Volume 67, Issue 8

Magical Drawings and Sketches:
Leonardo at the Met
By Menachem Wecker

Leonardo da Vinci, Master Draftsman
Special Exhibition Galleries, 2^nd Floor
Through March 30, 2003
Metropolitan Museum of Art
100 Fifth Avenue at 82^nd Street
New York, NY212-535-7710
www.metmuseum.org

He [da Vinci] had cool notebooks, didn’t he?
                  - Steve Exler, RIETS Student

Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.
                   - Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks (c. 1500)

I am fairly certain that I do not overstep my bounds by saying that Leonardo da Vinci: Master Draftsman, foremost of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s current exhibitions, is one of, if not the best, exhibit I have seen in my entire life.  The Met has outdone itself, much like it did with its recent, wonderful collection of Richard Avedon’s work.

The artwork of the exhibit’s seven rooms, which boasts over 120 drawings by the masterful artist and celebrated Renaissance-man, Leonardo da Vinci (1453-1519), is drawn from over twenty-five North American and European collections, both private and public.  Represented are the Musée du Louvre, the Royal Library of Windsor Castle, and the Gallerie dell’ Accademia in Venice.  The exhibit does a wonderful job of portraying a snapshot of the artist’s thought process, qua inventor, engineer, scientist, military strategist, and philosopher.

The museum has very successfully curated the most thorough American exhibit of da Vinci’s drawings, showing sketches for paintings to the order of Virgin and Child with St. Anne, Adoration of the Magi, The Last Supper, the defunct Battle of Anghiari, as well as St. Jerome Praying in the Wilderness (on loan from the museums of the Vatican), an uncompleted painting that underscores Leonardo’s original under-drawing.

I found it metaphorically appropriate to see Jacques Louis David’s The Death of Socrates confronting me immediately outside the entrance to the exhibit.  As an artist, I always consider it a quasi-drinking of a hemlock cocktail to view da Vinci’s paintings – so prolific virtuoso and humbling are his works.  In the first room viewers will receive an historical context with the works of da Vinci’s teacher, Andrea del Verrocchio (1334/7-88), and his circle, after which they will saunter through six more wonderful rooms of da Vinci’s own works, concluding with those of the artist’s students/imitators (primarily Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, Bernardino Luini and Andrea Solario, among others).

Most noteworthy in the exhibit are Mr. da Vinci’s early drawings (in the first room) in the sfumato manner, a style involving the rendering of shadows in a blurring method – da Vinci referred to it as “in the manner of smoke (fumo)” – in an effort to throw the object into motion when mere outlines would create stagnation.  Also worth viewing are Leonardo’s visi mostruosi drawings in his libro de’ disegni (album of drawings), in which the artist drew freakish heads (without the discourteous implication of the modern counterpart, caricature).  Da Vinci biographer Giorgio Vasari observed that he “was so delighted when he saw certain bizarre heads of men…that he would follow one that pleased him a whole day. And he memorized it to such an extent that afterward on arriving home, he drew him as if he had him in his presence.”

Be sure to pay special attention to the “twin chalk technique,” a synthesis of complimentary black and red, later adopted by the mannerists.  Also, if you lack the time to view the entire exhibit, don’t leave without seeing Rock Formation, Cataclysmic Deluge Striking a Town, Cats and a Dragon, Rider on Horseback Fighting a Dragon, Head of the Virgin and Grotesque Man in Bust Length.  Of scientific interest are the writings from the Codex Leicester in the final room.

Although I strongly recommend this exhibit to anyone interested in art, I do have a handful of minor criticisms.  Foremost is the wait in line.  I strongly encourage those interested to delay attending the show (the exhibit hangs through March 30), as I stood in line for fifteen minutes before gaining admittance.  Considering I entered a mere hour before the museum’s closing, expect a wait more to the order of half an hour to an hour.  Regardless of the wait, however, da Vinci is undoubtedly worth it.

Secondly, the exhibit was extremely crowded.  I spent an hour for the entire display, and I generally spend much less time than that.  Far too much time was dedicated to weaving in and out of the many viewers jam-packed like a pack of sardines (and the smell was not dissimilar…).  My two friends and I resorted to discussions of each drawing’s worth and to elaborate schemes (primarily of Eric Adelman’s invention) of how one would theoretically go about burglarizing one of the paintings, complete with museum-wide diversions, etc.  If you want to avoid such unnecessary (although droll) diversions, it is best to let attention dwindle somewhat before attending.

My final critique pertains to the background information posted throughout the exhibit.  I should mention that I tend to find most museums’ attempts to this end to be quite superficial from an artistic approach and quite baroque from a literary perspective.  The current exhibit is no exception – better that you look at the artwork, and ignore the explanations.  Skip the headsets also; they are very rarely worthwhile.

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