned to the city of Amboise, the favorite residence of the young king. His student Francesco Melzi accompanied him and lived with him in the Villa Cloux, next to the palace, at the very end of the city.

Melzi informed his relatives in Florence about his death: “Everyone mourns with me the death of a man so great that nature did not have the strength to create another like him.”

What significance did he have for the world as an artist? To answer this question, it is necessary to look at the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci one by one and try to understand what they contained that was new in terms of feelings, forms and colors.

Youthful paintings of Leonardo da Vinci

The starting point should be the painting by Verrocchio, located in the Florence Academy, depicting the baptism of Christ. Vasari reports that the painting by Leonardo is of the kneeling angel on the right holding the Savior’s clothes. If this is so, then Leonardo found from the very beginning that basic note that resounds throughout his entire work, for already from this figure of an angel emanates a peculiar aroma of beauty and grace, characteristic of all his images. When we move on to the next paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, to the Annunciation, the Resurrection and Saint Jerome, it is necessary to pay attention to some of their formal features.

Baptism of Christ. A painting by Verrocchio, painted by him and his students. The right one of the two angels is the work of Leonardo da Vinci. 1472-1475

In the painting depicting the Annunciation, Mary's cloak is thrown so naturally that it forms wide folds.

Painting by Leonardo da Vinci "The Annunciation", 1472-1475

In the painting depicting the Resurrection by Leonardo da Vinci, both young saints, looking at the Risen One in dreamy ecstasy, are arranged so that the line of their backs forms, together with the figure of Christ, a right-angled triangle. And Saint Jerome stands on his knees and moves his hands so that the entire silhouette of the figure is distinguished not by straight, but by wavy lines.

Leonardo's portrait of Ginevra de Benci, in turn, is devoid of the melancholy that emanates from Botticelli's girlish heads. There is such an exotic charm in this pale face, and it stands out so uniquely against the dark background of the bamboo grove!

Leonardo da Vinci. Portrait of Ginevra de Benci, 1474-1478

Behind these youthful works related to early youth artist, followed by paintings created by Leonardo da Vinci in Milan. The Ambrosiana's portrait of the Duke of Milan's mistress Cecilia Gallerani (Lady with an Ermine) returns with subtle sophistication to the profile favored in Pisanello's days, while the languid, clouded gaze and delicately curved lips are full of mysterious, sensual charm.

Lady with an ermine (portrait of Cecilia Gallerani?). Painting by Leonardo da Vinci, 1483-1490

Leonardo da Vinci's painting "The Last Supper"

The Last Supper was interpreted in two ways before Leonardo. The artist either depicted how Christ approaches the disciples and gives them the Host, or how they sit at the table. In both cases there was no unity of action.

In a fit of brilliant inspiration, Leonardo chose the words of Christ as the leitmotif: “One of you will betray me” - and with this he immediately achieved this unity. For now it was necessary to show how the words of the Savior influenced the meeting of the twelve disciples. Their faces reflect in the painting “The Last Supper” all shades of feelings: anger, disgust, anxiety, the conviction of a clear conscience, fear, curiosity, indignation. And not just faces. The whole body reflects this mental movement. One stood up, the other leaned back in anger, the third raised his hand, as if wanting to swear, the fourth put it on his chest, assuring that it was not him...

Leonardo da Vinci. Last Supper, 1498

Leonardo da Vinci not only has a new concept of the theme, but also a new layout. Even at the Last Supper in Sant'Onofrio, the group broke up into separate parts in the Gothic spirit. The upright sitting figures correspond to the straight pilasters rising against the background. In Leonardo's Last Supper, the factor determining the composition is no longer the angle, but the circle. Above the window in front of which Christ sits, the arch of the vault rises, and when distributing the heads, the artist avoided the previous monotony. Grouping the figures in threes, forcing some to rise, others to bend, Leonardo da Vinci gave everything the shape of a wavy line: as if a sea shaft with rising and falling waves emanates from Christ.

