June 29, 2018–October 7, 2018
Leonardo da Vinci, The Annunciation (detail), ca. 1475–79. Oil on panel. Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv. no. M.I. 598. Photo: Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France (C2RMF), Jean-Louis Bellec
Leonardo da Vinci, The Annunciation, ca. 1475–79. Oil on panel. Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv. no. M.I. 598. Photo: Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France (C2RMF), Jean-Louis Bellec
This
landmark exhibition investigates a virtually unknown period in the
career of Leonardo da Vinci, one of the most famous artists of the
Italian Renaissance. It focuses on Leonardo’s early years as an
apprentice in the studio of the sculptor, painter, and goldsmith Andrea
del Verrocchio, seeking to identify the young artist’s hand in paintings
known to be collaborations with his teacher and fellow pupils. Rather
than relying on the claims of previous scholarship, the exhibition
restores the primacy of visual evidence, encouraging visitors to look
closely and carefully at works side by side. At the core of the
exhibition is a pair of predella panels—
The Annunciation, from the Musée du Louvre, Paris,
and A Miracle of Saint Donatus of Arezzo, from the Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts—that once belonged to a large altarpiece, the Madonna di Piazza,
in Pistoia, Italy.
These works have been documented as a commission to
Verrocchio and were supposedly executed by another of his apprentices,
Lorenzo di Credi; however, both paintings are, in one case entirely and
in the other in large part, the work of the young Leonardo. A selection
of sculptures, cassone panels, and other paintings lent by international
public and private collections—which have each been variously
attributed to Verrocchio, Leonardo, Lorenzo, or other lesser-known
artists—offers additional points of comparison, helping to clarify the
personality of each artist and shedding light on the depth and nature of
collaboration in Verrocchio’s workshop.
Great review with images
Great review with images
CATALOGUE
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Leonardo: Discoveries from Verrocchio’s Studio, Early Paintings and New Attributions
The catalogue makes a fascinating glimpse into the origins of the world’s most celebrated painter. —Alexander Adams, Alexander Adams Art (blog)
A terrific, wonderfully readable catalogue. —Tyler Green, Modern Art Notes Podcast
A terrific, wonderfully readable catalogue. —Tyler Green, Modern Art Notes Podcast
This
groundbreaking reexamination of the beginnings of Leonardo da Vinci’s
life as an artist suggests new candidates for his earliest surviving
work and revises our understanding of his role in the studio of his
teacher, Andrea del Verrocchio. Anchoring this analysis are important
yet often overlooked considerations about Verrocchio’s
studio—specifically, the collaborative nature of most works that emerged
from it and the probability that Leonardo must initially have learned
to paint in tempera, as his teacher did. The book searches for the young
artist’s hand among the tempera works from Verrocchio’s studio and
proposes new criteria for judging Verrocchio’s own painting style.
Several paintings are identified here as likely the work of Leonardo,
and others long considered works by Verrocchio or his assistant Lorenzo
di Credi may now be seen as collaborations with Leonardo sometime before
his departure from Florence in 1482/83. In addition to Laurence
Kanter’s detailed arguments, the book features three essays presenting
recent scientific analysis and imaging that support the new attributions
of paintings, or parts of paintings, to Leonardo.
Buy online from Yale University Press
146 pages / 8 x 11 1/4 inches / 102 color and 17 black-and-white illustrations / Distributed by Yale University Press / 2018
Price $35; Members $28
