The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist

Last updated
The Virgin and Child with St Anne
and St John the Baptist
Leonardo da Vinci - Virgin and Child with Ss Anne and John the Baptist.jpg
Artist Leonardo da Vinci
Yearc. 1499–1500 or c. 1506–8
Medium charcoal, black and white chalk on tinted paper mounted on canvas
Dimensions141.5 cm× 104.6 cm(55.7 in× 41.2 in)
Location National Gallery, London

The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist, sometimes called The Burlington House Cartoon, is a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci. The drawing is in charcoal and black and white chalk, on eight sheets of paper glued together. Because of its large size and format the drawing is presumed to be a cartoon for a painting. No painting by Leonardo exists that is based directly on this cartoon.

Leonardo da Vinci Italian Renaissance polymath

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, more commonly Leonardo da Vinci or simply Leonardo, was an Italian polymath of the Renaissance whose areas of interest included invention, drawing, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography. He has been variously called the father of palaeontology, ichnology, and architecture, and he is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time. Sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter, and tank, he epitomised the Renaissance humanist ideal.

Charcoal lightweight, black residue, consisting of carbon and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances

Charcoal is the lightweight black carbon and ash residue hydrocarbon produced by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis — the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen. This process is called charcoal burning. The finished charcoal consists largely of carbon.

Chalk A soft, white, porous sedimentary rock made of calcium carbonate

Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is an ionic salt called calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite shells (coccoliths) shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores. Flint (a type of chert) is very common as bands parallel to the bedding or as nodules embedded in chalk. It is probably derived from sponge spicules or other siliceous organisms as water is expelled upwards during compaction. Flint is often deposited around larger fossils such as Echinoidea which may be silicified (i.e. replaced molecule by molecule by flint).

Contents

The drawing depicts the Virgin Mary seated on the knees of her mother, St Anne, while holding the Child Jesus as Jesus' young cousin, St. John the Baptist, stands to the right. It currently hangs in the National Gallery in London.

Saint Anne mother of Virgin Mary in Christian and Islamic traditions; unnamed in the New Testament or Quran

According to apocryphal Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne, of David's house and line, was the mother of Mary and grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the canonical gospels, but is mentioned as the daughter of Faqud in Quran. In writing, Anne's name and that of her husband Joachim come only from New Testament apocrypha, of which the Gospel of James seems to be the earliest that mentions them.

John the Baptist major religious figure

John the Baptist was a Jewish itinerant preacher in the early first century AD. John is revered as a major religious figure in Christianity, Islam, the Bahá'í Faith, and Mandaeism. He is called a prophet by all of these faiths, and is honored as a saint in many Christian traditions. Other titles for John include John the Forerunner in Eastern Christianity and "the prophet John (Yaḥyā)" in Islam. To clarify the meaning of "Baptist", he is sometimes alternatively called John the Baptizer.

London Capital of the United Kingdom

London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south-east of England, at the head of its 50-mile (80 km) estuary leading to the North Sea, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. Londinium was founded by the Romans. The City of London, London's ancient core − an area of just 1.12 square miles (2.9 km2) and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains boundaries that follow closely its medieval limits. The City of Westminster is also an Inner London borough holding city status. Greater London is governed by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly.

It was either executed in around 1499–1500, at the end of the artist's first Milanese period, or around 1506–1508, when he was shuttling between Florence and Milan. The majority of scholars prefer the latter date, although the National Gallery and others prefer the former. [1]

Subject

Preparatory drawing in the British Museum, London, UK. Leonardo da vinci, Study for the Burlington House Cartoon.jpg
Preparatory drawing in the British Museum, London, UK.

The subject of the cartoon is a combination of two themes popular in Florentine painting of the 15th century: The Virgin and Child with John the Baptist and The Virgin and Child with St Anne .

Virgin and Child with Saint Anne motif

The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne or Madonna and Child with Saint Anne is a subject in Christian art showing Saint Anne with her daughter, the Virgin Mary, and her grandson Jesus. This depiction has been popular in Germany and neighboring countries since the 14th century.

