Leonardo da Vinci: Sculpture and Prints at the High
Published: Oct 2, 2009
The Leonardo da Vinci exhibit now at the High Museum of Art will delight art lovers of all vintages, from Renaissance scholars to those who associate Leonardo and Donatello with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Outside of the museum is a 26-foot tall, 20-ton horse, a modern recreation in resin of Leonardo’s Sforza horse design. Leonardo spent 17 years to make the original clay model of this horse, but the Italian army took the bronze required to complete for the army and after Milan was invaded, French archers destroyed his model.
Inside, the galleries glow with both Renaissance art and high-tech frills. Guides hand out magnifying glasses so visitors can lean in and examine the fine details in the drawing, some displaying both back and front. The show features backwards writing in homage to Leonardo’s peculiar way of taking notes, but look closely and you’ll see the writing is in modern English.
“Leonardo da Vinci: Hand of the Genius” features about 50 works, including more than 20 sketches and studies by Leonardo, and work by Donatello, Rubens, Verrocchio, and Rustici. The works are drawn from the collections of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the Vatican Museums, the Musée du Louvre, the British Museum, and the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence.
Philip Verre, the High’s Chief Operating Officer, joked that the marketing team had toyed with the tagline “approved by the Queen and blessed by the Pope,” for the exhibition.
Visitors can also see a bit of art history sleuthing on display. Two figures from the Silver Altar of the Florentine Baptistery, previously attributed to Andrea del Verrocchio, are newly claimed as the work of Leonardo, according to Gary Radke, guest curator of the exhibition and Dean’s Professor of the Humanities at Syracuse University.
Radke claims that the two figures, a bit more than eight inches tall, are more detailed and ornate than the others by Verrocchio, Leonardo’s teacher. More than one artist could have created the relief since all the figures in the “Beheading of the Baptist” (1477–1483) piece created separately and inserted into the background.
The exhibition also displays rare sculptures by da Vinci, tracing Leonardo’s influence on Renaissance sculptors by examining his sketches and studies for his own mostly unbuilt sculptural projects. A towering life-sized bearded prophet executed in marble by Donatello from the Florence Campanile (ca. 1418–1420), was the model for a standing figure in Leonardo’s unfinished “Adoration of the Magi,” and has never been seen outside of Italy.
Peter Paul Rubens’ skilled copy of Leonardo’s monumental “Battle of Anghiari” fresco in the Palazzo Vecchio, and Giovan Francesco Rustici’s two terracotta battle groups show the master’s influence on the younger sculptors. For the first time outside of Florence, art lovers can see Rustici’s three monumental bronzes from the façade of the Baptistery in Florence that comprise “John the Baptist Preaching to a Levite and a Pharisee,” recently restored.
Can’t make it to midtown Atlanta? Check out the web content for the show, including
introductory video, exhibition highlights and a time-lapse video of workers installing the Sforza Horse.
“Leonardo da Vinci: Hand of the Genius” is organized by the High Museum of Art in association with the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, and in collaboration with the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore and the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence, Italy.
- by Diane Loupe, Atlanta Reporter for HelloMetro
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