Even all the other subjects of the Last Supper are chosen accordingly with this point of view. Meanwhile, in "The Last Supper" Ghirlandaio there are slender, tall fiaschetti on the table; in Leonardo’s painting there are only round objects – flaring at the bottom, jugs, plates, bowls and bread. The round replaced the straight, the soft replaced the angular. Paints also strive for softness. Fresco painting designed essentially for a decorative effect. Simple colorful masses are separated by powerful lines. Leonardo da Vinci was too much of a painter to be content with simple color that only filled the lines. He painted on the wall in oil to gradually develop the entire picture and achieve more subtle transitions. This had the bad side that the colors of The Last Supper faded early. Nevertheless, old engravings still allow us to guess how thin, gray light the space was saturated and how softly individual figures stood out in the air.

Leonardo da Vinci's painting "Madonna of the Rocks"

Leonardo’s coloristic intentions appear even more clearly in the painting “Madonna of the Rocks.” Here all the subtleties of his art merge into a full-sounding chord. This painting relates to the rest of the Madonnas of the era in the same way as the portrait of Ginevra de Benci relates to Botticelli’s Frankfurt head of a girl. This means, in other words: for Perugino, Botticelli and Bellini, the Gospel of suffering, the Christian renunciation of the world, was of decisive importance, no matter how different their Madonnas were from each other. Overwhelmed by sad and mournful piety, doomed to wither as an unopened bud, the Madonna looks into the distance with big eyes. No cheerfulness, no sunshine, no hope! The trembling lips are pale, a tired and sorrowful smile plays around them. There is also a glimmer of mystery in the eyes of the Christ Child. This is not a cheerful, laughing child, but the Savior of the world, gripped by a gloomy foreboding.

Leonardo da Vinci. Madonna of the Rocks, 1480-1490s

“Madonna of the Rocks” by Leonardo da Vinci is alien to any churchliness. The Madonna's eyes are not darkened by either grief or mournful foresight. Is she even the Mother of God? Is she a naiad, or a sylph, or the maddening Lorelei? In an infinitely more refined form, Leonardo revives in this painting the heads known from Verrocchio’s “Baptism”, from the Uffizi’s “Annunciation”: a young woman bending towards her child with a feeling of inexpressible bliss, an angel looking like a teenage girl, looking out with a softly sensual gaze from the picture, and two children who are not even children, but amorettes or cherubs.

Painting by Leonardo da Vinci “Saint Anne with the Madonna and Child Christ”

When Leonardo later settled again in Florence (1502 - 1506), Francesco del Gioconde commissioned him to paint a portrait of Mona Lisa, the beautiful Neapolitan woman whom he married for the third time. Filippino Lippi handed over to him the execution of the order given to him by the Servites of Santa Annunziata to paint the image of St. Anne, and the council invited him to participate together with Michelangelo in the decoration of the Palazzo Vecchio. IN great hall Signoria, now decorated with frescoes by Vasari, Michelangelo depicted the scene of the Pisans taking the Florentine soldiers bathing in the waves of the Arno by surprise, while Leonardo da Vinci reproduced the battle that took place in 1449 between the Florentines and Milanese at Anghiari, between Arezzo and Borgo San Sepolcro.

"Saint Anne with the Madonna and Child" represented a solution - albeit in a different spirit - to problems similar to those that Leonardo posed to himself in "Madonna of the Grotto". Predecessors reproduced this theme in two ways. Some artists, such as Hans Fries, Sr. Holbein and Girolamo dai Libri, they seated Saint Anne next to the Madonna and placed the infant Christ between them. Others, like Cornelis in his painting in Berlin, depicted St. Anne in the literal sense of the word “self-third,” that is, they depicted her holding on her knees a small figurine of the Madonna, on whose lap sits, in turn, an even smaller figurine of the Child Christ.

