Virgin and Child with Saint Anne

The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne Rebecca T protestsend Hum2235 Dr. Hoover Edison College F totally 2012 Townsend 1 The createing of The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne took more than a decade to complete. It was created in the 16th century, in Florence Italy. A puppyish master artist declined the original counselling for The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and suggested da Vinci da Vinci. The monks who commissi atomic number 53d the moving picture, an artefact of Christs family tree, gave da Vinci a workroom.The figures in the picture are of Saint Anne representing the grand fret, the Virgin as mother (bloody shame/Madonna), the Child as Christ, and the lamb as the future sacrifice of Jesus. They are closely intertwined in the create showing their tight bond in Christian History. Da Vinci could not separate Christianity from his work. da Vinci in his painting as well as in his emotional state seemed to cultivate a sense of mystery (Capra XIX). The monks of the Florentine Santissima Annunziata commissioned Leonardo to paint The Virgin and Child with St. Anne as an altarpiece for their high altar. In his typical fashion, Leonardo did not complete the work on time.The monks, eager for their altarpiece had to commission another artist to complete the work. The monks approached Filippo Lippi to complete the work Leonardo had started. Filippo Lippi was the artist that particoloured Madonna and Child with Two Angels in 1465. Lippi was the artist who had initially jilted the commission suggesting the monks give the project to Leonardo. Lippi considered Leonardo to be a superior artist. Lippi agreed to finish the project but died before its completion. After Lippi died, the monks had a young Florence artist named Perugino finally complete the piece.At last, the monks of the Santissima Annuziata in Florence had their painting for their high altar. whatsoever consider the painting to be a treasure of esoteric and occult wonders. Some are fascinated by the s ight of St. Anne supporting her heavy daughter on her knee, with no visible means of support (Budny36). Townsend 2 Its unattackable to find any evidence of Leonardos beliefs in his paintings, since there are no written records that have survived if they ever existed. Leonardo believed that a approximate artist must also be a good scientist in order to best understand and describe nature.The humanistic, naturalistic, and scientific aspects of Leonardos life and work are not always clear because he was an original Renaissance man Leonardos art, scientific investigations, technological inventiveness, and humanistic philosophy were all bound together. During the 16th century he made numerous drawings and sketches with different themes that eventually lead to this famous artifact The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne. Various designs sedate exist of the version painted in 1510. Leonardo could not fuse the two qualities he desired an abstract formula and the immediacy of life.The final painting now hangs in the Louvre in Paris. The painting is a complex and masterful synthesis of his previous variations (Capra 105). In some research it is stated that this artifact is unfinished, even though he had worked on this painting possibly for eight or nine familys (Bramly 321). Leonardo had a habit of never finish his work. Leonardo had drawn many different cartoons painting and sketches leading up to the final painting of The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne. sensation of his cartoon sketches had St. tail the Baptist kneeling next to Christ (Capra 105). Leonardo switched St.John to a lamb in the final painting. The lamb (sacrificial animal) represents passion suffering in Christs destiny. It is not known why Leonardo replaced St. John, who was Christs cousin, with a lamb. He painted the Christ child as being about a year old. It looks as if he is slipping out of his mothers hands and trying to grab hold of his destiny, the lamb. The lamb, being embraced by Christ has his head bent, magical spell its tail and hind legs are clearly indicated to be in a comfortable place (Johannes 86). Townsend 3 Leonardo put his thoughts to paper and painted through, light, shadow, and geometry, utilize three dimensions.Da Vinci declared, There are three kinds of perspective. The first is concerned with the reason for the diminution of things as they form from the eye. Second contains the way in which colors start out as they form the eye. The third and last declaration of how objects should appear less distinct the more distant they are. Examples, perspective of disappearance (Capra 219). Perspective in painting was his destiny. From the pyramidal construction to the fact that only