The drawing is notable for its complex composition, demonstrating the alternation in the positioning of figures that is first apparent in Leonardo's paintings in the Benois Madonna . The knees of the two women point different directions, with Mary's knees turning out of the painting to the left, while her body turns sharply to the right, creating a sinuous movement. The knees and the feet of the figures establish a strong up-and-down rhythm at a point in the composition where a firm foundation comprising firmly planted feet, widely spread knees and broad spread of enclosing garment would normally be found. While the lower halves of their bodies turn away, the faces of the two women turn towards each other, mirroring each other's features. The delineation between the upper bodies has lost clarity, suggesting that the heads are part of the same body.

<i>Benois Madonna</i> painting by Leonardo da Vinci

Madonna and Child with Flowers, otherwise known as the Benois Madonna, could be one of two Madonnas Leonardo da Vinci had commented on having started in October 1478. The other one could be Madonna of the Carnation from Munich.

The twisting movement of the Virgin is echoed in the Christ Child, whose body, held almost horizontal by his mother, rotates axially, with the lower body turned upward and the upper body turned downward. This turning posture is first indicated in Leonardo's painting in the Adoration of the Magi and is explored in a number of drawings, in particular the various studies of the Virgin and Child with a cat that are in the British Museum.

British Museum National museum in the Bloomsbury area of London

The British Museum, located in the Bloomsbury area of London, in the United Kingdom, is a public institution dedicated to human history, art and culture. Its permanent collection numbers some 8 million works, and is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence having been widely sourced during the era of the British Empire, and documenting the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. It is the first national public museum in the world.

The juxtaposition of two sets of heads is an important compositional element. The angle, lighting and gaze of the Christ Child reproduces that of his mother, while John the Baptist reproduces these same elements in the face of St Anne. The lighting indicates that there are two protagonists, and two supporting cast in the scene that the viewer is witnessing. There is a subtle interplay between the gazes of the four figures. St Anne smiles adoringly at her daughter Mary, perhaps indicating not only maternal pride but also the veneration due to the one who "all generations will call...blessed". [2] Mary's eyes are fixed on the Christ Child who raises his hand in a gesture of benediction over the cousin who thirty years later would carry out his appointed task of baptising Jesus. Although the older of the two children, John the Baptist humbly accepts the blessing, as one who would later say of his cousin "I am not worthy even to unloose his sandals." [3] St Anne's hand, her index finger pointing towards the Heaven, is positioned near the heads of the children, perhaps to indicate the original source of the blessing. This enigmatic gesture is regarded as quintessentially Leonardesque, occurring in The Last Supper and St John the Baptist .

Holy Family with St Anne and the infant John the Baptist, Bernardino Luini B Luini Sacra Famiglia con S Giovannino S Anna Milano Ambrosiana.jpg
Holy Family with St Anne and the infant John the Baptist, Bernardino Luini

Cartoons of this sort were usually transferred to a board for painting by pricking or incising the outline. In the Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist this has not been done, suggesting that the drawing has been kept as a work of art in its own right. [4] Leonardo does not appear to have based a painting directly on this drawing. The composition differs from Leonardo's only other surviving treatment of the subject, The Virgin and Child with St. Anne in the Louvre, in which the figure of the Baptist is not present. A painting based on the cartoon was made by a pupil of Leonardo, Bernardino Luini, and is now in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan. [5] The figure of Pomona in Francesco Melzi's painting Pomona and Vertumnus in Berlin is based upon the Virgin in the cartoon.

History

The date and place of execution of the cartoon is disputed. The earliest reference to it is by the biographer Giorgio Vasari who, writing in the mid 16th century, says that the work was created while Leonardo was in Florence, as a guest of the Servite Monastery. Vasari says that for two days people young and old flocked to see the drawing as if they were attending a festival. [6] This would date the cartoon to about 1500.

