As a painter, sculptor, inventor, and naturalist (among other things), the breadth of Leonardo da Vinci’s work is legendary and at times overwhelming. Artists and laymen alike remain fascinated by the original Renaissance man: students could spend lifetimes studying the thousands of drawings he left behind without fully understanding how the different strands of his genius wove together.
Luckily, visitors to the Morgan Museum and Library have the opportunity to undertake a more focused exploration. “Leonardo da Vinci: Treasures from the Biblioteca Reale, Turin” features a small but captivating group of eighteen works by the Florentine master and his followers, many of which are on rare loan from Italy. Organized by Per Rumberg, associate curator of drawings at the museum, the exhibition is meant to give a closer look at two ultimately inseparable sides of Leonardo: the scientist and the artist. And indeed, entering the darkened gallery on the Morgan’s second floor feels rather like being invited into Leonardo’s own mind.
The first section, “Exploring Nature,” highlights Leonardo’s exacting and exuberant talent as an observer and recorder. Joining anatomy studies and machine designs is the remarkable Codex on the Flight of Birds (ca. 1505/6), which the Morgan has brought to New York for the first time.
Written in Leonardo’s idiosyncratic mirror script, the document seems part textbook, part diary and lends the entire exhibition an intimate feel. The thirty-six pages contain a detailed treatise on avian and potentially machine flight, but methodical discussions of engineering and aerodynamics are often joined by private notes: a grocery list makes an appearance at one point. Many of the margins contain lively sketches of birds in which parallel lines creatively visualize the force and direction of wind.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)
Codex on the Flight of Birds, ca. 1505/6
Pen and brown ink on paper
213 x 153 mm
© Biblioteca Reale, Turin (Cod. Varia 95)
The detail, observation, and exactitude highlighted in the first half of the exhibition are given beautiful context in the second section, titled “Making Art.” The luminous Head of a Young Woman (1480s) – also new to New York – is the standout piece. Created as a study for Leonardo’s famous painting Virgin of the Rocks, the drawing was praised by the legendary connoisseur Bernard Berenson as “one of the finest achievements of all draughtsmanship.”
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)
Head of a Young Woman (Study for the Angel in the ‘Virgin of the Rocks’), 1480s
Metalpoint heightened with white on buff prepared paper
181 x 159 mm
© Biblioteca Reale, Turin (15572 D.C.)
Subtle yet precise modeling executed in Leonardo’s signature left-handed hatching renders the image both lifelike and otherworldly. The young woman’s meticulously finished face draws the viewer in even as her more economically sketched hair and torso melt into the page.
This and other autograph studies are shown alongside drawings by Leonardo’s followers and pupils—the so-called Leonardeschi. Though notable in their own right, in this exhibition these pieces serve mainly to confirm Leonardo’s singular talent. Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, for instance, is generally accepted to be Leonardo’s most talented pupil.
But his Head of a Young Man (ca. 1495) lacks the deftness and factual expertise of even Leonardo’s more hastily executed sketches.
Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio (ca. 1467–1516)
Head of a Young Man, ca. 1495
Metalpoint on blue prepared paper
305 x 220 mm
© Biblioteca Reale, Turin (15587 D.C.)
Despite their limited number, the pieces on display give an intriguing glimpse into various aspects of Leonardo’s genius. If anything, the exhibition at times seems spread a bit too thin – one can imagine a more rewarding dive into just one facet of Leonardo’s work: studies of nature, perhaps, or portraiture. That said, the broad scope of the exhibition only hints at the range of its artist – “Treasures from the Biblioteca Reale, Turin” is a compelling invitation into the mind of a master.
Leonardo da Vinci: Treasures from the Biblioteca Reale, Turin opened at The Morgan Library and Museum on October 25 and will be on view until February 2, 2014.