three feet belonging to the figures are visible, everything in the picture seems to be threefold.In fact in this painting, Leonardo was pursuing a theological meditation on the destiny of Christ, which had begun in his early painting Virgin of the Rocks (Bramly 320). Most research indicates the rocks, mountain streams, and escarpments of his childhood made up his backstage ornament in his paintings (Bramly 86). Leonardo depicts the women as sister like in age even though they are indeed mother and daughter. Saint Anne, the mother of Virgin and Child, sits with her daughter on her lap. The Virgin is half rising from her sitting position and she appears to want to restrain her daughter from separating the Child and lamb (Kemp 273).It is unusual for Mary to be portrayed in her mothers lap. The painting may have more meaning to it than the Passion of Christ. Saint Anne perhaps represents the Church in this painting. Art critics have admired the unity of the three figures, the freedom of movement, the sweet and melting quality of the faces, and the mountains in the background. The family figures almost blend into each other in their rhythmic balance, with Leonardos dreamy mountains, foreshadowing the landscape of the Madonna, in the background (Capra 105). What better way to describe the bond of maternal love trades union three generations?Leonardo had written in a short note in one of his journals, The Virgin and Child Townsend 4 with Saint Anne means the gloriole of motherhood. The Virgin and Saint Anne in this masterpiece seem to be about the same age in the painting, with their two bodies merging almost into one. Leonardo gave the child two mothers both graced with the blessed smile of happiness. To the viewers eye, the painting may imply to evoke his thoughts on his childhood which the painter cherished our thought as childhood had been divided between his real mother and his stepmother.He may have united them in his mind as he did in his painting, a picture that no one could have painted except of Leonardo De Vinci (Bramly 318). Both women, Saint Anne and the Virgin, have dedicated their lives to God, which had touch Da Vinci. One research source stated that in the painting Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, the Virgin is designed first, as she is in so many of his drawing, and the landscape seems to flow from her. The Painting is designed by Da Vinci in a diagonal, where we formerly saw a pronounced swing down from top right at the crown of the tree, through St .Annes left arm and elbow, through the successive arm/knee/arm/knee configuration of the Virgin, down to the berth of St. Annes feet on the then more brightly spotlighted left section of the rocky foreground. Against that progression, we saw in the earlier state how Leonardo had orchestrated a countervailing upper left to the bottom right sweep through the principal heads and the arms of the Virgin and the Child, down to the rump and tail of the lamb. This movement was decisively echoed and oblige by the parallel diagonals of the Virgins right leg and St.Annes left leg (Johannes 3). It is stated that Saint Annes left arm was painted the same way in another Leonardo da Vinci painting. Townsend 5 Leonardos composition of the Virgin and Child with Sa int Anne is perhaps the one which, of all his designs, he contemplated the longest and in great depth. Perhaps, he felt attracted by the particular formal and iconographical problems presented by the subject. When we were asked to select an artifact to research and publish about, the painting of the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne caught my eye.The love and compassion in the womens eyes and their expressions towards the innocent child reminds me of the love I have for my own children. Although much research has been done to discover why Leonardo painted the picture the way he did, it is still unclear. It is unclear why the women appear to be the same age and why he substituted St. John with the lamb for the final painting. Research is still being done on his journals and notes. Leonardo, who was left handed, wrote all his notes in mirror writing, from right to left (Capra, 27).Perhaps further analysis of his notes and sketches will reveal more insight into the painting of the Virg in and Child with Saint Anne. pic Work Citied Bramly Serge. Leonardo the Artist and the Man. Penguin Group. Great Britain. 1994. Print. Budny Virginia. The Art Buletin. Vol. 65, No. 1 (Mar. , 1983), pp. 34-50. Print. Capra Fritjof. The Science of Leonardo. New York. Anchor. December 2008. Print Johannas Nathan. Miteilungen. 36. Bd. H. ? (1992), pp. 85-102. Article. Kemp Martin. Leonardo on Painting. Yale Nota Bene. Yale University. 2001. Print. Marani Pietro C. Leonardo Da Vinci. Abrams vex N. New York 2000. Print.