Leonardo: Revised Edition

313 Pages·2003·3.245 MB·English

by  Martin Kemp

LEONARDO
artin emp
M K FBA is Emeritus Professor in the History
of Art at Trinity College, Oxford University. He has
written, broadcast, and curated exhibitions on imagery
in art and science from the Renaissance to the present
day, and his books include The Science of Art: Optical Themes
1992
in Western Art from Brunelleschi to Seurat ( ), The Human
2007 2004
Animal in Western Art and Science ( ), Leonardo ( ),
and the prize-winning Leonardo da Vinci. The Marvellous
1989 2006
Works of Nature and Man ( and ). His book
on the newly discovered Leonardo portrait, La Bella
Principessa, written with Pascal Cotte, was published in
2010
, and Christ to Coke: How Image Becomes Icon, is pub-
2011
lished by Oxford University Press in .
Praise for Leonardo:
‘Excellent’
Sunday Telegraph
ff
‘Orchestrates the available information e ortlessly... [a]
magisterial text.’
Lisa Jardine, Guardian
‘Illuminating’
Peter Ackroyd, The Times
‘A succinct introduction ... by one of the world’s foremost
authorities.’
Independent
‘Filled with fresh thought ... Kemp has succeeded at some-
fl
thing that is possible only after years of re ection.’
Los Angeles Times
‘Excites the reader’s admiration for the restless vitality of the
man and his ideas ...’
Washington Post Book World
LEONARDO
M A RT I N K E M P
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© Martin Kemp 2004
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Preface
How can we best understand Leonardo?
What makes him unique? How can we
explain the surviving legacy, above all what
fi fi
we nd in the ‘notebooks’, which nd no real parallel
in any period. How did his mind work—was he just
diverse and scattered, or is there a method in what
often seems to be his madness? What were his
fi
enduring concerns and how did they nd expression
across the whole range of his activities? Was he
basically an artist who also pursued science and
technology? Was he a visionary, anticipating the
modern era, or was he very much constrained by
the parameters of his own age? Was he a man ‘without
book learning’, as he claimed? How did he make a
career when he was apparently unable to complete
projects? How can we evaluate the achievements of a
fi
gure who is obscured by the dense veil of legend?
fi
What was and is his real legacy? And, in the nal
analysis, what is all the fuss about?
v
preface
This book uses the opportunity of a relatively
small format to concentrate on how we can grasp the
essential nature of Leonardo da Vinci, both in himself
and as a historical phenomenon.
I am writing on the high terrace of the Villa
Vignamaggio in Tuscany, close to Greve in Chianti,
through which runs the old and picturesque road
between Florence and Siena. It was once the villa of
the Gherardini family, whose most famous daughter
was named Lisa, wife of Francesco del Giocondo and
Leonardo’s perpetually enigmatic sitter. It is a ravish-
ing land of vines and olives, clinging to rounded hills
fi
close-packed and patchworked with teetering elds of
insistent green and roasted golden brown. It is a land
to make anyone smile. The villa is now set up to let
rooms and suites of rooms to guests. Tonight I sleep
in the grand bed in the suite designated the ‘Monna
Lisa’ (spelt thus as the short version of Madonna);
tomorrow I was to move into the ‘Leonardo’, but,
since the ‘Monna Lisa’ is not available for the full
duration of eleven days, it is possible to remain
with her. It was her family house, after all. There is a
lingering heaviness in the atmosphere. A sudden wind,
fi ff fl
warm yet ercely bu eting, aps the hinged screen
on my computer as if an ancient spirit is agitated
at having its secrets probed. Perhaps this Leonardo
vi
preface
business is becoming too much for this measured
British academic, normally so committed to sober
empiricism. It is starting to rain.
Ten days later, and the text is in draft. Thereza
Crowe, one of the team working on a huge project we
2006
have in hand for ‘The Universal Leonardo’ in ,
involving exhibitions, technical examination, other
events, and media outputs across Europe to celebrate
the life of Leonardo da Vinci, telephones to say that
the Madonna of the Yarnwinder has been stolen from the
Duke of Buccleuch’s great palace-castle in the Scottish
borders. Four men in a Volkswagen Golf GTI at
1100
. in the morning appear to be responsible—as
yet the news is fragmentary. When I return to Britain
the next morning there will be a media frenzy. I think
of the Duke and his family. For him and for them
the small Leonardo picture was more than another
inherited possession; his enthusiasm to share his deep
pleasure in it has always transcended proprietorial
500
satisfaction. I fear for the fate of the -year-old
panel, and long for its speedy restitution.
I also learn during this period of the unexpected
death of John Shearman, latterly Professor at Harvard
and who had taught me as a postgraduate at the
Courtauld Institute of Art in London. This most
scrupulous and penetrating scholar of Renaissance art
vii
preface
played an essential role in inculcating any historical
fi
skills that I might now have. He liked my rst mono-
1981
graph on Leonardo, published in in the earliest
phase of my career, and I hope he would have enjoyed
this book too.
This book bears an obvious relationship to the
earlier monograph, which was entitled Leonardo da
Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man. It has
now reappeared with my long-promised revisions.
fi
It presented an attempt to paint a uni ed picture of
Leonardo’s creative and intellectual life across his
fi
many elds of endeavour within a biographical
framework. The central hypothesis of that book,
ff
to the e ect that there was an underlying unity to
Leonardo’s diversity, is carried forward into the
present treatment.
I hope that anyone who really wants to come to
terms with Leonardo will be encouraged to turn to
the widely available transcriptions, translations, and
anthologies of his thousands of pages of notes.
Where I depart from my earlier framework is in
the thematic discussion of what I believe to be the
main motifs that run through Leonardo’s thought,
and in the abandonment of the narrative of biography
as the organizational principle for the chapters. The
1981
book gave sustained attention to the development
viii
preface
of his thought, whereas the thematic discussions I
am providing here tend to emphasize continuities. I am
also conscious that, after thirty years of involvement
fl
with Leonardo, I am writing in a manner that re ects
the sustained nature of my personal dialogue with his
legacy. The tone has become more ‘literary’ and per-
sonal. I am also giving a more sympathetic outing for
the ‘myth’ of Leonardo, which is an active and even
creative agent in the power he exercises over everyone
who encounters his life and works.
In the meantime, Leonardo literature pours
forth unabated. Carlo Pedretti continues to publish
the fruits of his wholly unrivalled knowledge of the
manuscipts. Pietro Marani in Milan has done much to
extend our knowledge of Leonardo in his Lombard
context. Carmen Bambach, who generously allowed
me to cannibalize her published chronology of
Leonardo’s life, has made important contributions
to our understanding of his drawings. Paolo Galluzzi
has enriched our comprehension of Leonardo as a
Renaissance engineer. There are many others who
might and should be mentioned.
The origins of this book lie in the invitation
from Katharine Reeve of Oxford University Press to
contribute a volume on Leonardo to the ‘Very Short
ff
Introductions’ series. She and Emily Jolli e have
ix