Leonardo Da Vinci, The Prime Exemplar Of The Renaissance Man

921 Words2 Pages

Naseba Sumrein
Mr Chad Jones
Art 2 M/W
April 9, 2018 Leonardo da Vinci Many historians throughout history and scholars regard Leonardo as the prime exemplar of the "Universal Genius" or “Renaissance Man”, an individual of “unquenchable curiosity” and “feverishly inventive imagination”, and he is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived. According to historian of art Helen Gardner, “the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent in recorded history, and his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, while the man himself mysterious and remote”. Marco Rosci notes that while there is much speculation regarding his life …show more content…

1500. The painting shows Jesus, in Renaissance dress, holding a transparent rock crystal orb in his left hand, signaling his role as savior of the world and master of the cosmos, and representing the 'crystalline sphere' of the heavens as it was perceived during the Renaissance, while giving a blessing with his right hand raised and two fingers extended. Around 20 other versions of this work are known, by students and followers of Leonardo. Preparatory chalk and ink drawings of the drapery by Leonardo are held in the Royal Collection. Long thought to be a copy of a lost original, veiled with overpainting, it was restored, rediscovered, and included in a major Leonardo exhibition at the National Gallery, in London, in 2011–12. Although several leading scholars consider it to be an original work by Leonardo da Vinci, this attribution has been disputed by other specialists. It is one of fewer than 20 known works by Leonardo, and was the only one to remain in private hands. It was sold at auction by Christie's in New York to Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Farhan on behalf of the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture & Tourism on 15 November 2017, for $450.3 million, setting a new record for most expensive painting ever sold. …show more content…

It was commissioned in 1500, shortly after Louis conquered the Duchy of Milan and took control of Genoa in the Second Italian War. Leonardo moved from Milan to Florence in 1500. It have come to England with Henrietta Maria when she married Charles I of England in 1625, and it seems to have stayed in her chambers at the Queen's House in Greenwich. An engraving was made by Wenceslaus Hollar on the painting, published in Antwerp in 1650 with the inscription Leonardus da Vinci pinxit (Latin for Leonardo da Vinci painted

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