Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. Childhood
- 2. Florence and Cosimo the Elder
- 3. The Cultural Climate of Florence
- 4. First Years in Florence and the Verrocchio Workshop
- 5. First Works in Florence and the Artistic Milieu
- 6. Early Pursuits in Engineering ??? Hydraulics and the Movement of Water
- 7. The Bust of a Warrior and Leonardo's Creative Method
- 8. Early Participation in the Medici Court
- 9. Leonardo's Personality and Place in Florentine Society
- 10. Important Productions and Collaborations in the Verrocchio Shop
- 11. Leonardo's Colleagues in the Workshop
- 12. Leonardo's Madonna of the Carnation and the Exploration of Optics
- 13. The Benois Madonna and Continued Meditations on the Theme of Sight
- 14. The Madonna of the Cat
- 15. Leonardo, the Medici, and Public Executions
- 16. Leonardo and Ginevra de??? Benci
- 17. Leonardo as Portraitist and Master of the Visual Pun
- 18. The Young Sculptor
- 19. The Madonna Litta
- 20. The Adoration of the Magi and Invention of the High Renaissance Style
- 21. The Adoration and Leonardo's Military Interests
- 22. Leonardo and Allegorical Conceits for the Medici Court
- 23. Early Ideas for the Last Supper
- 24. Leonardo and the Saint Sebastian
- 25. Saint Jerome
- 26. First Thoughts for the Virgin of the Rocks and the Invention of the Mary Magdalene-Courtesan Genre
- 27. Milan
- 28. Leonardo and the Sforza Court
- Bibliography with Endnotes
- Index
18. - The Young Sculptor
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. Childhood
- 2. Florence and Cosimo the Elder
- 3. The Cultural Climate of Florence
- 4. First Years in Florence and the Verrocchio Workshop
- 5. First Works in Florence and the Artistic Milieu
- 6. Early Pursuits in Engineering ??? Hydraulics and the Movement of Water
- 7. The Bust of a Warrior and Leonardo's Creative Method
- 8. Early Participation in the Medici Court
- 9. Leonardo's Personality and Place in Florentine Society
- 10. Important Productions and Collaborations in the Verrocchio Shop
- 11. Leonardo's Colleagues in the Workshop
- 12. Leonardo's Madonna of the Carnation and the Exploration of Optics
- 13. The Benois Madonna and Continued Meditations on the Theme of Sight
- 14. The Madonna of the Cat
- 15. Leonardo, the Medici, and Public Executions
- 16. Leonardo and Ginevra de??? Benci
- 17. Leonardo as Portraitist and Master of the Visual Pun
- 18. The Young Sculptor
- 19. The Madonna Litta
- 20. The Adoration of the Magi and Invention of the High Renaissance Style
- 21. The Adoration and Leonardo's Military Interests
- 22. Leonardo and Allegorical Conceits for the Medici Court
- 23. Early Ideas for the Last Supper
- 24. Leonardo and the Saint Sebastian
- 25. Saint Jerome
- 26. First Thoughts for the Virgin of the Rocks and the Invention of the Mary Magdalene-Courtesan Genre
- 27. Milan
- 28. Leonardo and the Sforza Court
- Bibliography with Endnotes
- Index
Summary
In the period just before or after leonardo finished his portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci, that is, the late 1470s or early 1480s, he may have turned his attention, for a brief time, to sculpture. A growing consensus of scholars believes that he was probably responsible for the pensive, terracotta Bust of the Young Christ in an Italian private collection (fig. 50). Although the attribution to Leonardo must remain tentative, because no other sculpture by him survives for comparison and the piece is completely undocumented, certain aspects of the work point to his hand. The facial type and handling of the hair suggest that the sculpture comes from someone trained in the Verrocchio shop; comparisons can be made to Verrocchio's terracotta bust of Christ in a private collection in London and to the physiognomies of the master's David (Bargello Museum), Christ and Saint Thomas, and, especially, in the pronounced asymmetry of the eyes and queerly bulging eyelids, his Christ of the Crucifixion (c. 1470–75; fig. 51), also in the Bargello.
Yet, typical of Leonardo, the Young Christ has been invigorated in a novel way – the head is turned, breaking the usual symmetry of such busts (as Verrocchio would do in his terracotta portrait of Giuliano de’ Medici of c. 1478), and Christ's expression has been “humanized,” made momentary and unquiet. With eyebrows raised and eyes lowered, he seems to be intellectually assimilating something he has just observed or mulling over a response to something that he has just heard, as if caught up short in his discussion with the elders in the temple, recounted in the Gospel of Luke (2:46–50). In his personal reflection on Christ, Leonardo, as one might expect, imagines him to be similarly thoughtful and questioning, as much the reasoning philosopher, the Old Testament teacher as Savior or healer.
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- The Young LeonardoArt and Life in Fifteenth-Century Florence, pp. 121 - 124Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011