Saint Anne with Madonna and Child Christ. Painting by Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1510

For formal reasons, Leonardo chose this old motif. But just as in “The Last Supper” he deviated from the gospel words that “John reclined on the chest of the Savior,” which prompted his predecessors to depict him as almost miniature, so he did not adhere to in this case impossible proportions of figures. He places the Madonna, depicted as an adult woman, on the lap of Saint Anne and makes her bend over to the Child Christ, who intends to sit astride a lamb. This gave him the opportunity to create a complete composition. The entire group of this painting by Leonardo da Vinci gives the impression of being carved by a sculptor from a block of marble.

Unlike his predecessors, Leonardo did not pay attention to age in the composition of the painting. characters. For all previous artists, Saint Anna - in accordance with the text of the Gospel - is a kind grandmother, often playing quite familiarly with her granddaughter. Leonardo did not like old age. He does not dare to depict a withered body, dotted with folds and wrinkles. He has Saint Anna - a charmingly beautiful woman. I am reminded of Horace’s ode: “Oh, more beautiful daughter than a beautiful mother.”

The types of the painting “Madonna in the Grotto” became more mysterious in this painting by Leonardo da Vinci, more like sphinxes. Leonardo brought something different to the lighting. In Madonna of the Grotto he used the dolomite landscape to make pale faces and pale hands shimmer from the gentle twilight. Here the figures stand out more airy and softer against the background of trembling light air. Gently refracted, pink and bluish tones predominate. Above the enchanting landscape, the eye catches in the distance the blurry mountains protruding in the sky like clouds.

Painting by Leonardo da Vinci “Battle of Anghiari”

About what colorful problems Leonardo set himself in the “Battle of Anghiari”, one can, of course, only make assumptions. The picture, as you know, was not finished. The only idea about it is given by a sketch made a century later by Rubens from cardboard that was then preserved and engraved by Edelink. In his book on painting, Leonardo wrote in detail about light refracting through smoke, dust and murky thunderclouds. Rubens's copy, naturally, gives almost no idea about these light effects. Unless we can get some idea of ​​the composition of the painting. It once again shows with what confidence Leonardo subordinated all the little things to a single concentrated rhythm. People and horses are fighting. Everything was tangled up in a wild tangle. And despite this, amazing harmony reigns in the wild bustle. The whole picture has the outline of a semicircle, the top of which is formed by the crossing front legs of rearing horses.

Leonardo da Vinci. Battle of Anghiari, 1503-1505 (detail)

Leonardo da Vinci "Adoration of the Magi"

Exactly in the same relation in which this battle painting by Leonardo stands to earlier works Uccello And Piero della Franceschi, The Adoration of the Magi stands alongside similar paintings by Gentile da Fabriano and Gozzoli. These artists gave the composition the form of a frieze. Mary sits at one end of the picture, and from the opposite side the king-magi with their retinue approach her.

Leonardo da Vinci. Adoration of the Magi, 1481-1482

Leonardo transforms this composition, in the spirit of bas-relief profiles, into a group united by unity. In the center of the picture is Mary, depicted not from the side, but from the front. Her head forms the top of a pyramid, the hips of which form the bowed backs of the Magi worshiping the Child. The remaining figures soften this frozen symmetry with a witty, wavy play of mutually complementary and opposing lines. The same novelty as the composition imbued with unity is also distinguished by the dramatic life imbued with unity, which the entire stage breathes. For more early paintings, except for the worshiping Magi, only an indifferent “presence” was depicted. Everything with Leonardo is full of movement. All the characters in his “Adoration of the Magi” participate in the event, press forward, ask, wonder, stick out their heads, raise their hands.

Leonardo da Vinci's painting "Mona Lisa" (La Gioconda)

"Mona Lisa" completes all the aspirations of Leonardo da Vinci in the field of portraiture. As you know, the Italian portrait painter developed from the medal. This explains the sharp profiles of lady portraits by artists such as Pisanello, Domenico Veneziano and Piero della Francesca. The contours are plastically carved. The portraits had to be distinguished by the hardness and metallic quality of beautiful medals. In Botticelli's era, rigidly defined heads are enlivened by a touch of dreamy thoughtfulness. But it was elegiac grace. Although the women are dressed in beautiful modern dresses, something monastic, bashfully timid emanates from their heads. Thin, pale faces are illuminated by a church mood, the mystical beauty of the Middle Ages.