A date of 1498–99 is put on the work by Padre Sebastiano Resta who wrote to Giovanni Pietro Bellori saying that Leonardo had drawn the cartoon in Milan at the request of Louis XII of France. While this date has gained wide acceptance, the association with Louis XII has not. More recent historians have dated the work as early as the mid 1490s and, in the case of Carlo Pedretti and Kenneth Clark, as late as 1508–10. [7] Martin Kemp notes that the hydraulic engineering in the preparatory drawing in the British Museum dates the composition to around 1507–8, when Leonardo was making similar studies in the Codex Atlanticus. [8]

In the 17th century the drawing belonged to the Counts Arconati of Milan. In 1721 it passed to the Casnedis, then to the Sagredo in Venice. In 1763 it was acquired by Robert Udny, brother of the English ambassador to Venice. By 1791 it was inventoried as belonging to the Royal Academy, London. [5] It is sometimes still known as "The Burlington House Cartoon", in reference to the building housing the Royal Academy.

In 1962 the cartoon was put on sale for £800,000. [9] Amid fears that it would find an overseas buyer, it was exhibited in the National Gallery where it was seen by over a quarter of a million people in a little over four months, many of whom made donations in order to keep it in the United Kingdom. [10] The price was eventually met, thanks in part to contributions from the National Art Collections Fund. Ten years after its acquisition, John Berger wrote derisively that "It has acquired a new kind of impressiveness. Not because of what it shows – not because of the meaning of its image. It has become impressive, mysterious because of its market value". [11] In 1987, the cartoon was attacked in an act of vandalism with a sawn-off shotgun from a distance of approximately seven feet. The shooter was identified as a mentally ill man by the name of Robert Cambridge who claimed he committed this act in order to bring attention to "political, social and economic conditions in Britain." The blast shattered the glass covering, causing significant damage to the artwork which has since been restored. [12]

Related Research Articles

Il Sodoma Italian Renaissance painter

Il Sodoma was the name given to the Italian Renaissance painter Giovanni Antonio Bazzi. Il Sodoma painted in a manner that superimposed the High Renaissance style of early 16th-century Rome onto the traditions of the provincial Sienese school; he spent the bulk of his professional life in Siena, with two periods in Rome.

<i>Virgin of the Rocks</i> subject of two paintings by Leonardo da Vinci

The Virgin of the Rocks is the name of two paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, of the same subject, and of a composition which is identical except for several significant details. The version generally considered the prime version, that is the earlier of the two, hangs in The Louvre in Paris and the other in the National Gallery, London. The paintings are both nearly 2 metres high and are painted in oils. Both were originally painted on wooden panel, but the Louvre version has been transferred to canvas.

<i>The Virgin and Child with St. Anne</i> (Leonardo) painting by Leonardo da Vinci

The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne is an oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci depicting St Anne, her daughter the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus. Christ is shown grappling with a sacrificial lamb symbolizing his Passion as the Virgin tries to restrain him. The painting was commissioned as the high altarpiece for the Church of Santissima Annunziata in Florence and its theme had long preoccupied Leonardo.

<i>Madonna Litta</i> painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci

The Madonna Litta is a late 15th-century painting, traditionally attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, in the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg. It depicts the Virgin Mary breastfeeding the Christ child, a devotional subject known as the Madonna lactans. The figures are set in a dark interior with two arched openings, as in Leonardo's earlier Madonna of the Carnation, and a mountainous landscape in aerial perspective can be seen beyond. In his left hand Christ holds a goldfinch, which is symbolic of his future Passion.

<i>St. John the Baptist</i> (Leonardo) oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci

St. John the Baptist is a High Renaissance oil painting on walnut wood by Leonardo da Vinci. Probably completed from 1513 to 1516, it is believed to be his final painting. The original size of the painting was 69 x 57 cm. It is now exhibited at the Musée du Louvre in Paris, France.

