Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. Childhood
- 2. Florence and Cosimo the Elder
- 3. The Cultural Climate of Florence
- 4. First Years in Florence and the Verrocchio Workshop
- 5. First Works in Florence and the Artistic Milieu
- 6. Early Pursuits in Engineering ??? Hydraulics and the Movement of Water
- 7. The Bust of a Warrior and Leonardo's Creative Method
- 8. Early Participation in the Medici Court
- 9. Leonardo's Personality and Place in Florentine Society
- 10. Important Productions and Collaborations in the Verrocchio Shop
- 11. Leonardo's Colleagues in the Workshop
- 12. Leonardo's Madonna of the Carnation and the Exploration of Optics
- 13. The Benois Madonna and Continued Meditations on the Theme of Sight
- 14. The Madonna of the Cat
- 15. Leonardo, the Medici, and Public Executions
- 16. Leonardo and Ginevra de??? Benci
- 17. Leonardo as Portraitist and Master of the Visual Pun
- 18. The Young Sculptor
- 19. The Madonna Litta
- 20. The Adoration of the Magi and Invention of the High Renaissance Style
- 21. The Adoration and Leonardo's Military Interests
- 22. Leonardo and Allegorical Conceits for the Medici Court
- 23. Early Ideas for the Last Supper
- 24. Leonardo and the Saint Sebastian
- 25. Saint Jerome
- 26. First Thoughts for the Virgin of the Rocks and the Invention of the Mary Magdalene-Courtesan Genre
- 27. Milan
- 28. Leonardo and the Sforza Court
- Bibliography with Endnotes
- Index
15. - Leonardo, the Medici, and Public Executions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. Childhood
- 2. Florence and Cosimo the Elder
- 3. The Cultural Climate of Florence
- 4. First Years in Florence and the Verrocchio Workshop
- 5. First Works in Florence and the Artistic Milieu
- 6. Early Pursuits in Engineering ??? Hydraulics and the Movement of Water
- 7. The Bust of a Warrior and Leonardo's Creative Method
- 8. Early Participation in the Medici Court
- 9. Leonardo's Personality and Place in Florentine Society
- 10. Important Productions and Collaborations in the Verrocchio Shop
- 11. Leonardo's Colleagues in the Workshop
- 12. Leonardo's Madonna of the Carnation and the Exploration of Optics
- 13. The Benois Madonna and Continued Meditations on the Theme of Sight
- 14. The Madonna of the Cat
- 15. Leonardo, the Medici, and Public Executions
- 16. Leonardo and Ginevra de??? Benci
- 17. Leonardo as Portraitist and Master of the Visual Pun
- 18. The Young Sculptor
- 19. The Madonna Litta
- 20. The Adoration of the Magi and Invention of the High Renaissance Style
- 21. The Adoration and Leonardo's Military Interests
- 22. Leonardo and Allegorical Conceits for the Medici Court
- 23. Early Ideas for the Last Supper
- 24. Leonardo and the Saint Sebastian
- 25. Saint Jerome
- 26. First Thoughts for the Virgin of the Rocks and the Invention of the Mary Magdalene-Courtesan Genre
- 27. Milan
- 28. Leonardo and the Sforza Court
- Bibliography with Endnotes
- Index
Summary
Unquestionably, leonardo, always seeking new challenges, had trouble sustaining interest in many of the Florentine art industry's stock-in-trade products – traditional church altarpieces and small Madonnas for domestic display. By the later 1470s, the Verrocchio shop was fast becoming a mere (sculptural) niche player in the “Madonna market.” Remembered today foremost for his mythologies, the Birth of Venus and Primavera (Spring), Botticelli was, by the early 1480s, the dominant madonnero, maker of painted Madonnas, in Florence, employing a large corps of assistants to replicate his designs. Leonardo may have felt some professional jealousy toward Botticelli, whose prosperity stemmed not only from his talents but also from the favor of Piero de’ Medici, who, years earlier, had invited the painter to live with him and his family in the Medici Palace. Rarely does Leonardo mention his very successful contemporary in his writings or reflect Botticelli's works in his own. In fact, Botticelli's Annunciation fresco of 1481, then in the loggia of the church of San Martino alla Scala (now in the Uffizi), is most likely the target of some of Leonardo's harshest criticism:
I recently saw an Annunciation in which the angel looked as if she wished to chase Our Lady out of the room, with movement of such violence that she might have been a hated enemy; and Our Lady seemed in such despair that she was about to throw herself out of the window.
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- Information
- The Young LeonardoArt and Life in Fifteenth-Century Florence, pp. 99 - 104Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011