Leonardo da Vinci. Mona Lisa (La Gioconda), c. 1503-1505

Leonardo already gave the portrait of Ginevra de Benci a demonic charm, and in “The Lady with an Ermine” he sang a hymn to seductive grace. In the Mona Lisa, he now creates a work that beckons and excites the spirit, like an eternal mystery. It’s not that he forces his hands to rest on his waist with a wide gesture and thereby gives this work the shape of a pyramid, and it’s not that the place of rigidly outlined contours is taken by a soft half-light that conceals all transitions. What especially captivates the viewer in this painting by Leonardo da Vinci is the demonic charm of Gioconda’s smile. Hundreds of poets and writers have written about this woman, who either seems to smile seductively at you, or looks coldly and soullessly into the distance; however, no one guessed Gioconda’s smile, no one interpreted her thoughts. Everything is mysterious, even the landscape, everything is immersed in a thunderous atmosphere of suffocating sensuality.

Painting by Leonardo da Vinci “John the Baptist”

Probably, in the last years of Leonardo da Vinci’s stay in Milan, “John the Baptist”, which is kept in the Louvre, was also created. How much unprecedented novelty is felt in this picture, especially when you remember earlier images of this saint. Throughout the 15th century. John the Baptist was portrayed as a wild hermit who dressed in camel skin and ate locusts. Then he is a fanatic, like Rogier van der Weyden and in Cossa, then a meek contemplative, like Memling. But he always remained a hermit. What does Leonardo da Vinci do?

Leonardo da Vinci. John the Baptist, 1513-1516

Against the mysteriously dark background of the grotto, the sparkling body of a young god stands out, with a pale face and almost feminine breasts... True, right hand he holds it like the Forerunner of the Lord (praecursor domini), but on his head he has a wreath of vines, and in his other hand rests a thyrsus. From the evangelical hermit John the Baptist, who ate locusts, Leonardo made Bacchus-Dionysus, the young Apollo; With mysterious smile on his lips, placing his soft legs on top of each other, John the Baptist looks at us with an exciting gaze.

Features of Leonardo's artistic style

Leonardo da Vinci's drawings complement his paintings. As a draftsman he also has nothing to do with primitives. The latter were limited to sharp, sharp lines outlining everything like an ornament. Leonardo has no lines, only forms. Barely noticeable, barely perceptible transitions. The content of his drawings is very diverse. He especially studied drapery all his life. It is necessary to strive for ancient simplicity, he advises artists. Flowing lines should take the place of broken ones in the paintings. Indeed, it is difficult to describe the charm of these linear melodies of Leonardo da Vinci, these folds, falling, colliding, timidly bending back and again quietly murmuring further.

Leonardo was also interested in hair designs. Ghirlandaio was already good at drawing in his portraits of young girls hair curling in thin serpentine curves near the temples. For Leonardo da Vinci, women's hair was a source of inexhaustible inspiration. He tirelessly drew how they curled around his forehead in soft lines or fluttered and swayed. He also paid attention to his hands. Verrocchio, Crivelli and Botticelli had already entered this field earlier. They gave graceful elegance to hand gestures, drawing fingers bending like tree branches. But only in the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci does the hand, previously bony and hard, receive a warm, sensually vibrating life. In the same way, with the knowledge of a specialist who had no rival in this field, he glorified the charm of lush, beautifully contoured lips and the charm of gentle shoulders.

The importance of Leonardo da Vinci in the history of Italian art

To summarize, we can determine the significance of Leonardo da Vinci's paintings in the history of Italian art as follows.

In the area of ​​composition, Leonardo replaces the angular line with a wavy line. In other words, in the paintings of his Italian predecessors all the figures are long and slender. If several figures are connected in one picture, then it breaks up into perpendicular stripes, as if invisible pilasters separate the figures. The arms either hang along the body or rise perpendicularly upward. The trees in the background do not have round tops, but rise like obelisks. Also, other sharp, thin objects that rise straight up or fall perpendicularly down should enhance the impression of verticality, forming sharply right angles with objects lying on the ground, in the reproduction of which all sorts of wavy lines.

