Comments on: The Face of Leonardo?

By: Bojana Dimitrovski

Bojana Dimitrovski — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 11:12:46 +0000

Hello Charlie! :)

I love your blog, and I’m always looking forward to new posts! Thanks so much for all that you’re sharing here…

By: Rob ten Berge

Rob ten Berge — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:37:32 +0000

His best pupil, Francesco Melzi or Rob ten Berge (nowadays) made this:

http://members.home.nl/robtenberge/schema/animatie.html

Perhaps you’re still too rational to believe in reincarnation ( the other inconvenient truth).

By: Charley Parker

Charley Parker — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 15:44:06 +0000

hexag1,

Thanks for the comments. You may well be right (though I have heard Vasari’s accuracy called into question as well, dispite his first-hand reports).

Not having done any scholarly research on this myself, I’ll leave the topic open in terms of the attribution of the sculpture, but I note with interest that the profile by Melzi fits nicely with the red chalk drawing.

Thanks!

Here is another image of Melzi’s drawing: http://z.about.com/d/arthistory/1/0/X/B/Melzi_Leonardo.jpg

By: hexag1

hexag1 — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 08:37:41 +0000

i mean left profile

By: hexag1

hexag1 — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 08:37:02 +0000

You say that Verrocchio’d David is the only reasonably attributed portrait of Leonardo. I have to differ with you there. The attribution of that sculpture as a portrait of Leonardo lays on far more hearsay than the right profile of Leonardo, drawn by his best pupil Francesco Melzi, found here
(sorry about the poor quality image)
http://www.robtenberge.nl/images/art/melzi_francesco_portrait_of_leonardo.jpg
and seen firsthand by Vasari in Melzi’s home.

By: Charley Parker

Charley Parker — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 04:44:26 +0000

Dan,

Thanks, as always, for your comments.

I know what you mean about artists having a particular type of face they like to portray, Da Vinci seems to do that with women’s faces, but I don’t see it as much with his portrayal of men, who are often grotesque and distinctly individual.

The thing that convinced me of the relationship of the three images wasn’t so much the comparison of the faces to each other, but the comparison with the image above, which I still accept as a self-portrait, mainly because it strongly “feels” like one to me, and always has.

By: Charley Parker

Charley Parker — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 04:40:04 +0000

Visual Mercenary,

Thanks. Glad to hear it.

By: Charley Parker

Charley Parker — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 04:38:49 +0000

J.A., thanks, I appreciate the kind words about lines and colors.

I agree, That’s one thing I wouldn’t have done, is thrown out the possibility of Leonardo drawing his own profile using multiple mirrors.

If anyone at the time might have been playing with multiple reflective surfaces, in addition to any other optical effects, it would have been him.

By: Daniel van Benthuysen

Daniel van Benthuysen — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 23:26:30 +0000

Woldek’s analysis is interesting but I don’t find it entirely convincing either. I think an overlooked consideration is that except for a handful of caricaturists (Woldek among them) most portrait painters and artisstic generalists tend to construct faces in in a similar vein throughout their careers.

Think of how all of El Greco’s portraits seem to drift toward elongated faces. Does this mean that El Greco looked this way himself or does it merely mean that this was El Greco’s concept of how the anatomy of a male face was constructed?

Nonetheless one subtle observation does recommend Woldek’s analysis: Each of the four final views Woldek presents carry a slightly lowered left eyebrow and a slightly arched right eyebrow or muscle over the eyebrow. Quite possibly an aspect of the facial expression da Vinci presented to the world that knew him.

By: Visual Mercenary

Visual Mercenary — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 21:49:39 +0000

Excelent website, very interesting information, from now on, you have a periodical reader in Mexico

Cheers!