<i>Bacchus</i> (Leonardo) painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci

Bacchus, formerly Saint John the Baptist, is a painting in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, France, based on a drawing by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. It is presumed to have been executed by an unknown follower, perhaps in Leonardo's workshop. Sydney J. Freedberg assigns the drawing to Leonardo's second Milan period. Among the Lombard painters who have been suggested as possible authors are Cesare da Sesto, Marco d'Oggiono, Francesco Melzi, and Cesare Bernazzano. The painting shows a male figure with garlanded head and leopard skin, seated in an idyllic landscape. He points with his right hand off to his left, and with his left hand grasps his thyrsus and also points down to earth.

The Madonna of the Yarnwinder is a subject depicted by Leonardo da Vinci in at least one, and perhaps two paintings begun in 1499 or later. Leonardo was recorded as being at work on one such picture in Florence in 1501 for Florimond Robertet, a secretary to King Louis XII of France. This may have been delivered to the French court in 1507, though scholars are divided on this point. The subject is known today from several versions of which two, called the Buccleuch Madonna and the Lansdowne Madonna, are thought to be partly by Leonardo's hand. The underdrawings of both paintings show similar experimental changes made to the composition, suggesting that both evolved concurrently in Leonardo's workshop.

<i>The Battle of Anghiari</i> (Leonardo da Vinci) lost fresco by Leonardo da Vinci

The Battle of Anghiari (1505) is a lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci, at times referred to as "The Lost Leonardo", which some commentators believe to be still hidden beneath one of the later frescoes in the Salone dei Cinquecento in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. Its central scene depicted four men riding raging war horses engaged in a battle for possession of a standard, at the Battle of Anghiari in 1440.

<i>Aldobrandini Madonna</i> painting by Raphael

The Aldobrandini Madonna is a painting from about 1509–1510 oil by the Italian renaissance artist Raphael. The picture is of the Virgin Mother, Christ child and infant John the Baptist, one of many paintings by Raphael with this trio. It is from early in his third, or Roman period, where distinctive changes are seen from his Umbrian or Florentine period in style, use of colour, and introduction of more natural subjects and settings.

Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio Italian painter

Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio was an Italian painter of the High Renaissance from Lombardy, who worked in the studio of Leonardo da Vinci. Boltraffio and Bernardino Luini are the strongest artistic personalities to emerge from Leonardo's studio. According to Giorgio Vasari, he was of an aristocratic family and was born in Milan.

Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci

The personal life of Leonardo da Vinci has been a subject of interest, inquiry, and speculation since the years immediately following his death. Leonardo has long been regarded as the archetypal Renaissance man, described by the Renaissance biographer Giorgio Vasari as having qualities that "transcended nature" and being "marvellously endowed with beauty, grace and talent in abundance". Interest in and curiosity about Leonardo has continued unabated for five hundred years. Modern descriptions and analysis of Leonardo's character, personal desires and intimate behavior have been based upon various sources: records concerning him, his biographies, his own written journals, his paintings, his drawings, his associates, and commentaries that were made concerning him by contemporaries.

<i>The Holy Infants Embracing</i> lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci

The Holy Infants Embracing is a lost painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. It represents the infant Christ embracing his cousin John the Baptist. The subject matter relates to the two paintings of the Virgin of the Rocks by Leonardo and numerous other Renaissance works by Raphael and others of the meeting of the two children on the road to Egypt while escaping the Massacre of the Innocents.

Giampietrino Italian painter

Giampietrino, probably Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli, was a north Italian painter of the Lombard school and Leonardo's circle, succinctly characterized by Sidney J. Freedberg as an "exploiter of Leonardo's repertory."

Andrea del Sarto Italian painter

Andrea del Sarto was an Italian painter from Florence, whose career flourished during the High Renaissance and early Mannerism. Though highly regarded during his lifetime as an artist senza errori, his renown was eclipsed after his death by that of his contemporaries, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.