Leonardo da Vinci's paintings, on the contrary, are designed in wavy lines. No more corners. You only see circles, segments and curved lines. The bodies take on rounded shapes. They stand or sit in such a way that they create wavy lines. Leonardo uses exclusively round objects, vessels, soft pillows, and curved jugs. Even the fact that for portraits he chooses almost exclusively a full-face pose is explained by the same considerations. In portraits in profile, which date back to the 15th century. gave preference, it was about sharply protruding angular lines, while the full face emphasizes more the soft, rounded shape of the head.

Leonardo replaced the hard with the soft in the area of ​​paints as well. The artists of the early Quattrocento, intoxicated by the sparkle and brilliance of the world, reproduced all objects with bright, variegated colors. They didn't care about shades. Everything sparkles and sparkles with them. Individual paints are placed side by side like a mosaic, delimited by a sharp line pattern. This is the rapture of contemplation beautiful colors was replaced at the end of the century by the desire for harmony. Everything must obey a holistic range of tones. Already Verrocchio, Perugino and Bellini made many important discoveries in this area, but only Leonardo solved the problem facing the artists. He imparted a charm to the paints that his predecessors had never even suspected was possible. All sharp, variegated colors are banished from his paintings, he never resorts to gold, the contours are smoothed out, the hard drawing gives way to a soft, transparent, exciting one.

This is how Leonardo became the founder of the “pictorial” style.

The era of “chiaroscuro” has arrived.

Leonardo da Vinci was not only the creator of a new doctrine of composition and a new view of paint; what is much more important, he inspired the art of the era new soul. To feel this, it is necessary to remember the end of the 15th century, the time when the monk Savonarola once again resurrected the spirit of the Middle Ages. Leonardo freed art from pessimism, from gloominess, from asceticism, which then burst into it, and returned to it the cheerfulness, the bright mood of the ancient world. He never portrayed renunciation and torment. It is impossible to imagine Leonardo da Vinci as the creator of paintings depicting the Crucifixion, or the Last Judgment, the Massacre of the Bethlehem Infants, or those condemned to purgatory, or tortured martyrs, with axes sticking into their heads and daggers at their feet.

In the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci there is no place for the Cross and the scourge, there is no place for heaven, hell, blood, sacrifices, sin, or repentance. Beauty and bliss - everything he has is from this world. Botticelli depicted Venus as a nun, as a mournful Christian woman, as if preparing to go to a monastery to suffer for the sins of the world. The Christian figures in Leonardo's paintings, on the contrary, are thoroughly imbued with the ancient spirit. Mary turns into the goddess of love, the fishermen and publicans of the New Testament - into Greek philosophers, the hermit John - into Bacchus adorned with the thyrsus.

A child of free love, beautiful as a god, he glorified only beauty, only love.

They say that Leonardo da Vinci loved to stroll through the market, buy captured birds and set them free.

Thus, he freed people from the cage where monastic theory had locked them, again showing them the path from the cramped monastery to the wide kingdom of earthly, sensual joy.

History of creation

The fresco was commissioned by Leonardo da Vinci by Gonfalonier Soderini to celebrate the restoration of the Florentine Republic after the exile of Piero de' Medici.

At the same time as Leonardo, Soderini commissioned Michelangelo to paint the opposite wall of the hall.

For battle scene Da Vinci chose the battle that took place on June 29, 1440, between the Florentines and Milanese troops under the command of the condottiere Niccolò Piccinino. Despite their numerical superiority, the Milanese were defeated by a small Florentine detachment.

According to the artist’s plan, the fresco was to become his largest work. In size (6.6 by 17.4 meters) it was three times larger than The Last Supper. Leonardo carefully prepared to create the painting, studied the description of the battle and outlined his plan in a note presented to the Senoria. For the work on cardboard, which took place in the Papal Hall at the Church of Santa Maria Novella, Leonardo designed special scaffolding that folded and unfolded, raising and lowering the artist to the required height. The central part of the fresco was occupied by one of the key moments of the battle - the battle of a group of horsemen for the banner.

