![]() Although this framing is a disservice to the lesser-known artist, it is oddly one of the exhibition’s strengths. They certainly exhibit qualities found in the elder artist’s drawings - close anatomical observation, dramatic facial expressions and a fascination with the folds and creases of cloth - but their inclusion here is a kind of wishful thinking.įor the exhibition encourages us to look not for Rustici’s genius but for traces of da Vinci’s. Da Vinci is said to have worked on them with Rustici or at least consulted on their modeling. All three figures are supple, expressive and clad in exquisitely detailed drapery. The statues, depicting John the Baptist, a Pharisee and a Levite, are marvelous. Removed from the façade of the Baptistery in Florence a few years ago for conservation, they had never before been seen outside of the city. But the show was inspired by the recent restoration of three monumental bronze statues from 1511 by da Vinci’s younger colleague, Giovan Francesco Rustici. It is also a rare opportunity to see a selection of the artist’s drawings (many borrowed from the collection of Queen Elizabeth II) as well as one of his paintings, of which there are fewer than a dozen in the world. This exhibition about non-existent art therefore feels a bit trumped up, but it nevertheless conjures a tantalizing mental picture of the artist’s thinking in three dimensions.Ī collaboration between the Getty and Atlanta’s High Museum of Art, where it opened last fall, the show is the first da Vinci exhibition to appear in L.A. It also presents statues created around da Vinci by his role models, teachers and colleagues.Īlthough there is plenty of evidence - in historical accounts and the artist’s letters and notebooks - that da Vinci made sculpture and received several monumental commissions, there are no surviving works that can be definitively attributed to him. The tightly focused show features plans and drawings for commissions never completed and sculptures that have not survived. But a new exhibition at the Getty Center, “Leonardo da Vinci and the Art of Sculpture: Inspiration and Invention,” suggests there is at least one area left to explore: the works he didn’t do. What more can be said about Leonardo da Vinci? Surely his work has been studied more intensely than just about any artist in history. This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links.
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