<i>Taddei Tondo</i> sculpture by Michelangelo

The Taddei Tondo or The Virgin and Child with the Infant St John is a marble relief tondo by Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti. Part of the permanent collection of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, it is the only marble sculpture by Michelangelo in Great Britain. A "perfect demonstration" of his carving technique, the work delivers a "powerful emotional and narrative punch".

Salaì Italian artist

Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno, better known as Salaì, was an Italian artist and pupil of Leonardo da Vinci from 1490 to 1518. Salaì entered Leonardo's household at the age of ten. He created paintings under the name of Andrea Salaì. He was described as one of Leonardo's students and lifelong servant and is thought by some to be the model for Leonardo's St. John the Baptist and Bacchus.

<i>Head of a Woman</i> (Leonardo) painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci

The Head of a Woman—also known as La Scapigliata— is a painting in oil on wood by the Italian Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci, dating from around c. 1508 and housed in the Galleria Nazionale di Parma, Italy.

Leonardeschi large group of artists who worked in the studio of or under the influence of Leonardo da Vinci

The Leonardeschi is the large group of artists who worked in the studio of or under the influence of Leonardo da Vinci. In 1472 da Vinci joined the Guild of St Luke and at the end of 1477 he left the studio of Andrea del Verrocchio as an independent artist. In 1482 Leonardo came to Milan where he stayed with Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis, Evangelista de Predis and their four brothers, who all were artists of different kinds. Both Predis brothers are known for having collaborated with Leonardo da Vinci in the painting of the Virgin of the Rocks for the altarpiece in the chapel of the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception at the Church of San Francesco Grande, Milan. In 1490 Leonardo earned recognition and a breakthrough at the court of Ludovico Sforza and because of the scale of works commissioned he was permitted to have assistants and pupils in his own studio.

<i>The Madonna and Child with the Infant St. John the Baptist</i> (Leonardo da Vinci) painting by the circle of Leonardo da Vinci

The Madonna and Child with the Infant St. John the Baptist is a lost composition by Leonardo da Vinci. The composition is known through a handful of paintings attributed to artists in Leonardo's circle. An original underdrawing by Leonardo may be preserved in a version in a private collection in Moscow, Russia.

References

  1. ↑ Chapman, Hugo; Faietti, Marzia (2010). Fra Angelico to Leonardo: Italian Renaissance Drawings. London: British Museum Press. p. 216. ISBN   978-0-7141-2667-8.
  2. ↑ from the Magnificat
  3. ↑ John's Gospel, Chapter 1, verse 27.
  4. ↑ National Gallery Website Leonardo's cartoon of the Virgin and Child with St Anne and John the Baptist Archived 2010-08-23 at the Wayback Machine .
  5. 1 2 Angela Ottino della Chiesa, The Complete Paintings of Leonardo da Vinci, Penguin, (1967), ISBN   0-14-008649-8
  6. ↑ Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists, Penguin Classics, translated: George Bull, (1965) pp. 255–271, ISBN   0-14-044164-6
  7. ↑ Jack Wasserman, "The Dating and Patronage of Leonardo's Burlington House Cartoon", The Art Bulletin (1971)
  8. ↑ Kemp, Martin (1 February 2012). "The National Gallery's blockbuster exhibition could mark a turning point for Leonardo scholars". The Art Newspaper . Archived from the original on 8 February 2012. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
  9. ↑ Conlin, Jonathan (2006). The Nation's Mantelpiece: A history of the National Gallery., p. 194
  10. ↑ Toynbee, Polly (2003). "The Free Admission Campaign". In Verdi, Richard. Saved! 100 years of the National Art Collections Fund. Scala. pp. 298–301. ISBN   1-85759-304-9.
  11. ↑ John Berger, Ways of Seeing, Penguin (1972) ISBN   0-14-013515-4
  12. ↑ Rule, Shelia (November 8, 1988). "Restoring a Leonardo Drawing That Was Hit by a Shotgun Blast". The New York Times . Retrieved 1 April 2012.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist at Wikimedia Commons

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.