The Artist as Genius: da Vinci and Painting

Baptism of Christ, photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

Leonardo da Vinci, who lived from 1452-1529, became one of the most celebrated artists of his time.  According to Giorgio Vasari, from childhood da Vinci easily mastered every subject he sought to learn, though he often grew bored before moving on to another.  Most well known for painting, da Vinci tired of or grew frustrated of many projects, as with the subjects he abandoned, and became most well known for rarely finishing a commission.  Vasari writes that da Vinci’s “understanding of art [caused him to begin] many projects but never finish any…feeling that his hand could not reach artistic perfection in the works he conceived, since he envisioned such subtle, marvelous, and difficult problems that his hands, while extremely skillful, were incapable of ever realizing them”(pg 287, The Lives of Artists).  It is for this reason that da Vinci was the first artist of the Renaissance to alter the traditional power of patron over artist, in turn for artists’ power over patrons.  

Madonna of the Rocks, photo courtesy of
Wikipedia CC

During his youth da Vinci painted in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio.  At the time, Verrocchio worked on a painting of Saint John baptizing Christ, and though da Vinci only painted a small angel carrying garments, the figure stands out so superbly that according to Vasari “this was the reason why Andrea would never touch colors again”(287).  This is a notable point, most poignant when the painting, The Baptism of Christ (1475) is viewed in person because da Vinci's work with color here is far superior when compared to the entire painting.  Even as a young man da Vinci’s keen eye for observation added so much to his skill with painting that he was able to create images like none before.  His eye for observation is obvious when any one of his paintings is compared to one of his contemporaries.  When others painted hazy mountains in the distance, da Vinci created realistic atmospheric perspective.  Sfumato in paintings such as Madonna of the Rocks (1480) and Mona Lisa (1503-1505) adds a tonal mysterious and emotional impact.

Mona Lisa, photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

Da Vinci was, however, not only a forrunner of advancing painting; he was also one of the first men to study correct human anatomy extensively.  Creating a book filled with drawings of cadavers and dissections of his own hand, he sketched the inner workings of the human body so as to accurately understand it.  He also filled notebooks with drawings of inventions far beyond his time – so far beyond that there was no technology to keep up with his ideas. 

Ultimately, Leonardo da Vinci was a conceptual genius, loved in his time and in the modern world.  Best known in his day for advancing the art of painting, he has also never been truly surpassed in this art.  However, more like the modern artist, da Vinci was more concerned with the concept of his art than the presentation, and when carried out his perfectionism caused him frustration and grief.