The National Gallery is offering us a special treat this autumn, with a major exhibition concentrating on the artist’s career as a court painter in Milan. Bringing together the largest ever number of Leonardo’s rare surviving paintings, it includes international loans never before seen in the UK. Not to be missed…
Virgin and Child (The State Hermitage Museum)
While numerous exhibitions have looked at da Vinci as an inventor, scientist or draughtsman, “Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan” is the first exhibition to be dedicated to his aims and ambitions as a painter. Concentrating on his time working in the 1480s and 1490s for Milan’ ruler Ludovico Maria Sforza -otherwise known as il Moro (“the Moor”), it displays more than 60 paintings and drawings by the great artist.
It is during this time that he executed some of his most famous work, including The Lady with an Ermine, La Belle Ferronnière and his two profoundly different versions of the Virgin of the Rocks, all of which are on display. These pictures show how Leonardo, benefiting from his salaried position, used his artistic freedom to find new ways of perceiving and recording the natural world- focusing especially on the human anatomy and emotions, with magnificent results…
“Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan” at the National Gallery 9 November 2011-5 February 2012www.nationalgallery.org.uk (sponsored by Credit Suisse)
Lady with an Ermine (Princes Czartoryski Foundation), The Musician (Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana), La Belle Ferronnieèe (Musée du Louvre)
