Leonardo da Vinci: An Account of His Development as an Artist

345 Pages·2017·13.67 MB·English

by  Sir Kenneth M. Clark

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Text originally published in 1958 under the same title.
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LEONARDO DA VINCI:
AN ACCOUNT OF HIS DEVELOPMENT AS AN ARTIST

BY

KENNETH CLARK

With 64 Plates

REVISED EDITION
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS 3
ABOUT THE AUTHOR 4
DEDICATION 5
LIST OF PLATES 6
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 8
PREFACE 9
INTRODUCTORY NOTE 10
CHAPTER ONE—1452-1482 13
CHAPTER TWO—1481-1490 26
CHAPTER THREE—THE NOTEBOOKS 43
CHAPTER FOUR—THE ‘TRATTATO DELLA PITTURA’ 52
CHAPTER FIVE—1485-1496 62
CHAPTER SIX—1497-1503 70
CHAPTER SEVEN—1503-1508 186
CHAPTER EIGHT—1508-1513 198
CHAPTER NINE—1513-1519 206
LIST OF DATES 217
A SHORT LIST OF BOOKS ON LEONARDO 219
REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 222
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sir Kenneth Clark was born in 1903. He was educated at Winchester and
Oxford, and worked for two years with Bernard Berenson in Florence. He was
appointed Director of the National Gallery at the age of 30 and remained there
until 1945. During the war the organized the war artists’ scheme, and with Dame
Myra Hess was responsible for the National Gallery Concerts. He was Slade
Professor of Fine Art at Oxford from 1946 to 1950. Sir Kenneth has been
Chairman of the Arts Council since May 1953, and was appointed Chairman on
the setting up of the Independent Television Authority. His first publications,
written at the age of 22, was The Gothic Revival. During the 1930s he worked on
Leonardo da Vinci and laid the foundations of the present volume. His
Landscape into Art (1949) was widely acclaimed and later republished as a
Pelican. It was followed by a study of Piero della Francesca (1951) and The
Nude (1955) which has been described as ‘a truly great book’.
DEDICATION
Dedicated to
DAVID BALNIEL
LIST OF PLATES
1. Detail from Verrocchio’s Baptism, c. 1472. Uffizi, Florence. (Photo Anderson) 2. The Val
d’Arno, 1473. Uffizi, Florence 3. The Angel from the Annunciation, 1472-3. Uffizi, Florence. (Photo
Brogi) 4. The Virgin from the Annunciation, 1472-3. Uffizi, Florence (Photo Anderson) 5. Ginevra
de Benci, 1474. Liechtenstein Gallery, Vienna 6. Study of hands, 1474? Windsor 7. An Antique
Warrior, ?Darius, c. 1475. British Museum 8. The Benois Madonna, 1478-80. Hermitage. (Photo
Giraudon) 9. Study for the Benois Madonna, 1478-80. Louvre. (Photo Giraudon) 10. Study for the
Madonna with the Cat, 1478-80. British Museum 11. Study for the Adoration of the Shepherds,
1478-80. Musée Bonnat, Bayonne. (Photo Giraudon) 12. Study for the Adoration of the Kings,
1481. Uffizi, Florence 13. Study for the Adoration of the Kings, 1481. Clarke Collection,
Cambridge 14. The Adoration of the Kings, 1481-2. Uffizi, Florence 15. Detail from the Adoration
of the Kings, 1481-2. Uffizi, Florence 16. Detail from the Adoration of the Kings, 1481-2. Uffizi,
Florence 17. Guns and machines of war, c. 1485. Windsor 18. St. Jerome, c. 1483. Vatican
Gallery. (Photo Anderson) 19. Study for the Madonna Litta, c. 1480. Louvre. (Photo Giraudon) 20.
Studies for the Virgin and Holy Children, 1482-3. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Rogers Fund, 1917
21. The Virgin of the Rocks, 1482-3. Louvre 22. Study for the Angel’s head in the Virgin of
the Rocks, c. 1480. Royal Library, Turin. (Photo Anderson) 23. St. John from the Virgin of the
Rocks. Louvre. (Photo Alinari) 24. Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, c. 1483. Czartoryski Gallery,
Kraków 25. Detail of the portrait of a musician, c. 1485. Ambrosiana, Milan. (Photo Brogi) 26.
Studies of a domed church, 1485-90. MS. B., Bibliothèque de l’Institut, Paris 27. Grotesque
heads, 1485-90. Windsor 28. Anatomical studies of skulls, 1489. Windsor 29. Study for the Sforza
Monument, 1488. Windsor 30. Study from nature for the Sforza Monument, 1490. Windsor 31.
The Last Supper, 1497. Sta Maria delle Grazie, Milan. (Photo Anderson) 32. Study for the head of
St. James Major, c. 1496. Windsor 33. Study for the head of St. Philip, c. 1496. Windsor 34. The
Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John Baptist, c. 1498. Burlington House, London. (Photo
Anderson) 35. Portrait of Mona Lisa, 1503. Louvre. (Copyright W. F. Mansell) 36. Landscape with
a storm in the Alps, c. 1503. Windsor 37. Study of acorns and Dyers Greenweed, c. 1506.
Windsor 38. Study of a plant, c. 1506. Windsor 39. Study of a Star of Bethlehem, Spurge, and
other plants, c. 1506. Windsor 40. Cesare da Sesto after Leonardo: Leda. Wilton House. (Photo
A. C. Cooper) 41. Study for the Leda, c. 1506. Windsor 42. Study for Neptune in his Chariot,
1504. Windsor 43. Rubens after Leonardo: part of the Battle of Anghiari, 1505. Louvre. (Photo
Giraudon) 44. Studies of horses for the Battle of Anghiari, c. 1504. Windsor 45. Anatomical
studies of the nude, connected with Anghiari, c. 1504. Windsor 46. Studies for a St. George and
the Dragon, c. 1507-8. Windsor 47. The Angel’s head from the Virgin of the Rocks, c. 1506-8.
National Gallery, London 48. Study of stratification, c. 1508. Windsor 49. The Virgin and Child
and St. Anne, 1508-10. Louvre. (Archives Photographiques) 50. Study for the Virgin and St.
Anne, c. 1508-10. Louvre. (Archives Photographiques) 51. Head of St. Anne from the Virgin and
Child and St. Anne, 1508-10. Louvre. (Laboratoire du Musée du Louvre) 52. Study for head of St.
Anne, c. 1508-10. Windsor 53. Study for the Trivulzio Monument, 1511-12. Windsor 54. Studies
for the Trivulzio Monument, 1511-12. Windsor 55. Masquerader, c. 1512. Windsor 56. A Nymph,
c. 1512. Windsor 57. An embryo in the womb, c. 1512. Windsor 58. Anatomical study, 1513.
Windsor 59. An old man meditating and studies of water, c. 1513. Windsor 60. Studies of water,
c. 1510. Windsor 61. The beginning of the Deluge, c. 1514. Windsor 62. A mountain falling on a
town, c. 1514. Windsor 63. The Deluge at its height, c. 1514. Windsor 64. The Deluge formalized,
c. 1514. Windsor 65. St. John the Baptist, c. 1515. Louvre. (Photo Giraudon) 66. An old man,
after 1515. Windsor 67. Self-portrait, c. 1512. Turin. (Photo Anderson)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
His Majesty King George V graciously permitted me to reproduce drawings
from the Windsor Castle Collection.
I am indebted to the Earl of Pembroke for permission to reproduce the copy
of Leda by Cesare da Sesto at Wilton and to the Prince of Liechtenstein for
permission to use the photograph of the Ginevra de Benci taken in the National
Gallery.
K. C.