According to Vasari preparatory drawing was recognized as a thing:

outstanding and executed with great skill due to the most amazing observations applied by him in the depiction of this dump, for in this depiction the people show the same rage, hatred and vindictiveness as the horses, two of which are intertwined with their front legs and fight with their teeth with no less ferocity than their horsemen fighting for the banner...

Sketch for the "Battle of Anghiari"

By the will of the Señoria, two great masters of that time worked on decorating the hall. This was the only time Leonardo and Michelangelo met on the same project. Everyone flashed strong point of his talent. Unlike da Vinci, Michelangelo chose a more “down-to-earth” plot. His painting “The Battle of Cascina” was supposed to show the Florentine warriors at the moment when, while bathing, they were suddenly attacked by the enemy. Both cards were presented to the public for several months. Later, Benvenuto Cellini, who saw the cardboards when they were still intact, called the works of Leonardo and Michelangelo “a school for the whole world.”
According to many researchers, despite the fact that the work on decorating the Palazzo Vecchio was never carried out (Michelangelo did not even begin painting), two geniuses made a revolution in the development Western European painting, which led to the development of new styles - classicism and baroque. One of the first copies (ink sketch) from the original da Vinci cardboard belongs to Raphael and is kept in Oxford, in the University Gallery. There is an unfinished copy in the Uffizi, possibly belonging to an amateur artist. According to Milanesi, it could have been used by Lorenzo Zacchia da Luca when creating an engraving in 1558 with the inscription: “ex tabella propria Leonard! Vincii manu picta opus sumptum a Laurentio Zaccia Lucensi ob eodemque nunc excussum, 1558." It is assumed that it was from Zaccia's engraving that Rubens made his drawing around 1605.

Leonardo continued the experiments with paint compositions and primers that he began when creating The Last Supper. There are various assumptions about the reasons for the destruction of the fresco, which began already during the work process. According to Vasari, Leonardo wrote on the wall oil paints, and the painting began to become damp during the work process. Da Vinci's anonymous biographer says that he used Pliny's mixture recipe (encaustic wax painting) but misinterpreted it. The same anonymous author claims that the wall was dried unevenly: at the top it was damp, while at the bottom it was dry under the influence of coal braziers. Leonardo turned to wax paints, but some of the pigments soon simply evaporated. Leonardo, trying to improve the situation, continued to work with oil paints. Paolo Giovio says that the plaster did not accept the nut oil-based composition. Due to technical difficulties, work on the fresco itself progressed slowly. Problems of a material nature arose: the Council demanded that either finished work or return the money paid. Da Vinci's work was interrupted by his invitation to Milan in 1506 by the French governor Charles d'Amboise. The fresco remained unfinished.

in 1572 the Medici family decided to reconstruct the hall. Vasari and his assistants carried out the restructuring. As a result, Leonardo's work was lost - its place was taken by Vasari's fresco "The Battle of Marciano".

Search for the fresco

In 1975, Italian art critic Maurizio Seracini suggested that Leonardo's fresco was not in such poor condition as previously thought. He saw proof in an engraving, made, according to his assumption, not from cardboard, but from the fresco itself, and dated 1553. All the details of the painting are clearly visible in the engraving, therefore the “Battle of Anghiari” was in excellent condition fifty years after its creation. Seracini was sure that Vasari, who admired the “Battle of Anghiari,” would never have destroyed Leonardo’s work, but hid it under his fresco. Seracini drew attention to the image of a small green pennant with a mysterious inscription: “ Cerca trova” (“The seeker finds”) and considered this a hint from Vasari that there was a fresco by Leonardo behind the wall. Acoustic studies showed the presence of a small (1 - 3 cm) air gap behind the wall with the “Battle of Marciano”. Seracini suggested that a new wall was built for Vasari's fresco, hiding the "Battle of Anghiari".
In 2002, the Florentine authorities banned Seracini from searching, fearing that Vasari's fresco would be damaged. In August 2006, research was allowed to continue. A special fund has been created to finance the Anghiari project. For testing purposes, it was decided to build a scaled-down model of two walls located at a short distance from each other. To create a copy, specialists from the main Italian reconstruction institute Opificio delle Pietre Dure had to use materials used in the construction of the eastern wall of the Salon of the Five Hundred, behind which, as Seracini assumed, Leonardo's fresco was hidden. The walls were supposed to be painted with paints that were used by Leonardo and Vasari.

