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
16. - Leonardo and Ginevra de??? Benci
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
Leonardo finally had the opportunity in this period to test his hand at portraiture – of a more benevolent kind – when he was engaged to paint a likeness of the lovely Ginevra de’ Benci, the sophisticated daughter of the wealthy banker, Amerigo de’ Benci, and an object of admiration for numerous poets (fig. 42). Leonardo's father may have facilitated the commission; a longtime friend of the Benci family, he drafted many legal documents for them over the years. Although married in 1474 to Luigi di Bernardo Niccolini, the precocious, sharp-witted Ginevra attracted the fervid attention of the Venetian ambassador Bernardo Bembo, when he visited Florence later in the decade. The intellectual Bembo's devotion to her reportedly took the form of a chaste “Platonic love,” a term coined at that time by Ficino. Openly and widely acknowledged, their relationship (and her beauty) became the subject of Petrarchan sonnets written by several poets at the Medici court, notably Cristoforo Landino, Alessandro Braccesi, and Il Magnifico himself.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Young LeonardoArt and Life in Fifteenth-Century Florence, pp. 105 - 112Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011