My Blog: Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan

Unquestionably the most anticipated exhibition of the year, ‘Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan’ has completely sold out of advance tickets and is nearly impossible to get a ticket to: some art lovers lining up for the tickets from before dawn, others paying a fortune to scalpers. Fortunately for me, one of my best friends managed to secure five tickets, and invited me along with her. Her mother paid a student at my school to line up for the tickets from 6am, and that money will go towards the same student’s plan to build a school in Africa this summer- truly an inspirational project.

‘Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan’ is the most complete display of da Vinci’s paintings ever held. The exhibition brings together about half of the surviving 15 or so paintings by da Vinci and features many more drawings by the legendary artist. The paintings include his acknowledged masterpiece The Lady with an Ermine and two versions of The Virgin of the Rocks, hanging together for the first time. The Portrait of a Musician, La Belle Ferronniere and Salvator Mundi (only recently authenticated as Da Vinci) are also featured. The exhibition focuses on the work da Vinci produced in his formative years as court painter to Duke Lodovico Sforza in Milan in the late 1480s and 1490s.

I really enjoyed this exhibition. It was arranged and presented thoughtfully, as we are able to see da Vinci’s preparatory sketches leading up to each of his paintings, and so get an insight into how each painting came about and the thoughts Leonardo had in creating each. The sketches, tiny in size, ask to be minutely examined, and reveal details in them which we don't normally recognise without such attention. Da Vinci’s final paintings are equally breath taking, if not more. Through his portraits, da Vinci manages to convey people with emotions and senses, possibly for the first time in art history. The Portrait of a Musician, for example, is able to get across a story and a character. Though many of his works are unfinished (he seemed to always be beginning new projects), his style and the quality of his art influenced generations of artists, and remain to be why he is internationally considered one of the best artists of all time.

What was most amazing for me was to see the two versions of The Virgin of the Rocks side by side. This is the first time they have ever been displayed together and not even the artist himself had this experience. Although this display style makes it possible to compare da Vinci’s different approach to the same subject and see his development as an artist, it could have been more impacting had the paintings actually been placed next to each other, as opposed to on opposite sides of the room, as I found myself flipping my head to look at each, and never got the real effect of comparison I would have loved.

The show’s one major flaw was the unnecessary inclusion of the paintings and drawings by Leonardo’s assistants and followers, including Marco d’Oggiono and Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio. I found that these were distracting additions to the show, which would have been more magical without them. Saying that, this show is a must see. Is the one- hour queue worth it? Definitely.