Notes

Literature

• Vasari D. Lives of the most famous painters, sculptors and architects, Academia, vol.II, pp. 108 - 109.
• Zubov V.P. Leonardo da Vinci, -M. - L.: USSR Academy of Sciences, 1962

Links

painting by Leonardo da Vinci - The Battle of Anghiari

"Battle of Anghiari" (Italian: Battaglia di Anghiari, also sometimes translated as "Battle of Anghiari") is a lost fresco by Leonardo da Vinci. The artist worked on it in 1503 - 1506. The fresco was intended to decorate one of the walls of the Great Council Hall (Salon of the Five Hundred) of the Palace of the Lord in Florence. Copies of the cardboard for this fresco have survived. One of the best drawings - by Rubens - is in the collection of the Louvre.

The fresco was commissioned by Leonardo da Vinci by Gonfaloniere Soderini to celebrate the restoration of the Florentine Republic after the expulsion of Piero de' Medici.

At the same time as Leonardo, Soderini commissioned Michelangelo to paint the opposite wall of the hall.

For the battle scene, da Vinci chose the battle that took place on June 29, 1440, between the Florentines and Milanese troops under the command of the condottiere Niccolò Piccinino. Despite their numerical superiority, the Milanese were defeated by a small Florentine detachment.

According to the artist’s plan, the fresco was to become his largest work. In size (6.6 by 17.4 meters) it was three times larger than the Last Supper. Leonardo carefully prepared to create the painting, studied the description of the battle and outlined his plan in a note presented to the Senoria. To work on the cardboard, which took place in the Papal Hall at the Church of Santa Maria Novella, Leonardo designed special scaffolding that folded and unfolded, raising and lowering the artist to the required height. The central part of the fresco was occupied by one of the key moments of the battle - the battle of a group of horsemen for the banner.

According to Vasari, the preparatory drawing was recognized as a thing:

outstanding and executed with great skill due to the most amazing observations applied by him in the depiction of this dump, for in this depiction the people show the same rage, hatred and vindictiveness as the horses, two of which are intertwined with their front legs and fight with their teeth with no less ferocity than their horsemen fighting for the banner...

Leonardo continued the experiments he began when creating The Last Supper with paint compositions and primers. There are various assumptions about the reasons for the destruction of the fresco, which began already during the work process. According to Vasari, Leonardo painted on the wall with oil paints, and the painting began to become damp during the process of work. Da Vinci's anonymous biographer says that he used Pliny's mixture recipe (encaustic wax painting) but misinterpreted it. The same anonymous author claims that the wall was dried unevenly: at the top it was damp, while at the bottom it was dry under the influence of coal braziers. Leonardo turned to wax paints, but some of the pigments soon simply evaporated. Leonardo, trying to correct the situation, continued working with oil paints. Paolo Giovio says that the plaster did not accept the nut oil-based composition. Due to technical difficulties, work on the fresco itself progressed slowly. Problems of a material nature arose: the Council demanded either that the finished work be provided or that the money paid be returned. Da Vinci's work was interrupted by his invitation to Milan in 1506 by the French governor Charles d'Amboise. The fresco remained unfinished.

In 1555 - 1572, the Medici family decided to reconstruct the hall. Vasari and his assistants carried out the restructuring. As a result, Leonardo's work was lost - its place was taken by Vasari's fresco "The Battle of Marciano".