‘There was (not) another man born in this world who knew as much as Leonardo, and not only of sculpture, painting and architecture, and that he was truly a great philosopher’ King Francis 1st of France (1517-19).
500 years after the death of the great Leonardo Da Vinci, we can gain this new insight as a public into his works and the methodical thought-process behind his iconic pieces. The drawings are Leonardo’s private papers, his in-depth process. 12 drawings each were selected for different venues across the UK, most importantly for the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. Every sketch tells a different story of Da Vinci’s life as not only an artist but a philosopher, a scientist among many things.
The exhibit in the Walker contains a range of Da Vinci’s drawings showing various interests, including botany and anatomy. It is amazing to see the intricacy in Leonardo’s drawings, up close, the detail and the effort put into his sketches. This detail is shown in the hairstyle of ‘The head of Leda’ drawn around 1505-8 which shows Da Vinci’s great ability to sketch. The exhibition also displays some of Leonardo’s botanical and anatomical sketches, my favourite being, ‘the muscles of the upper spine’, 1510-11, showing Da Vinci’s extreme talent to depict anatomical figures and scientific ability. Da Vinci’s artistic talent gave him the ability to show in detail the layers of muscular tissue and the complexity of the workings of the human body, in some ways looking at this piece you can see the movement and intricacy of the mechanisms of the muscles.
The exhibition shows Leonardo’s journey through life, the last drawing shown is one of sadness, close to his death through this drawing and translated notes the viewer can see a darker side to Da Vinci. His last years where he witnessed pain and destruction shown through the ‘apocalyptic scenes’ that he depicts here, highlighting the delicacy of nature and the world around him.
The exhibition was extremely accessible and as it was free you can’t really go wrong, although it was busy, as expected, it was easy to move around and view all Da Vinci’s amazing works. To see these works was both inspiring and an honour as Da Vinci’s brilliance shines through all his intricate, beautiful drawings. It is unknown when an opportunity like this will come about again, so I will be visiting the Walker multiple times to see this wonderful exhibition.
Blog on Contemporary Art 